Tolerance of Planted Hardwoods to Spring Flooding

Abstract

Cuttings of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) and seedlings of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), and green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) were planted on a slackwater clay (Vertic Haplaquept) in western Mississippi in two consecutive years and inundated soon after foliation. During each of the two years, survival following flooding was consistently high for water tupelo, green ash, and sycamore, low for cottonwood, and intermediate for sweetgum. With the exception of green ash, however, all species lost their leaves and died back to the root collar during flooding. Thus trees, other than ash, that were living at the end of the growing season had originated from root collar sprouts.

Citation

Baker, James B. 1977. Tolerance of Planted Hardwoods to Spring Flooding. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 1(3):23-25.