What are these trees?

Ryan Schirmer

Ryan Schirmer

Location
Madison
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I thought they may be Quaking Aspen especially from their Leaf which I'm sorry but I have no photo of but the bark does not match any pictures online but I did read where in their old age they can become fissured. These trees are indeed old in my opinion. Two are dead/dying. All the pics online seem like real smooth bark. This is in a very large Forest much of which has been Untouched by mankind. These four trees were all by their lonesome in a forest of largely swamp white oak, white oak, red oak, cedar and others. As you can see the one in the front was nearly cut down by a beaver in years past. I've recently taken interest in tree identification although I'm an Outdoorsman I'm no expert on trees yet. I've no experience at all identifying not one single aspen tree. You can sort of see a leaf or two on a small twig coming off the trunk on the far right. They are yellow as it is late October in southern Indiana. I appreciate anyone who can take the time to share their expertise.
 
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Those look to be Cottonwood. Populus deltoides. Next time when taking pictures to ID trees, try to capture the entire canopy, twigs with leaves or buds, and bark texture. This way when you are back home looking at your ID books you can reference more than just one ID characteristic. I would consider taking a class at your local arboretum or gardening club to expand and grow your tree identification mastery.
 
Sounds bout right Waldo.

And try your state universities for a "Trees of Indiana" online guide pdf or book. Learning trees in autumn and winter were unpleasant college courses for me but you really LEARN them by knowing buds, bark, and growth habit.
 
Could be aspen, do they grow in your area? I've seen old one with bark like that.

Some kinda poplar.
 
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Respectfully, I must say, a Cottonwood leaves me in question, because any Cottonwood I've ever seen has bark that looks like this.
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( I took this photo while hunting big game in southeastern Montana) more importantly an Eastern Cottonwood is below and just like the many cottonwoods I have seen on my grandfather's Ohio River Bottom Farm. Similar to The Western Cottonwood.


Eastern cottonwood

I'm not denying it could be a cottonwood but I did think for sure these would be a species i'm not familiar with. The leaves are similar to cottonwood only in shape, but they are smaller and were not toothed. Just saying. Not disputing. I appreciate replies and would like to hear more especially if anyone has seen trunks like this. I have no idea if there's a such thing as subspecies of different types of trees where the bark can look very different from what we see in books. Now I will leave you guys with scenic view from the area I found the trees in. Is former military area that is only open to deer hunting.


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The muscatatuck river as it cuts its way through the west side of Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge
 
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I think aspens cottonwoods and poplars are all considered to be the species Populus, but I'm not a certified arborist so don't go off my word. The trees in the original picture I always called Tulip Poplars for some reason. Cottonwoods tend to have deeper more pronounced ridges in there bark from my observation.
 
Mason said:
I think aspens cottonwoods and poplars are all considered to be the species Populus, but I'm not a certified arborist so don't go off my word. The trees in the original picture I always called Tulip Poplars for some reason. Cottonwoods tend to have deeper more pronounced ridges in there bark from my observation.
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Oh, I see what you mean.

The horizontal ridges in the bark and lighter gray on the right side are what made me think aspen specifically.

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I do see many young cottonwoods in my area (p. Tricocarpa) that do have very smooth white bark like that until they get some age and girth on them. Regardless of what it is, the characteristics we have been given is insufficient to properly ID the tree.
 
I just wanted to say thanks for everybody's input on this. When I took the photo I was taking it because of the Beaver's attempt to cut it down. And I wondered about the identity of it because I'm only familiar with tulip poplars, cottonwoods, Oaks, Maples, American Beech, blue Beech pawpaw, persimmon, walnut, ash, buckeye, hickory, Etc. Etc. This was a tree I had not encountered before.

I apologize for not having all the resources for an easier identification. I think Boone0 posted a photograph of the exact trees I saw. After further research it is apparent that the southern boundary of Quaking Aspen's is 100 miles north of my area. and bigtooth Aspen is around the same but the range map also shows blotchy little spots in my area and one of those spots is right over the Refuge I was hunting in when I saw those trees.

If I were a wagering man I believe Old Oak man hit the nail right on the head with Big tooth Aspen. The one leaf I examined had just a couple of small teeth on it but leaves can be inconsistent. After paying attention to detail that's my best educated guess and I have not been formally educated on trees. Just from my own reading and research. I do own three books on trees, two of them are Indiana specific and the other is Eastern United States and I enjoy them very much. Again thank you for your input on this; the next time I have a question I will be prepared with leaves, bark, fruit, and entire tree. I can understand how their can be disagreements especially with only the tree trunk as evidence.
 
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If you make it back, get more details! Would love to know an answer.

Not sure what you hunt, but do you participate on the saddlehunter.com forums? If you hunt deer and are on this forum, I think it would be right up your alley.

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