Treesearch

Fraxinus nigra Marsh. (black ash) is a native North American hardwood tree species that is ecologically important and has ethnobotanical significance to American Indian communities of the eastern United States. Black ash has immature embryos at seed set, combined with complex stratification requirements, making natural regeneration difficult. This, combined with the threat and devastation being caused by the emerald ash borer, makes an in vitro adventitious shoot regeneration and rooting protocol imperative for mass propagation, conservation, and genetic improvement of this species.

The hard, strong, very close-grained wood of common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana L.; Ebenaceae) is desirable for specialty products such as golf club heads, percussion sticks, billiard cues, and for wood turnery. The edible fruit of cultivated varieties is sold as pulp for use in puddings, cookies, cakes, and custards. Persimmon is usually propagated by grafting. Own-rooted clonal persimmon could offer several advantages to specialty fruit growers such as elimination of grafting, graft incompatibility issues, and improved rootstocks for variety testing. Four mature, grafted (male and...

Terrestrial plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, a process that is accompanied by the loss of water vapour from leaves. The ratio of water loss to carbon gain, or water-use efficiency, is a key characteristic of ecosystem function that is central to the global cycles of water, energy and carbon. Here we analyse direct, long-term measurements of whole-ecosystem carbon and water exchange. We find a substantial increase in water-use efficiency in temperate and boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere over the past two decades. We systematically assess various...

Seventeen species are accepted in the genus Epithele, including new species E. belizensis, E. ceracea, E. reunionis, and E. ryvardenii. Descriptions and illustrations are provided for all species. The generic concept is emended to include Corticium bambusae, from Trinidad on bamboo, which lacks sterile hyphal pegs; the new combination Epithele bambusae is proposed. The type specimens of Dendrothele duthieae, D. subfusispora, Epithele macarangae, and Laeticorticium odontioides were examined and determined to be conspecific with E. interrupta. The monotypic genus Skeletohydnum is considered...

Discrete trees and small groups of trees in nonforest settings are considered an essential resource around the world and are collectively referred to as trees outside forests (ToF). ToF provide important functions across the landscape, such as protecting soil and water resources, providing wildlife habitat, and improving farmstead energy efficiency and aesthetics. Despite the significance of ToF, forest and other natural resource inventory programs and geospatial land cover datasets that are available at a national scale do not include comprehensive information regarding ToF in the United...

Demand from housing and other construction-related sectors continues to be an important issue for the secondary wood products industry. Conducted in early 2013, this fourth annual survey provides updated information on the status and actions of U.S. manufacturers affected by these industries. The study is a joint effort by Virginia Tech, the USDA Forest Service, and Wood Products.

The emerald ash borer (EAB) Agrilus planipennis, first detected in 2002 in the vicinity of Detroit, Michigan, USA, is one of the most recent in a long list of introduced insect pests that have caused serious damage to North American forest trees, in this case ash trees in the genus Fraxinus. We used data from Project FeederWatch, a citizen science program focused on winter bird populations, to quantify the effects of EAB invasion on four species of resident, insectivorous birds known or likely to be EAB predators: three woodpecker species and the white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)....

This publication provides an overview of forest resource attributes for Nebraska based on an annual inventory conducted by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program at the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service. These estimates, along with web-posted core tables, will be updated annually. For more information please refer to page 5 of this report.

Red-bellied Mudsnakes (Farancia abacura; Fig. 1A) and Rainbow Snakes (Farancia erytrogramma; Fig. 1B) are relatively large species with geographic distributions restricted to the southeastern United States. Both species are highly associated with aquatic habitats, to the extent that at least one, the Red-bellied Mudsnake, has been described as "fully aquatic" (Lutterschmidt et al. 2006). Adults of both species have highly specialized diets: Red-bellied Mudsnakes feed primarily on aquatic, elongate, eel-like salamanders (Sirens [Siren spp., Pseudobranchus spp.] and Amphiumas [Amphiuma...

More than 1,500 covered bridges remain in the United States. They are a unique part of our history; thus, replacement of bridge components is an equally important part of preserving this uncommon style of craftsmanship. The goal of this project was to evaluate seven wood species for their durability in above-ground field exposure. Chemical analysis was also conducted using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GS–MS) for fatty acids and terpenoids in an attempt to correlate extractive content with durability. Extracts removed from the durable wood species were also tested in laboratory...