Picturesque Winter Trees

     The "skeletons" of deciduous trees are visible in winter, after their colorful veils of foliage have dropped to the ground.  The bark and the rugged shapes of standing trees are just as handsome in winter as their leaves are in summer and autumn.  Nine species of native trees here in southeastern Pennsylvania are especially attractive to me because of their protective bark and interesting shapes.  These species are striking, and distinctive, which makes each one identifiable in winter.  And those same kinds of trees can get massive, which adds to their charm.
     Sycamore and silver maple trees grow mostly along waterways.  Sycamores are noted for their mottled bark and seed balls that hang on long stems from the ends of twigs.  As the older, darker bark falls away in little pieces, the lighter, younger bark is visible, causing the mottled appearance on trunk and branches.  Because of sycamores' blotched bark and growing along waterways, one can see from a distance where waterways are.      
     Silver maples have rough bark and scraggly shapes.  But both this maple, and sycamores, help hold down stream-side soil with their roots and have many cavities caused by wind ripping limbs off their trees, causing the wood underneath to rot out.  Raccoons, wood ducks, barred owls, chickadees and other kinds of wildlife live in those different-sized hollows, and raise young in them.
     Shagbark hickories, pin oaks and white oaks grow best in woods on moist bottomlands, but not necessarily along waterways.  Maturing shagbarks have many vertical sheets of bark on their trunks and limbs, each one of which is loose and curls up at both ends, but its center is still attached to the tree.  Those many strips of bark give each hickory a shaggy, rustic, interesting appearance.  Gray squirrels and other kinds of rodents gnaw into the green husks and white shells of hickory nuts to consume the meat inside.  Only rodents have jaws strong enough and teeth sharp enough to do that.
     Pin oaks have lower limbs that droop to the ground, which identifies them.  This type of oak produces small acorns, each with a "pin" on its end.  Those nuts are hidden away by blue jays, gray squirrels and eastern chipmunks for winter use.  And other kinds of wildlife, including black bears, white-tailed deer, white-footed mice, other kinds of squirrels, American crows and wild turkeys, consume pin oak acorns as well.  
     White oaks have grooved, pale-gray bark that identifies them.  Their sweet acorns are eaten by the same creatures mentioned above, plus people.
     Tulip poplar trees, American beeches and sugar maples inhabit drier bottomland woods.  Tulip trees have straight trunks, shallow grooves in their smooth bark, beige, winged seeds that twirl and scatter in the wind to the ground and many upright, inch-long spikes that the seeds were attached to before dispersing.  The spikes are pointed at the upper end and can be used as toothpicks.  
     Beeches have attractively smooth, gray bark that identifies them.  And they have small nuts in bristly husks that feed the same critters mentioned above.  Massive beeches have many cavities that house a variety of woodland wildlife.              
     Sugar maples have rugged-looking bark that flares out in many places along the trunk and branches, but is tightly attached to them.  Large sugar maples have many hollows that house several kinds of cavity-living wildlife.   
     These are some of my favorite trees in winter, obviously for a variety of reasons.  They help make winter landscapes more beautiful and intriguing.  And they provide food and cover for several types of wildlife.