By Anne Krantz, NH Big Tree Team,

Essays about tree species found in New Hampshire, published by UNH Cooperative Extension and written by Natural Resource Volunteers.  Focus on Big Tree Specimens.

An incredible variety of native trees grow on our suburban lot in southern New Hampshire. When we moved here and I explored the little woods surrounding our house, the diversity of tree species stumped me. Confusion between ash leaves and hickory leaves prompted me to learn more, and through UNH Cooperate Extension, I found the Natural Resource Stewards education program back in 1995.

A list of non-native trees not yet recognized in the Big Tree Program.

Complete Listing of NH Big Trees (in accordance with American Forests' National Register of Big Trees). The list doesn't include non-native big trees.

This curious tree with its almost tropical show of speckled white flowers, looks out of place in  New England;  too showy for out Puritan tastes.  The elegant trumpet shaped flowers are clustered on panicles (stems) in tiers with three smaller stems. The first two tiers produce three flowers at the end of these smaller stems to add up to nine individual flowers per tier or 18 flowers on the two tiers.  The lower tiers have but one flower at the end of the smaller stem or six additional flowers.  There were 24 individual flowers on the cluster that I counted.  Somehow the seeds produced by the flowers end up inside long skinny 6” -12 “ beans that dangle from the tree later in the summer; hanging on through the winter.