Rare Trees in your area...

[Hobby Climber]

What rare trees are in your area???

Got the idea from Monkeypuzele's giva-a-way raffle of his Torreya Taxifolia cutting.



It got me thinking of the trees in my area that are rare. I started thinking of a tree I found but didn't recognize on a customers property. This land is located along the Detroit River (between Lake St.Clair & Lake Erie), on the Canadian side. The back of the property is wooded with a small meadow and ravine. It looks like it hadn't been touched for many years.

After removing a few ash dead trees (via EAB), the owner invited me to look at this pear tree at the back of the property to see if it was safe to eat.

I could not identify it until I got home and researched it on the computer. I was surprised to learn that is was in fact a very rare pear tree to wit: "Jesuit Pear" tree.

The French Missionaries brought the seeds with them and planted them along the shores of Lake Erie (Great Lakes), and the Detroit River back in the mid 1600's. Later the French settlers planted them. Traditionally twelve were planted together (in a circle?) in the same area to represent each of the 12 opposals in keeping with their Roman Catholic faith.

The trees thrived in this area and will live for hundreds of years. They produce a very small 2-3" fruit that has a heavy wax coating that keeps bugs and other insects at bay so there is no need to spray. This tree can take care of itself just fine!

Just Google "Jesuit Pear" and see for yourself the unique history of this very rare tree of French origin that arrived here some 300-400years ago.


BTW, the tree in the pics below is about half an hour from my home. The one I found is only 2km (about a mile or so) from me along the Detroit River!



...So, what rare trees can be found in your area???


HC

 

[Monkeypuzzle]

That is very cool HC.

 

[stehansen]

I like trees that produce food. I don't know of anything like that HC.

 

[Che]

I don't know how 'rare' it is....but I'd never heard of a 'Che' tree before. I met a cyber-friend on a farm forum some years ago, he's a veterinarian here in KY and is into grafting. We exchanged 'stuff'....I sent him daylilies and he sent me a CHE TREE!!! It's grafted onto an Osage Orange root stock.....

It has a very small, edible fruit.....but the real reason I got wanted it was cuz it had such a cool name.

 

[Monkeypuzzle]

The Osage Orange is used to prevent suckering. Read that before.

 

[JIML]

Kentucky coffee tree, I don't see too many of them around, I can think of 2 off hand. Ones way back in the woods and the other is in a front yard.

 

[sotc]

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/taxus/brevifolia.htm
ill add in a pic of one thats about 300 years old in a bit



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_chihuahuana http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071106/NEWS/711060306

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071106/NEWS/711060306
and we have some of these in town, the city arborist is trying to propigate more

 

[Hobby Climber]

We have a few "Kentucky Coffee" trees around here. A good friend of mine grows them to sell to homeowners. Never heard of a "Che" tree but I too like the name!

Osage Orange IS a very rare tree in my area. Back in the late 80's I worked for a local railway and found one growing near the Windsor-Detroit train tunnel,(Canadian side). Cool looking tree but at the time I had no idea what it was.

I was invited to go deer hunting in southern Ohio years ago. During which time I came across a very unique (to me) tree all by itself on a hill. It had a very pungent floral smell about it. It turned out to be a Percimon tree. That has to be one of the most unique & interesting trees I have ever came across and very uncommon from what I hear.

HC

 

[JIML]

Not very many chestnuts around here either but I have trimmed several.


Heres a little one I trimmed this week. Couldn't reach it all out of the bucket so I climbed out and used it as a tie in.

 

[Monkeypuzzle]

Lots of Persimmon trees in my area of the southland. Very very hard wood. Was used to make the ''wooden'' golf club driver part....maybe tobacco pipes too.

Don't know if I've ever seen a chestnut.

 

[Koa Man]

On the island I live on, Oahu, we have 2 extremely rare trees.

Uhiuhi
Caesalpinia kavaiensis
1W.L.Wagner, 2Derral R. Herbst ©Smithsonian, 2005 SPECIES STATUS:
Federally Listed as Endangered
Genetic Safety Net Species
IUCN Red List Ranking ‐ Critically Endangered (CR D)
Hawai‘i Natural Heritage Ranking ‐ Critically Imperiled (G1)Endemism – O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, Maui, Lana‘i

ABUNDANCE: C. kavaiensis is now extinct on Kaua‘i, Lana‘i, and Maui and is found only on O‘ahu in the Wai‘anae range, and on the island of Hawai‘i on the slopes of Mt. Hualalai. Eight subpopulations are known, totaling 50 individuals; however, many of these are probably non‐reproductive due to various problems. Less than 20 individuals total are found in two populations on the island of Hawai‘i. Less than 10 individuals total remain in the two populations on O‘ahu. The last remaining individual in Waimea Canyon (Po‘omau) died in 1992, as a result of hurricane Iniki.

Kauila
Kauila, Colubrina oppositifolia Brongn, ex H. Mann, is a medium-tree, with thin oblong leaves which are bright green on both sides. This is a rare native tree found only in Hawaii and Oahu. It's a member of the family Rhamnaceae (Buckthorn family). The bark of the tree is light brown, with a very hard, reddish wood that sinks in water. The wood was formerly valued by the early Hawaiians for spears and tapa beaters. Part of the plant was also used medicinally.

The Hawaiian kauila (Alphitonia ponderosa Hillebr.) also produces dense wood that sinks in water. Its leaves are alternate, thin, oblong, grayish to rusty wooly on the undersurface. This species is found in the six largest Hawaiian islands. This is one of the hardest, densest native wood that replaced metals in the economy of the ancient Hawaiians.

Kauila is a rare native Hawaiian tree found in dry to mesic forests on all the main islands, except Niihau and Kahoolawe. There are two endemic species of kauila in Hawaii: Alphitonia ponderosa Hillebr. and Colubrina oppositifolia Brongn, ex H. Mann, both belong to family Rhamnaceae. Both species produce the hardiest and heaviest native woods that were useful to the Hawaiians.

 

[rumination]

Those are two of the rare species Wesley, but there are a whole bunch more. Hawaii is the endangered species capital of the United States.

 

[JamesTX]

We have a few "Kentucky Coffee" trees around here. A good friend of mine grows them to sell to homeowners. Never heard of a "Che" tree but I too like the name!

Osage Orange IS a very rare tree in my area. Back in the late 80's I worked for a local railway and found one growing near the Windsor-Detroit train tunnel,(Canadian side). Cool looking tree but at the time I had no idea what it was.

I was invited to go deer hunting in southern Ohio years ago. During which time I came across a very unique (to me) tree all by itself on a hill. It had a very pungent floral smell about it. It turned out to be a Percimon tree. That has to be one of the most unique & interesting trees I have ever came across and very uncommon from what I hear.

HC

Persimmon grows like a weed around here. Fruit tastes good though.

 

[Monkeypuzzle]

Persimmon grows like a weed around here. Fruit tastes good though.

If any of you are going bald I hear you can rub some persimmon juice up there.


It won't grow hair but it will draw yer sideburns up on top of your head.:what:

 

[Al Smith]

Don't know if I've ever seen a chestnut.

They are extremely rare ,a blight years ago all but done em in . Where I used to live a neighbor had half a dozen about 10 feet high he was attempting to grow.

What might be rare in one area might be common in another.Locally cherry and most species of hickory are a common tree.Far up the east coast they have no hickories at all.Then too,we have not one Douglas fir growing any where that I am aware of,not the first palm either other than a potted one about 2 feet high.

Now that makes me wonder if a potted palm could grow a coconut it would be the size of a golf ball.

 

[Tom_Scheller]

It seems that around here if it isn't maple, oak, ash, hickory or hemlock it's rare. I've run into exactly one ginko and one bald cypress. There is a a dawn redwood near Philly that I've seen.

TS

 

[stehansen]

These are fairly common in SoCal along the coast but there are very few here is an Avocado tree. They can't handle our summers and they can't handle any kind of freeze. The only one I saw that was successful was in this backyard where it was shaded by some other trees and the owner protected it in the wintertime with a piece of plastic and a heater.

 

[JIML]

It seems that around here if it isn't maple, oak, ash, hickory or hemlock it's rare. I've run into exactly one ginko and one bald cypress. There is a a dawn redwood near Philly that I've seen.

TS

Ive ran into several ginko trees, in peoples yards, and quite a few bald cypress.

 

[Hobby Climber]

We have a few ginko trees that home owners have planted. In the spring I believe its the female tree that smells like wet dog!

Just remembered another rare tree in my parts, its the "Blue Ash" tree. The bark is flatter and the seeds are much bigger/longer than other varieties of ash. So far, the (Emerald Ash Borer) E.A.B. has not found them...yet!

For that matter, any live ash tree in my area is now a rare tree because of the E.A.B.! The Blue Ash was very rare before the E.A.B. arrived.

HC

 

[stehansen]

Ginkos are all over the place around here. City of Modesto plants them. Supposedly they don't mess with the sidewalk much and are relatively maintenance free.

 

[sotc]

oops i was posting trees that i thought were all around rare.