Can anyone identify this tree?

[steven carter]

I was at a place called Roberts Park in Connersville Indiana the other day. Incidently, the park is home to the Fayette County Fair, the oldest running free fair in the United States. Anyhow, after a storm blew thourgh the park some limbs came down. I got a piece from a chestnut oak, and have the piece dnaed (is that a word?) and drying. The park worker that cut it up for me told me about another limb, so we went to take a look. It was a big limb and I got 3 pieces, but I can't identify the tree. I tried a couple of hardback books and several internet identify a tree sites. In the one picture that shows the pith you can see it was starting to darken. Within a couple of days the entire surface was this color. Also while sitting in the sun after they had been anchor sealed, a dark resin that had bubbled to the top through the anchorseal. The resin stuff was coca cola colored.

[curtis rosche]

oh my goodness! that is a huge mullberry tree! 100% sure i would bet money on it. get as much as possible

[Brian Brown]

I got a piece from a chestnut oak, and have the piece dnaed (is that a word?) and drying.

Dnaed is a word here. We have our own private dictionary. Feel free to coin any word you want. Form the look of the leaf in your picture, it looks like something in the poplar/cotton wood family. Sorry, that's the best I can do, and at that is's very questionable if I am right or not.

[David Epperson]

From the leaf shape and limb angle, I'd say Bradford Pear. There should be some 3/8" (+/-) "berries" as the fruit on the tree if this is what it is.
The change in "suntanned" coloration sounds about right as well. Freshily ripped it can be the light pale pinkish color of a raw pork chop - later it will turn an orange-ish tan. Believe it or not, suntanned and finished with BLO it looks like a wide ringed cherry wood.

[James Ashburn]

I'd bet Mulberry too unless the tree has thorns. The leaves, bark, and yellow wood that turns orange with exposure to sunlight sounds like Osage Orange (Bois d'arc).

[steven carter]

Curtis, it is my understanding that a mulberry tree has lobed leaves, whereas this tree doesn't have any leaves with lobes.

[David Epperson]

Let me support my hypothesis, and see if you agree.

http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/pear_bradford/pear_bradford.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ST537
http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/pubs/midatlantic/pyca.htm
http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/pubs/midatlantic/img/pyca1a.jpg

[steven carter]

David,

I have a Bradford Pear in the back yard that isn't the same. The Bradford has wavy edges to the leaves whreas the leaves on mystery tree do not. Also the mystery leaf edge has teeth.

Steve

[Cody Colston]

I also first thought Mulberry because of the pale yellow color but the tree shape, leaves and bark look like Bois d'Arc (Osage Orange) to me. It won't have thorns except on new shoots or suckers if there are any.

[curtis rosche]

those leaves and the bark look like the mullberry tree that i have.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Steven I have cut lots of Mulberry and turned it, and that's what it is, there are two kinds here in NAm, red and white Mulberry, the wood does look a lot like Osage Orange and no wonder it is in the same family, easiest way to tell the wood apart is to soak a piece of the wood in water, osage will turn the water yellow, it was used at one time as a dye.
But in this case you don't have to do this, as I'm certain that it is Mulberry
Just keep in mind that it is VERY prone to splitting when drying, but stable after that, about the hardest one for me to keep from splitting.
I'll ad some pic's
1) Mulberry logs
2)Osage Orange log
3)Mulberry and Osage Orange in different stages of maturing color
4)Small Mulberry crotch

[Russ Sears]

I'm having a hard time with this one. It's looks a lot, but not exactly, like Mulberry. If it had some lobed leaves, that would peg it.
It also looks like it could be in the Basswood/Linden family but if the picture was taken recently, it should have the little winged fruiting bodies on it.
It could also be some kind of ornamental in which case all bets are off.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Another vote for mulberry. Lindenwood, or basswood, is pretty light in color, though the leaves are similar. Mulberry has pretty variable leaves, in my limited experience, anyway. I've seen a tree with no lobed leaves at all, though it was for sure a mulberry (with tasty fruit and bright yellow wood....)

[Jerry Gerard]

Here's a great site for IDing tree's . It must be down right now but save the link and check it out later .
www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/ (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/)

[Reed Gray]

I haven't had many opprotunities to work with Osage, and Mulberry, but I will side with Brian that it is a Cottonwood or Popolar of some sort. The tree shape doesn't look right though. I am used to both of these trees being tall, and not many branches until higher up on the tree. My understanding of Mulberry is that it is yellow when cut, like Osage is orange when cut, and both go amber/brown when exposed to sunlight, so I wouldn't guess it is either of these. The only other one I would think of would be the Elm trees. The leaves are distinctly serrated on the edges.

What does it smell like? Elm smells like cat spray. Cottonwood smells sour, kind of like some one threw up on it. Osage kind of reminds me of tire rubber.

robo hippy

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Here are some pic's from:
1) Linden bark, notice the quite flat bark
2)Linden leaves, quite different from the Mulberry leaves
3) and 4) leaves from my small Mulberry that grows in my backyard.

[Bob Hallowell]

Here are some pic's from:
1) Linden bark, notice the quite flat bark
2)Linden leaves, quite different from the Mulberry leaves
3) and 4) leaves from my small Mulberry that grows in my backyard.


Well if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a mullberry tree.

Bob

[curtis rosche]

yipee i was finally right about something!

[steven carter]

Reed,

It doesn't have much smell, even the resin that pooled only had a faint smell. The entire tree has the same leaves, and I checked a known mulberry and it still has the fruit on it. Maybe there are some mulberry trees that have the same kind of leave and no fruit (maybe male trees)?

Steve

[Dick Strauss]

Steven,
Some mullberry leaves have lobes and some don't. Some trees produce berries and some don't. There are so many varieties of mullberry it isn't funny:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullberry

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Yes there's a fruitless variety Steve, as I was saying earlier, we have the red and white Mulberry species, but there are a bunch of varieties, there are apparently a few other species growing in N.Am., but mainly the native Red Mulberry, and the introduced White Mulberry, as it was part of the effort to grow and make the silk in the US, and the silkworm eats the White Mulberry leaves, the silk thing was a flop, but the White Mulberry does well and is naturalized in a large part of the US and Canada.

[Bill Blasic]

With my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees sitting in front of me the bark and leaves are a dead match for Mulberry.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Reed,

It doesn't have much smell, even the resin that pooled only had a faint smell. The entire tree has the same leaves, and I checked a known mulberry and it still has the fruit on it. Maybe there are some mulberry trees that have the same kind of leave and no fruit (maybe male trees)?

Steve



Two trees that I cut last year for a friend had stopped fruiting about five years prior to being cut. They were, I guess, over-mature, as one sometimes describes trees---the crown had become very strangled it was so thick, and the both of them were about 80 years old. Your tree looks equally aged. I'm no expert, though. This may be unusual for them to lack fruit though. I'm not sure of the male/female relationship of the mulberry.

In any case of identification, go start turning some of it!! Muberry gets hard when it dries, IME.

[Matt Hutchinson]

There a a gabillion huge Mulberry trees here in Grand Rapids, and that certainly looks like one of 'em. As said before, the leaves very often DON'T have 3 lobes.

Also, I have been working with some mulberry bowls lately, and it can be a real pain. It is a much harder/slower working wood than I expected. The tools dull quickly, and you can't hog off wood very easily. But I think it's a pretty wood, especially if you let it 'tan' in the sun. It also has an almost irridescent quality. Very pretty, and would like to get my hands on some huge chunks some day.

Be warned, it is a wood that moves A LOT in the drying process. The pictured blank had a straight right side originally. (It's about an 11" blank.)

Hutch

[steven carter]

Thanks everyone! My story is it is mulberry and I'm sticking to it. Will post after turning.

Steve

[William Bachtel]

Cottonwood, Poplar, Basswood have white color to the wood. I vote for Mulberry.:)

[Phil Thien]

Looks like MDF to me.

[Reed Gray]

I guess one question we never asked is does the tree have berries on it?
robo hippy

[Jason Solodow]

Steven-

Without a doubt, that is Osage Orange... It has a tendency to split apart like that at the pith, and it is bright when first cut, but darkens really really fast. I love Osage, it turns well with minimal tear out, but keep your tools sharp because it is a very hard wood... I always turn it wet and let it dry....But even wet, it's pretty dry! Don't worry about getting any more of it though, I'll be in Connersville tomorrow and I'll take care of the rest of it! j/k nab all of it that you can!

[Craig Powers]

Another unique characteristic of mulberry is that it exudes a "milky"
sap. Look at the area inside the bark right where the sapwood is.
Often a white milky substance will ooze out.
Here is some more info.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/DENDROLOGY/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=58

[Matt Hutchinson]

I got the mulberry I have right as it was being cut by a tree service. I set it endgrain up in the driveway when I got it home, and the white sap oozed out onto the topside. It was really bizarre. And the flies loved it. They congregated by the hundreds in a perfect ring, reflecting where the sap was forming.

Hutch

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Better have a look at this site, and then compare the leafs and the bark as was shown
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=57