|
The texture
and appearance of bark is characteristic for many species, but the
essence of its recognition is best acquired by visual experience
and not by written description.
Three general
types of bark texture can be summarized for most of our woody plants:
smooth, papery, and rough.
Smooth
bark: Surface relatively unbroken, usually thin (ex.
beech, ailanthus).
Fluted
— sinewy or wavy profile (as in hornbeam).
Striated — striped or lined (as in striped maple).
Mottled — particolored. Can be slightly scaly with
thin, close scales (as in sycamore).
Lenticellate — marked by numerous raised lenticels
(as in spicebush). Lenticels may be horizontally elongated (as
in cherry).
Papery
bark: Basically smooth but with peeling or shreddy outer
layers, sometimes a thick accumulation. Also referred to as "peeling"
or "shreddy" bark (ex. paper and river birch).
Exfoliating
— shedding in thin layers; usually applied to small-diameter
stems (as in honeysuckle).
Rough
bark: Thick or hardened, roughened surface.
Warty
— raised excrescences, with intermediate areas smooth (as
in hackberry).
Scaly
— flat-topped, brittle plates which are free or curling on
edges. Of three general patterns:
Thin scales
— narrow as in hophornbeam, or wide as in
cherry
Thick scales — elongate as in shagbark hickory,
or wide as in black birch, sugar maple.
Scaly plates or ridges — as in pecan, white oak.
Furrowed
— surface wrinkled or broken by furrows and thickened ridges
or plates.
Plates —
flat-topped ridges, shortened or broken horizontally, as in
shortleaf pine.
BIocky — thick, squarish plates as in persimmon.
Ridged — elongated ridges and furrows:
Regular
pattern — orderly and interlacing, as in ash.
Irregular pattern — ridges vary, often broken irregularly,
as in red oak.
|
