Individual Hardwood Species

Interestingly, pin oak is named for a physical characteristic where small, thin, dead branches stick out like pins from the main trunk. Pin oak is among the most widely planted native oaks in the urban landscape and the third most common street tree in New York City. It tolerates drought, poor soils and is easy to transplant. The tree is...

Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), also called broadleaf maple or Oregon maple, is one of the few commercial hardwood tree species on the Pacific Coast. It is small compared with its conifer associates. Bigleaf maple is an excellent shade tree. The wood is used for furniture, especially piano frames, and the sap can be made into syrup.

Water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), also called cottongum, sourgum, swamp tupelo, tupelo-gum, and water-gum, is a large, long-lived tree that grows in southern swamps and flood plains where its root system is periodically under water. It has a swollen base that tapers to a long, clear bole and often occurs in pure stands. A good mature tree will produce commercial timber used for furniture and crates.…

Blackgum or black tupelo is oftentimes (but not always) associated with wet areas as is suggested by its latin genus name Nyssa, the name for a Greek mythological water sprite. The Creek Indian word for "swamp tree" is eto opelwu. Southern bee-keepers prize the tree's nectar and sell tupelo honey for a premium. The tree is showy in fall with brilliant red leaves ornamented with blue fruit on fe…

Red alder (Alnus rubra), also called Oregon alder, western alder, and Pacific coast alder, is the most common hardwood in the Pacific Northwest. It is a relatively short-lived, intolerant pioneer with rapid juvenile growth. The species is favored by disturbance and often increases after logging and burning.

Boxelder (Acer negundo) is one of the most widespread and best known of the maples. Boxelder's wide range shows that it grows under a variety of climatic conditions. Its northward limits are in the extremely cold areas of the United States and Canada, and planted specimens have been reported as far north as Fort Simpson in the Canadian Northwest...

Cucumbertree (Magnolia acuminata) is the most widespread and hardiest of the eight native magnolia species in the United States, and the only magnolia native to Canada.

Southern magnolia is an aristocrat of trees. It grows as a native throughout the lower South, is widely adaptable to a variety of soils, and has few pest problems. With glossy evergreen foliage and large white fragrant blossoms in spring, it truly is one of the most handsome and durable native trees for Southern landscapes. The largest privately...

Black locust is a legume with root nodes that, along with bacteria, "fixes" atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. These soil nitrates are usable by other plants. Most legumes have pea-like flowers with distinctive seed pods. Black locust is native to the Ozarks and the southern Appalachians but have been transplanted in many northeastern states...

Bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis), also called bitternut, swamp hickory, and pignut hickory, is a large pecan hickory with commercial stands located mostly north of the other pecan hickories. Bitternut hickory is cut and sold in mixture with the true hickories. It is the shortest lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years. The dark...

Pecan (Carya illinoensis) is one of the better-known pecan hickories. It is also called sweet pecan and in its range where Spanish is spoken, nogal morado or nuez encarcelada. The early settlers who came to America found pecans growing over wide areas. These native pecans were and continue to be highly valued as sources of new varieties and as...

Pignut hickory (Carya glabra) is a common but not abundant species in the oak-hickory forest association in Eastern United States. Other common names are pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark hickory, swamp hickory, and broom hickory. The pear-shaped nut ripens in September and October and is an important part of the diet of...

Mockernut hickory (Carya tomentosa), also called mockernut, white hickory, whiteheart hickory, hognut, and bullnut, is the most abundant of the hickories. It is long lived, sometimes reaching the age of 500 years. A high percentage of the wood is used for products where strength, hardness, and flexibility are needed. It makes an excellent fuelwood.

Shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa) is also called shagbark hickory, bigleaf shagbark hickory, kingnut, big shellbark, bottom shellbark, thick shellbark, and western shellbark, attesting to some of its characteristics. It is a slow-growing long-lived tree, hard to transplant because of its long taproot, and subject to insect damage. The nuts, largest of all hickory nuts, are sweet and edible. Wil…

Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra), identified by its "slippery" inner bark, is commonly a medium-sized tree of moderately fast growth that may live to be 200 years old. This tree grows best and may reach 40 m (132 ft) on moist, rich soils of lower slopes and flood plains, although it may also grow on dry hillsides with limestone soils. It is abundant and associated with many other hardwood trees in its …

Rock elm (Ulmus thomasii), often called cork elm because of the irregular thick corky wings on older branches, is a medium-sized to large tree that grows best on moist loamy soils in southern Ontario, lower Michigan, and Wisconsin. It may also be found on dry uplands, especially rocky ridges and limestone bluffs. On good sites, rock elm may...

Black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) is the largest of the American poplars and the largest hardwood tree in western North America. The tree grows primarily on moist sites west of the Rocky Mountains. The most productive sites are the bottom lands of major streams and rivers west of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest. Pure stands may form on alluvial soils. Black cottonwood is harvested…

Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), one of the largest eastern hardwoods, is short-lived but the fastest-growing commercial forest species in North America. It grows best on moist well-drained sands or silts near streams, often in pure stands. The lightweight, rather soft wood is used primarily for core stock in manufacturing furniture and for pulpwood. Eastern cottonwood is one of the few ha…

Black willow is named for its dark gray-brown bark. The tree is the largest and most important New World willow and is one of the first trees to bud in the spring. The numerous uses of the wood of this and other willows is furniture doors, millwork, barrels and boxes.

Butternut (Juglans cinerea), also called white walnut or oilnut, grows rapidly on well-drained soils of hillsides and streambanks in mixed hardwood forests. This small to medium-sized tree is short lived, seldom reaching the age of 75. Butternut is more valued for its nuts than for lumber. The soft coarse-grained wood works, stains, and finishes well. Small amounts are used for cabinetwork, furni…

River birch grows all the way from southern New Hampshire to the Texas Gulf Coast. The tree is very heat-tolerant and reaches its maximum size in rich alluvial soils of the lower Mississippi Valley. River birch is well named as it loves riparian zones and adapts well to wet sites. The tree's wood has very little commercial value but river birch is extremely popular as an ornamental and was sele…

Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) is the most valuable of the native birches. It is easily recognized by the yellowish-bronze exfoliating bark for which it is named. The inner bark is aromatic and has a flavor of wintergreen. Other names are gray birch, silver birch, and swamp birch. This slow-growing long-lived tree is found with other...

White ash is the largest of the ashes native to North America. Its growth is very responsive when growing in rich soils but is never a dominant forest species. Ash has been a part of American sports since the 1890s when Louisville Slugger started manufacturing a baseball bat with ash. Ash is still considered the best baseball bat material to use.

Live oak is a symbolic tree of the Deep South. Q. virginiana has a squat and leaning form with a large diameter tapering trunk. The leaves are semi-evergreen, are waxy and resist to salt spray which allow the tree to live on the southern coast and on barrier islands. The acorns are the primary food for coastal wildlife.

Green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), also called red ash, swamp ash, and water ash, is the most widely distributed of all the American ashes. Naturally a moist bottom land or stream bank tree, it is hardy to climatic extremes and has been widely planted in the Plains States and Canada. The commercial supply is mostly in the South. Green ash is...

Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii) is one of the largest southern red oaks. Other common names are spotted oak, Schneck oak, Shumard red oak, southern red oak, and swamp red oak. It is a lowland tree and grows scattered with other hardwoods on moist, well-drained soils associated with large and small streams. It grows moderately fast and produces...

Willow oak (Quercus phellos) grows on a variety of moist alluvial soils, commonly on lands along water courses. This medium to large southern oak with willowlike foliage is known for its rapid growth and long life. It is an important source of lumber and pulp, as well as an important species to wildlife because of heavy annual acorn production. It is also a favored shade tree, easily transplanted…

Water oak is a rapid growing tree. Leaves of a mature water oak are usually spatula-shaped while leaves of immature saplings can be long and narrow (see examples on plate below). Many describe the leaf as looking like a duck's foot. Q. nigra can be described as "nearly evergreen" as some green leaves will cling to the tree through the winter. Water oak has strikingly smooth bark.

Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) is best known for its brilliant autumn color. It is a large rapid-growing tree of the Eastern United States found on a variety of soils in mixed forests, especially light sandy and gravelly upland ridges and slopes. Best development is in the Ohio River Basin. In commerce, the lumber is mixed with that of other red oaks. Scarlet oak is a popular shade tree and has b…

Swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii) is known also as basket oak, for the baskets made from its wood, and cow oak because cows eat the acorns. One of the important timber trees of the South, it grows on moist and wet loamy soils of bottom lands, along streams and borders of swamps in mixed hardwoods. The high quality wood is used in all kinds of construction and for implements. The acorns are s…

Northern red oak (Quercus rubra is widespread in the East and grows on a variety of soils and topography, often forming pure stands. Moderate to fast growing, this tree is one of the more important lumber species of red oak and is an easily transplanted, popular shade tree with good form and dense foliage.

Interestingly, pin oak is named for a physical characteristic where small, thin, dead branches stick out like pins from the main trunk. Pin oak is among the most widely planted native oaks in the urban landscape and the third most common street tree in New York City. It tolerates drought, poor soils and is easy to transplant. The tree is...

Post oak (Quercus stellata), sometimes called iron oak, is a medium-sized tree abundant throughout the Southeastern and South Central United States where it forms pure stands in the prairie transition area. This slow-growing oak typically occupies rocky or sandy ridges and dry woodlands with a variety of soils and is considered drought resistant. The wood is very durable in contact with soil and …

Overcup oak (Quercus lyrata), also called swamp post oak, swamp white oak, and water white oak, is quite tolerant of flooding and grows slowly on poorly drained flood plains and swamp lands of the Southeastern United States. It may take 30 years before overcup oak produces acorns. Wildlife use them as food. The quality of the lumber varies greatly and the wood may check and warp during seasoning.…

Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana), a broadleaved deciduous hardwood common inland along the Pacific Coast, has the longest north-south distribution among western oaks-from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to southern California. It is the only native oak in British Columbia and Washington and the principal one in Oregon. Though commonly known as Garry oak in British Columbia, elsewhere it is…

There has been a long history of disagreement concerning the identity of Laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia). It centers on the variation in leaf shapes and differences in growing sites, giving some reason to name a separate species, diamond-leaf oak (Q. obtusa). Here they are treated synonymously. Laurel oak is a rapid-growing short-lived tree of...

Black oak (Quercus velutina) is a common, medium-sized to large oak of the eastern and midwestern United States. It is sometimes called yellow oak, quercitron, yellowbark oak, or smoothbark oak. It grows best on moist, rich, well-drained soils, but it is often found on poor, dry sandy or heavy glacial clay hillsides where it seldom lives more...

HARDWOOD - Trees with broad, flat leaves as opposed to coniferous or needled trees. Wood hardness varies among the hardwood species, and some are actually softer than some softwoods. DECIDUOUS - perennial plants which are normally leafless for some time during the year. BROADLEAF - A tree with leaves that are broad, flat and thin and...

American beech is a "strikingly handsome" tree with tight, smooth and skin-like light gray bark. This slick bark is so unique, it becomes a major identifier of the species. Also, look for the muscular roots which often remind one of creature legs and arms. Beech bark has suffered the carver's knife through the ages. From Virgil to Daniel...

White oak is included in a group of oaks categorized by that same name. Other white oak family members include the bur oak, chestnut oak and Oregon white oak. This oak is immediately recognized by rounded lobes plus the lobe tips never have bristles like red oak. Considered the most majestic tree of the eastern hardwoods, the tree is also touted as having the best all-purpose wood. Click on the…

Shagbark hickory has a "distinctive" hickory look because of its loose-plated bark. C. ovata is one of the most widespread hickories in North America. This tree is very hard to transplant because of the extended taproot.

Southern red oak is a moderate sized to tall tree. Leaves are variable (see most common shapes below) but usually have a prominent pair of lobes toward the leaf tip. The tree is also called Spanish oak possibly because it is native to areas of early Spanish colonies.

Sugar maple is not just a northern U.S. tree. You can find sugar maple from Florida to Maine. However, the leaf is memorialized on Canada's flag and sugar maple tree sap is the backbone of Vermont's syrup industry. The beautiful fall foliage of New England, which includes sugar maple, attracts millions of leaf "peepers" and their dollars into...

Bur oak is a classic tree of the American savanna. Q. macrocarpa has sheltered the Great Plains for centuries even where other tree species have made attempts but failed. It is a member of the the white oak family. The bur oak acorn cup has a burry fringe and is a major identifier along with the leaf's large middle sinus that gives it a "pinched...

Sassafras was touted in Europe as America's herbal curative because of purported miraculous outcomes from the sick who drank sassafras tea. Those claims were exaggerated but the tree did prove to have attractive aromatic qualities and the "rootbeer" flavor of the root's tea (now considered a mild carcinogen) was enjoyed by Native Americans . S....

American holly was noticed by the Pilgrims who landed in North America the week before Christmas in 1620 on the coast of what is now Massachusetts. This evergreen with prickly leaves and red berries reminded them of English holly which was a symbol of Christmas England and Europe. Also called white holly or Christmas holly, the tree has been one...

American basswood is a large and rapid-growing tree of eastern and central North America. The tree frequently has two or more trunks and vigorously sprouts from stumps as well as seed. American basswood is an important timber tree, especially in the Great Lakes States. It is the northernmost basswood species. The soft, light wood has many uses...

Black cherry is the most important native cherry found throughout the eastern United States. The commercial range for a high-quality tree is found in the Allegheny Plateau of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. The species is very aggressive and will easily spring up where seeds are dispersed.

Live oak is a symbolic tree of the Deep South. Q. virginiana has a squat and leaning form with a large diameter tapering trunk. The leaves are semi-evergreen, are waxy and resist to salt spray which allow the tree to live on the southern coast and on barrier islands. The acorns are the primary food for coastal wildlife.

Live oak is a symbolic tree of the Deep South. Q. virginiana has a squat and leaning form with a large diameter tapering trunk. The leaves are semi-evergreen, are waxy and resist to salt spray which allow the tree to live on the southern coast and on barrier islands. The acorns are the primary food for coastal wildlife.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying sweetgum or Populus tremuloides. Find out more about the aspen tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A different slant on America's favorite shade tree...

Photos of weeping cherry in full bloom in spring.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying black walnut or Juglans nigra. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying sycamore or Platanus occidentalis. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying silver maple or Acer saccharinum. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying quaking aspen or Populus tremuloides. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying red maple or Acer rubrum. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying yellow poplar or Liriodendron tulipifera. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying American elm or Ulmus americana. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying paulownia or Paulownia tomentosa. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

A walk-through description and guide to identifying hackberry or Celtis occidentalis. Find out more about the tree's habit, range, silviculture and management.

Identify Buckeye - The Important American Hardwoods - Aesculus sp.

Fraxinus pennsylvanica - green ash

Fraxinus americana - white ash

Fagus grandifolia - American beech

Tillia americana - American basswood

Betula alleghaniensis - yellow birch

Betula nigra - river birch

Prunis serotina - black cherry

Juglans cinerea - butternut

Juglans nigra - black walnut

Ulmus americana - American elm

Ulmus thomasii - rock elm

Ulmus rubra - slippery elm

Carya cordiformis - bitternut

Carya illinoensis - pecan

Carya glabra - pignut hickory

Carya tomentosa - mockernut hickory

Carya laciniosa - shellbark hickory

Carya ovata - shagbark hickory

Ilex opaca - American holly

Robinia pseudoacacia - black locust

Magnolia accuminata - cucumbertree

Magnolia grandiflora - southern magnolia

Acer macrophyllum - bigleaf maple

Acer negundo - boxelder

Acer saccharinum - silver maple

Acer rubrum - red maple

Acer saccharum - sugar maple

Quercus phellos - willow oak

Quercus alba - white oak

Quercus nigra - water oak

Quercus falcata - southern red oak

Quercus shumardii - Shumard oak

Quercus coccinea - scarlet oak

Quercus nuttallii - Nuttall oak

Quercus rubra - northern red oak

Quercus palustris - pin oak

Quercus stellata - post oak

Quercus lyrata - overcup oak

Quercus gerryana - Oregon white oak

Quercus virginiana - live oak

Quercus laurifolia - laurel oak

Quercus falcata var. pagodifolia - cherrybark oak

Quercus macrocarpa - bur oak

Quercus velutina - black oak

Populus trichocarpa - black cottonwood

Populus deltoides - eastern cottonwood

Populus balsamifera - balsam poplar

Alnus rubra - red alder

Paulownia tomentosa - Royal Paulownia

Sassafras albidum - sassafras

Liquidambar styraciflua - sweetgum

Platanus occidentalis - American sycamore

Nyssa sylvatica - blackgum

Salix nigra - black willow

Liriodendron tulipifera - yellow-poplar

A feature on one of the most unique of all sweetgum varieties, roundleaf sweetgum is a fruitless sweetgum with excellent fall foliage. These characteristics alone should be reason enough to plant it.

Rainbow eucalyptus is probably the most interesting and beautiful of all trees - and not for the leaves but for the bark. Find out more about the amazing Eucalyptus deglupta tree.