Tree ID

[KindredSpiritzz]

This trees got me stumped. It's a soft wood, reminds me of apple wood when you cut it, nice creamy white wood, cuts like butter. Thought maybe tulip popular til i looked it up and seen the leaves didnt match. Leaning towards some type aspen or popular but if it is its not a variety im familiar with. Definitely not an ash.
What say you guys?

 

[Woody Stover]

Yep, I believe that's Quaking Aspen from what I see in the book. Pretty low on BTU but would probably be great shoulder wood or starter kindling. I've been grabbing some Tulip Poplar lately for those uses and it's working out well.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

these leaves are rounder and the bark doesnt seem to match quaking aspen from the images i googled.

 

[Brewmonster]

Basswood?

 

[Jags]

Basswood?

Yes. I do believe that is basswood.

 

[Razo]

Looka like basswood

 

[firefighterjake]

Basswood . . . "nice creamy white wood, cuts like butter" . . . that and the leaf shape and size.

Not the best burning wood . . . good for this time of year though . . . and kindling . . . or carving.

I will say, incidentally, that my experience with apple wood is that it tends to actually be darker and is a rather tough wood to cut.

 

[nrford]

Quaking Aspen. Not Basswood for sure!

 

[Applesister]

My confident vote is for American Linden or Mountain Basswood.

 

[Pellet_Pete]

Sorry folks, looks like swamp cottonwood to me (Populus heterophylla). Googled it and it's spot on.

 

[nrford]

Sorry folks, looks like swamp cottonwood to me (Populus heterophylla). Googled it and it's spot on.

Doubt it, quite rare to begin with and not native to Wisconsin. Besides that it is near identical to every Aspen tree I've seen in Wi., Mi.,Oh.,In.,and Il.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

well after researching quaking aspen and basswood further i'd have to concur its basswood. Leaves and bark match up. The thing that throws me off with it being basswood is it was a single trunk tree. I have some huge basswoods on my land up north and all of those are multiple trunk trees with 4-6 trunks coming out of a cluster at the bottom. I have never seen a single trunk basswood.

Definitely not cottonwood as im familiar with that and it doesnt cut like butter.

 

[nrford]

The last photo on right 2nd row of pics...... Basswood never looks like that.......Aspen always does.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

The last photo on right 2nd row of pics...... Basswood never looks like that.......Aspen always does.

Yeah your right, basswood has bark all the way up now that i think about it. I have cut a lot of big tooth aspen in northern wisconsin and this sure didnt seem anything like that. I suppose it could be quaking aspen altho it doesnt look as white as the pictures i googled and this leaf is a lot bigger.

I suppose i should cut the trunk up to see what that looks like.

 

[TreePointer]

Something isn't right about those pictures. Are you sure those leaves go with that tree?

To me, the bark is bigtooth Aspen, but the leaves are clearly not. Bark is wrong for quaking Aspen and leaf is too large (should be 1-3" and is wrong shape). Leaf does look like basswood.

 

[Jags]

Leaf does look like basswood.

Zactly! Its pretty rare that I will disagree with nrford, but that leaf is basswood or I'll eat it.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

Something isn't right about those pictures. Are you sure those leaves go with that tree?

Im sure the leaves match the tree.
Heres one more pic i took but didnt include in the original post.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I'm not sure how apple rates as soft in any sense, but I would go with basswood.

 

[Applesister]

The apples themselves might be soft. I just stopped back to see if this thread turned into a brawl.
I guess that goes with the heavy drinking on Saturday nights.
Linden and aspen are about the same BTU wize, right? So who cares..
some basswood trivia....
We had a noteworthy carousel restored here in my town and I became fascinated with its restoration process. A public fund was raised. Calendars were printed.
Anyway, basswood was almost exclusively used for carving carousel figures in the 1880s. So I studied basswood out of childish curiosity.
And honeybees like it, and it does coppice and produce multi boles or multi stems. Supposedly root suckers too but I dont see that with my trees, the trees are too young.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I just noticed i have one of these same trees in my back yard, so i took pictures of it. The 2nd pic it has a sucker tree coming out of the base and the leaf picture is 4 different sized leaves off the same tree. The small leaf would be the size of quaking aspen but certainly not the big ones. If its basswood why isnt it scaled trunk all the way up instead of a quarter of the way then it transitions into the skin type bark? Unless its a young tree phase i have never seen on the big huge basswoods im familiar with? Lot of branches starting half way up the tree, the basswoods i've seen are 80 ft tall with no branches til the crown of the tree.
Im stumped and my curiosity grows.

 

[TreePointer]

If you got those leaves from a tree that looks like yours, then I'll also go with basswood for an ID. You can't get those leaves off of any aspen.

 

[nrford]

Zactly! Its pretty rare that I will disagree with nrford, but that leaf is basswood or I'll eat it.

Never said the leaf wasn't basswood. I know the tree is an Aspen. Very seldom do I need a leaf to identify a tree. By the time they get to the sawmill all you have to identify a log by is bark and the wood!

 

[TreePointer]

When leaves are down and I can't confirm ID by bark alone, I look at smaller twigs with buds and leaf scars.

1. Find a twig with buds and leaf scars on your downed tree.

2. Look at the pictures and descriptions of twigs with buds for bigtoth aspen and basswood in the following links.

American basswood
Bigtooth aspen

To me, the buds are so different that they should remove all doubt.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

its got to be basswood. I just never seen a single trunk basswood before. Everyone i had ever seen before had multiple trunks.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

It looks like 2 different trees to me.

One looks a lot like Bigtooth Aspen, but I don't think that it is.

I realize this is not helping you, but this is a confusing ID.