201. RED CEDAR (Juniperus virginiana L.) abundant tree of medium height. Habitat: all soils, especially limestone hills in southwestern part of county. Leaves: small, thick, scale-like or like short needles. Bark: thin, reddish brown, shreddy, inner layers yellowish brown. Twigs: of young shoots bear the sharper-pointed leaves. Flowers: dioecious, in February or March; staminate minute, numerous, rusty; pistillate purplish, inconspicuous. Fruit: light blue, spherical, ¼ inch diameter. Wood: reddish at heart, sapwood light, used for cedar chests, rustic work, and fence posts; for the last inferior only to bois d’arc as it is very lasting in contact with the soil.
202. MOUNTAIN CEDAR (Juniperus mexicana Spreng.) rare tree except at Camp Wisdom and vicinity. Habitat: dry uplands, this about its eastern limit but abundant westward. Leaves: similar to red cedar. Inner bark: darker brown than on red cedar. Fruit: larger and darker than red cedar, purplish. Wood: light brown, hard and close-grained but weak, used for fuel, fence posts, poles and landscape planting.
PALM FAMILY
203. DWARF PALMETTO (Sabal minor Pers.) low shrub of the river bottom, rare. Leaves: 15 to 20 inches long, spreading, fan-shaped, from an underground stem; browsed by cattle and mostly destroyed when Bois d’Arc Island was cleared for cultivation. Flowers: whitish, small, from a slightly branched central stalk. Fruit: black, spherical, smooth, dry, about ¼ inch across. L (p. 223) (S. glabra). [M] (p. 240.)
LILY FAMILY
204. GREENBRIER (Smilax bona nox L.) abundant vine; locally called stretchberry, saw-brier, cat-brier. Habitat: woodlands and thickets, becoming especially obnoxious in heavily pastured woodlands. Leaves: 1½ to 4½ inches long, ½ to 3 wide, alternate, oval or somewhat heart-shaped, margins entire; smooth, thick, shining, many remaining green and some mottled with brown in winter; all primary veins running lengthwise of leaf. Stems: long, evergreen, often very prickly, climbing by tendrils. Flowers: small, inconspicuous, yellowish or greenish, dioecious, in umbels, six “petals”. Fruit: black, shining or covered with a bloom, round or nearly so, size of small peas. This vine’s greatest virtue seems to be that it offers food and shelter to the birds.
205. YUCCA, bear-grass, Spanish dagger (Yucca species) more than one species in the county; abundant in meadows and along roadsides. Leaves: grasslike but large, thick and tough, in rosettes, often with white threads on margins; sharp-pointed. Woody stem: very short in our species. Flowers: greenish white or creamy, many along a central stalk two or three feet tall; each cupped flower about an inch or two long, fertilized by a small white moth which lays its egg inside. Fruit: a short, thick, cylindrical pod containing layers of flat, black seeds.
WILLOW FAMILY
206. WILLOW (Salix nigra Marsh.) the black willow is probably the only native species growing in the county. The weeping willow (Salix babylonica) has not been observed growing in the county except where planted. Willows grow close to water or in low ground, are very common and grow very rapidly where they have an abundant supply of water; very valuable in checking soil erosion as their roots help to hold the soil in place. Leaves: simple, alternate, 3 to 6 inches long, ⅛ to ¾ wide, acuminate, with fine, incurved serrations. Bark: rough, shaggy on old trees, usually light brown. Twigs: conspicuously yellowish orange in winter, smooth or glossy, very slender. Flowers: in catkins, yellowish, dioecious. Fruit: cottony-covered seeds. Wood: soft, light, weak, used for a special charcoal in manufacturing gunpowder, some species for artificial limbs.
207. COTTONWOOD (Populus deltoides var. virginiana Sudw.) common, large tree, also called Carolina poplar. Habitat: prefers lowlands and stream banks although will grow in dry soil. Leaves: simple, alternate, 3 to 5 inches each way, commonly glossy on both sides, broad and straight across at the base, coarsely toothed or crenate, stems flattened. Bark: thick, light gray, deeply furrowed on trunks to smooth and yellowish green on branches. Twigs: stout, greenish yellow to pale gray, smooth; lenticels large, pale, lengthwise; buds large, scales very sticky-resinous. Flowers: staminate are red catkins, pistillate greenish yellow, dioecious. Fruit: cottony-covered seeds. Wood: soft, light weight, warps easily but cheap because of rapid growth of tree; new methods of rapid kiln-drying have lessened warping.