Clay Hill Memorial Forest Plants- Feather Creek

Shingle Oak is one of two oaks (Quercus spp.) in Illinois that has leaves with smooth margins; other oaks have pinnatifid leaves. The other oak species with smooth-margined leaves, Quercus phellos (Willow Oak), is found in southern Illinois. The leaves of Willow Oak are more narrow (½" or less) than those of Shingle Oak. At one time, the wood of Shingle Oak was used to make wooden shingles for houses, hence the common name. Other common names for this tree are Jack Oak and Northern Laurel Oak. less ↑

Fagaceae -- Beech family

    Ivan L. Sander

    Chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), sometimes called  yellow chestnut oak, rock oak, or yellow oak, grows in alkaline  soils on limestone outcrops and well-drained slopes of the  uplands, usually with other hardwoods. It seldom grows in size or  abundance to be commercially important, but the heavy wood makes  excellent fuel. The acorns are sweet and are eaten by several  kinds of animals and birds.

less ↑

Fagaceae Beech family

    Ivan L. Sander

    Northern red oak (Quercus rubra), also known as common red  oak, eastern red oak, mountain red oak, and gray oak, is  widespread in the East and grows on a variety of soils and  topography, often forming pure stands. Moderate to fast growing,  this tree is one of the more important lumber species of red oak  and is an easily transplanted, popular shade tree with good form  and dense foliage.

less ↑

Fagaceae -- Beech family

    Ivan L. Sander

    Black oak (Quercus velutina) is a common, medium-sized to  large oak of the eastern and midwestern United States. It is  sometimes called yellow oak, quercitron, yellowbark oak, or  smoothbark oak. It grows best on moist, rich, well-drained soils,  but it is often found on poor, dry sandy or heavy glacial clay  hillsides where it seldom lives more than 200 years. Good crops  of acorns provide wildlife with food. The wood, commercially  valuable for furniture and flooring, is sold as red oak. Black  oak is seldom used for landscaping.

less ↑

Jetbead is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub that was introduced from Central China, Korea and Japan in 1866 for ornamental purposes. Found in at least 17 states east of the Mississippi, it has recently come to the attention of land managers who noticed it becoming invasive in natural habitats away from intentional plantings. It is very shade tolerant and can do well in forest edges and interiors. Once established, it shades out native plants in the ground layer and inhibits native tree generation. Jetbead spreads by seed and by vegetative means. It can grow to 6 ft. in height and has opposite simple leaves 2½-4 in. long with doubly serrate toothed margins and conspicuous ribbed veins with long pointed tips. It flowers in the spring, producing white four-petaled flowers about 2 in. across. Small pale to red turning black, bead-like fruits are produced soon after flowering. Jetbead invades forests, creating a thick shrub layer that displaces native shrubs, shades out understory species and restricts tree seedling establishment. less ↑

Common Elderberry is an attractive shrub, but often ignored because of its ubiquitous occurrence. In fact, people often destroy this shrub along fences or waterways in residential areas, notwithstanding its outstanding value to wildlife, particularly to songbirds. Sometimes this plant is referred to as Sambucus nigra var. canadensis by some authorities, because it is regarded as a variety of the European species. Return less ↑

Lauraceae -- Laurel family

    Margene M. Griggs

    Sassafras (Sassafras albidum), sometimes called white  sassafras, is a medium-sized, moderately fast growing, aromatic  tree with three distinctive leaf shapes: entire, mittenshaped,  and threelobed. Little more than a shrub in the north, sassafras  grows largest in the Great Smoky Mountains on moist welldrained  sandy loams in open woodlands. It frequently pioneers old fields  where it is important to wildlife as a browse plant, often in  thickets formed by underground runners from parent trees. The  soft, brittle, lightweight wood is of limited commercial value,  but oil of sassafras is extracted from root bark for the perfume  industry.

less ↑

Ulmaceae -- Elm family

    G. A. Snow

    Winged elm (Ulmus alata) is a very hardy, small-to  medium-sized tree in a wide range of habitats throughout much of  the southern Midwest and Southeastern United States. Other common  names are cork elm and wahoo.

    On fertile soils with adequate moisture and drainage, winged elm  grows well and is a useful component of several forest types. On  poor dry sites it is stunted and gnarled and can be an  undesirable invader of grazing land. Winged elm lumber is mixed  with other elm. This tree is occasionally planted in southern  landscapes.

less ↑

The American Elm (Ulmus americana) is a native North American tree in the Ulmaceae family. Growing quickly when young, the American Elm has a broad or upright, vase-shaped silhouette, 80 to 100 feet high and 60 to 120 feet wide. Trunks on older trees can reach to seven feet across. Trees have an extensive but shallow root system. Propagation is by seed or cuttings; young plants transplant easily.

The six inch long, deciduous, double serrated leaves are dark green throughout the year, fading to yellow before dropping in fall. In early spring, before the new leaves unfold, its rather inconspicuous small green flowers appear on pendulous stalks. These blooms are followed by green, wafer-like seedpods which mature soon after flowering is finished. The seeds are quite popular with both birds and wildlife. American Elms must be at least 15 years old before they will bear seed.

The wood of American Elm is very hard and was a valuable timber tree used for lumber, furniture and veneer. Native Americans once made canoes out of American Elm trunks, and early settlers would steam the wood so it could be bent to make barrels and wheel hoops.

Once a very popular and long-lived (300+ years) shade and street tree, American Elm suffered a dramatic decline with the introduction of Dutch elm disease, a fungus spread by a bark beetle. It is vital to the health of existing trees that a program of monitoring be in place to administer special care to these disease- and pest-sensitive trees. less ↑

Ulmaceae -- Elm family

    John H. Cooley and J. W. Van Sambeek

    Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra), identified by its "slippery"  inner bark, is commonly a medium-sized tree of moderately fast  growth that may live to be 200 years old. Sometimes called red  elm, gray elm, or soft elm, this tree grows best and may reach 40  m (132 ft) on moist, rich soils of lower slopes and flood plains,  although it may also grow on dry hillsides with limestone soils.  It is abundant and associated with many other hardwood trees in  its wide range. Slippery elm is not an important lumber tree; the  hard strong wood is considered inferior to American elm even  though they are often mixed and sold together as soft elm. The  tree is browsed by wildlife and the seeds are a minor source of  food. It has long been cultivated but succumbs to Dutch elm  disease.

less ↑

This native plant is a branched woody shrub or small tree up to 15' tall. The young bark of small branches is gray and slightly rough, while the old bark of the trunk or larger branches is grey and rough with flat-topped plates. The opposite leaves are up to 3" long and 1" across; they are ovate or ovate-obovate, glabrous on both their lower and upper sides, and finely serrated along their margins. The slender petioles are up to 1" long and reddish. The buds of these leaves are short. Cymes of flowers about 3-5" across develop from the axils of the leaves; each cyme is much branched, but sessile at the base. Each flower is about ¼" across; it has 5 white petals that are well-rounded and longer than the sepals. There are 5 long stamens with slender white filaments and yellow anthers, and a small pistil at the center of the flower that is cream-colored at the base. The blooming period occurs from mid- to late spring. The flowers have a strong and pleasant fragrance; they are produced at about the same time as the leaves. Each flower is replaced by a fleshy ovoid drupe about 1/3" long; this drupe becomes blue-black at maturity, sometimes with a whitish bloom. Inside each drupe, there is a single stone (a seed with a hard coat) that is flat on one side and convex on the other. The drupes are sweet and edible, although somewhat thin-fleshed because of their stones. The root system consists of a branching woody taproot. less ↑

There are around 60 Vitis species in the world. Species in this genus are native to the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere, with a few species reaching the tropics. In North America, there are around two dozen species. A number of species occur in Asia, but just one is native to Europe, Vitis vinifera. This is by far the most economically important Vitis species and accounts for most commercial grape plantings, not just for wine. Nearly three quarters of world grape production is devoted to wine grapes, around a quarter for table grapes, and much smaller amounts for dried grapes (raisins) and non-alcoholic grape juice. (Vaughan and Geissler 1997) less ↑