Downy Serviceberry

 Amelanchier arborea

Identification Information

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021

Time:  5:00 p.m.

Location:  Sweet Orr Commons (23 E. 6th Street, Pottstown, PA 19464)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest

Weather conditions:  84 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, some cloud cover

At my niece's apartment, I remember always seeing this berry tree and wondering what it was... perfect opportunity!

The leaves are oblong and about 2 inches long.  They are toothed and pinnately veined.  Berry clusters grow out of leave whorls and look like tiny apples.

The main trunk was about 4 inches across but divided into 4 main branches fairly low.  Bark on the trunk and branches was fairly smooth with some fine horizontal ridges.  

(Brockman, 1986, p. 172)

This tree might have been 10 feet tall.  It is on the edge of the courtyard where it can get plenty of sun.

I stumbled across a couple of interesting tidbits about the name, but I wasn't able to confirm any of them.  Most related to them blooming when roads became serviceable or when the ground thawed enough that you could hold funeral services.  But I did find a pie recipe or two and a really cool reading of a book based on the Lenape.

Honeylocust

 Gleditsia triacanthos

Identification Information

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021

Time:  5:30 p.m.

Location:  Sweet Orr Commons (23 E. 6th Street, Pottstown, PA 19464)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest

Weather conditions:  84 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, some cloud cover

After a day at one of my terrestrial habitats, I stopped by my niece's apartment to visit (and get cold water).  We used to live together, so I remembered some of the trees in the courtyard that I used to love.

The big Honeylocust was wonderful as a shade tree, and I enjoy the sound of the wind blowing through its leaves.  Those leaves are over half a foot long and compound.  The leaflets are oval-shaped and only an inch long.  I originally identified it by the strange end leaflet, which always seemed out of place because it was not like other oddly-pinnate leaves where the last one pointed as an extension of the stem... it pointed off to one side.

In the fall, the leaves turn an awesome, bright yellow.  The seed pod is formed, and I remember that by the thousands of them that littered the courtyard floor.

The identifying characteristic that I noticed on this trip was the bark.  I could see that initially it probably just had minor horizontal ridges.  But because this is an older tree (trunk diameter is about 2 feet, height is approximately 50 feet), the bark has expanded and settled into big plates.  (Brockman, 1986, p. 188)

Weeping Willow

Salix babylonica

Identification Information

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021

Time:  6:55 a.m.

Location:  Memorial Park (75 W. King Street, Pottstown, PA 19464)

Habitat:  Palustrine Sycamore-Birch forest

Weather conditions:  73 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, clear skies

Ahhh, the weeping willow (with some bonus Mallards bathing in the background).  The Weeping Willow is not native to North America.  Because of its dramatic look it has been planted so often that it is part of many local forests. 

Its leaves are long (about 5 inches), simple, very narrow (about half an inch), and lanceolate in shape (wider at the base and coming to a point at the tip).  They are arranged in an alternate pattern. (Brockman, 1986, p. 82)

 Branches grow in crowns so that, along with the long and thin leaves, gives the tree an appearance of hanging.  This particular willow was not quite 30 feet high with a trunk diameter of less than a foot.  The bark was dark with deep ridges.

My favorite bit of knowledge from my research is about the scientific name.  The origin of the name is from the Bible.  A verse in Psalms describes people weeping while sitting near the rivers of Babylon, hanging their harps on the willows nearby.  It was the inspiration for the "On the Willows" song in one of my favorite musicals, Godspell.  And yet, the trees near the Euphrates river are a relative of willows... poplars.  Oh, the irony.

  

Salix babylonica. (2021, January 20). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from 

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_babylonica#Horticultural_selections_and_related_hybrids 

Pin Oak

 Quercus palustris

Identification Information

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021

Time:  4:45 p.m.

Location:  Highland Memorial Park (701 Farmington Avenue, Pottstown, PA 19464)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest

Weather conditions:  86 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, some cloud cover

This one has got its eye on you.

Some oaks are hard to tell apart for the average on-looker.  They pretty much all have the same type of bark--rough and ridged.  Most acorns look the same.  There are a few species that are short and squat or extra long, but a bit of strange development can give you that as well.  

So one of the most telling parts of the tree in terms of identification is the leaf.  

Rounded lobes for white oaks; pointy lobes for red oaks.  My eyeball tree is definitely in the red oak group.

Since I am here in the early summer, I don't know what color these leaves will be in the fall.  The shape, however indicates either Black Oak or Pin Oak.  Both of those trees have leaves that are oblong, pinnate, deeply lobed and toothed with 5 - 7 lobes.  (Brockman, 1986, p. 126)

The distinguishing characteristic of Pin Oaks are that their lower branches point downwards, middle branches point out, and upper branches point upwards.

Nielsen, R. K. (2020, February 27). Common types of oak trees. Owlcation. Retrieved June 15, 2021, 

     from https://owlcation.com/stem/Types-of-Oak-Trees-with-pictures-of-bark

Sweetbay Magnolia

 Magnolia virginiana

Identification Information

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021

Time:  7:10 a.m.

Location:  Memorial Park (75 W. King Street, Pottstown, PA 19464)

Habitat:  Palustrine Sycamore-Birch forest

Weather conditions:  73 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, clear skies

Maggie, the baby sweetbay...

I hope to get back here later in the summer so that I can see the berries of this magnolia.  From pictures, they look like the pleasant version of something alien and oozing.  

But I was able to identify this tree without the fruit.  Magnolia flowers are white and cup-shaped, and they smell wonderful!  Each flower is about 3 inches in diameter and has at least 9 petals.  

The leaves are simple and grow in an alternate pattern.  They were about 4 inches long and 1 or 2 inches wide.  Magnolia leaves are shinier than most other leaves I have seen.

The bark of the tree was a bit scaly, and the trunk was maybe 5 inches in diameter.  The entire tree was only 10 feet tall.  
(Brockman, 1986, p. 150)

Sassafras

 Sassafras albidum

Identification Information

Date: Sunday, June 13, 2021

Time:  5:50 p.m.

Location:  Hunsicker’s Grove (9350 Longswamp Road, Mertztown, PA 19539)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest, dominated by Hickory-Oak

Weather conditions:  75 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, cloudy skies

A Sassafras baby!  Sassafras leaves grow in an alternate pattern.  The leaves are slightly oval (about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide).  This is such a fun tree because it has three different types of leaves, and they can all be around at the same time.  I remember leader pointing these out during a hike in girl scouts years ago.  I was so intrigued.  The leaves can have one lobe, two, or three.

(Brockman, 1986, p. 156)

This tree was only a few feet taller than me (maybe 8 feet tall).
It has a stick of a trunk... 3 inches in diameter.  This tree was growing on the edge of a trail and small field, in the riparian zone of a pond.  I wonder how well this tree will do because it is in the shade but does well with full sun.

Sassafras has uses in medicine and flavoring food.  How cool would it be to make my own root beer?

 Sassafras albidum. (2021, June 9). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/ 

     wiki/Sassafras_albidum 

Eastern Red Cedar

 Juniperus virginiana

Identification Information

Date: Sunday, June 13, 2021

Time:  5:35 p.m.

Location:  Hunsicker’s Grove (9350 Longswamp Road, Mertztown, PA 19539)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest, dominated by Hickory-Oak

Weather conditions:  75 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, cloudy skies

The leaves of Eastern Red Cedar look slightly different when they are first growing compared to when they are older.  Young foliage is covered all over with scaled needles.  As the tree gets older, more of the actual branch shows.  Needles grow in alternate pairs.  You can see the beginnings of seed cones which look like berries.

(Brockman, 1986, p. 64)

This particular tree was, perhaps, 40 feet tall with a trunk of about a foot diameter.  It was growing in the shade.  One common place to find Eastern Red Cedars is limestone hills.  Lo and behold, this land use to be a limestone quarry!  The bark is reddish-brown and fibrous.

  

Juniperus virginiana. (2021, May 3). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from 

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_virginiana