Plant Taxonomy Portfolio

By: Matthew Mattox

Eastern Red Cedar

• Juniperus Virginiana• Keeps its foliage year round, grows in zones 2-9, aromatic

tree with reddish wood giving off the scent of cedar.• Full direct sun for 6 hours per day.• Likes acidic, loamy, moist, rich, well drained and clay soils

Red Cedar

• The eastern red cedar grows in a columnar or pyramidal shape, and features scale-like evergreen leaves compacted to form rounded branches. It’s also green and produces grayish colored fruit. Can grow to 40-50In in height and 8-20in in width.• Has a high tolerance to heat, salt, wide ranges of soils, and

other adverse.• Flowering or fruiting is the reproduction method.

Black Oak

• Quercuz Velutina• The inner bark is bright yellow to orange, the outside bark is

smooth and gray on young trees but as they age the bark turns a thick dark black with ridges. The black oaks fruit are acorns.• Best growth is in moist, well-drained soils with average

temperatures.• Grows in zones 3-9

Black Oak

• The black oak can grow up to 50-80ft tall and 40-60ft wide it can differ between species. It always grows broad and rounded. With different aged trees there can be different textures, the older trees are more rough and ridged while younger trees are smooth.• Reproduces by flowering or fruiting which involves seed

production and dissemination.• Tolerates mostly everything.

Bradford Pear

• Pyrus Alleryana• Zone 5-9• Prefers well-drained loams with consistent moisture in full

sun.• The Bradford pear is a tight, narrow, pyramidal, thornless

tree. Oval glossy dark leaves that change to a reddish-purple in fall. Viable seeds can be produced when the pear cross-pollinate.

Bradford Pear

• Can grow up to heights as 25-35ft with the spread of 13-16ft. Its flowers in the fall are five-petaled white creamy flowers and is a upright-branched ornamental tree. It grows pyramidal to columnar in youth but becomes oval in spreading age.• Tolerates drought, clay soil, and air pollution• Reproduces by seeding.

Eastern RedBud

• Cercis Canadensis• Grows in zones 4-9• Is a deciduous tree with purplish-pink flowers. One of the

earliest flowering trees is often used to add color.• Prefers well-drained soil or any type of soil with full sun to

shade.

Eastern RedBud

• The redbud can grow up to 30ft tall and 25ft high, and it also is a rounded tree. Flowers appear in clusters on bear stems before leafs and last up to 2-3 weeks. Foliage turns a distinct yellow in the fall.• Tolerates mainly everything

Red Maple

• Acer Rubrum• The red maple is a deciduous tree so it loses its leaves in the

fall. Color differs from tree to tree in the fall. Has small red flowers in dense clusters that appear in late winter.• Prefers sandy loam to clay, with bright sun to partial shade.• Has air pollution tolerence

Red Maple

• Considered a medium texture tree with a pyramidal shape when young. Can grow up to 40-60ft with a width of 25-45 ft. Its leafs are simple leafs with 3-5 lobes often triangular shape.• Grows in zones 3-9• Reproduces with little seedlings, is thought to be an easy tree to

transplant when young

Smooth Sumac

• Rhus Glabra• The smooth sumac has 11-31 leaflets that are lanceolate or

oblong lanceolate. Has a short life span compared to other plants. Cannot survive when exposed to temps below -33F.• It reproduces by bare root, container or seed• Found in zones 3-9

Smooth Sumac

• Prefers full sun to part shade, medium or no water, well-drained soil.• The smooth sumac is a deciduous shrub that grows up to 9-15ft with

a width of 9-15ft. Its blooms are yellowish-green and grows to a large open irregular shrub.• Tolerates wide range of soils except for ones that are not well drained.

Mocker Nut Hickory

• Carya Tomentosa

• Leafs are pinnately compound while the whole leaf can grow up to 20 inches long. Its flowers are tiny and clustered together to make catkin. If a Mocker Nut Hickory ever falls or its cut down a new tree can sprout from its stump.• Flowering or fruiting, seedling or dissemenation

Mocker Nut Hickory

• The Mocker Nut Hickory can grow up to 50-80ft tall with a tree trunk up to 2ft wide and has pinnately compound leafs ranging from 9-17in long with 7-9 lanceolate oblong leaflets. The nuts have extremely hard shells.• Prefers wet, fine loams, sandy textured soils that often have been

burned, plowed, and pastured.• Tolerates mostly everything

Black Gum

• Nyssa Sylvatica• In the summer the black gums leafs are shiny dark green

above and downy below. Early color changes they change bright scarlet or purple in late summer. Flowers that appear in early spring in clusters on separate trees.• Prefers acidic soils overlying sandstone, chert, or igneous

substrate of dry, rocky, wooded slopes, ridges, ravines, and borders of sinkhole ponds. Full sun to part shade

Black Gum

• The black gum can grow up to 30-50ft with the spread of 20-30ft. Grows in Eastern North America in zones 3-9. Blooms are greenish-white in color, and straight trunk with rounded crown. Fruits mature to dark blue to attract birds.• Tolerances include clay and wet soil.• Reproduces by fruiting and pollinating.

Black Walnut

• Juglans Nigra• Zones 4-9• Prefers rich, well-drained soil of bottomlands.• The leaves are compound with 1 to 23 leaflets, and ranging

in size from 1 to 2 feet. The leaflets are 2 1/2 to 4 inches long, finely toothed and slightly hairy below the surface. Twigs are moderately stout to very stout, gray-green or light brown in color.

Black Walnut

• The black walnut can grow up to 50-75ft but can reach the maximum height of 125-175ft tall and 50-70ft wide. Has a well formed trunk with no stems for quite some way above the ground. The crown is oval to rounded and somewhat open. The bark is dark gray or black and becomes deeply furrowed with interconnecting ridges.• Can tolerate drier soils but will grow much more slowly.

Sycamore

• Platanus• Have large leafs with distinctive deep green that grow on

branches that can reach up to 175ft tall. Turn yellow in the fall. Very tall compared to other trees.• Grows in zone 4-9• Tolerates pollution and salty soils

Sycamore

• Preferes soil with lots of moisture• Can grow up to 175ft tall and 14ft wide, the sycamores leafs mimic its

tree size. In full bloom the broad, green leaves form a canopy that can exceed 70 feet in diameter.