Pop quiz--Bark!

I've been saving this entry up for a slump, to break the monotony of a long period of not being able to get outdoors.  Well, I did actually get out last Saturday, for our annual post-Thanksgiving workday, but I was too busy with the merry slaughter of buckthorn with my mighty chainsaw to take any photos or deeply contemplate the beauty of nature.  How I love thee, dear chainsaw (even though, after long stretches of time without you, you make my core muscles scream like I've been hit by a freight train)!  It was a great workday, with a small group of turkey-fattened troopers, ending with roasted apples and potatoes over the coals of a raging brush pile.  I learned an important lesson that day, as well--avoid coring an apple with a paring knife while said apple is held in your other hand.  I sliced all the way through the first layer of skin of my left hand, all the way down to the meat.  It looks like I have one half of a pair of stigmata.  The skin has healed nicely, but I have some nerve damage; I have pain shooting up my ring finger every time I brush the wound ever so slightly.  I am a fool.

Back on track--during my epic cage match trip in October, I took a bunch of photos of tree bark.  Since the winter was coming round (and by this point, is already here), I was testing my skills at identifying trees solely by their bark.  This is a handy skill to have.  This became even more apparent on the AP field trips (also back in October), when my kids were struggling mightily with tree ID.  Even when they could reach the branches and see the leaves and their arrangement up close, they still had trouble distinguishing them by drawings.  When the leaves were out of reach, they were hopeless.  I finally started showing them the tricks of tree bark...the burnt potato chip trick, the ski slopes trick, etc.  This was infinitely more successful.  So here is a representative sample of northern Illinois trees...can YOU identify them by their bark? (Answers at bottom)

 1a.  Sapling with smoothish, nondescript bark.  This one always stumps me.  It doesn't look like anything.

 1b.  Same species, older tree.  The bark gets a little rougher, but still not any interesting pattern.  Those yellow-bellied sapsucker holes, on the other hand...very telling.

 2.  Long, peely strips of bark are a dead giveaway for this one.

3a.  Anyone paying attention to earlier entries will get this one.  This one mystified me, because the leaves were so far overhead, until I saw some saplings nearby...

 3b.  A-ha.  This one has the characteristic warty bark I'm used to seeing in smaller trees lining city streets.  They just don't get that big in captivity.

 4.  Diamond-shaped bark pattern, if you have an active imagination

 5.  Oooo.  This tree is unusual around here.  Perhaps reminiscent of its cousin, #4?

 6.  Rough and stringy-looking bark, with a hint of orange color.  Okay, so maybe this is not so representative of northern Illinois trees.

 7.  Striiiiiiated, like cat scratches.  (That would be a hint as to its scientific name, and how I first learned to remember it)

 8.  Burnt potato chips!

 9.  A harmless fungus makes the lower bark of this tree fall off in patches, or so they say.

 10.  Thick, corky bark helps protect this species from prairie fires.  (The National Arbor Day sent me a survey about trees in the mail today, in a thinly veiled attempt to get me to make a donation.  They asked whether I thought the white oak was an appropriate choice for the state tree of Illinois [no, I don't].  Had they given me space to write a rebuke, I would have said that THIS tree should be our state tree, and those airhead elementary schoolchildren should never have been allowed to make such an important decision.  But they didn't, so I didn't send in the survey. [Northern cardinal, state bird?  Bluegill, state fish?  What are these kids smoking?])

 11.  Near the top of the trunk, this tree has long, smooth, lighter-colored strips of bark running down its length, reminiscent of ski slopes.

 12.  Smooth, straight trunks with thin, indented cracks.  Often multi-trunked.  

 13.  A rough patchwork of multi-colored bricks--grays, creams, reds, black, and usually with a smattering of moss or lichen to green it up.

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The answers! They're in alphabetical order by scientific name, because that's how my computer arranged them.  Hope that didn't make it too easy!

1.  Sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
2.  Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata)
3.  Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)
4.  Green ash (Fraxinus pensylvanicus)
5.  Blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata)
6.  Osage orange (Maclura pomifera)
7.  Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana)
8.  Black cherry (Prunus serotina)
9.  White oak (Quercus alba)
10.  Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
11.  Red oak (Quercus rubra)
12.  American basswood (Tilia americana)
13.  American elm (Ulmus americana)