Tree ID

[HackBerry]

I know this will be a lot easier to ID in a couple of months when everything starts to leaf out but I thought I would ask anyway. From what I can tell around the ground this tree has smooth and narrow pinnate leaves. The bark is scaly and flakes off easily. There are roughly 200 juvenile trees surrounding this one and they all have the same bark. I cut and split one of the smaller trees and the wood looks nearly identical to ash...but I don't think it's ash. I looked up native Oklahoma trees and found images of Kentucky Coffee Tree that look almost identical to this one.

Thoughts?

 

[blazincajun]

Ash leaves are opposite - Kentucky coffee trees leaves are alternate.

 

[HackBerry]

Ash leaves are opposite - Kentucky coffee trees leaves are alternate.

I couldn't tell from all the dead leaves on the ground. The leaves had all separated from the stems and the stems themselves were smooth so I couldn't tell if the leaves were alternate or opposite. It looks like another possible native Oklahoma tree would be the Chinese Pistache. The tree has a very distinctive ashy colored outer bark with a rust colored bark underneath.

 

[blazincajun]

Branches are the same as leaves. Look at the branching on the trees and see which branches and twigs are opposite or alternate. Edited: looking at the photo - looks ash to me.

 

[Applesister]

Coffee tree has two leaf buds above the old leaf scar. Also look for seed pods like Black locust or honeylocust. The pods get broused by wildlife so it might be hard to find pods at this point.
I believe they are all in the Pea family.
But I shouldnt even be commenting, western species is out of my range.

 

[hiites]

Cut a twig on a bias and look at the pith. Kentucky Coffee Tree will have salmon colored pith.

 

[HackBerry]

The more I research this the more I'm leaning towards Western Soapberry. Evidently these trees can spread by rhizomes and that would explain the fairly large grove growing around this tree. It's hard to ID trees with the Internet because the examples shown are almost always ornamental lawn trees that look almost nothing like wild trees competing for sunlight in the woods.

 

[rideau]

That bark does not look like ash to me.

 

[Missouri Frontier]

cut it, split it, stack it, burn it. rest. repeat.

 

[HackBerry]

cut it, split it, stack it, burn it. rest. repeat.

I plan on it...and all of it's little baseball bat diameter cousins.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Definitely not an ash.

 

[BEConklin]

Admittedly I'm no expert but it looks just like plain old dogwood to me. The bark -, the gnarly limbs, all the little sucker shoots growing from the larger limbs...the dead parts - they way the bark flakes off and exposes brown patches....that all looks just like dogwood to me. If only my eyes could focus on the twig pattern......the mnemonic here for opposite twig trees in the northeast is MAD dog - Maple, Ash, Dogwood

 

[Paulywalnut]

Cut a twig on a bias and look at the pith. Kentucky Coffee Tree will have salmon colored pith.

No lisp right?

 

[cptoneleg]

White Oak

 

[cptoneleg]

And where are you guys seeing leaves?

 

[HackBerry]

And where are you guys seeing leaves?

I was looking at last years leaves lying on the ground.

 

[BEConklin]

No lisp right?

I had salmon colored pith once...scared the hell out of me.

Ten days of penithillin cleared it up though.