Plants, fungi, and wildlife

Boxelder

Acer negundo

Maple with compound leaves. Seedlings are often mistaken for poison ivy.

American sycamore

Platanus occidentalis

The white-boned giant of Laughery Creek. Mottled bark, maple-like leaves, hanging seed balls.

Tulip poplar

Liriodendron tulipifera

Indiana’s state tree. Four-lobed leaf with a notched tip; tulip flowers green and orange.

White oak

Quercus alba

Rounded lobes, light bark. The best wild starch in these woods — acorns leach sweet.

Northern red oak

Quercus rubra

Pointed bristle-tipped lobes. Acorns are bitter and need longer leaching than white oak.

Shagbark hickory

Carya ovata

Long curling bark plates and the sweetest wild nut in the county.

Bitternut hickory

Carya cordiformis

Sulfur-yellow buds, tight bark, bitter nuts. Smoke wood, not table nuts.

Black walnut

Juglans nigra

Chambered pith, tennis-ball green husks, rich oily nuts. Hulls stain everything.

Pawpaw

Asimina triloba

Indiana banana. Large tropical leaves, maroon flowers, custard fruit in September.

American persimmon

Diospyros virginiana

Blocky bark, orange fruit that is inedible until soft-ripe or frosted.

Sugar maple

Acer saccharum

Five-lobed leaf, sharp brown buds, the tap tree of a Dearborn winter.

Red maple

Acer rubrum

V-shaped leaf sinuses, red buds and twigs. Sap is thinner than sugar maple.

Eastern redcedar

Juniperus virginiana

Scale-leaved evergreen of old pastures. Blue ‘berries’ season gin and stew; mothproof chests.

Flowering dogwood

Cornus florida

Four white bracts in April, blocky bark, red berries for birds — not for you.

Eastern redbud

Cercis canadensis

Magenta pea-flowers on bare wood in April. Flowers and young pods are edible.

Spicebush

Lindera benzoin

Lemon-spice crushed leaves. The understory compass of rich creek woods.

American elderberry

Sambucus canadensis

Flat white flower plates, then purple berry clusters. Cook the fruit; raw berries upset stomachs.

Multiflora rose

Rosa multiflora

Invasive living wire. Fringed stipules, clusters of small white roses, then hips.

Black willow

Salix nigra

The creek aspirin tree. Narrow leaves, brittle twigs, catkins in spring.