Need help to ID this tree

[red]

Can someone help me ID this tree. I'm thinking cherry but I'm not sure. As you can see in the first pic, the entire tree has these marks/growths on the bark. There are a handful of these same trees all with the same marks/growths. Thanks for any help.

Red

 

[Mike Davis]

Looks like cherry to me.

 

[Jim M.]

Yep, looks like cherry

 

[SubGuy]

Cherry definitely...

 

[McRabbet]

Gentlemen, I disagree. I think it is River Birch or another Birch species. Check out some of the images here. It is a native tree in the Southeast and its bark often is seen with lots of exfoliation (curls as the bark sheds). Here is some more information from the Clemson University Extension Service. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Lowlander]

I vote for wild cherry with black knot canker

 

[CrealBilly]

I do believe that's about a 35 to 40 year old lowland WBC. It sure does have a wide sapwood ring. The heartwood rings are also unusually wide. Must have been out in the open with lots of sun like maybe a yard tree or on a overcut edge.

 

[SubGuy]

I will stick by my pick. Looks like a younger cherry prior to the black blistered bark development found in lumber sized trees.

 

[Skymaster]

A birch paper bark I think

 

[Steve Martin]

If it grew in northern Mecklenburg County or environs, it is probably cherry. If it grew in a higher elevation, it may be a birch species as McRabbet suggests.

 

[red]

Thanks all. It is growing on my building lot here in Denver NC. in Catawba county. I have several of these on the lot. I was thinking about dropping them and saving the wood for future turnings. I have about a 10" diameter one right where the new workshop will be built.

It may leaf out before the lot gets cleared so that can tell me if it's a cherry or a birch. Either way I think I will keep the wood. It looks nice and will have some meaning coming from my lot.

It looks nothing in person to the pics in the links above. No white in the bark at all and the heartwood did not smell of birch (or cherry for that matter). Thanks.

Red

 

[sawman101]

Using your knife, carve out a piece of the soft inner layer, the cambium, of bark, the soft stuff next to the hardwood, and smell it. If it is birch, it will have the distinctive birch smell, and if you care to chew it, it will taste like birch beer soda. Whenever we harvested a birch for saw mill fodder up north, I loved to chew on that cambium layer and savor that birch flavor. :icon_thum

 

[Mike Davis]

Don't chew on cherry twigs though, they are slightly poison. Not sure how much it would take to make you sick or worse, I just don't do it.

 

[Touchwood]

Gentlemen, I disagree. I think it is River Birch or another Birch species. Check out some of the images here. It is a native tree in the Southeast and its bark often is seen with lots of exfoliation (curls as the bark sheds). Here is some more information from the Clemson University Extension Service. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with Rob. The bark looks more like birch to me and if it was just cut the cherry heart wood would be more salmon pink than as dark as the picture.
For cherry to get that dark it has had a lot of light exposure

 

[srhardwoods]

bark says birch to me

 

[marinosr]

The lenticels in the bark look more like a cherry than birch to me... in my experience, birch lenticels aren't as raised from the bark or as "fat" as those (they look like a narrow incised slit normally). If it's in Catawba County, I don't think that there are any species of birch growing that low in elevation in NC, but I could be wrong.

 

[red]

I've worked with red birch a lot in years past (my favorite wood to work) and this did not have that smell of birch. It also did not have the smell of cherry. I've only worked with kiln dried cherry and don't know if fresh would smell any different. I'm hoping it has a chance to leaf out before they do get cut. I'll keep what I can because I do like the red wood look. Thanks.

Red

 

[CrealBilly]

I've worked with red birch a lot in years past (my favorite wood to work) and this did not have that smell of birch. It also did not have the smell of cherry. I've only worked with kiln dried cherry and don't know if fresh would smell any different. I'm hoping it has a chance to leaf out before they do get cut. I'll keep what I can because I do like the red wood look. Thanks.

Red

Can't miss the smell of green cherry. It smells like a very mild woman's purfume. Very sweet smelling but faint, not strong.

 

[Jeff]

I'm holding out for leaf development over the next few weeks along with how the leaves are attached to the branches (opposite or staggered?).

Regardless of the id, it's pretty wood.

 

[red]

I'm holding out for leaf development over the next few weeks along with how the leaves are attached to the branches (opposite or staggered?).

Regardless of the id, it's pretty wood.

I agree. It is pretty wood. Leaves should make a showing before the chainsaws arrive.

Red