JANE R. FOSTER
  • Home
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Blog

One tree, two trees

A native tree I'd never met

8/11/2015

10 Comments

 
Picture

This spring I came upon a tree I didn’t recognize in my Philadelphia neighborhood. It was pumping out a sweet smell from showy flowers, and it grabbed my attention. When I find a tree I can’t identify in the city, I usually assume it’s an ornamental species that’s been imported from another country. That’s pretty common. Who doesn’t want to plant something exotic that none of the neighbors have? But in this case, my assumption was wrong. American yellowwood, Cladrastis kentukea in Latin, is a species native to the United States! How could I have missed such a distinctive tree?



It turns out that American yellowwood has a very restricted natural range. Historically, it has been found only in small pockets and rocky areas in Kentucky or Tennessee and a few neighboring states. When we try to understand what makes a tree species tick, we often read a lot into its native range. But I’m not sure what has limited the distribution of this medium sized tree. It could be that its seeds don’t disperse well into new areas, or maybe it can’t compete with other species during the intense period that is tree adolescence.

Picture
Yellowwood is a legume, which means it’s in the same family as peas. If you’ve ever grown peas or beans in your garden, the shape of the little flowers in these hanging, white clusters will look familiar. I thought this might mean that yellowwood trees have the special ability to harvest nitrogen, like peas do, but it sounds like they didn’t inherit this family trait. Yellowwood do have seeds that grow in pods, just like peas. You can see some of the pods below. Both the flowers and the seeds appear in abundance every few years. Next time I get asked for a tree recommendation for someone’s yard, it’s going to be yellowwood!

10 Comments
Jane
8/26/2015 08:54:55 am

I'm collecting seeds from this one, so get in touch if you'd like to try germinating a few.

Reply
Town Pearson
9/24/2018 01:15:01 pm

Hello-
I was interested to read your comments on the limited natural distribution of yellowwoods. I just collected a number of pods from a friend's tree here in Wisconsin, but they look quite different from your photo - drier and flatter. I think they must be last year's pods, still on the tree. The tree had many flowers last year, but I didn't see it this year. I'm going to try to germinate them, but my expectations are very low. I don't imagine you collected any fresh pods this year but, if you did, I would love to try germinating some. Thanks for writing about your experiences.
-Town

Reply
hızlı takipçi satın al link
8/1/2022 06:13:22 am

Güvenilir takipçi hizmeti arıyor ama bulamıyor musunuz? Tamamen güvenlik standartlarına sahip adresimiz ile hemen takipçi al. Kaliteli ve hızlı hizmetlerimiz için adresimize bekleriz.

Reply
ucuz 2022 takipçi satın al link
8/1/2022 08:57:50 am

Hızlı takipçi satın al seçeneği ile birlikte hesaplarınızı geliştirmek artık çok kolay. Profesyonel hizmetlerimiz ve paketlerimiz adresimiz üzerinde sizleri bekliyor.

Reply
takipçi satın al link
8/2/2022 10:15:36 am

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://takipcialdim.com/ucuz-takipci-satin-al/

Reply
instagram takipçi satın al link
8/3/2022 02:46:15 am

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://www.takipcikenti.com/instagram/turk-takipci/

Reply
aliexpress yurtdışı kargo link
8/9/2022 08:46:48 am

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://www.smsbankasi.net/2022/08/amazon-shopify-aliexpress-walmart-ebay.html

Reply
Mobil ödeme bozdurma link
8/19/2022 05:25:13 pm

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://guvenbozum.com/

Reply
canlı futbol izle link
9/10/2022 04:02:23 am

https://taraftarium24izle.net/category/futbol/
Canlı futbol maçları burada yayınlanıyor. Sizler de taraftarium24 sayesinde maç izleyin.

Reply
weptekno link
9/10/2022 03:17:18 pm

En güncel haberleri weptekno.com sizin için hazırladı.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a scientist who studies forests. I often need to measure lots of trees to understand why forests change. I think about trees a lot, and sometimes they just become numbers to me: how tall are they? how many are there? how many boards can you get out of them?

    My goal here is to share some of the crazy things I learn about forests. I'm taking a step back from looking at the forest as a whole, and writing about individual trees as I come across them, to share some of the stories they tell. One tree at a time.

    Archives

    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Blog