Identifying Trees by Bark Patterns

Hi there! By the end of this video you're going to learn a few key things that you can look for in order to help you identify 11 different species of tree using only the bark. So for example this tree right here this is a shagbark hickory tree and has a really distinctive bark pattern. And so in this In this video we're going to look at 11 different types of tree that have bark that's distinctive enough that you can identify it with just the bark. So let's get started with the first one. Now this is a beech tree and I think this is one of the easiest trees to identify by the bark. And what you're looking for here is just this really skin tight looking bark and it also damages pretty easily so you can see on this beech tree here it's got some marks here and here and if you've ever seen a tree that has like those heart carvings in it or somebody put their initials in it then that's probably a beech tree because it does carve so easily so if you see a tree that looks like that then it's very good chance that you're looking at a beech tree so this is a sycamore tree this one behind me and also this branch in my hand and the easiest way to tell sycamore by the bark is that it has really tight bark, and then if you look towards the top of the tree, and sometimes towards the end of the branches, it becomes this sort of light white-green color, almost like the bark, it looks kind of like the bark is falling off, it's looking like this white color underneath. And so if you see that on a tree, it's pretty distinctive, and that's going to be a sycamore tree. All right, this is a black walnut tree that I'm in front of right here, and the easiest way to tell this by the bark is simply by the color. So if you compare the color... of a black walnut compared to the other trees around it, it's gonna have a darker color and this is especially visible when you look inside the layers of the bark. So right here you can see a little bit of the bark has flaked off and it has a really dark color on the inside, almost like it would look on the inside of the wood. If you know what the inside of walnut wood or walnut lumber looks like, it kind of has this dark chocolate color and so you can look at that for the bark on a black walnut tree. This is a hackberry tree and the easiest way to identify this by the the bark is it's a green smooth tree and then it has these wart-like ridges and so if you look at the tree it's smooth but then there's these ridges that come out that look kind of pop and are bumpy like a wart and then if you look on the inside you can also see that those ridges look like they've grown in layers and so that if you see that it's pretty distinctive it's a hackberry tree. This is a river birch tree and this one's really pretty easy to identify as well. What you look for for for river birch and really for any type of birch, is just paper-thin bark. So it kind of curls and flakes. You can probably even see it a little bit here in the video. It kind of curls up and it flakes, and the sheets of bark are just really as thin as paper, or maybe even a little bit thinner in some places than, like, your regular writing paper. So if you see that... odds are you're probably looking at a birch tree. So now we're looking at a mulberry tree here and this one you got to look for the color on the bark. So you can see this is a really good example here. The outer bark sometimes is going to look orange and so as it grows there's kind of green over it but if you look kind of to the bark that's on the inside or closest to the tree it has this orange color and then also if you want to kind of look at something else if you scrape a little bit of of the bark off like I've done here. It has like a yellow color. mixed yellow and brown, but you can see like a yellow color almost like the inside of mulberry wood if you know what it looks like on the inside it can be yellow and so if you look just by scraping off a little the bark you can see that yellow brown in there as well so now this is a cherry tree and a black cherry tree and there's a couple things you can look at to identify this by the bark number one there are these little uh these little specks or horizontal lines really that are called lenticels and so this grows on a the bark of a cherry tree. It's kind of just a horizontal dotted line. going across the tree and it'll go up the trunk of the tree itself and also out on the branches. So that's one thing that you can look for that's pretty distinctive and then also you'll notice that the bark kind of grows in like plated chunks like this that you can see they're thin and it's growing in these plated patterns and then if you look at the inside of the wood or you can even see it a little bit on the inside of the bark it also has that like reddish color that's a pretty characteristic of a cherry. a big tooth aspen tree and for these what you want to look at on the bark is number one it has very smooth tight bark and the color especially when you look towards the top of the tree turns to a white olive green color and so this tree is a big tooth but the same is also true of a trembling or quaking aspen but the color is even a bit lighter than you can see on this tree that I have here Another thing that you can look for is on the branch points of your of this tree out from the branch point because the bark is so tight, it has like a horizontal line that kind of emanates out from that branch point. And the reason for that is just because the bark is so tight where that branch was kind of disrupts the bark. So you can look for that as well. This is an Eastern Red Cedar tree, and a couple things to look at for this is that the bark is kind of stringy, shreddy. You can see it kind of like has these stringy pieces coming off of the bark. And another thing you can look at that isn't on all cedar trees, but you'll sometimes see these little holes you can probably see here. They're like little drill holes all over the trunk of the tree. And this is from a sapsucker woodpecker. And so you'll sometimes see that and then another thing here is if you flake off a little bit of the bark You can sometimes tell that it gets reddish underneath there. So right here I flaked a little bit of the bark off and you can see it's a bit of a reddish color underneath. So those are a few things you can look at. to identify a cedar tree. So now this is a shagbark hickory tree, and what you look at for a hickory tree is they have plates, like stripped plates of bark, and it's kind of like a thin... thin like panel almost of bark and on a shag bark it also kind of pulls out from the tree a little bit especially as The tree gets older and if you look up the tree you can probably see like this part and then even more so towards the Top of the tree so if you're looking for a hickory tree you can identify it by the bark by looking for those Plated sheets of bark is the biggest thing so this is a pine tree and if you're looking at the bark of a pine tree There's a couple different things that you can look at to identify it Number one is just looking at the branch points and looking for sap because of course pine is a very sappy tree and so on the branch point some sometimes you'll be able to just see some of the sap seeping out of it so that's number one a second thing that you can look at that you can see in the bark is Pine tree pine trees have world growth Which means that there's basically consistent rings going up the trunk of the tree where the branches are coming out so you'll have a ring of branches and then a little bit up you'll have another ring and so on up the tree. And then the third thing you can look for is pine is an evergreen so you can usually find pine needles on on the the bark or on the tree itself or kind of in the area so that's usually a pretty easy thing to find too. And that was the 11th tree. I hope you guys have found this helpful and this is actually one of the things that is most asked about and most talked about in the the comments of this channel and so you if you have a thought about some of these identification tricks for the bark, I encourage you to leave it in the comments below. I'd be happy to hear from you. And perhaps if I've got something wrong, I'm not, I wouldn't call myself an expert on these things, so if you see something and you're like, I'm not sure that's right, please feel free to correct me, and I'd be happy to, happy to hear that from you. And also, if you like this type of information, you like talking about these types of things, consider subscribing to the channel. With that, I hope we'll see you back in the next video. Bye everyone!

Now this is a beech tree and I think this is one of the easiest trees to identify by the bark. And what you're looking for here is just this really skin tight looking bark and it also damages pretty easily so you can see on this beech tree here it's got some marks here and here and if you've ever seen a tree that has like those heart carvings in it or somebody put their initials in it then that's probably a beech tree because it does carve so easily so if you see a tree that looks like that then it's very good chance that you're looking at a beech tree so this is a sycamore tree this one behind me and also this branch in my hand and the easiest way to tell sycamore by the bark is that it has really tight bark, and then if you look towards the top of the tree, and sometimes towards the end of the branches, it becomes this sort of light white-green color, almost like the bark, it looks kind of like the bark is falling off, it's looking like this white color underneath. And so if you see that on a tree, it's pretty distinctive, and that's going to be a sycamore tree. All right, this is a black walnut tree that I'm in front of right here, and the easiest way to tell this by the bark is simply by the color.

So if you compare the color... of a black walnut compared to the other trees around it, it's gonna have a darker color and this is especially visible when you look inside the layers of the bark. So right here you can see a little bit of the bark has flaked off and it has a really dark color on the inside, almost like it would look on the inside of the wood.

If you know what the inside of walnut wood or walnut lumber looks like, it kind of has this dark chocolate color and so you can look at that for the bark on a black walnut tree. This is a hackberry tree and the easiest way to identify this by the the bark is it's a green smooth tree and then it has these wart-like ridges and so if you look at the tree it's smooth but then there's these ridges that come out that look kind of pop and are bumpy like a wart and then if you look on the inside you can also see that those ridges look like they've grown in layers and so that if you see that it's pretty distinctive it's a hackberry tree. This is a river birch tree and this one's really pretty easy to identify as well. What you look for for for river birch and really for any type of birch, is just paper-thin bark. So it kind of curls and flakes.

You can probably even see it a little bit here in the video. It kind of curls up and it flakes, and the sheets of bark are just really as thin as paper, or maybe even a little bit thinner in some places than, like, your regular writing paper. So if you see that... odds are you're probably looking at a birch tree. So now we're looking at a mulberry tree here and this one you got to look for the color on the bark.

So you can see this is a really good example here. The outer bark sometimes is going to look orange and so as it grows there's kind of green over it but if you look kind of to the bark that's on the inside or closest to the tree it has this orange color and then also if you want to kind of look at something else if you scrape a little bit of of the bark off like I've done here. It has like a yellow color.

mixed yellow and brown, but you can see like a yellow color almost like the inside of mulberry wood if you know what it looks like on the inside it can be yellow and so if you look just by scraping off a little the bark you can see that yellow brown in there as well so now this is a cherry tree and a black cherry tree and there's a couple things you can look at to identify this by the bark number one there are these little uh these little specks or horizontal lines really that are called lenticels and so this grows on a the bark of a cherry tree. It's kind of just a horizontal dotted line. going across the tree and it'll go up the trunk of the tree itself and also out on the branches. So that's one thing that you can look for that's pretty distinctive and then also you'll notice that the bark kind of grows in like plated chunks like this that you can see they're thin and it's growing in these plated patterns and then if you look at the inside of the wood or you can even see it a little bit on the inside of the bark it also has that like reddish color that's a pretty characteristic of a cherry.

a big tooth aspen tree and for these what you want to look at on the bark is number one it has very smooth tight bark and the color especially when you look towards the top of the tree turns to a white olive green color and so this tree is a big tooth but the same is also true of a trembling or quaking aspen but the color is even a bit lighter than you can see on this tree that I have here Another thing that you can look for is on the branch points of your of this tree out from the branch point because the bark is so tight, it has like a horizontal line that kind of emanates out from that branch point. And the reason for that is just because the bark is so tight where that branch was kind of disrupts the bark. So you can look for that as well. This is an Eastern Red Cedar tree, and a couple things to look at for this is that the bark is kind of stringy, shreddy. You can see it kind of like has these stringy pieces coming off of the bark.

And another thing you can look at that isn't on all cedar trees, but you'll sometimes see these little holes you can probably see here. They're like little drill holes all over the trunk of the tree. And this is from a sapsucker woodpecker.

And so you'll sometimes see that and then another thing here is if you flake off a little bit of the bark You can sometimes tell that it gets reddish underneath there. So right here I flaked a little bit of the bark off and you can see it's a bit of a reddish color underneath. So those are a few things you can look at.

to identify a cedar tree. So now this is a shagbark hickory tree, and what you look at for a hickory tree is they have plates, like stripped plates of bark, and it's kind of like a thin... thin like panel almost of bark and on a shag bark it also kind of pulls out from the tree a little bit especially as The tree gets older and if you look up the tree you can probably see like this part and then even more so towards the Top of the tree so if you're looking for a hickory tree you can identify it by the bark by looking for those Plated sheets of bark is the biggest thing so this is a pine tree and if you're looking at the bark of a pine tree There's a couple different things that you can look at to identify it Number one is just looking at the branch points and looking for sap because of course pine is a very sappy tree and so on the branch point some sometimes you'll be able to just see some of the sap seeping out of it so that's number one a second thing that you can look at that you can see in the bark is Pine tree pine trees have world growth Which means that there's basically consistent rings going up the trunk of the tree where the branches are coming out so you'll have a ring of branches and then a little bit up you'll have another ring and so on up the tree.

And then the third thing you can look for is pine is an evergreen so you can usually find pine needles on on the the bark or on the tree itself or kind of in the area so that's usually a pretty easy thing to find too. And that was the 11th tree. I hope you guys have found this helpful and this is actually one of the things that is most asked about and most talked about in the the comments of this channel and so you if you have a thought about some of these identification tricks for the bark, I encourage you to leave it in the comments below.

I'd be happy to hear from you. And perhaps if I've got something wrong, I'm not, I wouldn't call myself an expert on these things, so if you see something and you're like, I'm not sure that's right, please feel free to correct me, and I'd be happy to, happy to hear that from you. And also, if you like this type of information, you like talking about these types of things, consider subscribing to the channel. With that, I hope we'll see you back in the next video. Bye everyone!

Transcript for:Identifying Trees by Bark Patterns

Transcript for:
Identifying Trees by Bark Patterns