The eastern North American forest
The hardwoods and understorey trees of the eastern woodlands, and the fruits that never reached a shop.
- 01
Trees№ 5024 minTulip Tree: The Tallest Hardwood in the East
Liriodendron — a magnolia relative with square-cut leaves, orange-marked flowers, and the straightest timber in North America.
- 02
Trees№ 2145 minHickory and Pecan: The Hardest Wood and the Best Nut
Carya — shock-resistant timber for axe handles, the smoke in barbecue, and a taproot that makes them almost untransplantable.
- 03
Trees№ 2775 minMagnolias: Flowers Older Than Bees
Beetle-pollinated flowers with tough tepals, evolved before bees existed — plus the fleshy roots that make them hard to move.
- 04
Trees№ 3445 minPawpaw and Persimmon: North America's Forgotten Fruit
A tropical-tasting custard fruit dispersed by extinct megafauna, and an astringent persimmon that only ripens after frost.
- 05
Trees№ 4234 minServiceberry: Four Seasons and an Early Fruit
Amelanchier — the first blossom of the year, fruit before any other, and a small tree that does more than almost anything its size.
- 06
Trees№ 3885 minRedbud and Sassafras: Flowers on Bare Wood, Leaves in Three Shapes
A nitrogen-fixing legume that flowers straight out of its trunk, and an aromatic tree with three different leaf shapes on one branch.
- 07
Trees№ 3595 minPlane Trees: Peeling Bark and the City Tree That Survived
London plane — a hybrid that shrugs off pollution by shedding its bark, plus the American sycamore and the anthracnose that follows it.
- 08
Trees№ 3094 minNative Oaks: Backbone of Temperate Forests
Why native oaks support more biodiversity than almost any other tree genus, and how to grow them for restoration and food production.
- 09
Trees№ 2835 minMaples: Sap, Shade, and Autumn Colour
The Acer genus from sugar maple to sycamore — tapping for syrup, why some are invasive elsewhere, and where each fits in a planting.
- 10
Trees№ 5114 minWalnut: High-Value Timber and Food
Walnut pairs premium timber with calorie-dense nuts. Design around juglone allelopathy and you get one of the most profitable trees in temperate agroforestry.