We have been getting more and more interested in plant identification since we tend to go on a lot of hikes. I have been taking photos of some of the plants that I cannot identify. from the Cumberland Gap in TN 1) taken last month. Red berries on a 6' bush. near a bike trail in Cincinnati last weekend: 2) red berries on a medium sized tree 3) short weed with seed pods 4) blue-green hand sized leaves 5) elm tree??? from the Daniel Boone National Forest in KY (in early september) 6) clusters of purple black berries on a large bush with sickly looking leaves 7) These were EVERYWHERE in the woods. Huge leaves. Pawpaw??? Your help is appreciated! thanks, Jon
The 4th one is probably one that is asked about frequently on the internet, but don't remember the name. Somebody from your region will probably pop up and name them all, to species, in which case you'll REALLY be impressed. Meanwhile, use the genera I gave to look them up in regional wild plant guidebooks, if you want to get on it.
Agree with Ron except for #2; it's not any Callicarpa I've seen and to my knowledge they aren't trees. I can't place it though. HTH Chris
Yes, you are right. I do recall seeing "honeysuckle" (yes, I am not yet familiar with the Latin names, still learning) on the bike trail last spring. You identified the plant before I edited the text; -adding more explanations (before I just had the photos) and it is difficult to tell from the photo that this is a tree. More and more often I am trying to put my hand in the photos to give some indication of scale... One of the problems I have with most plant identification books is that, aside from occasional descriptions of size, it is there is little indication of how big, i.e. the leaves are. We spent hours looking for the elusive Black Birch tree in Kentucky. I was elated when we stumbled upon a tree whose leaves looked exactly like those of the birch tree in the drawings - and the bark was smooth with horizontal lesions. The trees where everywhere. When I scratched a twig to check for the wintergreen smell, however, nothing. I spent about an hour searching through the book trying to identify this "false birch" tree. It was a beech tree. Later I repeated this same mistake with what turned out to be an elm tree. Finally I found a yellow birch tree in TN. The leaves are MUCH bigger than those of the beech tree, and much darker - see photo (while the white birch tree has very similar leaves to the beech). This is very difficult to distinguish in most field guides. There seem to be many trees with this simple toothed leaf shape, including the birch, beech, elm, poplar and probably many others. I am getting better and better at identifying some of these plants. Right now I am just happy to be able to identify the genus. Hopefully many of you remember what it was like getting started!
That is Euonymus! We had another species of euonymus growing at our house, but it was a common short plant infested with crown gall and it looked totally unlike this plant. I never would have guessed. The "Cornus" (Dogwood) looks nothing like our Dogwood tree, but you are right, I found a photo on Google that looks very much like this plant. I had no idea that Magnolia species could grow this far north. That is the correct species though, I saw it in my plant book. I have not found the Celtis yet. The leaves are (again) simple toothed, but very large.
Number 4 is possibly Broussonetia papyrifera, though this specimen seems to have extra lobes - so perhaps something else in the Moraceae? Number 3 reminds me of Impatiens
It is not a tree - the plant is about 24 inches tall. I broke one of the leaves at the stem and the sap is clear, somewhat sticky and does not smell too bad. There were several of these in the area. We were actually looking for Amaranth during our walk. I heard that it was a food staple of the Mexican indians and a serious weed, all over the place. We still have yet to find it. This was not it.
Thank you all for your help. You have inspired us to go back to the trail today to check these plants out again and to find some more plants and try and identify them. I will make sure to get more detailed information this time on sap, smell, size, etc. We bought a big book on plant identification which will hopefully help.
A good book to start from is Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, which is suitable for your region. Read the reviews via Amazon.com, though, to see if the book's approach will work for you.
