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How to Know the Trees in Winter: November: Mockernut

Hickory: You know the tree from which you got the delicious nuts, the big Shellbark -- one hundred feet high, maybe -- with its trunk as straight as an arrow, but do you know the others, the Swamp, Mockernut, and Pignut, for instance? Swamp prefers the banks of streams and swamps but is found in crowds on poor, dry, gravelly soil in parts of Alabama and Mississippi. Is as tall and handsome as the Shellbark and its bark is as rough but doesn't scale off, and its nuts -- well, try one and you'll see why it is also known as the Bitternut. So with the Mockernut and the Pignut Hickories, but all three, as well as the Shellbark, are fine trees from a lumber standpoint. Mockernut bark is light to dark gray, roughened by irregular furrows; Pignut, dark to brownish gray, resembling that of the White Ash but without the diamond pattern. Mockernut prefers rich uplands, but will grow in sandy soil. Maximum height, one hundred feet. Pignut prefers dry ridges and hillsides; height, fifty to sixty feet. The bark of none of these Hickories shells off as does the Shellbark.

The Pecan is a Hickory, and I don't need to say a word about how good its nuts are. A native of the fertile lowlands of the lower Mississippi Valley, where it sometimes reaches a height of over 150 feet and a diameter of 6. Has been extensively planted as far north as Iowa and Indiana for the nuts which it produces abundantly, but is of little value for lumber. Grows best on rich, moist soil, and is recommended for the farmer's wood-lot, particularly along streams where we won't be growing anything else (if we're farmers), and for wet places. The bark is light brown, tinged with red. Hornbeam: Grows along streams and swamps, if it's the species known as the Blue Beech (on account of its bluish-gray bark), and varies from a shrub to a small tree. The Hop-Hornbeam is a slender little citizen that only grows about fifty feet high, on dry, gravelly slopes and ridges, often in the shade of Oaks, Maples, and other large trees, but oh, how tough! You can tell it in winter by its interlacing twigs, like little wires, sticking out almost at right angles from the slender branches; also by certain little round things hanging at the ends of the twigs, like baby sausages, all ready for the camp-fire! They are there all ready for warming up, but they're not sausages. Have a guess and then look in the "Wood Scout" notes at the end of the May chapter and see if you are right. The bark, unlike that of its blue-coated brother, peels off in little scales.

Horse-Chestnut. (See Chestnut, although it isn't a Chestnut!) Linden: Pillar-like trunk reaches a height of 70 to 130 feet, with branches that keep dividing and subdividing into spray-like twigs, often drooping a little at the ends, forming a broad, rounded head. Bark, light brown, furrowed, and scaly. A native of rich woods. If you don't identify and Lindens this winter, the bees will point them out in the spring. Maple: No other tree is so common nor so widely popular as the Maple. Some of the most interesting varieties are: Sugar Maple, Silver Maple, Red Maple, and Striped Maple.

Sugar Maple grows best on well-drained, rich soil; sometimes over one hundred feet high and four feet in diameter. Bark, grayish brown. When in the open its crown is almost a pure oval. In the forest it frequently rises seventy feet without a branch. In old age its limbs are often gnarled. Silver Maple, one of the largest and most common of river trees throughout the Mississippi Valley, rare along the Atlantic coast. Reaches ninety to one hundred feet. Trunk soon divides into three or four limbs, forming a wide-spreading head with drooping branches. Bark, greenish to reddish brown on twigs, dark gray on trunk.

Red Maple loves the borders of streams and swamps; eighty to one hundred feet in height, with upright branches forming a narrow head. Bark, dark gray on trunk, reddish, with white dots, on twigs.

Striped Maple ranges in size from a scrub to thirty or forty feet. Short trunk, slender, upright branches. Bark, reddish brown and streaked with long white lines. Branchlets, pale greenish yellow, later reddish brown, and striped like the trunk. It is also often found stripped; that is, without any bark at all! Mr. Moose has a sweet tooth, and the bark and branchlets are his favorite winter food; hence another name for this slender, delicate little beauty of the dense forests is Moosewood. It likes moist soil, mountains, and shade.

Ash-Leaved Maple. This tree is so widely known as the Box-Elder and its leaves are so unmaple-like that many people don't know it's as Maple at all! Yet its pretty keys at once unlock the secret; and, what's more, maturing late in the summer, they often hang all winter! Attains fifty to seventy feet along stream banks and swamps. Trunk often divides near ground into a number of stout, wide-spreading branches. Bark, smooth and purplish green on twigs, grayish brown and furrowed on trunk.

Norway Maple. A handsome foreigner widely planted as a street tree. Of sturdy build, sixty feet high when full grown, and with a broad, round head. Trunk bark, black and fissured; branchlets at first green, later reddish brown and shiny.

Sycamore Maple. Many consider this the most beautiful of European Maples. In its native land it thinks nothing of 100 feet, and sometimes climbs to 120, but, so far, its has proven neither large nor long-lived in this country. Brown, scaly bark.