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
