Help again oh great wood Gods!

[WeldrDave]

Well, I skipped a chat with the big man today to go scrounging, passed a pile of wood, hit the breaks, and asked for the status? Man says "haul it away" Two pickup loads, but I don't have a "clue" what it is? It's wet, heavy, white in the middle, I've lived here all my life, have'nt seen this one before?

Remember folks, I'm in extreme southern jersey, sandy soils, etc.....What do you make of it?

 

[gzecc]

Its an ornamental birch of some kind. Take a picture of one of the leaves if you can. That will nail it.

 

[WeldrDave]

Take a picture of one of the leaves if you can. That will nail it.

any help?

 

[basod]

That looks like beech, you can see a nut in the second pic

 

[bmblank]

Nice smooth bark. Looks like beech to me.

 

[NH_Wood]

Leaves look more like some type of aspen, rather than beech. Cheers!

 

[Brewmonster]

That's tough one! Not birch, though, not beech either. I'm guessing it's a planted tree, not from the woods? I'm going to say poplar, one of those hybrids that people were planting so many of in the seventies and eighties because they grow so fast. There are many varieties if these in the trade. Some have wide cottonwood/aspen-like leaves, others look more elmish. Some are upright, other spreading.
That's my best guess. Thanks for the challenge!

 

[JOHN BOY]

Its beech , there all over here in NC. too. great firewood to !

 

[Brewmonster]

Its beech , there all over here in NC. too. great firewood to !

You could be right, John Boy. That bark looks awfully beechy! Trouble is, the leaf doesn't and that thing on the twig isn't a beechnut.

For your sake, Dave, I hope John Boy is right and I was wrong!

 

[Foragefarmer]

Hackberry no doubt. Even has a fruit in the second picture. Beech fruit looks totally different.

I was just working on a farm that was covered in Hackberry trees. All the leaves on those trees were yellowing out like the ones in the pictures.

You can see the knobby bark in the first pics as well.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Looks like grey beech bark and light wood also. The leaves are a mystery.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Probably some ornamental. Doesn't look like any beech we have around here. It also is not hybrid poplar.

 

[aansorge]

I do see some hackberry like warts on otherwise smooth bark. The leaves look elmish which hackberry is a member of. Odd tree.

 

[Dix]

Looks like what we call beech around here.

What ever it is, split it, stack it. & burn it, for God's sake

 

[Richie]

It is not beech for sure. The bark has horizontal lines. Beech does not have that. Does is smell of wintergreen when you break a twig?

 

[Brewmonster]

Leaves are very hackberryish. Why then, isn't the bark wartier?

 

[scroungerjeff]

I'd go with hackberry. There are tons of them down here and I believe it is excellent firewood.

 

[paul bunion]

It is not beech for sure. The bark has horizontal lines. Beech does not have that. Does is smell of wintergreen when you break a twig?

+1

Definitely not beech. I've never seen a beech with warts and other texture visible in e third and fifth pictures either.

 

[gzecc]

It is not beech for sure. The bark has horizontal lines. Beech does not have that. Does is smell of wintergreen when you break a twig?

Young black birch.

 

[BrotherBart]

Looks just like the tons of beech I have cut and burned off of this place. I love the stuff for firewood.

 

[JOHN BOY]

Take a close look at the leaf ,top right in the 2nd pic you can see the saw tooth looking ends on the outer parts of the leaf. The bark is smooth and gray , i have beech tree's all over my property with those warty blotches, thats caused by fungus. The wood is heavy ,as described and white inside. Hackberry bark is not smooth at all more like a wallnut tree.

 

[paul bunion]

Take a close look at the leaf ,top right in the 2nd pic you can see the saw tooth looking ends on the outer parts of the leaf. The bark is smooth and gray , i have beech tree's all over my property with those warty blotches, thats caused by fungus. The wood is heavy ,as described and white inside. Hackberry bark is not smooth at all more like a wallnut tree.

Beech bark disease looks different and once a tree is infected the wood is a mess with spots of punk and rot. That wood looks altogether too healthy to be a diseased beech in my opinion.

Also the veins (if thats what you call them)on a beech leaf do not fork out, the veins in the picture have forks.

 

[JOHN BOY]

Not a disease Paul , i said a fungus kinda like mushrooms. you can see it growing on the tree. No biggie ...and no war intended here on what it is . But the tree's on my property that are young beech trees look exactly like this one and they are definately beech.

 

[paul bunion]

Not a disease Paul , i said a fungus kinda like mushrooms. you can see it growing on the tree. No biggie ...and no war intended here on what it is . But the tree's on my property that are young beech trees look exactly like this one and they are definately beech.

No war intended. This is the end result of what I'm referring to. http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/imgdownjoe.cfm?img=1406128&res=2. The beech get infected by a scale that is from Europe that damages the bark which allows a fungus in and causes them to look like the photo in the above link. It is really bad in the northeast, I don't know if it has made it your way yet.

 

[JOHN BOY]

No war intended. This is the end result of what I'm referring to. http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/imgdownjoe.cfm?img=1406128&res=2. The beech get infected by a scale that is from Europe that damages the bark which allows a fungus in and causes them to look like the photo in the above link. It is really bad in the northeast, I don't know if it has made it your way yet.

Holy cow! ive never seen anything like that down here ever Paul... The fungus iam talking about is called lichen..Just a fungus that doesnt hurt the tree. Google it .