Jamestown Tree
15. Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida
One of the showiest native American trees, the Dogwood starts with early spring flowers (before leafing out), then makes beautiful red fruit before its foliage turns brilliant scarlet in the fall. The fruit is poisonous to humans but a great food source for many native birds, deer, squirrels and smaller mammals. It is often found as understory in Eastern Deciduous forests.
The bark is dark reddish-brown and broken into small squarish plates. The twigs are green or reddish and slender.
It is a small tree (30 feet) with a wide branching habit and nearly horizontal branches. Often confused with Kousa Dogwoods, one characteristic unique to a native Dogwood is its rounded flower petals, while the petals of a Kousa Dogwood are pointed.
16. European Fern Leaved Beech - Fagus sylvatica
European beeches were introduced to America in the late 1600s when colonists began to arrive from England. There are over 20 varieties of European beeches, including "copper," "weeping" and "fern leaf" or "cut leaf" as seen here. Other varieties of beeches hail from Asia. Beeches are deciduous, although their leaves often hang on during the winter. The bark is smooth and silvery grey, resembling that of an elephant hide. Beech bark is unable to heal itself, which may be why so many people are tempted to carve their initials into it, and even more so as beeches can live 450 years or so.
The Fern Leaved Beech is slightly smaller than other common beeches, but might be the most beautiful with its soft, light, feathery foliage.
Beech nuts are very nutritious and sought by many mammals including wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, squirrels, and chipmunks. In addition to reproducing through the seed nuts, beeches also will send up shoots from their extensive root systems, which is one reason that beech trees are often found in groves in the wild.
17. Umbrella Pine - Sciadopitys verticillata
A slow grower, the umbrella pine is an evergreen coniferous tree native to Japan, and is one of its five sacred trees. Normally, it grows 20-30 feet high in a pyramid shape, but as you can see with these two, there are exceptions. Its orange-to-reddish bark exfoliates in strips. Its "double" leaves are unique among all conifers and make for easy identification. Each clump of leaves resembles an umbrella. Pinecones take two years to ripen before seeds are dispersed.
18. European "Weeping" Beech - Fagus sylvatica
European beeches were introduced to America in the late 1600s when colonists began to arrive from England. There are over 20 varieties of European beeches including "copper,""weeping" (as seen here) and "fern leaf" or "cut leaf" but varieties of beeches also hail from Asia. Beeches are deciduous although leaves often hang on during the winter. The bark is smooth and silvery grey, resembling that of an elephant hide. Beech bark is unable to heal itself, which may be why so many people are tempted to carve their initials into it, especially as beeches can live 450 years or so.
The weeping beech is also called a Pendulous Beech because its branches hang down much like an elephant's trunk. It is one of the larger varieties of European beeches, and can reproduce through branches touching the ground and rooting (in addition to the nuts and extensive root system).
Beech nuts are very nutritious and sought by many mammals, including wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, squirrels, and chipmunks. In addition to reproducing through the seed nuts, beech trees also will send up shoots from their extensive root systems, which is one reason that beech trees are often found in groves in the wild.
19. Northern Catalpa - Catalpa speciosa
Native to the US, the Catalpa is also called the Cigar Tree, Northern Bean Tree or Smokey Joe Tree because of its distinctive fruit. It is a large, vigorous tree that flowers in the late spring with large white clusters 5 to 8" in size. The fruit is a narrow, dark brown capsule up to 18" long. It matures in the fall but remains attached to the tree throughout the winter. The Catalpa has large, ovate leaves.
20. European Purple Beech - Fagus sylvatica
European beeches were introduced to America in the late 1600s when colonists began to arrive from England. There are over 20 varieties of European beeches including "copper," "weeping" and "fern leaf" or "purple" as seen here. Varieties of beeches also hail from Asia. Beeches are deciduous, although their leaves often hang on during the winter. The bark is smooth and silvery grey, resembling that of an elephant hide. Beech bark is unable to heal itself, which may be why so many people are tempted to carve their initials into it, especially as beeches can live 450 years or so.
A purple beech is kind of a fluke. One in 1,000 seedlings result in a purple-leafed beech. Most are considered "copper" beeches.
Beech nuts are very nutritious and sought by many mammals, including wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, squirrels, and chipmunks. In addition to reproducing through the seed nuts, beeches also will send up shoots from their extensive root systems, which is one reason that beech trees are often found in groves in the wild.
21. Eastern Redbud - Cercis canadensis
The Eastern Redbud, also known as a Judas tree, is native to the US. It is a small, deciduous tree, usually found in understory growth in the wild and only growing to about 30 feet tall. It is known for a spectacular early springtime display of intense, bright pink flowers which bloom, pea-like, along the branches. It is, in fact, part of the legume family. The bark is a very dark brown, almost black. Fruit pods persist through the winter as dark red, flattened pea-like pods. The leaves are heart-shaped and its branching habit is a rounded crown.
The Henry’s elfin butterfly (Callophyrus henrici) and hummingbirds utilize eastern redbud for nectar. Honeybees use the flowers for pollen. The seeds are a favorite for quail, cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, wild turkeys, white-tailed deer and even squirrels.
22. Kousa Dogwood - Cornus kousa
The Kousa dogwood (also known as a Japanese strawberry tree or Japanese dogwood) is widely planted as an ornamental. Its tiny greenish flowers are surrounded by four creamy bracts which are often tipped with pink. It blooms in early summer and can be distinguished from a native dogwood by its pointed bracts. Native dogwoods have rounded bracts. The Kousa dogwood has reddish-brown bark, which flakes to a cream colored bark beneath. The leaves turn a brilliant red in the fall when its fleshy "strawberry-like" drupes ripen as well.
As a good example of how a native tree supports local wildlife versus a non-native, consider this: The native dogwood supports over 86 species of birds, not to mention insect pollinators. According to Doug Tallamy, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, the Kousa s are "monkey food, which makes them valuable in Asia but not in North America. Nothing eats them here. They’re not part of the food web.”