Tree Walk– Self Guided Tour
Getting Started:
The Hinkley Arborium has
several tree species. Some are native to the area,
and some come from different parts of the
world. Use this guide to take a self directed walk
and learn about 14 of these trees. Look for the
signs with numbers on them and follow the
numbers along the grounds. The first trees start
in front of the museum and then the trail
con-tinues North, then West.
1.
Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
The Green Ash is a hardy, fast growing tree that provides plenty of shade. It a popular choice for landscaping in yards and towns. Unfortunately, like all ash trees, it is threatened by the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle from Japan that has been decimated ash trees in North America. Due to the Ash Tree’s popularity in planting, the Ash Borer has been able to spread easily .
Ash trees have opposite branching, compound leaves, and diamond patterned bark.
2.
Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
This is one of the most widespread deciduous trees in North America. Its beautiful fall foliage make it a common landscaping choice. It provides good-quality lumbar and it is used on a small scale for maple syrup. It fruits and young, tender shoots and leaves provide food for wildlife.
It grows well in a variety of soils. In fact, it grows so well that in young, disturbed forests it can overly displace other tree species. However this only occurs in young forests, and simple removal of some of the sprouts will help in-crease tree diversity as the forest develops.
Red Maple leaves usually have 3 major lobes. The indention between these lobes makes a sharp “V” shape. The edges of the leaves are coarsely serrated.
3.
Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
Sugar Maple is a very important part of Northern forests. They require cold winters to germinate properly and pro-duce sugar sap. This sap is collected from the trees with a tape and used to produce maple syrup.
Leaves of the sugar maple usually have five shallow lobes, each with several sharper tips. It can be most easily distin-guished from the red maple by looking at the shape of the indentation between the leaves. The indention makes a “U” (like in s”u”gar) instead of a “V”.
4.
White Pine (Pinus strobus)
This tree can be found in northern mixed forests. Full grown white pine trees tend to tower over most other tree species. White pine is a long-lived species and grow for over 200 years. Because of its size, it is a valuable species for lumbar. It also provides shelter for wildlife and many animals eat white pine seeds.
White pine is an evergreen species and has thin needles that grow in clusters of 5. This makes identification easy to remember as the word “white” has 5 letters, the same num-ber of needles in a cluster.
5.
Norway Spruce (Picea abies)
This is the fastest growing spruce. Norway spruces have strong, graceful branches that are covered with green nee-dles. Both these qualities make it a n ideal windbreaker in landscaping. It is also widely planted to be harvested for Christmas trees.
Norway spruces’ needle are dark green and are half an inch to an inch long. The branches reach slightly upwards. The cones are long grow mostly near the top of the tree.
6.
Burr Oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
This deciduous tree can live for 200-300 years. They offer dense shade and shelter. Burr oaks have the largest acorns of any North American oak. Many wildlife species feed on them and they are the preferred food source of wood ducks and wild turkeys. Burr Oaks are the most fire resistant oak and are therefore often found in prairies,
The acorns have a large bristly cap that gives the bur oak its name. The leaves of a burr oak are simple and alternat-ing. They have large, rounded lobes and are much broader at the top then the base.
7.
Northern Red Oak (Quercus ruba)
Red oak is very fast growing and will grow up to 2 feet per year for the first 10 years of its life. They are sun loving and the seedlings do not tolerate shade and therefore re-quire gaps in the canopy in order to grow. Red oak can live up to 300-500 years, although most only live to be around half that age. The acorns of this species take two growing seasons to mature.
The leaves have sharper lobes that ae usually no more then on third the length of the total leaf.
8.
White Swamp Oak (Quercus bicolor)
This oak grows in low-lying swampy areas as well as bot-tom lands and river banks, were it can receive lots of mois-ture, It produces a variety of colors in fall including bronze, purple, and different shades of yellow.
The leaves of the Swamp Oak are dark green with a leath-ery texture. Like the Burr Oak, Swamp Oak leaves are wid-er at the top and have rounded lobes, but the lobes are smaller, shallower, and more numerous. The acorns are a more oblong shape and are about 1 inch in length.
9.
Pin Oak (Quercus Palustris)
Pin oak is easy to transplant, pollution tolerant, and grows relatively fast– all of which make it a popular choice for landscaping. It is another oak that prefers moist areas to grow as it has shallow, fibrous roots, unlike most oaks that develop deep tap roots. As a fast growing pioneer species, it is also shorter lived then most other oak species.
Pin oak leaves have sharper lobes with 5-7 bristly teeth. The space between the lobes, called sinuses, are “U” shaped and very deep, making the leaf look more slender overall.
10.
Bristle Cone Pine
These trees are hardy, long lived, and extremely drought tolerant. Their large, shallow root system, waxy needles, and thick needle cuticles that help retain water, all aide in their resilience. Bristle cone Pines have tough, dense wood that can withstand drier and colder conditions that many other plant species can tolerate. Because of the harsh con-ditions it thrives in, the Bristle Cone Pine grows and repro-duces very slowly.
The green pine needs that grow along the twisted branches make the branches look like a bristly bottle brush– giving the tree its name.
11.
Hemlock ( Tsuga sp.)
Hemlocks are medium-sized evergreens that are very shade tolerant. Their conical growth and small, dark green needles give them a Christmas tree appearance. Hemlock’s dense foliage provides excellent cover for deer and song birds. They produce small, numerous cones that also pro-vide food for wildlife.
12.
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)
This tree is a living fossil. It is the oldest tree on Earth and dates back to the time of the dinosaurs. The earliest leaf fossils of this tree are over 270 million years ago. At that time Ginkgo trees could be found throughout the world, but their range shrank to a few isolated forests in China. Alt-hough cultivated by monks for centuries it was tAlt-hought to be extinct in the wild until it was rediscovered. Trees can live to be over 1,000 years old.
The Ginkgo tree is easy to identify as its fan-shaped leaves are distinct and unique.
13.
American Chestnut (Castanea dentata)
The American Chestnut used to be one of the most common and ecologically important trees in North America. They were large and fast growing and the wood was valued be-cause of its rot-resistance. The chestnuts it produced were an important source of food for forest wildlife. A century ago there were over 400 billion trees in the US, until the chestnut blight ( a non-native fungus) was introduced and decimated the population. Most of trees have disappeared but there has been much conservation work to develop a blight-resistant strain that will allow the tree to be brought back more commonly.
14. Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia
Another ancient tree that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs! It is another living fossil, with modern trees almost unchanged from their prehistoric ancestors. Like the Ginkgo Tree, it is native to China as well. The Dawn Redwood is a very fast growing tree, and though smaller then its Giant California counterpart it can still reach heights of 165 ft.
The Dawn Redwood is a deciduous conifer. It has need-like leaves that grow in an opposite arrangement. The leaves are bright, fresh green and then turn to a reddish brown in the fall.
