Yes, a tough question. I like a lot of the trees native to my area, for wildlife and environmental reasons. My favorite being large oaks (all types, but there are some big Chestnut oaks behind my work with wide spreading crowns that are really interesting), likewise large beech trees are AWESOME. An old beech (American or European) takes your breath away. There are some old old European beeches near me at Rugers U. with odd, twisted branches growing every which way (form 'tortuosa'), These are huge, massive specimens which look like nothing else, especially in winter.
My favorite "ornamental" tree which I planted at my home bya small patio is a Japanese Snowbell, Styrax japonica 'fargesii'. This particular clone is very upright. Reasons I like this plant is it is not seen everywhere, it has beautiful white flowers in late Spring, the foliage is clean, green, pest-resistant (unblemished), and holds late in the season. It is a great little tree.

Sycamore is probably my favorite because it's a good tree to use in places that are desperately in need of trees and shade the most.
Very easy to grow and transplant
very fast growing but...
has strong wood
Lives a long time
Not many serious diseases
A tree you can enjoy in your lifetime
A great tree for beginners
Native, non invasive
Drought tolerant
Ornamental appeal
Inexpensive
Useful wood and litter. Wildlife value.
Adaptable to just about any site

From a sandy oceanside site in Florida to the desert southwest. From the insanely humid and hot gulf coast to central park NYC. From a mountain retreat in the Poconos to a street planting in a charming northern NJ township. From The pacific northwest to a lakeside cabin in Georgia...
Sycamore has a zest for life and a yearning to provide. And that's why...
Sycamore truly is, America's tree!
No matter where you live in America, you can have a Sycamore.Well almost

i wonder,do you refer to the same sycamore we in britain are familiar with? (Acer pseudoplatanoides), the invasive big leaved 'weed' that does have its own charm when mature. I often come across them with lots of suckers and then every now and then i find one magnificent specimen with no suckers. there's a nice old one in the village where i live

Hi Greenlarry,

No, he's probably referring to Platanus occidentalis. Neither is of course the real Sycamore, which is a species of fig (Ficus sycomorus) native to southwest Asia and eastern Africa, and mentioned in the Bible.

Resin

By "sycamore" quirkyquercus is referring to London plane. It's a lousy tree actually. It resists city smog, so it gets to be peed on for years and years by city dogs. Its fruit-balls break up into fibrous achenes that unruly brats put down girls' blouses, making their necks itch ("itchy-balls"), and their big colorless leaves pile uo in drifts every fall, making walking past them treacherous. But they are good for climbing and some of my fond early memories are of peeking into windows from high in a planetree.

resin,thats new to me about the fig,and yet i see that species is mentioned in my new book.
pinetree30 i like london plane,its a very attractive tree in my mind tho there aren't many round here. i've never heard of the itchy ball trick before,and as for looking thru people's windows well... ;)

Hey pinetree30 you don't have to like my choice but don't come in here and start talkin smack about other peoples choices in an antagonistic way. I am talking about the native American sycamores and not London Planetree hybrid. There are other threads started on your least favorite tree. If you don't want to stay on topic and answer the question, find some AOL chatroom to talk about your childhood memories of itchy balls.

The problem you have is with the wrong tree in the wrong place.

Hey I never realised London Plane (Platanus acerifolia) was a hybrid but I just looked it up in my new book and it is indeed a cross between the oriental and american plane. All this time I thought it was true species!

I've got to believe that PeculiarOak is referring to Platanus occidentalis. What I'd like to know is what makes Ficus sycomorus the "real" Sycamore? Is this because it's mentioned in the bible, or is there something else that would make it so?

Pinus palustris is my favorite tree. This tree depends on fire for it's survival. Unfortunately it has become less common since fires are now suppressed. This is basically the tree that "built the south".

Of the oaks, Q.alba is my favorite. It has strong storm resistant wood, attractive bark, good fall color, and is long lived.

Hi Basic,

"What I'd like to know is what makes Ficus sycomorus the "real" Sycamore?"

Because it is the one originally so named, 1500 years before the others were given the same name by people confused as to the identity of the name

Resin

Resin,
My understanding is that in times past Platanus was knowingly used as a substitute for the Ficus sycomorus in religious plays portraying the story of Zacchaeus -- and through this association received its common name.

qq,
Not denigrating your fave, but to me, P.occidentalis is best viewed from about a half-mile away. That's as close as I want one to my house - I can enjoy its stark white silhouette in the winter sun without having to deal with all the negatives pinetree so aptly detailed for us.

Give me a bur oak, a white oak, a shagbark hickory, or even a pecan as my yard tree, but no sycamore, thank you kindly.
But, at least it ain't a sweetgum!!!

What is my favorite tree? I love this question. But I dont have any brief answer, so I will attempt a little essay on the subject.

First, having spent a lot of time in the redwoods and giant sequoia groves, I have to put these trees first. Which one would be the absolute first? That keeps changing. I wonÂt go into my reasons, which are probably obvious to anyone who knows anything about these trees. But I will say that as a boy of about 5 or 6 I became interested in trees because of the absolutely magnificent pictures of these trees in the original edition of Knowing Your Trees, by Collingwood. The original edition had some of the most wonderful tree pictures ever published, but many if not most of those have been dropped from subsequent editions, probably because of worn plates or something. The redwood and sequoia tree pictures have long been replaced, but I used to sit and look at those pictures and dream of really seeing the real trees, imagining how they soared into the sky. I still have my copy of the original edition and once in a while go back to look at the wonderful pictures.

As I started to grow up, my favorite that grew in my neighborhood was the tuliptree (yes, tuliptree--I donÂt accept the new names of yellow poplar and tulip poplar that are now being applied to this tree). We had some magnificent ones in my neighborhood--one was about 135 feet tall, double trunked with a total diameter of about 6 feet. There was a wonderful grove across a lake in a park near my hometown--tall, straight, with wonderfully balanced windswept tops. They were the nearest thing to a grove of redwoods that I could actually walk under. And those wonderful tulips!

Later I came to love the eastern white pine and sugar maple. With the pine it was the beautifully picturesque mature form, the large size, the fragrance, the indescribably beautiful foliage, and with sugar maple it was the beautiful fall foliage, long life, good form, and the wonderful syrup.

White oak--I quoted in another topic the opening sentence of the description in Collingwoods book: "Chief of all the oaks and outstanding among trees is the eastern white oak." Objectively speaking, I donÂt think anyone could exclude this tree from any argument about what is the finest hardwood tree in the world. Every aspect of the tree is outstanding, including its long life and general durability, form and size, quality of the foliage, etc.

One of my special favorites in my later years has been Norway spruce--I have written a lot about it elsewhere in this forum and in conifers, so I will not repeat myself.

Yes, I love "sycamores," both the hybrids and our American planetree. I have written some about this tree elsewhere here, so I wonÂt repeat all I said.

Another of my special favorites is Oriental spruce

Another is bald cypress

And larch, maybe first the Dunked hybrid.

But what is my favorite tree sometimes depends on where I am and what the surrounding trees are. Put me in a forest of nothing but oaks and then show me a sugar maple growing among them, all turned red and gold, and thatÂs my favorite. Put me in northern Arizona in groves of ponderosa pines and then show me a grove of aspen in mid September--wow!! Put me in a grove of young birch and ash trees and then put a giant old white oak in the middle, and I just might start to worship this tree. Put an eastern cottonwood out in the middle of some open field somewhere, and that is my favorite. And the American elm--put me back 50 years in a New England town with a street lined with the old fashioned towering vase shaped trees, and there can be no other tree in the world!

Ah yes, my favorite tree! Maybe it is the mythical tree of Igdrasil. Or the universe itself--yes, I believe when all the analysis of the cosmos is done we will find that it is one great tree. Yes, a tree of a form so grand, so wonderful, so completely overarching everything that we can perceive, that thus far we have been unable to grasp that it is truly and essentially a tree.

--Spruce

wow great essay there spruce,you should write professionally!
I must admit I've never seen a white oak but I'd like to now! Tuliptree,is that Liriodendron?

Greenlarry

Yes, Liriodendron.

Thanks for the compliment on my writing. Here in the forum I don't try to polish things or take too much care to write in any special way--this is pretty casual--but at times I try to write a nice sentence or two. I do have a confession to make--I spent my whole working life as a university composition and literature teacher. But I must admit I was probably a better composition teacher than a writer. I have an old draft of about 200 pages of a personal and reflective book about trees that I was never able to put together in a form that really satisfied me. Maybe at some point I will post a snippet or two here. Or by some miracle I will suddenly see some way to finish the thing.

--Spruce

Im going to google for white oak now,got me curious!

Greenlarry:

Well, I can add a little more. White oak can grow quite tall, up to 150 feet. And very large--there was one tree that grew near Leadmine, WV that was 12 feet in diameter 14 feet above the ground--much larger than the famous Wye Oak that recently was destroyed in a storm. They have been known to live over 900 years, similar to your Quercus robur. They grow in a very fine form, often with a kind of perfection that few trees achieve--excellent balance, good branching angles that resist breakage, and on good sites some trees develop the very high arching branching form that reminds people of the vaults of cathedrals. In the forest they can grow in a very beautiful and often perfectly graceful narrow form, but in the open they develop a massive, rugged form. They also have a "clean" branching habit that allows their overall form and structure to be fully appreciated. They produce good clear grained wood for furniture, although right now it is out of favor. They produce what I believe is the most rapid callous growth to close over old knots and wounds, etc. of any tree I know, which contributes to their long life. In the fall, in some climates and on some sites, they produce very wonderful autumn colors in the red part of the spectrum.

Well, just a little more that you might not find by doing a web search.

--Spruce

Good info Spruce! But I'm confused by my search as Google thrwew up 2 species called White Oak, Q.alba and Q.bicolor, the latter having white undersides to the leaves.

Spruceman,

Interesting info on White Oak's healing/sealing powers. The quickest wound seal I've seen was a young Black Cherry that had major buck rub damage. It seemed to seal the wound completely within a few short weeks, and now it's hard to even tell where the damage occurred. I wish I had taken weekly dated pics of this process--very interesting to see how a tree handles this type of trauma.

Greenlarry your been ignorant about
conifers.You've have probably only seen
plantations the are some 600 species
in the world.So don't tar them all with
the same brush.

One of my favorites. Can be identified from afar in the winter by silhouette easily. Love the bark.

Highest BTU per unit of wood for firewood.

Not many left here in wNY.

Greenlarry:

Q. alba. Here in the US we have two oak groups, the white oaks, of which there are a good number of species, and the red oaks, of which there are even more, I think. The so-called red oaks are native only to North America, I believe. Your Q robur is a white oak as are all other European oaks, or so I have read. Bicolor is a wonderful tree, as is Q. macrocarpa and two or three others in the white oak group. But Q alba clearly tops them all.

As for the fast-healing cherry--I don't believe that could have been a normal healing with callous tissue. I think what you observed was a situation where the bark was stripped off, except for a very thin layer of new bark cells that protected the cambium. I think it was that cambium which caused the rapid healing. In my forestry work I sometimes kill unwanted trees by stripping the bark. Occasionally when I remove the bark in spring, it leaves the cambium undisturbed and it re-grows the bark quickly and the tree heals itself almost immediately. I am now more careful to make sure I cut into the sapwood if I want to kill a tree.

What I observe with Q. alba is that after the wound has dried and the wood beneath it has died, the callous growth closes the wound quickly from all sides faster than other trees I have seen. But a large wound or cut branch of six inches or more may take six or eight years to close, but that is much faster than most trees.

One interesting feature of Q. alba, seen to a lesser degree in other white oaks, is that when a branch dies and remains on the tree without rotting (white oak wood is more resistant to rot than the wood of most trees) the callous growth grows out around the branch creating a kind of sleeve. Sometimes this can extend out for 6 inches or even more. And then when the branch stub finally rots of breaks away, that part covered by the callous growth remains as a permanent stub or knob, sometimes projecting out from the tree so that a special effect is created. Some old trees that started out growing in the open, and then which have had a forest grow up around them shading and causing these large lower branches to die, have a number of these overgrown branch stubs persisting as knobs. When these trees are very large, they have a kind of "pre-historic" feel about them.

--Spruce

Hi Spruce,

"Your Q robur is a white oak as are all other European oaks, or so I have read"

Not all other European (& Asian) oaks - several are in the separate section Cerris (e.g. Turkey Oak Q. cerris, Sawtooth Oak Q. acutissima, Kermes Oak Q. coccifera, etc.). These are ecologically similar to red oaks (including having 18 month acorn maturation and very bitter acorns), but are not very closely related to them.

Resin

Torreya-2006,

I'm not ignorant of conifers, what I meant was I dont like them in gardens, to me theyre not a good garden subject and theyre overplanted and grown as hedges, and often as not planted against a wall so half of it dies. And most people dont realise that once a conifer branch dies it doesnt come back so they end up with a dead tree and wonder why!

Now you take that conifer and put it in its ideal setting and let it grow and WOW what a magnificent thing it becomes!
Probably my favourite conifer of all is Larch, theres something magical about them, I dont know what it is!
And I love Yew, but not as a hedge, please! Let it be a tree!

Thanks Resin:

What about the American live oaks--are they in a separate class?

--Spruce

Hi Spruce,

"What about the American live oaks"

They are split between the white oaks and red oaks. Thus e.g. Q. virginiana and Q. fusiformis are white oaks, and Q. wislizenii and Q. agrifolia are red oaks.

A couple of species in California and a few in Mexico are in yet another group (sect. Protobalanus); of these, only Q. chrysolepis is well-known.

Resin

Why? Hmmm, #3, 6 & 7 mostly ;-)

but I could never pick ONE!

For sentimental reasons, the Amerian Elm. I grew up in a yard with 5 towering elms that covered most of the 1/3 acre lot with dappled shade. With some luck and some injected fungicide, all 5 have escaped Dutch Elm Disease and are still standing tall.

>What is you favorite tree and why?
>!. Because everyone else has them?

Yeesh, what an odd reason to want a tree.

Alex

hey pine,what are the characteristics of an oak that puts it in the Cerris group?

Hi Greenlarry - they have the female flowers with the styles elongated but not expanded at the apex, and acorns generally maturing in 18 months (one or two exceptions like Q. suber), and with the acorn cup scales elongated (this is the most obvious character). The species (about 15-20 of them) are confined to the Old World (Mediterranean region, east along the Himalaya to China and Japan); roughly half or two thirds of them are evergreen, the rest deciduous.

Quercus cerris - note the acorn cup scales
{{gwi:489802}}

Resin

thats ìnteresting pine,did you say turkey oak is in that group,as i believe that one has similar scales. BTW pine,did you get my email?

Hi Greenlarry - "did you say turkey oak is in that group" - yes, it is (Turkey Oak is Q. cerris)

Resin

hmmm, I wonder if the word Cerris refers to those scales. Lots of plants,and animals, have 'cera' or 'ceros' in the name referring to horns or spikes therein. I'm just interested in stuff like that.

Hi Greenlarry - 'cerris' derives from its name in several central and eastern European languages (e.g. German 'Zerr-eiche'; Bulgarian 'tser'; Czech 'cer', Italian 'cerro'). Which language it originated in, and what its full etymology is, I don't know.

Resin

Spruceman, Q. prinus (Chesnut oak) also heals very quickly. For ex, one early spring I removed an increasingly shaded 1' dia secondary trunk that emerged about 2' above the ground from a 100'+ one. The cut was healed completely over by the third season w/1" thick callous tissue -- could hardly believe it.

Another large double-trunked one near the house must've had another large tree cut down & grind against its side on both trunks when the house was built, stripping off the bark from ~25' to ground. When I moved in, it had covered the whole wound with 40+ sq ft of callous tissue in less than 10 yrs. A wound like that would've killed some other trees.

Old E. white oaks (& other oaks) do often have big "bumps" on their trunks that are calloused-over branch stubs.

I've noticed a few trees that have been bark stripped by kids and yet made a recovery! One was a Maple,possibly a Japanese Maple with green leaves.

There is another way for trees to heal trunk wounds caused by bark loss. Back about 1959 I did an experiment to test the efficacy of a liquid plastic claimed to keep exposed cambium moist so it could stay alive and produce new callus tissue. I removed bark in the spring or summer in 4-inch squares, on ponderosa pine, white fir, California black oak, and tanoak. Nothing happened with the conifers, they just covered the bare areas with pitch and formed callus along the lateral edges of the wounds. But the broadleaves formed little islets of callus at the ends of their wood rays. These enlarged over the months and often coalesced, effectively sealing the exposed surface with callus. The plastic treatment was no more effective than the untreated controls. I guess I am the discoverer of this phenomenon, as I've never seen it referred to in the research literature. Unfortunately I was re-assigned shortly afterwards and the work was never published.

I just happened upon this forum and am so glad I read this thread! I learned a lot about trees I don't know. Greenlarry, do you get snow where you live? If so, it might take care of the upward shooting Eucalyptus - ours has been broken by heavy snow a couple of times but still thrives.
Spruceman, I love your essay, I hope you get to publish the book some day.
My favourite - our native Arbutus menziesii - beautiful bark of many colours, graceful shape, red berries - i never get tired of admiring them. Happy New Year!

Hi novita, yes we do indeed get snow, though not near as much as we used to as kids. It ususally comes in January/February, then we know its winter as it gets real cold!

Pinetree 30:

I am not sure I understand what you are describing in your response about the healing experiment you did. In an earlier post I describe how when I strip bark to "gridle" trees to kill them, once in a while, but rarely, these grow back bark, very thin at first, almost immediately to heal the "wound." When this has happened it has been in spring, and I assumed that there was a thin layer of inner bark left that protected the cambium, and that is what allowed the tree to re-grow bark to cover the area. What you describe seems different, but I am not sure.

--Spruce

My favourite is usually the tree I'm looking at at the time but I'm particularly keen on seeing a few more of these 3 planted around the world;
Quercus ellipsoidalis hemelrijk
Prunus tai haku
Quercus dentata Carl Ferris Miller

I tend to go for deciduous trees that wildlife will enjoy but if I only had room for one tree it would be selected mainly for aesthetics.

I've never heard of 'Hemelrijk' and wasn't aware of any Q. ellipsoidalis cultivars. I'm not even sure you could find this one in the U.S. Hill's Oak is the most common Quercus where I live and I'd be curious to know what attributes this selection has over the species. Of course I'm partial to this tree, but I've never seen it listed on anyone's list of top trees. You just made my day. :)

I believe its of belgian origin basic - Hemelrijk arboretum is a major arboretum there. I discovered it through our preferred tree nursery (bluebell in Leicestershire England). I don't know what the species colours like but this is up there as the best autumn colour tree I've seen - think an enormous Acer palmatum osakazuki colourwise.

The Bluebell websites oak section has an ok-ish picture of this and the dentata form I think

My favorite trees are black locusts. Why--because they were the trees in our side and back yard growing up. Very very tall, with oval leaves, and gnarled grayish bark. They also flowered in the summer. They were really gorgeous.

I'd probably have to say that trees with exotic trunks, bark or flowers are the ones that I prefer. One tree that combines all of these attributes in one tree is Brazilian Floss Silk tree, Chorisia speciosa. I find the sculptural bright green trunks with heavy thorns, towering size and vivid orchid pink blooms in winter when the trees are almost leafless is something that appeals to me in winter. Another similar blooming subtropical tree is the entire Tabebuia genus, which has so many species that light up the forest when they bloom at the end of the dry season in places like the west coast of southern Mexico or Brazil. Tabebuia chrysotricha and T. impetiginosa are pretty magnificent even as ordinary street trees as seen around southern California.

But perhaps my most perfect tree is actually a palm, Cocos nucifera, which is the essence of the tropics, and looks as good as a young plant, or by the thousands lining tropical shores. Not only is it beautiful, but so supremely useful for food, water, building materials, and to string up a hammock and enjoy the shade and breeze off the ocean.

Favortie trees that are less tropical, would include those with such beautiful smooth bark as our native Madrone, Arbutus menziesii, or the much easier to grow hybrid, A. 'Marina', which is almost never without bloom or colorful fruit, and has such graceful, twisting and sinuous branching and lovely smooth deep cinnamon bark. Lemon Gum Eucalyptus, E. citriodora is also in this category, with the smooth peeling bark that reveals the powdery white trunks, the statuesque form and wonderfully fragrant citrusy foliage are not bad either.

If I had to only pick natives, there are so many here in California that have their own special charm. Valley Oaks, Quercus lobata can be so strongly dramatic in profile in winter, sentinels in the landscape and so provident for wildlife. Really old Coast Live Oaks, Quercus agrifolia can be just as dramatic as a Southern Live Oak for imparting atmosphere and a connection with the past. The California Buckeye, Aesculus californica is also wondrous in winter with its contorted smooth gray branches that contrast so well against both the green hillsides of spring, or the tawny golden hillsides of fall, and the way it is the first to leaf out, often as early as February, and the massively showy blooms later in May.

Coast Redwoods commingled with Douglas Firs, Madrones and Big Leaf Maples are also all beautiful in their own right, especially when viewed as a mountain backdrop in the coast hills, and are original growth. There are so many other California native forests and trees that have their own impressive beauty, such as the forests of Monterey Pines and Monterey Cypress on the Monterey Peninsula, or Ponderosa Pines up in the Sierras, with their massive trunks with fragrance of vanilla on a hot day, and such large distinctive cones.

Lastly, the Australian imports such as Eucalyptus viminalis and E. globulus have their own charm when seen as remnant windbreaks or boulevard plantings from the turn of the last century, and even more so when they catch the fog and drip it down to those below, effectively mining the clouds of their moisture. I wouldn't want one in my own garden, (for lack of space and unwillingness to have to keep up with the constantly shedding debris), but they are beautiful from a distance.

So many trees have their own particular charm, and it is a pity that there are not more mature urban plantings for everyone to really appreciate the beauty that trees can add to a landscape. I often feel fortunate to have grown up on the San Francisco peninsula, in the era that the grand estates with their vast plantings of exotic trees from around the world were still there, and being able to wander the hills as a boy with his dog, and take it all in.

Of the trees I know:

- Oaks of all sorts, not surprisingly. I am particularly fond of white and chestnut oak, since both are big, tough trees that can live for many years (300+ years is not uncommon at all). Scarlet Oak is another favorite since it has stunning red leaves in the fall, but almost any oak tree will make me happy.

- Tuliptree is another, and they are amazing trees, reaching up to 170-feet in height in the best environments with pillars for trunks that shoot straight up into the sky. Very "redwood-like" in their own way.

- Sycamores are another favorite, for their staggering size, interesting bark, and ability to withstand the abuse of surburban and even urban environments. I've seen so many dismal and nearly desolate city streets where the sycamores are the only trees that can grow and even do reasonably well, while every other tree perishes. They're not perfect since they are messy trees, but they live for many years, and provide great shade as well.

- Hickories are another special group of trees - aside from aspens and birches, no other trees turn such a perfect shade of gold in the fall and keep that color for a while. They are also quite durable trees with a graceful form, although they don't reach the huge size and spread of many of the other trees mentioned here. Their nuts also provide good food for animals.

- Other great trees include the better maples, beech trees, though they grow so slowly, and the long-lost American Chestnut, once a giant of the woods.

1. Because everyone else has them? - Crepe Myrtles
2. Because they are status symbols? - Japanese Maples
3. Because they attract wildlife? - Southern Magnolia's
4. Because they grow fast? - Dawn Redwood
5. Because they increase property value? - Oaks
6. Because you feel that for generations to come they will be enjoyed? - Gingko, Oaks, Sugar Maples
7. Because of their lack of problems, disease, insect, storm damage, and hardiness ratings? - Black Tupelo (Nyssa Sylvatica)

Favorites has to be willows and poplars. Seems like I can never get enough of those.