dirty trees banner
Home

dirty trees

Tree Flowers

Dirty trees 

Honey-locust, showy catalpa,
shagbark hickory, and red oak

 Honey-locust (Gleditsia triacanthos, family Fabaceae) in its native condition is a tree that can offend in many ways. Its trunk and branches are beset with dangerous thorns, and it drops flat belt-like pods on the ground. But the thornless, podless culivated varieties have one big advantage for landscaping: the compound leaves have tiny leaflets that just dry up and blow away. But these mainly male trees produce abundant flowers in catkins that carpet the ground in places where honey-locust is abundant.
honeylocust stamens

Honey-locust flowers on the ground, June 6, 2008, OSU Marion Campus.
 honey-locust flowers

Honey-locust flowers on the ground, June 6, 2008, OSU Marion Campus.
A street tree with showy, hermaphroditic, insect-pollinated flowers that produces massive flower diplays in early June is showy catalpa (Catalpa speciosa, family Bignoniaceae).

catalpa

Catalpa flowers June 7, 2008, Columbus, OH.

catalpa flower

Catalpa flowers June 7, 2008, Columbus, OH
Some nut trees drop a lot of nuts on the ground. The various species of hickory (Carya, family Juglandaceae) are pretty prolific. Here's shagbark hickory (C. ovata)  at the edge of a woods.

hickory nuts on ground

Shagbark hickory nuts and husks, June 6, 2008, Pleasant Towship Park, Marion County, OH.
This hickory tree, incidentally, was the last in a line of trees used to support a wire fence. Apparently it was stapled to the tree many years ago, and the tree has overgrown the wire fence. It looks uncomfortable!
hickory with wire

Shagbarg hickory that "ate" a fence, June 6, 2008,  Pleasant Towship Park, Marion County, OH.
Squirrels don't get all the acorns. A red oak (Quercus rubra) deposited these and many more on a roadside in Delaware, Ohio. 

acorns on the ground
 
 Red oak acorns, February 26, 2006, Home Rd., Delaware, OH

"Dirty trees" might be a nuisance at times, but that's a small price to pay for the fascinating glimpse they provide into the world of plant adaptations. Carbon sequestration is good too!