Poetry Corner

Poetry Corner:  Trees

By Matthew Anderson 

Poplar

Nickname:  Poplar to Matthew from David

Part of the Willow Family

Often found near water

Petals are not found on the flowers

Leaves sound like raindrops in the wind

After the seeds fall off tree they need to find moist ground before they dry out

Rid the bark and find wood light and soft 

Fig

Nickname:  Fig to Shirley from Paul

Fruit can eaten fresh, canned, preserved, stewed or dried

It is in the Mulberry Family

Genesis 3:7 talks about its leaves 

Palm

Nickname:  Palm to Judy from Gloria

Palm Sunday

A tree that has coconuts

Leaves are fan shaped

Most palms have thick trunks but some are no thicker than a pencil  

Lilac

Nickname:  Lilac to Dianne from Gloria

Leaves are spade shaped

Ivory Silk is a variety

Large flowers

Able to survive temperatures as low as 30 degrees below zero

Can live for almost one hundred years  

Ash

Nickname:  Ash to Purdy from Matthew

Ashes fall colors are yellow to maroon

Series of Redwall includes a riddle about it

Has 65 kinds  

Oak

Nickname:  Oak to David from Gloria

Often can live to be 300

Acorns are sometimes edible

Kinds are over 200  

Dogwood

Nickname:  Dogwood to Julie from David

Decided to be Cornus florida

One of many barks used as a fever medicine

Gray when young

Washed the dogs suffering from mange with boiled bark

Originated in Europe

Often bark looks like hide of alligator

Does have a poem with reference to Jesus about it 

Olive

Nickname:  Olive to Jennifer from Dianne

Often leaves were woven into wreaths

Leaves and bark are gray-green

In the Bible at Genesis 8:11

Very safe canned food

Even the bark was used to heal wounds  

Holly

Nickname:  Holly to Holly from Gloria

Has very hard wood that is valuable for furniture

Often used in the black keys on pianos

Leaves are shiny

Light gray bark

Yaupon is a kind  

Blue Spruce

Nickname:  Blue Spruce to Linda from Dianne

Book award in Colorado for young adults to pick their favorite book

Live potted Christmas tree

Unique blue coloring

Even a privacy screen  

State tree of Colorado and Utah

Pikes Peak is where it was discovered in 1862

Rising to 90 feet high

Used for windbreak

Cone hangs down from branches

Evergreen  

Yew

Nickname:  Yew to Gloria from Paul

You can make it into a bow

Extremely poisonous

With bark that is reddish brown  

Larch

Nickname:  Larch to Paul from David

Looses its needles in the winter and changes color with the seasons

A use of it is baking powder

Right in the wood there is a special gum

Cones are woody

Has strong and durable wood  

Sequoia

So far General Sherman is the largest tree known to man

Enter Florissant Fossils Beds in Colorado and you will find petrified stumps

Quite tall as up to 311 feet

USA's National Tree

Often can weigh up to 2.7 million pounds

Is thought to have been named after Sequoyah, a Cherokee linguist/silversmith who created a system of writing for the Cherokee language

As it grows older the bark turns gray with weather  

Elm

Even the Iroquois used the bark to construct canoes, rope and utensils

Lumber and shade is what it is valued for

Making barrels, wagon wheels, and farm implements out of this wood is perfect since this wood doesn't split easily  

Aspen

Among the branches you will find spade-shaped leaves

Sheep, deer, goats, and cattle are fonder perhaps of these leaves than they are of those of any other tree

Poplar it is

Even rapidly grows on burned-over land

Not usually a large tree  

Willow

Wood, roots, and branches all bend easily

It's leaves are narrow and curved at the tips

Likes to grow near water

Largest group of wood plants native to North America

Others in temperate regions of North America sometimes reach a height of 140 feet

Wicker furniture and baskets are made from its branches and twigs  

Fir

Find it shaped like a pyramid

Is an evergreen

Run into it and see the stalks of the needles are twisted so that they seem to be growing in rows on opposite sides of the branch