Trees
Sweetgum
 Liquidambar styraciflua
 Short, fat twigs
 Family: Hamamelidaceae  Shiny buds
 “Hamlet loved sweetgum.”
 Ohio is its northern limit
 Alternate phylotaxy
 Shade intolerant
 Star-shaped leaves
 Low-land tree/flood plains
 Serrate leaves
 Useful wood
 Prickly fruit that drops all
year
 Flat twig things
Eastern Red Cedar
 Juniperus virginiana
 Babies have awns
 Family: Pinaceae
 Adults have scales
 “My cat,Juniper, is from





Virginia.”
Not actually a cedar
Extremely decay resistant
Aromatic wood
Fleshy pine cones
Has scales and awns
 Characteristic species of old




fields
Likes basic soils
Grows on limestone
Shade intolerant
Used for pencils and fence
posts
Callery Pear
 Pyrus calleryana
 Grafted
 Family: Rosaceae
 Invasive
 “Pyrus Pears, color your nana  Used for ornamental




rosaceae.”
Dense, white flowers,
Bright red leaves in fall
Bad branch structure
Designed not to reproduce,
but failed
Catalpa
 Catalpa speciosa
 Family: Bignoniaceae
 “Catalpa, is that a speciosa? That’s big noniaceae!”
 Indian cigars (beans)
 Native to Texas
 Planted by farmland
 Shade intolerant
 ornamental
Cucumber Magnolia
 Magnolia acuminata
 Family: Magnoliaceae
 “accumulate the cucumbers”
 Alternate leaves
 Leaves look tropical
 75-80ft tall
 Entire leaf margins
 Smaller leaves
 Characteristic species of mesophytic forest
 Southern Ohio is northern limit
 Intermediate to shade tolerant
Umbrella Magnolia
 Magnolia tripetala
 Family: Magnoliaceae
 “Trippin’ on the umbrella shrooms.”
 Leaves look tropical
 Large leaves
 Rounded leaf base
 30-40ft max
 Entire leaves
 Characteristic species of mesophytic forest
 Very shade tolerant
Ginkgo
 Ginkgo biloba
 Family: Ginkgoaceae
 Ancient tree
 Fan-shaped leaves
 Fruit stinks
 Male and female
 Urban environment
 Short shoot, long shoot
Pine
 Pinus sp.
 Family: Pinaceae
 Needles come in fascicles (bundles)
 Poor, sandy, dry soils
 Pretty shade tolerant
 Used for paper
Redbud
 Cercis canadensis
 Purple spring flowers grow
 Family: Fabaceae
 “Sir, is the heart of Canada





dense? Fab, I see.”
Cordate leaf (heart)
Entire margins
Revolute (rolls in)
Same family as peas
10-30 ft





strait from stem
Typically gnarled
Understory plant in eastern
deciduous forest
Grows in waste places
Shade tolerant
ornamental
Yew
 Taxus sp.
 Family: Taxaceae
 Can be 20 ft tall
 Little red arils
 Extremely shade tolerant
 Popular ornamental
Honey locust
 Gleditsia triacanthos
 Family: Fabaceae
 “Honey is all the glitz. Try to can those! Fab, I see.”
 Alternate leaves
 Big bean pods
 Ornamental type has no thorns
 Terrible thorns
 Leaves are twice pinnately compound
 Early successional plant
 Extremely shade tolerant
Black Walnut
 Juglans nigra
 The rachis is usually on the
 Family: Juglandaceae
 “Black monkeys live in the

nigra jungle! It’s jug land,
see?”
Loses leaves early
Compound pinnately
compound leaves
Strong smelling fruit
Monkey face leaf scars









ground
Stout twigs
Can be huge
Mesophytic coves
Shade tolerant
Ornamental
Valuable wood
Spruce
 Picea sp.
 Family: Pinaceae
 Woody pegs
 Angled needles
 Hurts
 Found in Boreal forest
 Generally shade tolerant
 ornamental
Sassafras
 Sassafras albidum
 Family: Lauraceae
 “Sassafras, I’ll be dumb.”
 About 10 ft. tall
 Have egg, mitten, and lobed shaped leaves
 Cinnamon colored bark
 Crawl up through canopy
 Dry, sandy slopes
 Found with pines
 Southern
 Thrives after fire
Buckeye
 Aesculus sp.
 Family:
Hippocastanaceae
 “Buck’s asses and skulls are
smaller than hippos.”
 Ohio:
 Prickly fruit
 Smells like skunk
 Palmately compound leaves
 stout twigs
 Northern, wooded areas
 yellow:
 Smooth fruit
 Palmately compound leaves
 Southern
 Mesic
Osage-orange
 Maclura pomifera
 Native to Texas & Arkansas
 Moraceae
 Planted to fence in cattle
 “Osage-orange has massive




pompoms and I want more!”
Alternate leaves
In the same family as
mulberry
Shiny, simple leaf
Ovate, entire leaves




because it has thorns
Found in waste area
Shade intolerant
Great wood
Has male and female parts
Poison Ivy
 Toxicodendron (Rhus)
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
 Crawls on wet ground
radicans
 Understory
Anacardiaceae
 Shade tolerant
“Poison ivy is a toxic
 Alternate
dendron. It’s so radical an
anacardiaceae wouldn’t touch
it!”
Has fruits dispersed by birds
3 leaves beware
Climbs
American Beech
 Fagus grandifolia
 Branches come off the trunk
 Fagaceae
 Often has hollows
 “American beech has grand
 Pointy, long buds





foliage.”
Veins lead to a point
Parallel veins
Smooth leaf surface
paper-like leaf
Smooth bark
 A bit serrate
 Very shade tolerant
 Does well in coves
 Not typically in a stand
American Elm
 Ulmus americana
 Ulmaceae
 Doubly serrate
 Parallel veination
 Gets a disease that kills it
 Simple leaf
 Oblique based leaves
 Large
 Shaped like a feather duster
 Found in disturbed areas
Slippery Elm
 Ulmus rubra
 Simple leaf
 Ulmaceae
 Oblique based leaves
 Likes to have its roots in
 Large





water
 Shaped like a feather duster
In ditches
Has a mucilage layer that is
soothing for sore throats
Doubly serrate
Parallel veination
Gets a disease that kills it
Chinquapin Oak
 Quercus muehlenbergii
 No hairs
 Fagaceae
 Found in Eastern deciduous
 In white oak group
 Alternate

 Likes basic soils derived from 
limestone

 Indented margins
 Simple leaves
 Gray-plated bark
forest and savannas
Small acorns that deer love
Used for floors
Does well with fire
Pawpaw
 Asimina triloba
 In a tropical family
 Annonaceae
 Makes clones, but needs a
tree outside the clones to
mate with in order to
He stays anonymous.”
produce fruit
 Tropical looking
 Likes wet areas
 Naked, flexible buds on the
 Understory tree
end
 Ohio’s native fruit
 Makes a fruit
 “Asimo’s paws are trilobed.
 Smells like green peppers
Sugar Maple
 Acer saccharum
 Found in cove forest
 Aceraceae
 Shady areas
 Shade tolerant
 Prominent in herb layer
 Entire leaf margins
 “taking over”
 Lobed
 Maple syrup
 The bud is pointy and
chocolate brown
 Smooth bark
 Canadian flag
Yellow (tulip) Poplar
 Liriodendron tulipifera
 Magnoliaceae
 “Hey, Larry, tulips are related to magnolias.”
 White between bark lines
 Common in cove forests
 Very tall, strait
 No lower branches
 Spoon-shaped buds
 Loves to take over fields
 Good wood, but not for fancy things
Flowering Dogwood
 Cornus florida
 Alligator bark
 Cornaceae
 Branches sweep up
 “Dogwood comes from
 Tear the leaf and white




Florida where the corn
grows.”
Opposite phyllotaxy
Simple, entire leaves
Veins bend toward the tip
Dogwood anthracnose killed
most of them
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
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cotton stuff comes out
Forest understory
Waste places
Shade tolerant
ornamental
American holly
 Ilex opaca
 Dispersed by berries
 Aquifoliaceae
 On a ridge
 “For Christmas I got Lex,
 short





aqua alpaca gloves.”
Alternate leaves
White wood
Extremely shade tolerant
Ornamental
Found in bad, dry, sandy soils
Ash sp.
 Fraxinus sp.
 Used ornamentally
 Oleaceae
 Grafted ornamentally
 “When you ax an ash tree
 White ash used for baseball




that’s all you see.”
Opposite phyllotaxy
Pinnately compound
Bark has diamond shapes
Several types:
 White ash found on land
 Green ash found in water
bats
 Mixed cove forests
 Intermediate to shade
tolerant
Bitternut hickory
 Carya cordiformis
 Cove species
 Juglandaceae
 Intermediate to shade
 “Bitternuts smell like caryon.
tolerant
 Not useful wood
 Pecans are in the same family




Of course it forms in the
jungle.”
Alternate phyllotaxy
7-9 leaflets
Sulfur yellow, valvate buds
Has a terminal leaflet with
no stalk on it
Black Locust
 Robinia pseudo-acacia
 Nitrogen fixer
 Fabaceae
 Bean fruits
 Alternate leaves
 Old fields
 Pinnately compound
 Die young 50-70 yrs old
 Closely related to honey locust  Weedy
 Has thorns paired at leaf scars  Decay resistant wood
 Egg-shaped leaves
 Fence posts
 Shade intolerant
 Grey bark with ridges
 Found along edges
 Leaves turn brown from a bug
 Early successional species
Box Elder
 Acer negundo
 Waste places
 Aceraceae
 Riparian zones
 Opposite leaves
 Wind dispersal
 Compound leaf
 Short-lived
 3 leaflets
 Grows fast
 Gently serrate
 R-selected
 Green stems
 Shade intolerant
 Samaras
 Looks like poison ivy
 Weedy plant
Black Cherry
 Prunus serotina
 Rosaceae

 “The cherries shout, ‘Prune 
us, Serotina.’The cherries
match the roses.”
 Alternate leaves
 Charcoal bark
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

 Burnt potato chips
 Simple leaves
 Reddish-brown hairs on

midrib
Reddish fall color
Waste places
Dispersal by birds
Used for cabinets and gun
stocks—fancy things
Intermediate to shade
tolerant
Likes gaps
Hackberry
 Celtis occidentalis
 Looks like an elm
 Ulmaceae
 Has nipple galls
 2-ranked leaves
 Indicator of limestone soils
 Oblique margins
 Shade intolerant to
 Serrate
intermediate
 edges
 Warty bark
 Tough- doesn’t get diseases
 Berries
 Bird dispersal
Bur oak
 Quercus macrocarpa
 Savanna tree
 Fagaceae
 Shade tolerant
 Variable leaf shape
 Crenate at top
 Lobed below
 Corky twigs– fire resistant
 Fast growning
 Lives long
 Likes limestone soils
Red oak
 Qeurcus rubra
 Needs fire
 Fagaceae
 ornamental
 Red oak group
 Has tricombs
 Fast growth
 Shallow lobes
 Cove forest
 Acorns
 Used for floors and cabinets
White oak
 Quercus alba
 Fagaceae
 Very bumpy and warty





acorns
Life forever
White oak group
Deeply lobed
No tricombs
Lighter Grey-ish bark
 Loose bark
 Good for bats
 Alternate
 Simple leaves
 Red in fall
Grape
 Vitis sp.
 Variable looking
 Vitaceae
 Climbs into canopy
 Climbs and crawls
 All European vines are
 Not parasitic because doesn’t
penetrate
 “support” parasite
 Not a problem unless it pulls
down a tree
 Teeth on leaves
 Sort of lobed
grafted on American vines
Hop hornbeam
 Ostrya virginiana
 Grows on ridge tops
 Betulaceae
 Drier areas
 Closely related to carpinus
 Green bud with brown
stripes
 Doubly serrate
 Leaf surface a little fuzzy
 Peely bark
 Looks like cat scratching
Ironwood/Musclewood
 Carpinus caroliniana
 Veins don’t all end in a tooth
 Betulaceae
like beech
 Understory tree found along
waterways
 Cove forest
 Simple leaf
 Doubly serrate
 Smooth to glossy
 Buds are brown with white
speckles
 Ridged/furrowed wood
 Smooth bark
Sycamore
 Platanus occidentalis
 Toilet paper
 Platanaceae
 Fast decaying
 Simple leaves
 Good habitat for animals
 White bark
 Grows very fast
 Had buds under the leaves
 Dispersed by little flying and
floating seeds in balls
 Grown for rough lumber
Basswood
 Tilia sp.
 Tiliaceae
 Simple leaves
 Cordate
 Buds look like a piggy back
 Oblique based leaves
 Moist cove forest with cucumber magnolia
 Distinct fruit
Chestnut
 Castaneae sp.
 Appalachian coves and ridges
 Fagaceae
 Decay resistant
 Alternate
 Beautiful wood
 Leaf is similar to chinquapin
oak
 Killed by fungus that still
lives on oaks
 Very fast growing
 Grew in pure stands
Serviceberry
 Amelanchier sp.
 White flowers
 Rosaceae
 Makes a little apple/pon?
 Alternate leaves
 Sandy ridge tops
 Flowers in spring
 Understory
 Named because people used 
to always bury the dead in 
the spring when the soil
thawed, which was when the 
serviceberry bloomed.

 Simple leaves w/ small teeth 
 Look like cherry leaves

Shade tolerant
Acidic soils
Pine-oak habitat
Ornamental
Smooth bark with lines
Long buds
Eastern white pine
 Pinus strobus
 Pinaceae
 5 needles in fascicle
 Branches come out in whirls
 Can count each whirl to
estimate the age
 Native
 Grow fast
 Can get huge
 Europeans loved them
because they were great for
ship masts
 Which made North America
very desirable
 The person who owned the
wood was powerful
Blackgum
 Nyssa sylvatica
 Dry, sandy ridges
 Nyssaceae
 Both understory and canopy
 Alternate waxy leaves
 Occasional tree
 Branches stick strait out
 Bark looks like dogwood
 Its like a cartoon tree with a
straight trunk with simple
leaves
 Acidic soils
Hawthorn
 Crataegus sp.
 Ornamental
 Rosaceae
 Found along streams or on a
 Horrible thorns
 Acer-like foliage
 Variable leaves
 Serrate margins
 Shiny
 Lots of little twigs
 Occasional tree
hillside, but not in thickets
Eastern hemlock
 Tsuga canadensis
 Pinaceae

 Dying from a pathogen,

which is disastrous because it 
creates many microsystems
 Beneath it, the soil is more
acidic from the needles
 Creates shade
 Found where the cool, moist,
air drains off an Appalachian


mountain
Tiny, papery cones
Short, 2-ranked needles
2 white lines on back of
needles
Planted ornamentally next to
buildings
Huge tree
River Birch
 Betula nigra
 Betulaceae
 Simple, alternate leaves
 Hairs on underside
 Peely, paper bark
 Droopy branches
 Native to Ohio
 Flood plains and river banks
 Ornamental
 Shade intolerant
Yellowwood
 Cladastris kentuckea
 Fabaceae
 Alternate
 Pinnately compound
 The twigs connects smoothly to the rachis
 Cup on the leaf covers the bud
 Native
 Grows along the limestone cliffs of KY rivers
 Very occasional
 ornamental
Fir
 Abies sp.
 Pinaceae
 Flat needles
 Base of needles looks like suction cups
 Smells like orange
 Boreal forest
Red maple
 Acer rubrum
 Aceraceae
 Serrate margins
 Three lobes
 Large range
 Successional in Appalachia
 Samara fruit
 Old
 Popular ornamental
 Bad structure like callery
pear
Black oak
 Quercus velutina
 Really orange below the
 Fagaceae
 Scaley caps on acorns
 Very small acorns
 Scales stick up
 Leaf similar to red oak, but
fuzzy
 Blocky bark
 Fuzzy leaves




surface
Found in drier sites than red
oak
Doesn’t prune off its lower
branches
Likes sandy, acidic soils
Leaves are deeply lobed at
top
Multiflora rose
 Rosa multiflora
 Has terrible thorns
 Rosaceae
 Spray it to kill it
 Invasive
 Problem in Dayton
 Origin is unknown
 Has rose hips (fruit)
 Red berry thing
 Dispersed by birds
 Makes thickets
Blackberry/ Raspberry
 Rubus sp.
grows a new plant
 Compound leaves
Glaucous---whitened or
waxy on the underside and  3-5 leaflets
stem
 Some put shoots
Shrub
underground
Thorny
Grows in marginal habitats,
old fields, forest
Part of old-field succession
 Rosaceae





 Swoops to the ground and
Amur Honeysuckle
 Lonicera maackii
 Suppresses natives
 Caprifoliaceae
 Can suppress the growth of
 Opposite, egg-shaped leaves
canopy trees
 Allelopathic
 Berries in groups of fours
 Bird dispersed
 Robins and starlings
 Simple leaves
 Fast growing
 Monoculture
Autumn Olive
 Elaeagnus umbellata
 Elaeagnaceae
 Looks like the underside was spray-painted silver
 From Russia
 Shrub
 Bird dispersed
 Fast growing
 Found in open areas
 Farms or farm reclaimed sites
Blue Ash
 Fraxinus quadrangulata
 Most resilient to EAB
 Oleaceae
 Found in dry, limestone
 Opposite leaves
savanna settings
 People used to make blue dye
from the bark
 Pinnately compound
 Stems are angled (4)
 Not diamond bark
 Doesn’t compete well
 Has samaras– wind dispersed
 Intermediate shade tolerance
Sumac
 Rhus sp.
 Birds and butterflies love it
 Anacardiaceae
 Animal dispersal
 Alternate leaves
 Clonal growth
 Pinnately compound
 Stout twigs
 Grows in clumps
 Weird fruiting structure
(looks like coral)
 Found in open-disturbed
habitats
Kentucky Coffeetree
 Gymnocladus dioica
 Dispersed by ground sloths
 Fabaceae
 Doesn’t grow in stands
 Doubly pinnately compound  Limestone soils
 Flaky bark with orange color
 Occasional tree
 Found in woodlots, habitat
margins
 Not useful wood
 Male and female trees