During my observation in Sherwood Hills I discovered mostly Red Oak Trees and a few Poplar Tulip trees. Prior to thoroughly observing these trees I’d always felt they were nothing but a mess and high maintenance. The Red Oak Tree disposes of a lot of leaves during the fall and on or around Spring time.
The Tulip tree is a very tall tree. What makes this tree so gorgeous is the tulip like greenish/yellowish flowers that grow from the branches. Bees use this to make honey and there is wildlife that eats the fruit and twigs. The Red oak grow much faster than your normal oak and is normally used for construction and interior work. Red Oak is very common in Residential area, similar to the one where the observation took place. Aside from the extra hard work of cleaning up so many leaves, the Red Oak tree does supply food for many of the surrounding species; Acorns. It also supplies a home or shelter for birds in the area. My favorite part about the Red Oak Tree is when the majority of the tree has foliage, the shade is lovely.
The neighborhood consist of more than 150 or so of the Red Oak Tree. They all appear to be in pretty good condition. Based on a glance they all look identical. Each one is around the same height and I’m thinking the same width. Considering each home has around 3 or more trees out in the front, you’d think that it is possible that the care that each home owner takes of their own individual yard would contribute to the overall tree health. There are many neighbors who water and feed their yard a lot more than others, and I’m wondering if that plays a roll in preserving tree health. I’m guessing that the trees that are located in front of the “ lawn obsessed” neighbors homes are probably going to be a lot larger with better rated foliage. Maybe the other home owners can improve their trees health by following the same steps?
Sherwood Hills is a subdivision located off Highway 367/ Lewis & Clark Blvd. Blackhurst and Haviland Drive are the two main streets. This area would be considered Bellefontaine Neighbors in Missouri, St. Louis North County. The homes in this subdivision were built around 40 or 50 years ago and the trees were planted around that same time. There are around 50 homes in the area and each home has around 3 trees in front, that would make the count somewhere around 150 trees total. Each tree is a Red Oak Tree or Quercus Rubra. There are also a few Poplar/Tulip trees or Liriodendron tulipiferas also. These few are located in my back yard, I’m guessing it’s possible that previous owners planted this tree somewhere with in the past 30 years.
The Observation area is very established with a lot of life. Each tree should receive the same amount of rain and sunlight. They are all aligned within 7 or 8 feet apart from one another so no tree is blocking another from receiving food and water. They all appear to bloom around the same time and lose limbs and foliage around the same time also.
The Sherwood Hills observation area consist of around 250 trees. Out of the 250 trees I observed 20. Seventeen were Red Oak trees and three were Poplar/tulip trees. The Tulip (620) trees were 13, 12 & 12 in DBH. That would make the size 13 a large and the other two medium sized trees. The Red Oak Trees (870) were all large sized trees. There was two size 15, two size 16, Two size 17, four size 18, Three size 20, two size 21, one size 23 and one size 24. Not one tree would I categorize as ‘ Dead’. Each tree had bendable limbs and showed no sign of diseases or irreversible damage.
The overall health of each tree was positive. The crown, foliage, and trunk and limbs all showed no signs of stress, insect or disease activity. After laying back to observe each tree I discovered no large gaps or areas were there was too much space or leaves missing. The season may have interfered with there being an abundance of leaves on each tree, it was obvious that the amount of leaves there were beginning to grow were healthy, green, and more than 51% of the tree’s crowns. There did not appear to be any bare branches in the tops or sides of any of the trees. Therefore each tree rated a 1.
The foliage on the Red Oak Tree was not as green, and did not display the same healthy appearance as the Poplar/tulip tree. With that being said I believe this was do to the fact that the leaves there were found on the ground for the Red Oak were older and had been detached from the tree for a longer time than that of the one that was picked from the ground for the Poplar/tulip tree. The leaves that were growing on the trees were spring green and had healthy appearances with no sign of disease or stress. There was positively more than 51% of the attached foliage that appeared healthy.
The Trunk and Limbs were also very healthy. The trunk was very thick and strong with no evidence of disease or stress as well as the limbs were bendable and producing healthy green leaves. I did not see any large holes or discoloration.
*Insert Tree Observations here
DISCUSSION It’s obvious that the Red oak Trees have been all growing for around the same amount of time. What has be baffled is the difference in size for each tree. There seems to be no rhyme or rhythm to the difference in the Red oak Trees. We’re not in a common drought area, so I’d assume each tree has been receiving the proper amount of food and nutrients it needs to survive. The size of the tree played no part, that I could see, in the overall health factor of the tree, nor did it affect that crown or foliage.
There was not much dieback to judge. Although what was present was not abundant it was enough to capture the trees health. Some of the Red Oak trees did have branches that were closer towards the bottom that were bare due to shading, but the majority of the crown was far from bare. What I did notice was that the trees that were larger in DBH did consist of more die-back than those that were not as large, and there weren’t many small twigs or branches that’d fallen.
At times I’ll find a leaf that has some insect damage or show signs of stress, but usually it’s temporary and has not resulted in the overall death of any of the Red Oak trees. Any and all foliage that I could collect was parts that had fallen and were to dried out to compare. But the leaves that were present on the trees were fare from dried out and very healthy.
The Tulip tree is the picture of health. The branches, limbs, leaves, and trunk all look youthful, beautiful and full of life. This tree was a easier to observe. The Tulip tree appears to blossom and bloom much sooner than the Red Oak tree.
At the beginning of this observation it appeared evident that the trees included would display similar results and data. After observing each tree individually I came to the realization that there is a larger gap in the size of the trees than previously anticipated. Also that there is no real difference elsewhere. Although some of the neighbors are always in their yard watering their grass and calling someone in to cut limbs and branches from there trees their’s did not seem to differ from those who could care less. These observation results tell me that the life of a Red Oak Tree, or a Tulip/Poplar tree possibly doesn’t thrive on the upkeep or maintenance done on or around the tree area. The location, amount of sunlight and moisture in the area appears to be what contributes to the trees overall health. Some of the larger trees were surrounded by smaller trees in the same yard. Therefore it could not be anything humanly possible that one homeowner could do to produce better tree health than the next.
