The Red Oak tree (Quercus rubra)

In today's post, I'm going to talk about the red oak, or more specifically the northern red oak.  There is also a southern red oak, which is commonly known as Spanish oak.  However, we're focusing on Quercus rubra, which is sometimes referred to as Champion Oak.  We certainly think that it's a champ.  Northern red oak is one of more than six hundred different oak species found around the world.

Red oak is more widely distributed throughout the central-eastern and northeastern US than it is in Canada, although it can be found quite easily throughout eastern Canada, southern Quebec, and southern Ontario.  Incidentally, the red oak is the provincial tree of Prince Edward Island!  It is also the state tree of New Jersey.  Here's a range map for Quercus rubra, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The red oak is a deciduous (broadleaf) hardwood species.  It has a very dense wood.  In fact, it is denser than ash, chestnut, birch, mahogany, and walnut!  While this makes it a desirable species for firewood, it's also the most commonly used hardwood in North America for woodworking and similar uses.  You can find red oak in flooring, cabinets, pallets, coffins, railway ties, plywood, wine barrels, and many other applications.

"Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow."  You've probably heard that phrase before.  It first appeared in print in 1841 in a book called, "The Philosophical Emperor, A Political Experiment." (A.B. Johnson).  But how large do they really grow?  Well, that depends on the company that they keep.  In a forest, a mature oak will often grow to 30 meters in height (almost 100 feet), with a trunk diameter at breast height of up to one meter (three feet).  However, some oak trees grow out in the open, whether it is by chance (in nature) or by design (planted).  Oak trees that grow in the open adapt to the higher impact of winds.  These individual trees will develop deeper roots than red oak in forests, and don't put on as much height.  Finally, they'll often develop much thicker trunks to keep themselves from blowing over, sometimes approaching 2 meters (6 feet) in diameter!

The seeds of the oak tree have a unique name, acorns.  I tried to find out where that word came from.  I found different suggestions.  Some sources say that the name comes from the word "akran" in the Gothic language (an east Germanic language).  Other sources say that the name comes from the word "aecern," which means berry or fruit in Old English.  Perhaps it came from both languages, as some languages borrowed from each other thanks to the influence of travelers.

Acorns are very healthy to eat, although consumption by modern humans is uncommon.  However, within the animal kingdom, acorns are a staple to many squirrels, mice, and other rodents.  They're consumed in large quantities by bears, wild pigs, and deer.  Many birds will eat them, especially jays, ducks, and woodpeckers.  Acorns are rich in proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.  Unfortunately, the tannins found in acorns make them taste quite bitter to humans, which is why they aren't a popular food for us.  Red oak acorns are especially bitter compared to acorns from other oak species, so it probably isn't worth your while to go foraging.  If you do decide to try them for a snack, do some extensive research first.  They should never be eaten raw.  To cook them, you'll first have to learn to blanch out the tannins, which can be quite unhealthy.  Also, a significant percentage of people are allergic to tree nuts, so eating acorns could be quite dangerous and lead to anaphylactic shock.  Proceed with great caution!  Acorns (and oak leaves) are also very unhealthy for horses.

Here is a photo of some acorns that we picked a few weeks ago:

Acorns are pretty.  And quite recognizable.  The leaves of the oak are also very recognizable, thanks to the large serrations on their edges.  Here's a photo:

Oak leaves are different than the leaves of most other deciduous species, because some of them typically cling to the tree long after leaves of most other hardwoods have dropped.  Nobody is entirely certain why this happens, but not too many species exhibit this behaviour.  Trees that keep many of their old leaves through the winter are called marcescent species.

As far as deciduous trees grow, northern red oak grows fairly quickly.  Even in the northern extent of its range (in Canada), the tree can grow to be as much as 5m high (16 feet) in just ten years.  Red oak trees can have a very long life span.  If they aren't disturbed by humans, insects, or wildfire, these trees can often live to be more than 300 years old.

Here are some fun facts about red oak trees:

- Acorns take two years to mature before they fall from the tree.  This isn't the case with all species of oaks, but it applies to red oak.  Also, some individual oak trees will produce hundreds of thousands of acorns in their lifetime!

- These trees are easy to grow, once you find acorns.  The general method is to pick the acorns in the fall, keep them chilled (but not frozen) over winter, then to plant them in moist soil in the spring.  Some people plant them indoors in small pots first (keeping the soil quite moist) and then transplant them outdoors once the seedlings have become established.  There are lots of web sites that give more detailed recommendations.

- Red oak trees, like most humans, prefer sunshine.  If you're going to grow them, you should plant them in the open rather than underneath an existing forest canopy.

- Oak trees first became a distinct species about 65 million trees ago.  This means that they are much older than humans, and they started to appear about the same time that the dinosaurs died off.

Here is a photo of some of our red oak seedlings:

Thanks for reading!
- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca

Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

 

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Mountain Ash tree (Sorbus americana)

The mountain ash tree is a very bright and noticeable tree at certain times of the year.  In terms of carbon capture, it's not a particularly useful tree, but it has other values.  It's colourful and attractive, but even more importantly, it's a great tree to provide food for a lot of birds and animals.  The proper Latin name for the mountain ash tree that we plant is the Sorbus americana.  Some people refer to the mountain ash as the rowan tree.  In Newfoundland, you may hear it referred to as dogberry.

When planting trees for commercial reasons, most people plant conifers such as pine or spruce.  When targeting carbon capture, species such as the eastern white pine, red spruce, and eastern hemlock are species that eventually grow to large volumes and which can live for a few centuries.  These trees are great choices in eastern Canada, but also have equally beneficial counterparts in western Canada.

However, when targeting the creation of a community forest, other attributes can be beneficial.  It's smart to include a number of hardwoods, such as birches, maples, oaks, elms, chestnuts, and other common Canadian species.  However, none of these are berry producers.  The mountain ash, on the other hand, produces very abundant berry crops.

Here's a photo of a mountain ash tree, heavy with berries:

You probably recognize this tree now.  It is common to see these trees in parks and in urban environments throughout eastern Canada and the northeastern seaboard of the United States.  Here's a range map from Wikipedia:

These trees, as noted, don't grow to be very large.  A mountain ash typically only reaches about 10-12 meters in height (35-40 feet) and the trunk usually only grows to be about 25-30 centimeters wide at maturity (10-12 inches).  However, what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in colour and value for wildlife.

Many birds and animals are attracted to this tree.  Moose and deer are very attracted to this tree.  They enjoy eating the leaves and twigs.  Smaller mammals such as rabbits, fishers, martins, and squirrels are also attracted to the tree.  Incidentally, completely unrelated to this, I saw a fisher a few weeks ago when I was out looking at a reforestation project.  It's nice to see them in the wild.

Birds love the mountain ash for its berries.  It's a great source of food for grouse, jays, and many types of songbirds.  The berries also stay on the tree quite late through winter, which helps keep many birds alive during cold weather.

In terms of human consumption, mountain ash berries don't have a lot of value.  This doesn't mean that you can't eat them.  I probably ate them as a child, and probably got stomach aches from them.  This is because fresh berries contain parasorbic acid, although this acid breaks down quickly if the berries are dried or cooked.  However, people do use them for certain types of food.  They're somewhat tart, but can be made into marmalades, jams, and even mixed with mead.  If making them into a jam, it may help to mix them with sweeter fruits such as apples.  And of course, it is quite easy to make liqueur or tea out of mountain ash berries, although I've never tried either.

Here's a close-up photo of the berries.

  

Due to the lack of value for carbon capture, we don't plant any mountain ash in our carbon capture plantations.  However, we do plant small numbers (1-2% of total trees) in some of our parks and community forest projects.

Here are a few fun facts about the mountain ash:

1.  The mountain ash is not a true ash tree.  Real ash trees are in the family Fraxinus, whereas the Sorbus family are the rose family.  Incidentally, many of the real ash trees across Canada are dying due to the emerald ash borer, but that's a story for another post.

2.  A few hundred years ago, pioneer doctors used mountain ash berries as an anti-malarial medicine.  There is no evidence that this had any success.

3.  After a few frosts, the berries tend to ferment.  This is enough to intoxicate birds.  So if you see a bunch of rowdy drunken birds, you know what might be to blame!

Here's a link to a CBC article about birds eating fermented berries:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/birds-drunk-fermented-fruit-1.4892283

Finally, here is a photo of some of our mountain ash seedlings:

Thanks for reading!

- Jonathan Clark

www.replant-environmental.ca

Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

 

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The White Birch Tree (Betula papyrifera)

Last week we looked at the yellow birch. This week, we'll look at another birch tree which is more well-known: the paper birch. Unlike the yellow birch, the paper birch grows well almost everywhere in Canada, and due to its white bark, it is something of an iconic tree. The white bark is obviously the reason why this species is perhaps more commonly referred to as white birch. In some areas, it is also called "canoe birch."

Let's start with a photo of a semi-mature tree, so we can get a good look at the bark. If you go back to our yellow birch post, you'll see that the colour difference is fairly obvious on your computer screen, but you may not find this to be the case in the field.  Sometimes, a yellow birch will appear to be a lot more pale in colour, or a "white" birch might appear slightly creamy-coloured, which can really confuse observers.  A better way to improve your identification skills is to look carefully at the composition of the bark, and the way that it flakes or peels off the trunk.  Strips of paper birch bark are generally thicker than that of yellow birch bark.  Even more telling is the outward appearance.  While the yellow birch flakes in many small curls, paper birch usually peels off in much larger sections.  In some instances, on mature trees, you might almost be able to peel off a piece that is about the size of a piece of photocopy paper.  There is almost universal agreement that the paper birch is a very "pretty" tree.

Despite the very white bark on mature and semi-mature trees, the bark of juvenile paper birch trees is actually quite red!  This is the case from the time that the tree is just a germinant or whip until the diameter of the truck is thicker than an inch or two.  Here's a photo.  Take a close look at the tiny white marks all over the red bark, which help clarify that these trees are paper birch:

Unfortunately, the paper birch is not as healthy as the yellow birch.  A mature paper birch may only live about half as long as a yellow birch, as most only survive for about a hundred years.  Incidentally, paper birch trees that live in colder climates tend to live longer than specimens in the southern part of their range.  On a positive note, a single birch tree can release more than a MILLION tiny seeds (samara) in a season, so one mature tree can help generate a huge number of eventual successors.

Paper birch supposedly grows to be slightly smaller than yellow birch at maturity, but we've found that the two species are quite similar.  We have a number of mature birch of both species on some of the properties that we manage, and many of the paper birch trees are around twenty meters (seventy feet) high, with a DBH (diameter at breast height) of about 60 cm (two feet).  This is similar to the size of mature yellow birch in this region.

Here's a range map of the paper birch, courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

Fun fact:  The paper birch is the provincial tree of Saskatchewan.  It's also the state tree of New Hampshire.

Let's get back to examining the paper birch in more detail.  Have you ever walked through the woods and found a rotten piece of paper birch on the ground, and discovered that while the bark is still intact, the wood inside has completely rotted away?  This happens fairly often.  This is because the bark of the paper birch has a very high oil content, and is very waterproof.  This helps ensure that it is more resistant to rot than the wood in the core of the tree.

Paper birch trees are "monoecious."  This means that an individual tree has both male and female flowers, called catkins.  The catkins tend to develop in May or June.  Female catkins are greenish, and are smaller than the brownish male catkins.  By early fall, the seeds have matured and begin to fall.  Seeds continue to fall throughout the winter.  Most people wouldn't be able to describe a birch seed when asked, because they are fairly tiny and not at all obvious to someone taking a walk through the woods.  However, next time that you're walking through a stand of birch trees with snow on the ground, take a close look at see if you see a lot of small brown specs on the surface of the snow.  These may be birch seeds!

To see a good illustration showing how small birch seeds are, check out this short YouTube video from someone who is demonstrating how to grow silver birch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zcyYRqe9-g

Ok, it's time for some more fun facts about paper birch!

1.  If you're planting both paper birch and black walnut on the same property, don't plant them close to each other!  The roots of the black walnut secrete a chemical (juglone) which is very toxic to paper birch trees.

2.  Although paper birch bark is a staple food for moose, it is full of lignin which is hard to digest.  For this reason, moose need to eat many other types of plants in combination with the birch.  Incidentally, deer also love to eat the bark of the paper birch, especially once the snow cover gets deep and ground forage is hard to get to.

3.  The leaves of the paper birch often appear in pairs.  They have toothed edges which are called margins.

Birch trees are an important part of the mix of hardwoods that we plant on the properties that we manage.  We have to think about carbon sequestration and longevity, so we tend to plant a greater number of yellow birch than paper birch.  However, paper birch are very attractive so it would be a failure not to include them.  As a forest reaches a steady state maturity, with old trees being gradually replaced by young trees, a mix of yellow and white birch is beneficial.  Having said that, paper birch is more of a pioneer species than yellow birch, which means that it thrives better than yellow birch in openly disturbed forests with lots of exposure to sunlight.  In the long term, we feel that yellow birch (a shade-tolerant successional species) has a bit of an advantage over paper birch for a mature forest with lots of shade.  Here's a photo of some of our white birch seedlings:

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Yellow Birch tree (Betula alleghaniensis)

The Yellow Birch tree is also known in many areas as Golden Birch.  Our Quebecois readers will certainly be quite familiar with this species, as it is the provincial tree of Quebec.  In that province, it is sometimes referred to as the merisier.

The yellow birch tree has long been sought as an important tree in North America's lumber industry.  Traditionally, its wood has been used for everything from flooring and furniture and veneer to doors, cabinets, and even toothpicks.  If you go to a lumber store and buy birch, chances are high that it is yellow birch that you're getting.  The wood of the yellow birch can be polished quite well, and also looks good when stain is applied.  The colour of the wood is not consistent though.  It can sometimes be quite white, but some trees tend to be very dark yellowish.  The name though comes from the golden yellowish colour of the bark as the tree starts to mature.  For the kings and queens of old, gold symbolized the crown.  That seems appropriate, since the yellow birch is the most regal of the birches.

Within Canada, yellow birch is only found naturally in the eastern half of the country.  It's a very common hardwood in Quebec and the Maritime provinces, and down through the eastern seaboard of the US.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Although yellow birch is not known for being a tree that likes to live in swamps, I've found in the past that I tend to discover more yellow birch in wetter areas and slopes than in flat open areas, whereas I see more paper birch in those drier areas.

Yellow birch will eventually grow to be the largest birch species in North America.  They can grow to be more than 25m tall (80 feet) and almost a meter (three feet) in diameter, although mature trees are more likely to be a bit narrower than that.  Yellow birch trees can live to be more than two hundred years old if left undisturbed.

The seeds of the yellow birch are interesting.  The tree produces significant amounts of seed some years, and minor amounts in other years.  The yellow birch has catkins which are the tree's flowers.  Each tree is "monoecious" which means that it produces both male and female flowers on the same tree.  The male catkins hang down from the ends of branches, and are usually a couple inches long.  The female catkins are only half this size, and grow upright beside the leaves.  When the tiny seeds are released in the autumn, they don't tend to establish when they sit on top of a layer of leaf litter.  However, if they land in an area with more moisture, they are more likely to germinate (especially in moss or in cracks of logs and rocks).  Yellow birch also grows from seed quite easily in nurseries.

Yellow birch can be distinguished from paper birch fairly easily by looking at the bark.  In addition to differences in the colour, the yellow birch peels off in very fine, small, curly strips compared to paper birch.  Many of these peelings are less than a centimeter wide.

Historically, the yellow birch had many uses beyond lumber.  In addition to being used to make tea, yellow birch can be used to make a syrup, much like maple syrup.  Although it is usually quite a bit more expensive than the more traditional maple syrup, you should be able to find it in a lot of Canadian grocery stores.  You can find books on Amazon that describe the science of tapping and distilling birch syrup, although this information is usually included as side notes in books about making maple syrup.  Birch syrup needs to be distilled more, thus a smaller volume of the end product is produced than from the same volume of maple sap.  

Birch syrup and maple syrup have very different tastes to them.  This isn't surprising when you dig deeper.  Maple syrup is mostly composed of sucrose, whereas the sugars in birch syrup are mostly fructose with a bit of glucose.  Birch syrup is much darker and stronger than maple syrup, and arguably quite a bit healthier for you.  Some people compare the taste of birch syrup with that of molasses, depending on how it is made.  Due to this, many people prefer the taste of maple syrup.  For some, birch syrup is an acquired taste.  There's a good article about birch syrup at this link:

https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2015/04/weighing-the-pros/

Aside from its use as a hardwood for lumber, for firewood, or for the production of birch syrup, here are a few fun facts about the yellow birch:

1.  A decoction of birch (boiling out a liqueur from the plant) can be used as a sleep aid.

2.  When turned into an essential oil, yellow birch is often used as an anti-inflammatory to relieve joint or muscle pain (applied externally), and is also used as a massage oil.

3.  Yellow birch is used as a source of "Oil of Wintergreen" which is used as a flavoring and/or active ingredient in various medicines.

At Replant.ca Environmental, we include yellow birch trees in some of our species mixes in eastern Canada.  We typically source them from the Scott & Stewart forest nursery in Nova Scotia.  The yellow birch is a fast growing hardwood, and as you'll have learned by now, it's a great species to include in our Canadian forests.  Here is a photo of some of our yellow birch seedlings:

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

 

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Norway Spruce tree (Picea abies)

The Norway spruce is also known as the European spruce.  The Latin name for this tree is Picea abies.  You may wonder why I'm talking about this species despite the fact that it is not originally native to North America.  I'll explain that shortly.

First, let's cover a few basics.  Norway spruce is typically native to northern, central, and eastern Europe.  It doesn't like warm temperatures, so it's not common in southern Europe (although pockets do exist).  It is very closely related to the Siberian spruce, which is found commonly east of the Urals.

Norway spruce has become a relatively common tree in North America, despite not being a native species.  Globally, this species is one of the most widely planted of all trees, both inside and outside its native range.  Norway spruce is planted frequently within the cooler northern parts of the United States, and through eastern Canada.  It is so prevalent that there are now naturalized populations from the Great Lakes to parts of the northeastern seaboard.  It fits quite well into parts of Canada's temperate forest, and even grows well in parts of the southeastern boreal forest (at least where the climate is suitable).

Norway spruce is a very large conifer, often growing to heights of more than 40 meters, and diameters of more than a meter.  More importantly, it is very fast-growing compared to most other spruce species, especially for the first twenty-five years.  Typically, when you see mixed species plantations, you'll notice that pine trees grow very quickly (because they love sunlight) and spruce trees lag behind quite significantly, but the spruce trees slowly start to catch up after a few decades.  Norway spruce narrows that gap significantly.  Here's a photo of a semi-mature tree:

You'll notice that this particular urban tree looks quite symmetrical and full.  It has a nice shape to it.  Norway spruce has high commercial value, and not just for pulp and lumber.  It's also a very popular tree for the cultivation of Christmas trees, and used for this purpose all over the world.  Oslo (the capital of Norway) donates a large Norway spruce Christmas tree to the cities of London, Edinborough, and Washington DC each year, as thanks for the aid that the US and UK gave to Norway during World War II.  Norway spruce are also commonly used as ornamental trees in parks and gardens in many parts of the world (as long as the climate is suitable).

The needles of the Norway spruce are four-sided (quadrangular).  This means that if you take a needle and try to "roll" it between your thumb and finger, it rolls quite easily.  In contract, the needles for some species don't do this.  Balsam fir, as an example, is a three-sided needle but it's a very shallow profile (almost two-sided), so balsam fir needles won't roll easily between your fingers.  The needles of the Norway spruce have quite blunt tips.  Here's a photo of some lush foilage.

The seed cones of the Norway spruce are record-setting among the various spruce species for having the longest length.  Some full-sized cones can be almost twenty centimeters (eight inches) long.  These cones start out being either reddish or greenish in colour, but about half a year after they are pollinated, they mature to a rich brown colour.

Here are a few fun facts about the Norway spruce:

1.  This species is so fast-growing that in some areas, it grows to reach the appropriate size for Christmas trees in as little as four years.

2.  This is another species which is especially suitable for making beer (the brew is made from young branches with the richest needles).

3.  There is a Norway spruce tree in Sweden which has been nicknamed Old Tjikko.  This tree, which grew as a clone from a root system, has been dated as being 9,550 years old.  It is the oldest known individual living tree of any species (some trembling aspen clusters are much older).


Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!



Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Tamarack tree (Larix laricina)

In this post, I'm going to take a close look at a tree with many names, but which most Canadians refer to as the Tamarack.  The Latin name for this species is Larix laricina, but in addition to being called the tamarack in common usage, it's also referred to as eastern larch, black larch, red larch, hackmatack, or American larch.  In this case, "American" is a reference to North American, not to the United States.  In the northern dialect of the Eastern James Bay Cree, it is called the waachinaakin.

Here's a photo of a young tamarack tree:

The tamarack is a fairly unique tree among the conifers.  I'm excited to explain that in a minute, but first we should quickly look at the range.  If you look at our recent post about black spruce trees, you'll see that the range maps of these two species overlap almost perfectly.  The black spruce has a slightly larger range, but they are very similar overall.  And that means that it's pretty easy to find tamarack through most parts of Canada.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

I already referred to the tamarack as being fairly unique among conifers.  To explain why, I have to review some definitions.  A conifer is a tree that is cone-bearing.  Most people equate conifers with evergreens.  Evergreen is a slang term for a tree that stays green throughout the entire year.  Most conifers do retain their leaves (needles) through the winter, so yes, most conifers are also evergreens.

Do you know what a deciduous tree is?  Most people assume that any broad-leaf tree is a deciduous tree.  However, that's not quite correct.  Broad-leaf is a slang term for any type of leaf that is broad.  No surprises there.  Most people say that all trees have either [broad] leaves or needles.  Is there any advantage for a tree in having needles?  Well, needles are more waterproof and more wind-proof than broad leaves.

Anyway, let's get back to the point.  The true definition of a deciduous tree is one that sheds its needles annually.  In cold regions such as Canada, most broad-leafed trees shed their needles every year, so the terms are somewhat synonymous.  But here's where the tamarack bends the rules.  The tamarack is a needle-bearing tree, but it drops its needles every year, then grows a new set in the spring.  Therefore, the tamarack is both coniferous (cone-bearing) and deciduous (shedding leaves annually).  It is therefore known as a deciduous conifer.  The tamarack and the western larch are the only two common deciduous conifers found in Canada.

When the tamarack is about to lose its needles in the fall, they turn a beautiful golden-yellow colour, making these trees very easy to spot in some areas.  Here's are two photos that I took in October, where you can very easily identify the brightly coloured tamarack:

 

If you'd like to learn more about deciduous conifers, check out this article:
https://www.thespruce.com/what-are-deciduous-conifers-3269799

Now that we've covered the most exciting thing about the tamarack, let's get back to basics with a list of common characteristics:
- Extremely tolerant of cold.  Temperatures of -70^oC don't bother this species.
- Maximum height usually not much more than 15 meters (50 feet).
- Maximum diameter usually not much more than half a meter (a foot and a half).
- The average lifespan of a mature tree is around 150 years.
- Needles occur in large groups of up to 20 needles per cluster.
- Often found in wet swampy or boggy conditions, growing alongside black spruce.
- Strangely enough, tamarack is also a good pioneer species in fresh burns, at least until it gets overtaken by other species.

Here's a close-up of the needles and cones:

Even when green, tamarack has a very sparse look to it.  It provides very little shade compared to most trees, which allows a thick undergrowth of mosses and shrubs to thrive underneath the tree.  Speaking of shade, tamarack itself is a very shade intolerant tree.  If you plant it underneath other trees, or even under competing shrubs or vegetation, the mortality rate is quite high.  This is a pioneer species, and in the long term, is usually succeeded first by black spruce, and then by other species.

Tamarack wood is quite flexible.  Native Americans often used this species for making snowshoes.  It isn't a major commercial species, although it's very resistant to rot from moisture (just like cedar), so it is a good option for fence poles and similar applications.  My dad was a land surveyor, and he mentioned that tamarack is a good choice if you need to leave a pole in the ground for some time.

Fun facts:

1.  This is quite unrelated to the tamarack, but you'll notice that I've been throwing around the words "swamp" and "bog" fairly interchangeably.  Actually, there is a difference.  There are four distinct types of wetlands:  swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens.  But I'll save that for another blog post.  I only bring that up because tamaracks thrive near or even in various types of wetlands.

2.  The tamarack is Canada's most northerly tree, found as far north as the 72nd degree of latitude.  That's quite far north of the Arctic Circle (which is at approximately 66.5 degrees north latitude).  Therefore, tamarack trees can grow in the land of White Nights.

 3.  The Ojibwa used tamarack roots as a "thread" to sew together pieces of birch bark when making canoes, due to rot resistance and flexibility.

Here's a photo of a tamarack with its needles dropped during the winter.  Despite appearances, this is a healthy tree!  It's not a great photo, with the grey sky in the background, but if we get a day with deep blue sky I'll try to upgrade the photo:

And here is a photo of some of our tamarack seedlings:

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!



Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Norway Pine tree (Pinus resinosa)

I'd like to share some information about the Norway Pine tree.  The Latin name for this tree is Pinus resinosa, and it is also very commonly known throughout northeastern North America as the Red pine.  Red pine is probably a better name for common use.  The inner bark of the red pine is very reddish in colour, so it's an appropriate name.  In the field, I usually refer to this tree as the red pine rather than Norway pine.  Most people do.

Speaking of the bark of the tree, here's a photo.  It's quite scaly.  The bark often has more of a grey appearance in weathered trees, but if you peel away the surface bark you'll quickly see the reddish tint underneath.  The reddish bark is also easier to discern in juvenile trees.  Here's a photo showing the bark and trunk of a red pine up close:

The Norway pine is a very majestic tree at maturity.  It can often grow to be more than 30 meters (100 feet) in height and more than a meter in diameter.  Even more impressive, this is a fairly long-lived species, sometimes living for up to five hundred years.

Norway pine has a range which is limited to northeastern North America.  It is commonly found in southern Ontario, Quebec, and through the Maritime provinces.  It is also found in pockets in Newfoundland, and as far west within Canada as southern Manitoba.  It is also common around the Great Lakes and in northeastern parts of the US.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Let's go back to the proper name of this tree.  Nobody really seems to be sure why the pine was named after Norway.  It doesn't seem to have any relation to that country.  There's a small town in Maine called Norway, and that town has a lot of red pine around it.  But Norway (Maine) didn't get its name until it was incorporated in 1797, and the original intention was to call it Norage, which was a Native American name for waterfalls.  There doesn't seem to be any information online to hint at when Norway pine started to be called as such, but if it pre-dates the founding of the town of Norway, then it certainly can't be named after the town.  Incidentally, Norway (Maine) was once very famous as the alleged "snowshoe capital of the world."  Red pine was used in the manufacture of snowshoes.  That still doesn't explain the name properly.  I like to pretend that there was once a famous giant lumberjack from Norway with a bushy red beard, and the tree was named after this lumberjack.  But that's unlikely.  It would be a good story though, if it was true.

The Norway pine is a conifer.  Conifers are cone-bearing trees.  The cones of the Norway pine are ovoid in shape, which means that they're egg-shaped.  They're also fairly close in size to regular [chicken] eggs that you'd find at a grocery store, ie. about 5-6cm long when they're still closed.

The needles of the Norway pine are a dark yellow-green, and always come in pairs.  Needles on pine trees always come in pairs, triplets, or groups of five, but the number depends upon the species.  These needles can be fairly long, usually about 15cm or so, and like many other long-needled pines, the needles can be fairly brittle.  Here's a close-up photo of the needles and some opened cones on a Norway pine:

This species is not shade-tolerant.  It wants open ground and a lot of sunlight to grow successfully.  Despite wanting sunshine, it also likes cool summers and cold winters, which is why it thrives in Canada but not in the southern States.  If climate change causes temperatures to rise in the future, we may see that Norway pine becomes almost entirely a Canadian tree.  Like most other pines, this species prefers well-drained sandy or loamy soils, rather than clay.

Unfortunately, the Norway pine is susceptible to a fairly large range of insect pests, including pine beetles, pine gall weevil, pine needle miner, tussock moth, and sawflies.  However, these problems are much worse in warm climates, and don't have as significant an impact on the population in Canada.

Here are three fun facts about the Norway pine:
1.  This species was planted in large quantities during very early tree planting programs in the United States.  During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corp planted millions of these trees.
2.  The Norway pine is the State Tree of Minnesota.  In fact, Minnesota is probably the only area where people usually refer to this species as Norway pine instead of red pine.
3.  This species was historically a favoured tree for the construction of log cabins, due to its very straight and clean trunks.

At Replant.ca Environmental, Norway pine is just one of a large number of species that we use on some of our projects!

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Black Spruce tree (Picea mariana)

Today's post is about a species which rarely gets any love.  It's the swamp-loving black spruce (Latin name Picea mariana).  Here's a typical photo, which I took from a helicopter in northern Alberta (the majority of these trees are black spruce):

Oddly enough, the black spruce doesn't have any other common names (except in French), regardless of where you find it across Canada.  And you WILL find black spruce all across Canada.  Its geographic range is much more diverse than even the Jack pine.  Black spruce can be found in all ten provinces and all three Arctic territories.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

It's quite easy to find specimens of black spruce.  Just look for a swamp.  Black spruce thrives in wet areas, even when the water is quite stagnant.  Remember that all spruce trees love water, but most varieties prefer flowing, oxygenated water.

Black spruce has roots that are especially shallow and wide-spreading.  This allows it to thrive in areas which are too wet for competing species.  Trees, like many other creatures, can drown.  Shallow roots help ensure that the black spruce does well in swamps.  Trees need water, but they also need oxygen.  Flood their root systems, and they will eventually die.  Some trees can only tolerate root submersion for as little a week or so before they start to die.  The black spruce can survive for more than a month.  Regardless, their shallow roots make it less likely that they won't have any access to oxygen for extended periods.  Unfortunately, it also makes this species susceptible to blowdown in windstorms.

If you take a close look at black spruce trees near bogs and swamps, you'll see that the closer you get to water, the less vigorous the growth.

Spruce trees rarely grow to be large trees.  It is quite common for mature black spruce trees to be no more than 15m in height, although they can occasionally grow to 25m in really good conditions.  However, you're more likely to see them in the 10m to 15m range.  The trunk rarely grows to more than 50cm in diameter (a foot and a half) for a large tree.  On a positive note, black spruce usually have very straight trunks, without a significant taper until the very top of the tree.

The top of the black spruce is interesting.  The crown is narrow and pointed, and the small branches all droop, yet the tips are turned upward.  Unlike the tips, the cones hang downward.  Here's an excellent photo from Wikimedia Commons:

One of the more interesting things that many people learn about the black spruce is their long-term fire ecology behaviour.  Black spruce trees often live in peat bogs, as well as swamps.  Despite the moist ground, black spruce stands are especially susceptible to wildfires.  If you're puzzled about this, it's important to know that monocultures (especially conifers) are often especially susceptible to wildfires, while mixed-wood forests with lots of species such as aspen will be less susceptible.  Since black spruce is so much more tolerant of swampy/boggy conditions than most other trees (except for larch/tamarack), it tends to grow frequently in pure stands.  These pure stands are susceptible to fire, despite the wet ground.

Black spruce stands tend to burn frequently, but they also regenerate quickly immediately after a fire (just like lodgepole pine).  Therefore, a lot of black spruce stands tend to be very even-aged.  Over time (centuries), swampy areas with black spruce will often slowly become filled in by organics, and the surface of the ground will become elevated and drier.  As this happens, there will be ingress from moderately moisture-tolerant species such as tamarack, white cedar, white spruce, balsam fir, and eventually balsam poplar and trembling aspen.  Don't judge black spruce as an ugly swamp tree with no significant value.  In the long term, it's an important precursor to more diverse mature mixed-wood forests.


I'll leave you with three random facts about the black spruce:
- This is the provincial tree of Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Like red spruce, it is good for making spruce beer.
- Disposable chopsticks are often made of black spruce (or trembling aspen).

That's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed reading this, and it made you appreciate this species a bit more.  We don't plant very much black spruce at Replant.ca Environmental, simply because it's not great for long-term carbon capture, but it does occupy a small percentage of our annual seedling mixes due to its suitability (along with cedar and tamarack) in swampy ground.  Here's a photo of some of our black spruce seedlings:

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca


Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.