Trees of Indiana Part 8

CARYA BUCKLEYI var. ARKANSANA Sargent. ( 1/2.)]

=BETULaCEAE.= The Birch Family.

Trees or shrubs with simple, petioled, alternate (in pairs on the older branches of _Betula_) leaves; staminate flowers in long drooping catkins, 1-3 in the axil of each bract, the pistillate in short lateral or terminal aments; fruit a nut or samara.

Staminate flowers solitary in the axil of each bract, without a calyx, pistillate flowers with a calyx; nut wingless.

Bark of tree smooth; staminate aments in winter enclosed in bud scales; nut exposed, its subtending bract more or less irregularly 3-cleft 1 Carpinus.

Bark of older trees shreddy; staminate aments in winter naked; nut enclosed in a bladder-like bract 2 Ostrya.

Staminate flowers 3-6 in the axil of each bract, with a calyx, pistillate flowers without a calyx; nut winged.

Winter buds sessile; stamens 2; fruit membranous and hop-like; fruiting bract deciduous at the end of the season when the nut escapes 3 Betula.

Winter buds stalked; stamens 4; fruit woody and cone-like; fruiting bracts woody and persisting after the nuts escape 4 Alnus.

=1. CARPNUS.= The Hornbeam.

=Carpinus caroliniana= Walter. Water Beech. Blue Beech. Plate 30. A small tree up to 3 dm. in diameter, usually 1-1.5 dm. in diameter with fluted or ridged trunks; bark smooth, close, gray; twigs hairy at first, soon becoming glabrous; leaves ovate-oblong, average leaves 6-10 cm.

long, pointed at the apex, double-serrate, hairy when young, glabrous at maturity except on the veins and in the axils beneath, p.u.b.escent, not glandular, staminate catkins appearing in early spring; nut at the base of a 3-cleft bract about 2 cm. long, nut broadly ovate, compressed, pointed and about 5 mm. long; wood heavy, hard, tough and strong.

=Distribution.=--Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas. In Indiana it is frequent to common throughout the State in moist rich woods. It prefers a moist rich soil; however, it has a range from the tamarack bog to the dry black and white oak slope. It is tolerant of shade and is seldom found outside of the forest.

=Remarks.=--This tree is too small and crooked to be of economic importance. It is regarded as a weed tree in the woodland, and should be removed to give place to more valuable species.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 30.

CARPINUS CAROLINIANA Walter. Water or Blue Beech. ( 1/2.)]

=2. oSTRYA.= The Hop Hornbeam.

=Ostrya virginiana= (Miller) Willdenow. Ironwood. Plate 31. Small trees up to 5 dm.[28] in diameter, usually about 1-2 dm. in diameter; bark smooth and light brown on small trees, shreddy on older trees; shoots hairy, becoming at the end of the season glabrous or nearly so and a reddish-brown; leaves oblong-ovate, other forms rare, average size about 7-12 cm. long, ac.u.minate, usually double-serrate, hairy on both surfaces when they unfold, glabrous or nearly so above at maturity, more or less p.u.b.escent beneath, especially on the midrib and veins; staminate spikes develop in early winter; fruit hop-like about 2-4 cm. long; nut oblong-ovate about 7 mm. long and half as wide, compressed, light brown; wood very hard, tough, close-grained, strong, light brown.

=Distribution.=--Nova Scotia west to Manitoba, south to the Gulf States and west to Texas. It is frequent to common in all of the counties of the State. However, it is entirely absent in the lower Wabash bottoms, except rarely on high grounds in this area. It prefers well drained dry soil, and is most frequent when it is a.s.sociated with beech and sugar maple, although it is often quite plentiful in white oak woods. It is shade enduring and is one of the under trees in the forest where it grows very tall and slender and free from branches. When it grows in exposed places such as bluffs, it retains its side branches and is usually bushy.

=Remarks.=--The trees are too small to be of much economic importance.

It is 30 per cent stronger than white oak, and 46 per cent more elastic.

These exceptional qualities were recognized by the Indians and it was used by them where wood of great strength and hardness was desired.

Likewise the pioneer used it where he could for handles, wooden wedges, etc. Since it grows neither large nor fast, it is usually regarded as a weed tree in the woodland, and should be removed to give place to more valuable species.

=Ostrya virginiana= variety =glandulsa= s.p.a.ch. This is the name given to the form which has the twigs, petioles, peduncles and often the midrib and veins of the leaves beneath covered more or less with short erect, reddish, glandular hairs.

It is found with the species, but is not so frequent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 31.

OSTRYA VIRGINIANA (Miller) K. Koch. Ironwood. ( 1/2.)]

=3. BeTULA.= The Birches.

Trees and shrubs with bark tight, scaly or separating into very thin plates and peeling off transversely, whitish or dark colored; staminate catkins developing in autumn and dehiscing in early spring before or with the appearance of the leaves, pistillate catkins ovoid or cylindric; fruit a small winged flat seed, bearing at the apex the two persistent stigmas.

Bark of twigs usually with a slight wintergreen flavor; leaves with 7-15, usually 9-11 pairs of prominent veins; rounded or slightly cordate at the base; fertile catkins generally 10 mm. or more in diameter. 1 B. lutea.

Bark of twigs usually bitter, not wintergreen flavored; leaves with 4-11, usually 4-9 pairs of prominent veins, more or less obtusely angled at the base; fertile catkins generally less than 10 mm. in diameter (rarely 10 mm. or more, _B. nigra_).

Bark of trunk chalky-white; fruiting aments drooping or spreading.

Bark below base of lateral branches darkened-triangular in outline; leaves long ac.u.minate and l.u.s.trous above; staminate catkins usually solitary. 2 B. populifolia.

Bark below base of lateral branches not darkened; leaves ovate and not l.u.s.trous above; staminate catkins usually 2-3. 3 B. papyrifera.

Bark of trunks dark; fruiting aments erect or nearly so. 4 B. nigra.

=1.= =Betula lutea= Michaux filius. Birch. Yellow Birch. Plate 32.

Medium size trees; bark of small trees and of the branches of old trees smooth, silver or dark gray, freely peeling off in thin strips, becoming on older trees a dark brown, rarely tight, usually fissured into wide plates and rolling back from one edge; the shoots of the year hairy, greenish gray, becoming glabrous or nearly so and reddish-brown by the end of the second year, not aromatic when bruised but when chewed sometimes a faint wintergreen odor can be detected; winter buds pointed, reddish-brown, the lower scales more or less p.u.b.escent, generally with a fringe of hairs on the margins; leaves usually appearing in pairs, ovate to ovate-oblong, 4-14 cm. long, taper-pointed, oblique and wedge-shape, rounded or slightly cordate at the base, sharply and rather coa.r.s.ely serrate, hairy on both sides when they appear, becoming at maturity glabrous or nearly so above, and remaining more or less p.u.b.escent below, especially on the veins, both surfaces with few to numerous resinous dots; petioles permanently hairy, generally 5-13 mm. long; flowers appear in May; staminate spikes in cl.u.s.ters at the ends of the branches, about 6 cm. long, scales broadly ovate, blunt, fringed with hairs, green-tipped with a margin of reddish-brown; pistillate spikes solitary in the axils of the leaves, mature spikes 2.5-5 cm. long, generally 2.5-3 cm. long, commonly about half as thick as long, recurved to ascending, commonly about horizontal, sessile or on short stalks; scales very variable, 5-11 mm. long, generally 7-8 mm. long, sometimes as wide as long but generally about one-fourth longer than wide, densely p.u.b.escent on the back, or rarely glabrous on the back, ciliate, glabrous or nearly so on the inside, commonly with a few brown or black glands on the margin, commonly lobed to more than one-third of their length, lobes ascending or divaricate, the lateral generally the larger and almost as long as the narrower middle lobe; nuts divested of the wings, slightly obovate, about 3 mm. long, wings about two-thirds as wide as the nut and usually with a fringe of hairs at the blunt apex.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 32.

BETULA LUTEA Michaux filius. Yellow Birch. ( 1/2.)]

=Distribution.=--The distribution of this species is variously given as from Newfoundland west to Manitoba and south in the Alleghenies to Georgia. It is now definitely known that the species of _Betula_ hybridize which may account for the peculiar forms often encountered.

That there are geographic races or Mendelian segregates of this species is evidenced by the different interpretations given this species by different authors. _Betula alleghanensis_ Britton appears to be one of them. The descriptive difference between _Betula lenta_ and _Betula lutea_ is not clear, which has resulted in many authors crediting _Betula lenta_ to Indiana and the area west of Indiana.

The preceding description does not agree with that of _Betula lutea_ exactly, and has been drawn to cover the specimens at hand from Indiana which the author has from Allen, Crawford, Lagrange, Lake, Marshall, Porter and Steuben Counties. It has recently been reported from White County by Heimlich.[29] He says: "Specimens were taken from two trees about two miles south of Buffalo near the water's edge of the river."

The writer has visited this locality and found here, and also on the island above the bridge a little farther down the river, _Betula nigra_, but could not find _Betula lutea_. Since Heimlich did not report _Betula nigra_, which unmistakably occurs here, I a.s.sume he has confused the two species. It is very local in its distribution, and appears to be confined to swamps, borders of lakes, and streams in the extreme northern part of the State. It has not been seen south of the northern end of the State, except a few small trees found clinging to the walls of the cliffs of a ravine about one mile east of Taswell in Crawford County. The walls of this ravine are about 25 meters high; a.s.sociated with it were a few trees of hemlock, and on the top of the cliffs, laurel (_Kalmia latifolia_).

Large trees of this species in Indiana are usually from 4-6 dm. in diameter and about 15 m. high. The number in any one station is usually few, although there were formerly patches where it was plentiful. Van Gorder[30] reports for n.o.ble County _Betula lenta_ which should be transferred to this species, and he says: "There is a marsh of several acres of birch in Section 15 of York Township." The largest area now known is that contained in the large tamarack swamp near Mineral Springs in Porter County. In this swamp are found tamarack and white cedar. It was in this swamp that the writer found a peculiar form of birch which has been determined as _Betula Sandbergi_. Since this species[31] is recognized as a hybrid of _Betula papyrifera_ and _Betula pumila_ variety _glandulifera_, and the last parent of this hybrid is not found in the vicinity, a discussion of this form is not presented. In the immediate vicinity are found only _Betula lutea_ and _Betula pumila_.

_Betula papyrifera_ is found about a mile distant to the south. It is a.s.sumed that this form is a cross between _Betula lutea_ and _Betula pumila_.

=2.= =Betula populiflia= Marshall. Gray or White Birch. Plate 33. A small tree; bark a chalky-white, not separating into thin layers, inner bark orange, on the trunks of old trees nearly black; shoots at first covered with numerous glands, becoming smooth and yellowish or reddish-brown; leaves generally long-deltoid, average blades 3-6 cm.

long, usually long taper-pointed, truncate or nearly so at the base, irregularly double-serrate, slightly p.u.b.escent on the veins when young, soon becoming glabrous; fertile catkins 1.5-3 cm. long and about 7 mm.

in diameter; bracts of eastern trees differ from those of Indiana trees which are about 3-4 mm. long, lobed to about 1/3 of the distance from the apex, lateral lobes the largest and strongly divaricate, p.u.b.erulent on the back; seed strongly notched at the apex; nut slightly obovoid; wings much broader than the nut.

=Distribution.=--Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario and south to Delaware and Pennsylvania. In Indiana it has been reported from Lake, Laporte, Porter, St. Joseph and Tippecanoe Counties. There may be some doubt about the Tippecanoe record, since many of the older records were made from cultivated trees. The numbers of the species in Indiana were always limited. It is not able to meet changed conditions and it has already almost disappeared from our area. I was told that formerly this species was found all about a lake in Laporte County, but it has all died out. Its appearance in Indiana is peculiar since it is not found west of us, or north in Michigan or east in Ohio. This small group of trees near Lake Michigan is three or four hundred miles from the nearest of their kind.

=Remarks.=--This species is called white and gray birch. The largest tree seen in Indiana was about 2 dm. in diameter and 13 m. high.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 33.

BETULA POPULIFOLIA Marshall. White or Gray Birch. ( 1/2.)]