Get to know Vermont's Fall Leaves from the Speckled Alder to the Large-Toothed Aspen. Learn how to identify Vermont's foliage with Scenes of Vermont descriptions and colorful photographs.
Page 2 - Identify the Leaves of Vermont Foliage
Striped
Maple (moose maple, moosewood)-
A variety of the maple tree, but not as prevalent as sugar maple. Fall foliage is lemon-yellow.Leaves are finely serrated (where other maples are toothed). They are very large and lobed.
Sugar maple (hard maple, rock maple, curly maple, bird's-eye
maple)-
The Sugar maple leaves have 3 to 5 sharp pointed lobes and have few teeth.
The space between the lopes are rounded. This tree is a favorite in Vermont
for it produces Maple syrup and maple sugar. The wood of the tree is used for
furniture, veneer, plywood and house modelling.
Sumac-
Leaves of Smooth are up to 1.5 feet long, alternate on the
smooth stems, odd-pinnately compound, with many finely serrated
leaflets that have a drawn-out tip Leaves have a red rachis,
medium to dark green leaves, and outstanding fall color, in
combinations of yellow, orange, and red, or simply a solid
dark red (right).
Tamarack-
Small, slender tree which rarely grows more than 15 metres tall. The foliage
is delicate and deciduous. Needles are three-sided and blue-green in color,
turning yellow in fall. The
tree is found in bogs or swamps or on cool, moist, north-facing slopes.
Some natives chewed tamarack to relieve indigestion and in the days of
wooden sailing ships the roots were used to join the ribs to the deck timbers.
The wood now days is mainly used for pulp, posts, poles and fuel.
Trembling
Aspen (quaking aspen, aspen, poplar, popple)-
The leaves are simple, mostly circular in shape with very fine teeth on the
leaf margin. The leaves of this tree tremble in the slightest breeze. The bark
is often white which makes the tree appear to be a white birch from a distance.
The uses of this wood is for veneer, manufacture of pulp, matches and boxes.
Tupelo
(Swamp tree)-
The tree reaches 80-90 feet and about 6-7 feet around. It has large, shiny
leaves 5-12 inches long and blooms from March to April.The wood is important
commercially. The premiere use is for paneling, pallets, fruit crates and pulp.
Wood carvers use to roots to create duck decoys. Also used to carve dough or
bread bowls and fisherman use it to make floats for their nets.
White Ash (Ash)-
The leaves are opposite, compound, 8-12 inches long, usually with 7 shiny leaflets.
The leaflets, 3-5 inches. The
twigs are stout, smooth, shiny and dark-green to purplish-green in color. The
fruit from this tree is winged, hanging in dense clusters after foliage season.
White Ash is used for making any item that where the wood has to be bent into
shape. Example: baseball bats and skis.
winter. The tree hardly
ever reaches over 10 feet tall and can indentified by its scallop-margined
leaves that have a rilliant yellow color in the fall.
Yellow Birch (curly birch, black birch)-
The
leaves are simple, alternate and oval in outline. 2-41/2 inches
long with sharp points, green above and yellow-green below.
The twigs are slender yellowish-brown to redish-brown, with
a strong wintergreen taste.The wood is very valuable. It is
used for veneer, plywood, furniture and flooring.
This also describes the White Birch.