Forest Trees of Texas: How to Know Them — Edition Insights

st export. The forest also provided our forefathers with their homes, farm implements, rifle stocks and wagons. The forest, by furnishing ties and utility poles, made possible the expansion of railroad systems, electric power and telephone networks. Every industry depends upon forest products in one way or another.

Trees are more important today than ever before. More than 10,000 products are reportedly made from trees. Through chemistry, the humble woodpile is yielding chemicals, plastics and fabrics that were beyond comprehension when an axe first felled a Texas tree.

The American standard of living depends to no small extent on the care with which we use our forest resource. Fortunately, trees are a renewable resource. They can be grown as a crop and harvested in such a way that the stand is kept productive, and a steady supply of forest products is assured.

A tree is generally defined as a woody plant having one well-defined stem and a more or less definitely formed crown, usually attaining a height of at least eight feet. Using water and minerals from the soil, gases from the air and energy from the sun, a tree manufactures the food it needs for growth and reproduction. Trees, like man, grow rapidly when they are young but gradually their growth decreases; they begin to deteriorate and eventually die. Nature then reduces them to the elements from which they were derived.

The terms “hardwood,” “softwood,” “deciduous” and “non-deciduous” are often encountered in tree literature. These terms are confusing and often misleading. Needle-bearing or cone-bearing trees are designated as softwoods even though the wood may be dense. Hardwoods are the broad-leaved (unlike needles or scales) trees, the wood of which may be dense or soft.

The conifers, or softwoods, generally retain their leaves more than one growing season and produce seed in cones; however, there are exceptions. Baldcypress, a conifer, is deciduous since it sheds its leaves in autumn. Cedar and juniper produce berry-like cones that scarcely resemble cones.

The hardwoods, or broad-leaved trees, are generally deciduous; i.e., they shed their leaves in autumn. Texas has many exceptions, for example: southern magnolia, live oak and American holly which retain green leaves through the winter.

More than half of the 1,100 species of native trees in the United States are found in the South. Of these, more than 200 species and varieties are native to Texas. In addition, many exotic species have been introduced and now grow in many parts of the state.

The four main forest regions of Texas include: the Southern pine forest in East Texas; the central hardwoods, the post oak and cross timbers of North-central Texas; the semi-tropical forest in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas; and the mountain forest, the timbered areas of West Texas which are a continuation of the timber types of the Southern Rocky Mountains. In Texas, trees are the principal vegetative cover on an estimated area of 28,805,617 acres.

PINE-HARDWOOD CEDAR BREAKS POST OAK WEST CROSS TIMBERS EAST CROSS TIMBERS MOUNTAIN FORESTS

Texas also has minor tree areas which are almost restricted to Texas; the cedar breaks and the oak shinneries. Some of the shinnery trees are among the smallest in America. In places, fully matured trees are not over knee-high and resemble pigmy forests. In other areas, the same species grows 20 to 30 feet tall to form almost impenetrable thickets.

The pine-hardwood forests of East Texas, comprise 12,525,417 acres in all or part of 42 counties. Lumber, paper, baskets, boxes, ties, poles, piling, posts, handles and shingles constitute the main forest products manufactured in the Piney Woods of East Texas.

Farther west, in East Central Texas, the post oak forests cover approximately 5,030,200 acres in all or part of 39 counties.

The east and west “cross timbers”, occur on an area of approximately 3 million acres. The term “cross timbers” originated with the early settlers who, in their travels from east to west, crossed alternating patches of forests and prairies and so affixed the name “cross timbers” to these forests.

Farther south in the Edwards Plateau region, are the cedar breaks which extend over 3¾ million acres. Cedar grows on the steep slopes and rolling hills common to this region, in association with live oak and mesquite.

Other tree areas of the state include an estimated 500,000 acres of mountain forests in the Trans-Pecos Region and the live oak area along the Gulf Coast.

Two of Texas’ trees, guaiacum and ebony, produce the hardest woods in the United States. Both species are found in the Rio Grande Valley. The tree with the lightest wood in the United States, corkwood, grows near the mouth of the Brazos River. Drooping or weeping juniper, so named for the drooping characteristic of its branches, grows in the Big Bend area but has not been reported to be native elsewhere in this country.