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Post by oxankle on Jul 7, 2016 3:19:38 GMT
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Post by paquebot on Jul 7, 2016 4:54:50 GMT
First picture screams cypress at me but don't know which one if it is. Cinnamon bark should be a clue. Same for the smooth seed pods.
Martin
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Post by oxankle on Jul 7, 2016 11:00:45 GMT
I grew up in cypress country Martin--Tain't any cypress I ever knew. I thought it might be Italian cypress, but those grow in a pyramidal form, whereas these trees are sort of bushy. I'll try to get a better picture of the needles. Rather than being spikey like pines they remind me of the way a fern grows, but they are definitely needles.
Aside from all that, these trees are growing at the top of a hill---so dry that one of them lost all its needles and turned brown last Summer, only to come back to life when the rains came. They are landscaping trees, planted at the edge of a patio at a country golf course. (I don't play golf, never saw any profit in it, but I do enjoy eating hamburgers in their dining room.)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2016 13:40:14 GMT
Looks like a variety of Juniper from what I can see. Don't think its Cypress.
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jul 7, 2016 16:49:03 GMT
This one may be Osage Orange.
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jul 7, 2016 16:56:26 GMT
The bark on this one makes it look like a huge crape myrtle
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Post by woodwind77 on Jul 7, 2016 17:32:57 GMT
That's not an Osage Orange. An Osage Orange has shiny leaves, and the fruit is bumpy, not smooth.. Image at PhytoImages.siu.edu oxankle,I like your mystery tree ! Hope someone can identify it.
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jul 7, 2016 17:35:35 GMT
That's not an Osage Orange. An Osage Orange has shiny leaves, and the fruit is bumpy, not smooth.. Image at PhytoImages.siu.edu oxankle ,I like your mystery tree ! Hope someone can identify it. Maybe it's a watermelon tree?
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jul 7, 2016 19:22:10 GMT
Three North American species of Taxodium, the type genus for Taxodiaceae: A. Pond cypress (T. ascendens), also known as T. distichum var. nutans. This species has many slender branchlets with appressed awl-shaped leaves that branch (ascend) from larger branchlets (red arrow). It apparently does not cross pollinate with the closely related T. distichum. B. Bald or Swamp Cypress (T. distichum). This species is native to swamplands of the southeastern United States along with T. ascendens. C. Montezuma bald cypress (T. mucronatum), a Mexican species native from Sonora and Coahuila south to Guatemala. It is planted in the United States and grows well in areas that are not inundated by water. Source: waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph40.htm
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Post by feather on Jul 7, 2016 19:30:42 GMT
google is the answer to everything! I know nothing on my own. Well, the bible is another answer to everything but google has pictures. Now tell me this doesn't resemble the tree? (I have no personal experience here, identifying firs or ever greens or conifers or...whatever it is.) website Yes? No?
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Post by paquebot on Jul 7, 2016 22:48:34 GMT
Needles still scream cypress and my book shows one that Cabin Fever mentioned, Taxodium distichum. Family name is Baldcypress.
Martin
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Post by oxankle on Jul 7, 2016 23:04:31 GMT
I have to believe my eyes. Judging from the pictures I'd say Martin was right the first time--My vote goes to the Montezuma Cypress, which the book says grows well in the United States "on land not inundated by water". I believe that the leaves more closely resemble that than the native cypress I'm used to, and certainly they do not look like pond cypress.
Now, I'm going to watch these trees again this winter--if they do not shed their needles I don't know where to look next. I was under the impression that they did not shed their needles last winter.
Oddly enough, common bald cypress grew well in N. Oklahoma, but it did not set viable seed. Since the Montezuma cypress originates much further South It is unlikely that it will mature seed either.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2016 13:45:19 GMT
I think the best clue to its identity are those large fruits/seed pods in the above photo. They are way larger than anything shown in the subsequent example drawings. Looks like the fruits from a yew tree but I have never seen a Yew tree. I have lived around a lot of Cypress and Juniper. Had I noticed them I would have never said this tree was a conifer. But it could be the Montezuma's Revenge on the specie.
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Post by oxankle on Jul 8, 2016 14:12:51 GMT
Deerjohn: The seed pods, or cones, are typical of the cypress I'm used to--not any different from those of our common bald cypress. "from Sonora and Coahuila...to Guatemala" means from Arizona South, so it is likely the Montezuma cypress.
I find it hard to believe, but there is that little grove of cypress trees sitting on top of a hill in Arkansas with nothing but the rainfall from above. The fellow who planted them knew his business.
If what I read of them is true they can be expected to live for hundreds of years and get very large. They are pretty respectable trees now and cannot be over 40 years in this location.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2016 14:27:46 GMT
oxankle ,your bald cypress have round seed pods as large as oranges? But I went back at the additional photos you put in your initial post showing seed pods that do look like cypress cones. Those really big ones on the photo cabin fever put up look entirely different, are they from one of the trees in question?
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Post by oxankle on Jul 9, 2016 14:34:56 GMT
Deerjohn: The pictures may be misleading. The seed balls are no larger than, most smaller than, a grocery-store lemon. Since they are still so green they may get a bit larger, but not so large as even a small orange. They are about the same size, perhaps a little smaller, than the common bald cypress I'm accustomed to.
I'm still having a bit of trouble accepting this as a cypress, but I have to believe it--no other suspects at the moment. And no, the pictures Cabin Fever put up are not from the trees here.
Been running the net looking at sites that distinguish between the cypresses. This fits my tree--small wonder I thought it was an evergreen. "A couple of things to note... Taxodium mucronatum is actually evergreen in it's natural habitat so in San Antonio, it would lose its leaves later in the fall, and have earlier spring growth than the other two."
I first saw these trees late last fall, and the only one that had turned brown was in the most dry location--It greened up again when the rains came. Other sources I've come across say that the Montezuma cypress is "freeze deciduous", deciduous in freezing weather. That would make the trees carry green needles late into last fall, long after other trees had dropped their leaves.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 9, 2016 15:06:40 GMT
The fruit in the picture also are not yet ripe. Therefore they do not match up with mature pictures. When that happens, they will show the outline of the individual pods. Montezuma cypress is also evergreen in mild climates or partially or wholly deciduous in colder regions. Therefore it may or may not lose its leaves/needles in a given winter where these specimens are growing.
Martin
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Post by oxankle on Jul 9, 2016 15:25:49 GMT
I think you nailed it the first time, Martin. I'm surprised, but happy with the ID. A tree that should be used more. I came across one site that said it was a major candidate for lawn trees everywhere in Texas, but that when small it had to be guarded from deer as they "browsed it relentlessly"
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jul 10, 2016 21:09:00 GMT
.... And no, the pictures Cabin Fever put up are not from the trees here.... The photos I put up are from the links you provided in your original (first) post.
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