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 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.