My "Fiddle Tree"
A Plant I Identified:
My Fiddletree (on the right) is really Liriodendron tulipifera from the family Magnoliaceae. The name Liriodendron is Greek for LilyTree. The Native Americans called it Oonseentia and is a native species called Canoewood as this is the typical tree that they made their canoes from. Other common names are 'Tulip Poplar',& 'Yellow Poplar' so named because of its Yellow Tulip shaped flowers also called 'Whitewood' because of the color of its inner wood. Today using binoculars I could see the Duck like buds popping open at the very top of the tree. You can also see how straight & tall it stands with its twisting branches about 50 feet up looking to me like fiddles.(which is why I called this my Fiddletree) The bark is grayish brown and deeply furrowed which reflects its age, the branch thickness indicates the load it has carried, the direction its growing was determined by the direction most of its light came from. There are several scars were loads of ice ripped off some of its branches. The tree is a type of Rododendron species and is one of only two species found in our country; all the other species are found in China and Vietnam.
How I found them:
I went to my trusty tree giude "Trees of New Jersey" by the NJ Dept of Environmental Protection Division of Parks & Forestry Forest Service Forest Resource Education of which I was a contributor. I also pulled some info from one of my favorite web resources Survival Sherpa
