Transcript Plants_of_Pittsurgh

Notice some of these trees aren’t there anymore.
Trees of
Pittsburgh
Blue Spruce
• Sharp needles
• Xmas tree
• Is the national Christmas
tree in D.C.
Arborvitae
• Thuja occidentalis, De’Groot’s
Spiral
• Can be trimmed into a hedge
• Probably 1st tree taken back
to europe by U.S. explorers
• Made into a tea that saved a
French crew from scurvy
because of its high vit. C.
• Oil can treat HPV or warts
• Popular with homeopathic
crowd
Beech
• Wildlife like it
• Beech = A. Saxon derivation,
synonomous with book.
– Early tablets and carvings made
from beech
More on Beech
• Beech bark disease is a major killer
• Important to Timber industry. heavy,
hard, tough and strong wood difficult
to cut without a chainsaw
• Chips of beech used in making
Budweiser to recreate wood barrel
aging taste
• The tree where “Daniel Boon kilt a
bar” was carved with a late 1700’s
date
Dwarf
American
Beech
American chestnut
• Indians ate the nuts
– Ground into flour
– Pressed oils
– Shingles & poles
– Treated whooping cough
– Boiled bark to tan leather
• Once King of the forest
– ¼ of the trees in the east
American Chestnut
• Chinese Chestnut
brought Chestnut
blight that’s made
American variety
nearly extinct.
– A bark fungus
• European, Chinese,
and Japanese
varieties now
dominate
Chinese Chestnut
• Organizations are
trying to cross breed
this inferior species
with the American
Chestnut to make a
line of trees resistant
to the chestnut blight
• Blight pictured
‘Merican vs. Chinese Chestnut
• Ulmus Americana
• AKA white elm
American Elm
• Resists splitting so use it in wheels, seats,
coffins
Dutch elm Disease
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1 in 100,000 might be resistant
Efficient killer
Taken out most American elms
Started in Europe after WW I,
Dutch scientists I.D.ed it.
• Strands of trees survive in
places like central park,
independence square, or
Phipp’s Conservatory because
there’s no other elms around.
Zelkova
• Used as a sub. For
elm
• Popular downtown
Hophornbeam
• An “iron wood”
– Any really hard wood
• Genus Ostrya (bone like)
• Like hornbeam
– Good for mallet handles
• Smaller tree
– Wildlife value
– Songbirds, W.T. deer, grouse
Hornbeam
• AKA Musclewood
• Relatively short so
good for making small
hard tools
Sweetgum
• AKA redgum, alligator
wood, blistered alligator
wood, liquidambar
• It does make a sweet
smelling resin used in
gum
– Also medicines
• Since the dinosaurs went
extinct until about 2 m.y.a.
this was all over the place,
but the world’s too cold
now. And lots of species
are extinct
Black gum
• AKA black tupelo,
pepperidge, sourgum,
and on Martha’s
Vineyard, beetlebung
• Tupelo is from two cree
words meaning tree of
the swamp
– Other tree’s called this too.
• A honey plant
• Pretty tree
• Rare in Pittsburgh, Found
in Allegheny commons
near Aviary
Not related, but the Japanese have a
minty high caf. Gum called black black
Sycamore
• AKA Planetree,
buttonwood
• Largest of N. American
hardwoods
• Some were big enough
to keep a cow inside
the tree trunk
• Mottled exfoliating
trunk
Sycamores
• Ones we see are
genus plantanus
• They are very tall
• buttonwood
agreement was the
formation of the NY
stock exchange,
signed under a
sycamore.
• In the bible they talk
about sycamore’s that
are a species of fig
tree.
American Yellowwood
• Cladrastis kentukea or
Kentucky yellowwood
• Inner wood is yellow
hence name
• Sophie Masloff
planted a small
yellowwood in Mellon
Park.
• also found in Point
State Park.
Amur Corktree
• Ornamental & Oriental
• Invasive, but not a problem
here. Yet.
• Not thick enough for
commercial cork
development
• In Highland Park you can
find these just off
Reservoir Drive between
the Super Playground and
the reservoirs.
• One of 50 herbs used in
traditional chinese
medicine
–Medicinal applications of
the oil include treatment of
pancreatitis, reduction of
cholesterol and sugar in
blood and the treatment of
various skin diseases.
Maple
• Group of ~ 125 species
– Most from asia
– Genus Acer = sharp (like leaves)
• Popular for landscaping
– Bonsai too
• Look good in the fall
• Syrup
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Canada made 7 million gallons in 2005
Vermon made 410,000 gallons in 2005
~ 10 gal per tree
Important sugar source during civil war
when south cut off sugar cane supplies
Example of leaf variation among
various cultivars of Japanese Maple
• A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been
selected and given a unique name because it
has desirable characteristics (decorative or
useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar
plants of the same species.
• Cultivated + Variety
Box elder
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Acer negundo or maple ash
Classifed with maples.
Lives short and fast
Along rivers
All kinds of other names
– Manitoba Maple, Ash Maple, Ash-leaf
Maple, Black Ash, Boxelder Maple,
California Boxelder, Cutleaf Maple, Cutleaved Maple, Inland Boxelder, Negundo
Maple, Red River Maple, Stinking Ash,
Sugar Ash, Three-leaved Maple, and
Western Boxelder.
Pine
• ~115 species
• Fast growing
softwoods
• spiral growth of
branches, needles
and cone scales are
arranged in Fibonacci
number ratios
• U.N. HQ fits this
Another way of visualizing the
fibonacci sequence
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Fibonacci numbers also appear in the
description of the reproduction of a population
of imaginary bees,
The rules:
If an egg is laid by an unmated female, it
hatches a male.
If, however, an egg was fertilized by a male, it
hatches a female.
Thus, a male bee will always have one parent,
and a female bee will have two.
If one traces the ancestry of this male bee (1
bee), he has 1 female parent (1 bee). This
female had 2 parents, a male and a female (2
bees). The female had two parents, a male
and a female, and the male had one female (3
bees). Those two females each had two
parents, and the male had one (5 bees). This
sequence of numbers of parents is the
Fibonacci sequence.
Shown on next slide
• Douglas fir, Jack
Pine, Lodgepole
Pine, and Pacific
Silver Fir.
Western Red
Cedar make
telephone poles.
• Coated with
creosote to keep
ivy off
• Pine resin is made into
turpentine
– Organic solvent
– Mixing paints and
making varnishes
• Turpentine gets us
Rosin
– Increases friction
– Bows, pitcher’s hands,
bull rider rope, rock
climbing
– Ingredient in soldering
Survival
• Cambium high in vit.
A&C
• Young green cones:
edible
• “Strunt” Swedish
name for pine needle
tea
Austrian Pine
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AKA Black Pine
Fast growing
Good for blocking wind
Infected with a tip blight disease in the
burgh
• Can be 500 y.o.
• Another good street tree,
– it’s salt & pollution resistant.
White pine
• Used for ship masts
• Iroquois called it the great
tree of peace
• Needle have 5x’s vit. C as
lemons
Bald Cypress
• Rot resistant
• “wood eternal”
• Good for making
docks, warehouses,
boats, or bridges
• Usually found farther
south, likes wet
areas.
• State tree of LA
symbol of swamps
Basswood
• “Linden” or “beetree”
– Name derived from “bast”
inner wood
– “Lime” in U.K.
• Bee’s love em
– Get good honey from flowers
– Famous Sicilian honey of
Hybla from this
• Light soft wood: good for
yardsticks, models, furniture
More Basswood
• Teas& perfumes, from
flowers, popular with
herbalists,
– Relieves restlessness
• Soft wood used for
making low-end
electric guitar bodies
– Agathis is another tree
for this
• Ainu people of
Hokkaido make
traditional garb from it
• Can live ~ 900 years
Basswood
• Carolus Linneaus, great
scientist named for Linden
• Important culturally around
eastern Europe
– Lipa in slovak & polish
– Croatian currency named for it
– Andrei Rublev, Russian
Iconographer worked on
Limewood
– Most famous street in Berlin is
called Unter den Linden
Rublev’s Trinity in Moscow
Unter den Linden Festival of Lights
Basswood and
Germany
• Most famous street in
Berlin is called Unter
den Linden 
• Sacred to Frejya, wife
of Odin, goddes of love
•Hence legend Basswood can’t be
struck by lightning
•Tree of peace planted in town squares.
-Place of justice
•With christians Frejya became “Mother
of God” so it’s also associated with St.
Mary
- Protects against Witchcraft/Satan
Frej was the 5th most
popular name for
Danish Girls
Bitternut Hickory
• Most common hickory
• Settlers used oil from
inedible nuts to fuel
lamps, treat
rheumatism
• Related to Pecan
• Wood for smoking
meat
• Indians made bows
Smoking food
• In Europe
– Alderwood is traditional
– Oak dominates now
– Beech to a lesser extent
• U.S.
– Hickory, Mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple,
and fruit trees,
– Some ham’s are smoked over corn cobs
• Barley Malt smoked with Peat moss
makes Scotch Whiskey and some beers
Black Birch
• Bitula Lenta
• AKA Sweetbirch,
Cherry Birch,
Mahogany birch, River
birch, Spice Birch,
birch birch
– Could get wintergreen
flavor from young trees
• Ferment sap into birch
beer
• Found near Schenley
golf course
Black Cherry
• AKA Choke, Cabinet,
Whiskey, Wild Black
or, Wild Cherry
• Products: Cabinets &
Furniture, Cough
syrup, wine, jellys,
and pies.
• We grow some of the
best Cherry in the
country
Black Cherry
• Pioneer species
– Likes to grow into old
fields
– Problem cause leaves
release cyanide which
could kill cattle
• Short lifespan, weak
branches break easily
in storms
Black Locust
• Native
• Useful in erosion control
– Helps reclaim land after strip mining
• Another honey plant
• In the legume family it has nitrogen
fixing bacteria
• Rot resistant, Lincoln made fence
posts from it.
• Great firewood, slow burning, little
smoke, almost = anthracite
• Jesuits thought this was a tree that
supported St. John in the wilderness
• Wildlife like sweet
pods
– Good for goats
– Not toxic like the black
locust
• Invading Australia
– Mconnel’s curse
honey locust
Oaks
• Couple hundred species
– Deciduous and evergreen
– Make acorns
• Good for cooking, flour
– Oak galls: ingredient in 
manuscript ink
– Japanese oak: Yamaha drums
• Rough, hard surface of oak gives the
drum a brighter and louder tone
compared to traditional drum
materials such as maple and birch.
Culture & Oaks
• Symbol of strength, endurance
• National tree of UK, Fr., Ger, &
the U.S.
• 723: St. Boniface cut down
Thor’s oak to show German’s
Christianities superiority.
• Joshua (Moses Apprentice)
had a covenant with the lord
going at a stone under an oak
Culture & Oaks
• Symbol of Zeus
• In Celtic mythology it’s
the tree of doors, a
gateway between worlds
• leaves symbolize rank in
the forces
– gold leaf = Major or Lt.
Commander
– silver leaf = Lt. Colonel or
Commander
Not native but interesting
• Cork oak
– Used to make wine stoppers
• Aging barrels
– As liquor ages some liquid is lost to
evaporation
– O2 comes in through barrel
– Wines take on vanillin and tannins from
barrels
• Factors: U.S. or European oak, age of wood,
cut of wood, dryness of wood, what forest,
• Cut corners: Soak in oak chips
• Barrel maker = cooper
Rock oaks vs.
Swamp oaks
• Chestnut
• Called Rock oak
– Lives high on ridges
– High tannin bark used in tanning
• Pin oak
– Called swamp oak
– Popular tree, easy to transplant.
• Both look similar. Best way to tell
the dif. is where they’re living.
English Oak
• Pedunculate oak
– It’s stalks bear 1 flower
• Survives coppicing
– Cutting young
growths, and letting a
tree regrow.Pictured
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• One in Lithuania is
1,500 y.o. oldest tree
in Europe
Coppicing
Bur Oak
• Blue Oak, Mossycup
• Biggest acorns
• Trunks can get to 9
feet across
• Masting
Charter oak
White oak clusters
"Mighty oaks from little
acorns grow."
• Late 1600’s
• James II was a jerk
and appointed
Edmond Andros(pic
below) to take back
the charters of the
colonies
• When he got to
Connecticut they hid
the charter in the
Charter oak
Eastern Hemlock
• AKA Canadian, or
hemlock spruce
• Our state tree
• Needles, once an
ingredient in Root
Beer
• Can grow big
– In Cook forest one
named the
Seneca is 145.4 ft.
Picture from Bear Run State park
Buckeyes/ Horse chestnut
• Intro’d by John
Bartram 1746
• Popular to plant
• Lots in Point Breeze
• Not a true chestnut
• Seed’s look like deer
(buck) eyes
• Toxic aesculin in buckeyes
destroys rbcs
– Unless you grind it, and boil it
again, and again
– Not tox. to deer & squirrels
– Aesculin is a natural pH
indicator which, when
extracted turns from
colourless to fluorescent blue
under UV light in an acidic pH
range.
• Across the pond in UK they
play a game called conkers
with buckeyes
Buckeyes
Dogwood
• State tree of virginia
• Fable
– Jesus was crucified on a cross made of
dogwood so he stunted and twisted the tree
so it couldn’t make crosses any more.
– The flower has four petals like a cross with
what looks like the rusty indent of a nail at
each end. Red stamen = crown of thorns, and
red pigment = blood
– Just a fable
Stupid Ginkos
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I hate them
They smell
“living fossil”
Buddhist monks
saved it from
extinction
• Best tree for urban
envi.
• Fruits smell but nuts
inside are pop. In Asia
Ginkos are Amazing
• 4 ginkos each about 1-2 km from the site
survived the Hiroshima bombing
• Temples rebuilt around them
• Still have scorch marks
One way to deal with smell
– Graft male plants onto other plants
– Males don’t make fruit
• Grafting
– Connect vascular cambium of two
plants
– Like SCUBA divers sharing
breathers
– Benefits
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Don’t have to regrow a whole trunk
Inc. Temp. tol.
Fruiting faster
Stronger, healthier
Grafting
• Make one plant with
potatoes below
ground, and tomatoes
above
• Laburnum + broom
plant two kinds of
blossoms
Kentucky Coffee tree
• grove of these found on edge of golf
course on East Circuit Drive between
Darlington Road and Serpentine Drive in
Schenley Park.
• Make a seed, when roasted can be a
coffee substitute.
“Every majestic oak tree was
once a nut who stood his
ground."
Goutweed/Ground
elder
• A.K.A. Bishop’s weed,
• A.K.A. Snow-in-themountain
• Not really an elder
• Carrot family
• Used for gout, arthritis
• From Europe
• Edible like spinach