Let's Know Some Trees 



11 



It is the tree whose small heart- 

 shaped leaves dance at the slightest 

 breeze. A group at the other end of 

 a meadow or a whole hillside of them, 

 golden yellow in the fall, with a leaf 

 here and there floating away on the 

 wind, is a never-to-be-forgotten sight. 



The " Black Cottonwood," the 

 largest "popple" in California, is 

 found at elevations from 3,000 to 

 6,000 feet, abundantly in the Sierras, 

 less frequently in the Coast Ranges. 

 The leaves are longer pointed than our 

 other two species — deep, shining green 

 above, whitish below — and the bark 

 is much darker and heavily ridged. 

 It is largest in the rich flats in 

 its lower elevations, sometimes being 

 125 feet high and 6 feet through, and 

 is smaller as the elevation increases. 

 At its best this tree furnishes real 

 lumber, tough and pliant, odorless and 

 tasteless, hence good for barrel staves, 

 butter firkins, candy baskets, and such 

 wares. - 



The Fremont Cottonwood is the 

 common cottonwood of the lower val- 

 ley stream sides, found in plenty along 

 the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 Rivers and their branches. Its bark 

 is also ridged, but is light brown in 

 color ; sometimes, at 3,000 feet, ■ it is 

 silvery, and when bare suggests white 

 birch stems. Even under the best 

 conditions the tree seldom grows up- 

 right, but leans over. When old and 

 hollow-hearted it sometimes fairly lies 

 down along the river bank, though 

 still sending up vigorous branches. 



THE MAPLES 



There is but one large maple on the 

 Pacific coast, the Broadleaf Maple, 

 sometimes called the Oregon Maple, 

 but fortunately that is well distrib- 

 uted, being found from Alaska through. 

 British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 

 and California. Here in California it 

 can be seen in the Coast Range val- 

 leys from one end of the State to the 

 other, and in those of the Sierra Ne- 

 vadas from the Oregon line down to 

 the Sequoia National Park, with occa- 

 sional groups or single specimens in 

 the cross ranges. While it prefers 

 moist, gravelly soil and attains its 

 greatest size and beauty on the bottom 

 lands in Oregon, fairly good specimens 

 are also found on the ridges and hill 

 slopes. The writer remembers noting 

 20 years ago, on the trail from Mill 

 Valley to Tamalpais, that the forest 

 floor for miles was carpeted with 

 maple seedlings ; a few weeks ago, 

 climbing the trail from the Happy 

 Isles to Vernal Falls in Yosemite Val- 



ley, he looked down on fine, vigorous 

 maples. 



Our western maple is not the glory 

 of the fall that the eastern maples are, 

 for the leaves are thicker and only an 

 occasional tree turns golden yellow, 

 But the spring foliage is fine and 

 green, while the leaves attain a 

 breadth of from 7 to 14 inches. The 

 flower clusters, coming with the leaves, 

 are 'yellow and attract the bees almost 

 as much as those of the elms. The 

 shape of the leaves is like the ordi- 

 nary maple, or rather more like a 

 grape leaf, not quite so sharply and 

 deeply cut as the Sugar Maple. 



There are two dwarf maples that 

 come down into California from Ore- 

 gon ; one mainly in the Sierras, the 

 other chiefly a Coast Range species. 

 The Coast Range species, called Vine 

 Maple because of its tendency to 

 sprawl rather than stand upright, is 

 hardly ever more than a shrub. It 

 has foliage similar to and as gorgeous 

 as a Japanese Maple, both in its rosy 

 spring color and in its flaming scarlet, 

 yellow, or rose of fall. It has not been 

 reported farther south than Mendocino 

 County. 



The Dwarf Maple is much less 

 brilliant, though becoming somewhat 

 colored. Its leaves are like those of 

 the Japanese Maples in shape, and it 

 is a pretty thing, found at 3,000 to 

 6,000 feet elevation, along streams, not 

 very abundantly. 



The Boxelder is botanically of the 

 same genus as the maple, and if one 

 looked only at the seeds, which are 

 distinctly maple "keys," there would 

 be no doubt about it. But most of us 

 nonbotanists judge a tree by its leaves, 

 and the Boxelder leaf is three-parted 

 instead of a single incut leaf. The 

 tree haunts the stream bottoms, where 

 one finds it with willows and syca- 

 mores. It is not large (20 to 50 feet 

 high and 10 to 30 inches in diameter), 

 but helps make the good green along 

 the creeks. 



None of our California maples make 

 good lumber, nor even very good fire- 

 wood. If their wood is ever used at 

 all commercially, it will be as pulp 

 wood. In Oregon and Washington, 

 however, the Broadleaf Maple becomes 

 a large tree and is cut for lumber and 

 fuel. 



THE ALDERS AND A BIRCH 



When camping near a stream have 

 you noticed a rather smooth-barked 

 tree with round open head, its lower 

 branches drooping, and the tips bear- 

 ing odd clusters of tiny " cones " ? 



