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When the leaves and fruit are on -- quite a few! When it's just bark not near as many. And I have to admit that I have increased my knowledge in just the last few years -- better late than never! I'm not sure I can give you a number off the top of my head, I'll have to test myself and see.

Ditto - the oaks are tricky for me, we have so many kinds. Blackjacks, pin oaks, Shumard, those are easy, but there are so many more. I will think about this. Native evergreens here are limited to cedar, although these are invasive, planted as windbreaks during the dust bowl days. Oklahoma and eastern redbuds, I don't know the difference offhand. Dogwood, sycamore, river birch, maple are easy. Bois d'Arc and catalpa are distinctive. I'll think of more.

 

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How many can you identify by smell and taste?

I would flunk that test! ;-)

 

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By smell of the bark and or wood (and obviously this is when you are perhaps given or find a dislocated chunk o' wood) I can detect cherry, maple, sassafras (easy), walnut, catalpa, red oak, basswood, aspen, buckeye and mulberry. Hey, not a big list, but it has been thru experience that I know I can do this. Also, I imagine any cedar would be very easy to detect, especially western red (smells like pencils), and eastern aromatic (smells like gerbils).

I was joking about the taste.

Sooooo, you sniff gerbils, Shawn? Ha ha, hope it's fresh gerbil smell. Yes, cedar is easy even for me. My first two very, very crude sticks were honey locust, but I just completed my first two decent sticks and they were red cedar from northeast Texas. The wood had already died and dried thoroughly, but I could still smell it just a bit when sawing or sanding.

 

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Thanks gdenby -- these trees are right at the edge of the field and woods. And they are small -- I'm not sure where they came from, I have not found any larger ones anywhere on the farm (dosn't mean they are not there -- just haven't found them yet).

Seeds dropped in bird poop? ;-)