Promoting the Use of Native Plant Species in the Home Landscape

Deciduous Trees

Deciduous trees are trees that drop their leaves for part of the year. They are found in temperate and tropical climates all over the world. Deciduous trees have broad flat leaves that catch a lot of light and require a great amount of water. In some cases, leaf loss coincides with winter – namely in temperate or polar climates when there is less sunlight for the process of photosynthesis.

Tamarack

The tree produces both male and female flowers which appear along with the needles in spring. Male flowers are yellow-green and female flowers are red. Fertilized female flowers produce a small upright cone which remains on the branch for 2 growing seasons. The tiny seeds are wind dispersed once ripened from reddish-purple to brown.

Tulip Tree/Tulip Poplar

The tulip tree flower is 1.25-3.67" in diameter and striking with three green outer septals and six inner petals which are yellow-green changing to orange at the base. The fruit is a cluster of samaras 1.5-3.5 inches long.

American Crabapple

Flowers are pink turning to white with age and are fragrant when blooming in spring. The flower is star shaped with 4-5 petals. Groups of 2-6 flowers each 1-1.75 inches across. Apples are small, .75-1.5 across, yellowish at maturity, juicy and sour.

Blackgum

Flowers are not showy, but beneficial to bees. Berry is .5 inches long, mature to dark blue and are sour. Attractive to birds and wildlife.

Ironwood

Catkins appear in early spring when new leaves appear. Male flowers are 3/4-2 " long and arranged in groups up to 4. The female catkins are shorter, .30 to .50 " long and contain 10-30 flowers. Pollinated flowers form small nutlets 1/8- 1/4 inches long fully enclosed and papery sac-shaped. The seed changes from greenish

American Plane Tree, Sycamore

Sycamores flower in May with the leaves. Dense flower heads are dark red (male) and light green tinged with red (female) and are wind pollinated. Seeds form into small, brown burr-like balls and hang on slender stems, 3-6 inches long and persist through winter.

Wild Plum

Small, white, five petaled flowers occur singly or in clusters. Round fruits are about 1 " around. Both sour and sweet, the fruit can be eaten fresh or made into preserves and wine. Birds also eat the fruit.

Black Cherry

Dense clusters of white flowers appear after the leaves have emerged. Individual flowers are white with five petals. Pitted fruits are edible and often used in wine and jelly making.

Choke Cherry

Dense clusters of white flowers, 4-6 inches long. Individual flowers are 1/4 in diameter with five white petals. They can form from May to July and the fruits follow a couple months later. Small ripe cherries are from dark red to black.

Hop Tree

Flowers are small, greenish-white in clusters with 4-5 narrow petals in early spring. Fruit is distinctive, a wafer like samara with broad wings, just under an inch long and 3/4 " wide. Fruit ripens by October.

Swamp White Oak

Male and female flowers are borne on separate catkins on current year branchlets. Fruit is an acorn.

Common Sassafras

Trees are dioecious or either male or female. Attractive greenish-yellow flowers appear in clusters at branch ends in spring. If pollinated, ripen into bluish-black drupes which mature in September. Attracts bees and butterflies.

American Mountain Ash

Flowers are showy and white urn-shaped with 4-5 petals less than an inch long. Flowers ripen into orange-red berries that are edible and long-lasting ripening in late summer and fall and lasinging on the tree through winter.

American Bladdernut

Flowers are cream, bellshaped and form drooping clusters. Each flower is about .33" long with 5 outer septals and 5 inner petals The fruit changes from green to yellow to brown and is a three-chambered bladder. Blossoms provide value to bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. Small animals browse the foliage. Seeds are a wildlife

Basswood

Flowers are small, fragrant and yellowish-white appearing in drooping clusters of 6-20 blossoms. They are perfect, regular, with five septals and petals. While leaves emerge in mid-spring, the flowers require 14.5 hours of sunlight to form. The flowers are fragrant and insect pollinated. The nutlet is small, downey, hard, and cream colored .5 to 1

White Oak

Catkin flowers appear in May when leaves are about 1/3 grown. Yellow flowers are on hairy stems 2.5-3 " long with bright red stigmas. Male catkins are 2-4 inches; while female flowers are small single spikes, Acorns are ovoid or oblong and round.

Red Oak

Flower is a catkin and appears just before or with new leaves. Fruit is an acorn with a shallow cap. The brown acorn is round, almost 1" long, with a flat, thick, saucer like cap and grows singularly or in pairs.

Red Maple

Small hanging clusters of bright red flowers appear in spring before the leaves. Male flowers have long stamens that extend beyond the petal and are covered in yellow pollen. The female stigma extends past the petals. Seeds are on double samaras (winged seeds) that children often call "helicopters". Most of the flowers are high up...

Sugar Maple

Sugar, or rock maple is a species of maple native to the hardwood forests of Central and Eastern United States.

Striped Maple

Flowers emerge after the leaves and are small, greenish yellow and form drooping clusters. Fruit is reddish at first and turn to tan later and are typical maple samaras with widely spaced wings and mature in late summer. Striped Maples are important to the forest ecosystem as they provide layered diversity under the canopy. Twigs...

Paper Birch

Flowers are wind pollinated catkins with male and female flowers on the same tree. Make catkins are 2-3 3/4 inches long; female catkins are 1/2-1 inch long. They develop in the fall as pressed and compact and open the following spring.

Blue Beech

As a Birch, Blue Beech has both male and female catkins on each tree. Male catkins are yellow-green, have no stalk, and grows 3/4- 2" long. Female catkins are shorter at 1/3- 1 1/4 inches long.

Downy Serviceberry

Flowers are white and have five petals which form in drooping clusters and appear before the leaves in early spring. Flowers ripen into berries which are dark-purplish black in early summer.

Shagbark Hickory

Male flowers are in clusters called catkins and are 1 1/2-5 inches long and pendulous in groups of three. Flowers are yellowish-green. Female flowers are tiny and clustered in twos and fours at the tips of new growth.

American Chestnut

Male and female flowers appear on the same branch. Male flowers are greenish-white and appear on 6-8 inch catkins. Female flowers are much smaller and appear at the base of the catkin. The trees are self incompatible thus requires two trees from the walnut Castanea species to produce fruit.

Hackberry

Flowers are greenish-to yellow 1/4 inch across and lack petals. There are 4-6 spreading septals. Male flowers appear at the base of new branchlets and have 4-6 brown stamens. Female flowers are singles or doubles from the leaf axis. Flower stalks can be hairy or smooth and are about 3/8 inch long when in flower...

Shadblow Serviceberry

Long-petaled, white blossoms flower before the leaves emerge, making this an important early pollinator plant. The berry is small, crimson colored, and edible. Favored by birds.

Redbud

Flowers are showy, light to dark pink appearing in clusters of 4-8 along bare stems. Fruits are long legume shaped with 10-12 seeds in each pod.

Yellow Birch

Flowers are wind pollinated catkins which open in late spring. Catkins are 2-4 " long in clusters of 3-6 on old growth wood.

Flowering Dogwood

White blossoms appear to float above the stems. The flowers are yellow and very small and are surrounded by 4 large white (sometimes pink) bracts. Each bract has a rounded notch on the outer edge. Fruits ripen in fall.

American Hazelnut

Male catkins form in the fall and persist through the winter maturing in spring. At the same time several female flowers bloom together from a small swollen bud surrounded by protective bracts. Hazelnut shrubs are wind pollinated. After blooming, the fertile female flowers develop into a small cluster of nuts with protective bracts that begin...

Cockspur Hawthorn

Profuse clusters of white flowers, followed by small red apples. The single flower has five white petals and stand erect.

American Beech

Yellowish-green flowers bloom in spring with the male flowers appearing in globular clusters and the female flowers in short spikes. Fertilized female flowers produce triangular nuts enclosed by spiny bracts that ripen in fall.

Common Witch-hazel

The tree produces bright yellow flowers in winter which rather look like spiders with very slender petals. The flowers form in clusters with four crinkly, ribbon shaped petals along the branches. The fruit is contained in a woody, brown capsule 5 inches long and almost as wide holding 2 black seeds. Flowers are pollinated by

Butternut

Male flowers are inconspicuous yellow-green catkins. Female flowers are short terminal spikes in new shoots. Each female flower has a bright pink stigma. The fruit is a lemon-shaped nut formed in bunches of 2-6 together. The nut is oblong, ovoid and are 1.25-2.25" long and .75-1.5" wide. Nuts are surrounded by a green husk before...