Trees With Deep Roots

    Some trees with deep beauty are scarcely found in the commercial market.  Five such trees are common Hickory (Carya), White Oak (Quercus alba), Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), Sassafras (Sassafras albidum), and the Japanese Pagoda tree (Sophora japonica).   One might think the common bond of these trees would be their origin.  Close, but not quite.  All but the Japanese Pagoda trees are natives of the Eastern United States.  Can you guess where the Japanese Pagoda tree hails from?

    The common bond is that these trees form a very deep taproot in their early stages.  This deep taproot makes these plants very sensitive to transplanting.  Indeed, the White oak rarely survives the severing of its roots when being dug for transplant.  Conversely, dogwoods and maples are relatively shallow rooted and transplant more successfully.  For this reason, the dogwoods and maples are commonly available in nurseries.

    Why then do we have so many White oaks and hickories in our woodlands?   The squirrels easily exceed our abilities to propagate these species by simply planting a nut or an acorn in place least likely to be disturbed.  The beds surrounding my house often have seedlings of these trees.  If I don’t eradicate them quickly, they become difficult to remove, even with my “super-duper” steel handled shovel.  Both of these plants are stately.

    I have never seen Sassafras available commercially, but we sure made good tea with the roots when I was a child visiting Bluestone State Park near Hinton, W. Va. during church camp.  This was always a nice way to end the day after bonding with nature and listening to the counselors describe the agony the “revenuers” must have felt as they showed us a couple of bullet riddled Model-A’s  at the edge of the tree line.  Only in later years did I realize that the counselors had probably shot the holes in the cars to embellish their stories, and possibly drive home the point of the evils of those “moon shiners”.  Good ole’ Sassafras.

    In a previous column I wrote about the Black Gum.  This is a tree I truly love, as is the Japanese Pagoda tree.  These plants can be found in commercial nurseries, but they are generally about twice as expensive as a typically marketed tree of comparable size because they are so hard to propagate.  Your best bet is to buy one that has been grown in a container, though we have only had them with field-grown root balls.  Our losses were over 50% in the nursery.  If you find one, make sure that it is not freshly dug.  These are plants that should be allowed to settle after digging.  (The same could be said for Foster hollies).  All of these plants are fine plants, but not commonly available.  If you want a hickory or a White oak, transplant them from your yard early.

    Until next week.