But this year I have prepared another 3/4 acre and would like to add some trees that grow big as well as more shrubs. I have deer problems, but know how to discourage them, so deer proof is not de rigeur.

The land is sloping, floods a few time every summer, otherwise there is a small seasonal stream running alongside the land in question. The brook runs 9 months most years, every day running for the past 2 years.

The soil is clay. Clay heavy enough that I can cut bricks out of it and they will last for years sitting around. Grey dense clay with a skim of grass. The grass is some local species that grows dense, making a solid mat that can be peeled back like a carpet sometimes. Trees that need to dry need not apply.

Any candidates for such a site? Wet, clay, seasonal flooding. Prefer native to NAm. Of course any tree, alien, native or invasive that blooms all year, makes edible fruit, turns multi-color in the fall and sheds neither leaves nor branches will be considered.

Nyssa aquatica perhaps? I hear nyssa sylvatica and species acer rubrum are fairly water tolerant.

+oM

I'll link you to a nursery.

Dax

Toronado, I have Metasequoia along the edge at the top of this clay trough. Sits pretty high. Will look into the N. aquatica. With a name like that, it has to be wetland.
Looks like I need to add N. aquatica. One site I looked at mentioned a bunch of the trees I have down there. I forgot about the Quercus nigra and the Forestiera acuminata I planted a couple of years ago.

Salicaceae. I might try N. ogeche if I can find a cheap one. I forgot to add that I am in SCen PA, very close to the MD line. Not sure if the Nyssa would live, but I have Q. nigra, which is a bit out of its zone. The Musa basjoo also pushes the zone thing, and I'd love to try the fruit of the N. ogeche.
Why do you like your Swamp Cottonwood?

Tom, I have the trees you mention elsewhere on the property. Took 3" seedlings of Thuja from my sister's lawn some years ago. I also took Moosewood (A. pennsyl.), Betula papyrifera, and White Pine. I bought Corylus americana and others.
It was a stage when I wanted to recreate a bit of the Maine woods in PA. The Larix died ( it's called Pinette Rouge [Red Fir] in our dialect) , the Thuja is planted too close to a Pecan. But the Black Birch, White Birch and Sweet Birch all live. I even grew another Wh. Birch from seed and planted it near (too near) a White Pine. The Balsam Fir was planted about 10 ft from my White Spruce. Now the branches meet, something I thought would only happen when I was a doddering old man. Every time I look at that pair it reminds me of how stupid I am. Keeps me humble.

Scotute, I have a Hackberry near the Sycamore. It took a few years to take off, and I had lost the tag. One friend took a feel of those rough leaves and said the only thing it could be was Hackberry. This has been a very slow growing tree for me. The Bur Oak is interesting. I don't think it would grow on the patch in question, but I have been looking for something to plant near the other, permanent, stream. The soil there is a bit better, and the Q. macrocarpa would probably like it.

Greenthumbz, at this end of the Commonwealth, people would send the men with white coats if I planted Black Walnut or Acer negundo. Are they not a plague in Western Penn.? I have to be able to look my friends who grew up around here in the eye. Thanks for the suggestions though. I know I hadn't mentioned Black Walnut as being here, maybe I try to forget them. I did take some nuts to a friend in Machias, ME. I warned him in advance about what would happen if they grew. I suspect there are not enough heat units there to ripen the nuts. Sort of like growing a Juglans regia in Scotland.

Dax, several people mentioned Q. lyrata. When I looked it up it made me smile. Most descriptions mentioned "poorly drained clay soil". How could I not already have this tree! Definitely will go with that and the 2 Nyssas mentioned. One nice thing, when I look up all these wetland species mentioned, some site mention associated plants. Might try another Larix laricina too. Thanks for the link. That is exactly the kind of nursery I haunt. Small plants. Easy for an old lazy man to dig a hole.

Can I send you the clay I take out? Makes nice ashtrays, paper weights or defensive projectiles. You can't get it off your boot, it has to wear off.

If you can get a stand of corn in it, it need not rain the rest of the season and you'll get a crop. When the combine goes across, the tires push the water down the row, but the ground is so tight the machine hardly sinks. The corn was shelled last night, and I would guess about 120-130 bushels/ac because there was a big drowned spot on one edge. Some years when it doesn't rain and none of it drowns, it can make 150+. Not astounding for the Midwest, but pretty good corn around here.

Thanks for the responses all. The people who come after me thank you too.

+oM

Peat bogs also are peopled with solitary evergreen trees, but don't seem to have as many Fir, mostly Spruce. They stand human-like in the snow. Whatever the species, 50 yr. old trees are about 10 ft tall. No peat in the northern 1/3 of ME, but the Blueberry country (DownEast ME, north of Cherryfield) has enough peat that they burn it for biomass electricity. They also mow the woods like a lawn and feed that into a plant at Whitneyville, ME that generates electricity. Most of this biomass is Fir, but a fair amount is Spruce and Maple.

+oM

Dax