Trees of Pittsburgh

1. Notice some of these trees aren’t there anymore. Trees of Pittsburgh

2. Blue Spruce • Sharp needles • Xmas tree • Is the national Christmas tree in D.C.

3. Arborvitae • Thuja occidentalis, De’Groot’s Spiral • Can be trimmed into a hedge • Probably 1st tree taken back to europe by U.S. explorers • Made into a tea that saved a French crew from scurvy because of its high vit. C. • Oil can treat HPV or warts • Popular with homeopathic crowd

4. Beech • Wildlife like it • Beech = A. Saxon derivation, synonomous with book. • Early tablets and carvings made from beech

5. More on Beech • Beech bark disease is a major killer • Important to Timber industry. heavy, hard, tough and strong wood difficult to cut without a chainsaw • Chips of beech used in making Budweiser to recreate wood barrel aging taste • The tree where “Daniel Boon kilt a bar” was carved with a late 1700’s date

6. Dwarf American Beech

7. American chestnut • Indians ate the nuts • Ground into flour • Pressed oils • Shingles & poles • Treated whooping cough • Boiled bark to tan leather • Once King of the forest • ¼ of the trees in the east

8. American Chestnut • Chinese Chestnut brought Chestnut blight that’s made American variety nearly extinct. • A bark fungus • European, Chinese, and Japanese varieties now dominate

9. Organizations are trying to cross breed this inferior species with the American Chestnut to make a line of trees resistant to the chestnut blight Blight pictured Chinese Chestnut

10. ‘Merican vs. Chinese Chestnut

11. American Elm • Ulmus Americana • AKA white elm • Resists splitting so use it in wheels, seats, coffins

12. Dutch elm Disease • 1 in 100,000 might be resistant • Efficient killer • Taken out most American elms • Started in Europe after WW I, Dutch scientists I.D.ed it. • Strands of trees survive in places like central park, independence square, or Phipp’s Conservatory because there’s no other elms around.

13. Zelkova • Used as a sub. For elm • Popular downtown

14. Hophornbeam • An “iron wood” • Any really hard wood • Genus Ostrya (bone like) • Like hornbeam • Good for mallet handles • Smaller tree • Wildlife value • Songbirds, W.T. deer, grouse

15. Hornbeam • AKA Musclewood • Relatively short so good for making small hard tools

16. Sweetgum • AKA redgum, alligator wood, blistered alligator wood, liquidambar • It does make a sweet smelling resin used in gum • Also medicines • Since the dinosaurs went extinct until about 2 m.y.a. this was all over the place, but the world’s too cold now. And lots of species are extinct

17. Black gum • AKA black tupelo, pepperidge, sourgum, and on Martha’s Vineyard, beetlebung • Tupelo is from two cree words meaning tree of the swamp • Other tree’s called this too. • A honey plant • Pretty tree • Rare in Pittsburgh, Found in Allegheny commons near Aviary Not related, but the Japanese have a minty high caf. Gum called black black

18. Sycamore • AKA Planetree, buttonwood • Largest of N. American hardwoods • Some were big enough to keep a cow inside the tree trunk • Mottled exfoliating trunk

19. Sycamores • Ones we see are genus plantanus • They are very tall • buttonwood agreement was the formation of the NY stock exchange, signed under a sycamore. • In the bible they talk about sycamore’s that are a species of fig tree.

20. American Yellowwood • Cladrastis kentukea or Kentucky yellowwood • Inner wood is yellow hence name • Sophie Masloff planted a small yellowwood in Mellon Park. • also found in Point State Park.

21. Amur Corktree • Ornamental & Oriental • Invasive, but not a problem here. Yet. • Not thick enough for commercial cork development • In Highland Park you can find these just off Reservoir Drive between the Super Playground and the reservoirs. • One of 50 herbs used in traditional chinese medicine • Medicinal applications of the oil include treatment of pancreatitis, reduction of cholesterol and sugar in blood and the treatment of various skin diseases.

22. Maple • Group of ~ 125 species • Most from asia • Genus Acer = sharp (like leaves) • Popular for landscaping • Bonsai too • Look good in the fall • Syrup • Canada made 7 million gallons in 2005 • Vermon made 410,000 gallons in 2005 • ~ 10 gal per tree • Important sugar source during civil war when south cut off sugar cane supplies

23. Example of leaf variation among various cultivars of Japanese Maple • A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because it has desirable characteristics (decorative or useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar plants of the same species. • Cultivated + Variety

24. Box elder • Acer negundo or maple ash • Classifed with maples. • Lives short and fast • Along rivers • All kinds of other names • Manitoba Maple, Ash Maple, Ash-leaf Maple, Black Ash, Boxelder Maple, California Boxelder, Cutleaf Maple, Cut-leaved Maple, Inland Boxelder, Negundo Maple, Red River Maple, Stinking Ash, Sugar Ash, Three-leaved Maple, and Western Boxelder.

25. Pine • ~115 species • Fast growing softwoods • spiral growth of branches, needles and cone scales are arranged in Fibonacci number ratios • U.N. HQ fits this

26. Another way of visualizing the fibonacci sequence • Fibonacci numbers also appear in the description of the reproduction of a population of imaginary bees, • The rules: • If an egg is laid by an unmated female, it hatches a male. • If, however, an egg was fertilized by a male, it hatches a female. • Thus, a male bee will always have one parent, and a female bee will have two. • If one traces the ancestry of this male bee (1 bee), he has 1 female parent (1 bee). This female had 2 parents, a male and a female (2 bees). The female had two parents, a male and a female, and the male had one female (3 bees). Those two females each had two parents, and the male had one (5 bees). This sequence of numbers of parents is the Fibonacci sequence. • Shown on next slide

28. Douglas fir, Jack Pine, Lodgepole Pine, and Pacific Silver Fir. Western Red Cedar make telephone poles. • Coated with creosote to keep ivy off

29. Pine resin is made into turpentine • Organic solvent • Mixing paints and making varnishes • Turpentine gets us Rosin • Increases friction • Bows, pitcher’s hands, bull rider rope, rock climbing • Ingredient in soldering

30. Survival • Cambium high in vit. A & C • Young green cones: edible • “Strunt” Swedish name for pine needle tea

31. Austrian Pine • AKA Black Pine • Fast growing • Good for blocking wind • Infected with a tip blight disease in the burgh • Can be 500 y.o. • Another good street tree, • it’s salt & pollution resistant.

32. White pine • Used for ship masts • Iroquois called it the great tree of peace • Needle have 5x’s vit. C as lemons

33. Bald Cypress • Rot resistant • “wood eternal” • Good for making docks, warehouses, boats, or bridges • Usually found farther south, likes wet areas. • State tree of LA symbol of swamps

34. Basswood • “Linden” or “beetree” • Name derived from “bast” inner wood • “Lime” in U.K. • Bee’s love em • Get good honey from flowers • Famous Sicilian honey of Hybla from this • Light soft wood: good for yardsticks, models, furniture

35. More Basswood • Teas& perfumes, from flowers, popular with herbalists, • Relieves restlessness • Soft wood used for making low-end electric guitar bodies • Agathis is another tree for this • Ainu people of Hokkaido make traditional garb from it • Can live ~ 900 years

36. Basswood • Carolus Linneaus, great scientist named for Linden • Important culturally around eastern Europe • Lipa in slovak & polish • Croatian currency named for it • Andrei Rublev, Russian Iconographer worked on Limewood • Most famous street in Berlin is called Unter den Linden Rublev’s Trinity in Moscow

37. Unter den Linden Festival of Lights

38. Basswood and Germany • Most famous street in Berlin is called Unter den Linden  • Sacred to Frejya, wife of Odin, goddes of love • Hence legend Basswood can’t be struck by lightning • Tree of peace planted in town squares. • -Place of justice • With christians Frejya became “Mother of God” so it’s also associated with St. Mary • - Protects against Witchcraft/Satan Frej was the 5th most popular name for Danish Girls

39. Bitternut Hickory • Most common hickory • Settlers used oil from inedible nuts to fuel lamps, treat rheumatism • Related to Pecan • Wood for smoking meat • Indians made bows

40. Smoking food • In Europe • Alderwood is traditional • Oak dominates now • Beech to a lesser extent • U.S. • Hickory, Mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple, and fruit trees, • Some ham’s are smoked over corn cobs • Barley Malt smoked with Peat moss makes Scotch Whiskey and some beers

41. Black Birch • Bitula Lenta • AKA Sweetbirch, Cherry Birch, Mahogany birch, River birch, Spice Birch, birch birch • Could get wintergreen flavor from young trees • Ferment sap into birch beer • Found near Schenley golf course

42. Black Cherry • AKA Choke, Cabinet, Whiskey, Wild Black or, Wild Cherry • Products: Cabinets & Furniture, Cough syrup, wine, jellys, and pies. • We grow some of the best Cherry in the country

43. Black Cherry • Pioneer species • Likes to grow into old fields • Problem cause leaves release cyanide which could kill cattle • Short lifespan, weak branches break easily in storms

44. Black Locust • Native • Useful in erosion control • Helps reclaim land after strip mining • Another honey plant • In the legume family it has nitrogen fixing bacteria • Rot resistant, Lincoln made fence posts from it. • Great firewood, slow burning, little smoke, almost = anthracite • Jesuits thought this was a tree that supported St. John in the wilderness

45. honey locust • Wildlife like sweet pods • Good for goats • Not toxic like the black locust • Invading Australia • Mconnel’s curse

46. Oaks • Couple hundred species • Deciduous and evergreen • Make acorns • Good for cooking, flour • Oak galls: ingredient in  manuscript ink • Japanese oak: Yamaha drums • Rough, hard surface of oak gives the drum a brighter and louder tone compared to traditional drum materials such as maple and birch.

47. Culture & Oaks • Symbol of strength, endurance • National tree of UK, Fr., Ger, & the U.S. • 723: St. Boniface cut down Thor’s oak to show German’s Christianities superiority. • Joshua (Moses Apprentice) had a covenant with the lord going at a stone under an oak

48. Culture & Oaks • Symbol of Zeus • In Celtic mythology it’s the tree of doors, a gateway between worlds • leaves symbolize rank in the forces • gold leaf = Major or Lt. Commander • silver leaf = Lt. Colonel or Commander

49. Not native but interesting • Cork oak • Used to make wine stoppers • Aging barrels • As liquor ages some liquid is lost to evaporation • O2 comes in through barrel • Wines take on vanillin and tannins from barrels • Factors: U.S. or European oak, age of wood, cut of wood, dryness of wood, what forest, • Cut corners: Soak in oak chips • Barrel maker = cooper

50. Rock oaks vs. Swamp oaks • Chestnut • Called Rock oak • Lives high on ridges • High tannin bark used in tanning • Pin oak • Called swamp oak • Popular tree, easy to transplant. • Both look similar. Best way to tell the dif. is where they’re living.