Favorite Massive Trees

     I am always inspired when I see one of four different kinds of massive, deciduous trees in southeastern Pennsylvania in winter when their shapes and bark are most evident.  Those four species, including sycamores, shagbark hickories, American beeches and white oaks, to me, are handsome, and give me a sense of strength and permanence.  Each kind of these magnificent, old trees has a unique beauty that sets it apart and identifies it.  Each type has its own niche, and all these stately trees are riddled with cavities, which add to their rustic elegance and provide homes and nurseries for a variety of creatures.
     Sycamore trees stand out because of their mottled bark and decorative seed balls on long stems drooping and swaying from the ends of twigs.  Older bark on sycamores is darker than younger bark.  When pieces of older bark fall off sycamores, the younger bark underneath becomes visible, making an attractive patchwork appearance on the trees' trunks and branches.
     Sycamores grow wild on moist floodplains along creeks and rivers.  Their mottled bark indicates the presence of water, even when that bark is seen from a distance.  And some huge sycamores each has a hollow at the ground level that a bear or a couple of people could crawl into.
     Barred owls seem to prefer nesting in the hollows of large sycamores.  Raccoons live in bigger sycamore cavities.  And Baltimore orioles build their woven, pouched nurseries from the ends of twigs on sycamore limbs that hang over waterways.
     Shagbark hickory trees inhabit bottomland woods where the soil is generally moist at all times.  This tree species has bark that peels off trunks and limbs in long strips, giving the trees an attractive, shaggy appaearance.  Both ends of each sheet curl out from the tree, but the middle of each strip stays attached to the tree for a while, giving each hickory tree a rough, rustic appearance that is attractive.
     Hickories have yellow leaves in October and hard nuts that have green husks in four parts.  Only squirrels have teeth sharp enough and jaws strong enough to chew into the nuts' shells to consume the meat inside each nut.
     American beeches are woodland trees that have pretty, smooth, gray bark that is unique and identifies them.  Beeches have bronze foliage in October.  Some of those leaves remain attached to the tree limbs all winter.  In winter, those dead, dried leaves are pale-beige and curled, and identify beeches in the woods, even from a distance.
     Beech nuts are eaten by a variety of woods creatures, including black bears, white-tailed deer, rodents, wild turkeys, blue jays and other species.
     Beech trees have long, pointed leaf buds through winter.  Those buds become even longer, and attractive, late in April when they grow and unfurl into new leaves.
     Large, old white oaks are my favorite massive trees.  They mostly live in bottomland woods, but many grow in cow pastures carved from woodlands.  These ancient trees have very thick trunks and huge, gnarled limbs that are rustic and breath-taking.
     White oaks have red and brown foliage in autumn, and acorns that are edible to people and a variety of critters, including bears, deer, rodents, foxes, wild turkeys and other kinds of wildlife in woods that fatten up on those nuts to get through the winter.
     Some acorns are stored in tree hollows and holes in the soil in fall, to be eaten through winter.  Blue jays and squirrels do most of the storing.  And acorns not eaten have a chance to sprout the following spring.
     These massive trees lend a feeling of strength and permanence.  And they are elegantly handsome and benefit wildlife.  They are awe-inspiring trees.