OT: Favorite trees?

I have three favorites:

1. Sycamore. I have so many fond memories of climbing sycamores as a kid. They were very friendly to climbers. But I also love the color and habitat of the sycamore. Around here, they stay near waterways, so they're always cool and inviting in the summer.

2. Beech. I have yet to meet a tree with better looking bark. Plus, you can write messages on them. We have a tree on our property signed "B Rupe 1957".

3. Hedgeapple. Another tree that reminds me of my childhood. We called them "brain trees" because the fruit looked like an alien's brain. Now that I'm grown, I love them for their wood -- excellent for posts, and excellent for a hot fire in the fireplace.

What about you?

But around here on our place,I really enjoy the pin oaks and the blue spruce. I like the wild apple trees too. And in the fall, there's nothing prettier than the poplars when their leaves turn yellow.

We built our house in the middle of a hay field 33 years ago. No trees except in the hedge rows. Sine then, we've planted 62 trees, the last one just planted Monday. It's a hard maple that my mother-in-law started in a pot from a seed five years ago. We've been nurturing it and decided it was ready to plant. She died in 2003 and we feel it was a nice thing to do to honor her memory.

Phil

Glenn

Wild apple trees, my entire hillside is loaded with them, many are good for eating.

Pear Trees - have 2 that produced so many this year I could not possibly eat, give away or store the fruit.

All the indigenous pine variety's.

I am very selective about cutting trees down, sometimes it has to be done, but they just take so long to grow, the hill next to my house was part of a large field, let overgrown for probably 30 years, the cherry trees that have come up are unreal, there is a nice crop of logs here, for future reference, however, if one were to clear the brush, and leave the trees, it will be one beautiful hillside.

Shag Bark Hickory gets my vote too.

I like em all, always been fascinated by trees, have even climbed up 60 feet to make a crows nest deer stand, in an old cherry, like the view from there.

Ogden Nash

I have burned lots of Pine firewood. I wish it split easier and wasn't so messy and gave out more heat when it was burning, but since it is what I have had, I have used it. I found that the wood made from the large branches is pretty easy to deal with.

So I like Ponderosa Pines. I wish there was a market for the "pine straw" that comes off them, like there is in the South, since I have a bunch of it. They are pretty trees that will continue to be there, almost no matter what happens.

The Tree, by Wa-Sha-Quon-asin (Grey Owl). c1937.

Mahalo,
doogdoog

John

Live Oak (Western) - Cause they are evergreen

Water Oak - Just pretty trees, get huge, and I have some big ones in my back yard.

Pin Oak - Love the gracfull look.

Burr Oak - They get big and have big acorns.

Magnolia - Lots to love about this tree, flowers, huge green leaves, and evergreen.

Most interesting tree? Tickle Tounge, cut some bark and put it in your mouth and it makes your tounge go numb. Grows wild here.

Most hated? Hackberry

Not to mentiond all the cousins that "come to visit" just wehn the nuts are falling.

However, I gotta tell you folks, I don't see why anybody would have any use for a Hedge apple (Osage) tree. They grow like weeds here, the thorns are terrible for tires, cattle and people. If you try and cut one down, three grow up in its spot. If you have them pushed over with a dozer they are wider laying over than they were standing up, and there doesn't seem to be a single straight trunk or branch on them to use as posts. If anybody is interested in cutting down as many as they want just let me know, I'll set ya loose on my property. I cut one up a while back and left a piece of branch on the ground, about 5 inches in diameter and about3 feet long. Went to pick it up a few weeks later and it had rooted into the dirt. You can't kill them!

Am planting 500 of each next spring. Windbreaks and wildlife cover.

Least Favorites:
Eastern Red Cedar
Honey Locust
Pi$$ Elm