[Kerrowdown]

[WPRESTO]

Specimen in a New Zealand arboretum, so it could be a species from almost anywhere.

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[goatsNdonkey]

Central tree is a large cottonwood. It was struck by lightning a few years ago, but the scar is healing well, and it's going on and growing.

K110D
Bower/Samyang f3.5 8mm

BW conversion

[goatsNdonkey]

Specimen in a New Zealand arboretum, so it could be a species from almost anywhere.

.

It looks a lot like a bald cypress. They have those vertical bulges in the bark, and have that conical shape when grown far enough apart to spread evenly. They grow few if any "knees" on their roots when planted in a dry area. The bald cypress is a deciduous conifer, like the larch (tamarack). Their needles turn red and drop in the fall. I don't know the trees of the world, so it could just be something else with some similar features.

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Last edited by goatsNdonkey; 07-04-2020 at 11:55 PM.

[WPRESTO]

It looks a lot like a bald cypress. They have those vertical bulges in the bark, and have that conical shape when grown far enough apart to spread evenly. They grow few if any "knees" on their roots when planted in a dry area. The bald cypress is a deciduous conifer, like the larch (tamarack). Their needles turn red and drop in the fall. I don't know the trees of the world, so it could just be something else with some similar features.

Thanks for the suggested identification. I've seen and photographed bald cypress in several area across the South, but at first I was thinking maybe a Sequoia, as the general shape of the trunk and bark color are right, but the bark texture is not and from what I can see of them the needles aren't right either, so I eliminated Sequoia quickly. I had not thought about bald cypress as I do not carry a good mental image of that tree except in a flooded bayou or swamp habitat.

Here's another specimen tree growing in that arboretum, but again, I did not think to get an image of the label, something I try always to do now. This one has a growth form that hardly one kid in a hundred can resist climbing.

[goatsNdonkey]

In Illinois, the Bald Cypress is only indigenous is swampy areas at the very southernmost tip of the state, near the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers. Anywhere else it is seen it was planted, and that includes some drier areas than nature would put it. In my locality, I could show you some examples of Bald Cypresses that have been planted along the Illinois River, and along a floodplain lake of the Illinois River, those do develop the knees on the roots a bit away from the base of the trunk, but both areas aren't just wet, they have seasonal flooding! The first time I knowingly saw Bald Cypresses, they were planted in a drier area, in Will County, south of Chicago. I didn't see the root knees then, and the trees, while younger than the one just pictured here resembled it in form and bark...to the best of my recollection.

[noelcmn]

[acoufap]

KP • DA*11-18@12

[WPRESTO]

Here's a flowering tree from that NZ arboretum. It's probably a golden chain (or "golden rain") tree (genus Laburnum) as I don't know of another species with such spectacular dangling strings of brilliant yellow flowers.

[noelcmn]

[WPRESTO]

A local birch tree that has grown about as big as they get here before they come crashing down.

[goatsNdonkey]

A local birch tree that has grown about as big as they get here before they come crashing down.

Could get some good canoe-covering bark from that one!

[noelcmn]

[WPRESTO]

That tree's life has been full of twists and turns.

Small part of an Araucaria araucana, AKA monkey puzzle tree. Intriguing plant from another time.

[noelcmn]