The bark does look similar. Beech bark is usually really smooth and gray; like elephant skin. Popple will have a yellow cast and is smooth for most of the bark but not nearly as smooth as beech. If you look close up at the picture, especially at the lower left, you will see that is is not a smooth gray color but yellow/gray with some black mixed in. Of course the leaf looks different but with these 2 trees it is easy to tell the difference just by looking at the bark.
Thanks for the info Dennis! It is really fascinating how so many trees have similarities between them. I'm just starting in to learning the differences and it is actually quite a bit of fun.
Is the tree you used as an example also called quaking aspin? The only poplar I see around me is yellow poplar a.k.a. tulip poplar.
I noticed the bark on the lower left, closest to the camera looks like the popple we get around here. Great example. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I think it is important when identifying trees that you not only look at the wood and if present the foliage. I think tree shape, branching structure and bark are also very useful to narrow things down if you know how certain trees grow. A book I find very useful and go to a lot is Bark by Michael Wojtech.
Some great advice in this thread. Thanks for starting it Brad M And thanks to all the members who added their experience and knowledge. BTW.. my first look at the pic that Backwoods Savage posted, my first impression was beech. It wasn't till I zoomed in on my phone that I could see the differences he mentioned. I would also agree that the information posted here is worthy of "sticky status". $0.02
A fair amount of shingle oak here and it confounds many people. See it here: Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet
We have the tulip poplar down here as well, we just usually drop the tulip, since we don't have Aspen here.
Yeah the lower left is a dead giveaway. We have that white poplar around here, it makes much prettier boards than the tulip poplar. Grows tall straight with no crown (unlike beech).
Tulip poplar can make some beautiful lumber too. Especially with the varying greens, blue and red streaks.
I have the basics down I think. Now I want to learn to identify the various kinds of red oak, like Northern Red Oak, Scarlet Oak, any others. Also I think I have several kinds of Hickory, maybe Pignut Hickort, Bitternut Hickory, Mockernut Hickory. Can anyone help with this ?
I saw it was Aspen before I read your comments and yes, I could see why someone might think it’s Beech with the smooth gray sharkskin bark. What clearly tells me it’s “popple” is the round on the far left that shows the dark rings that wrap around the bark, Beech is uniformily smooth and gray. Also appears to have large growth rings unlike Beech. I also can’t identify the various hickories with the exception of shagbark. I can tell by the leaf that it’s a hickory but can’t tell which one it is.
The white poplar looks almost like clear pine or cypress. This was a poplar log at a carving show we went too.
