OF NATIVE AND NATURALIZED TREES OF THE UNITED STATES (INCLUDING ALASKA) by ELBERT L. LITTLE, JR., Forester (dendrology) Prepared under the direction of The Forest Service Tree and Range Plant Agriculture Handbook No. 41 (Supersedes Miscellaneous Circular 92, Check List of the Forest Trees Forest Service Washington, D. C. For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents U. S. Government 1953 Forestry 482 278 BUHR UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE TREE AND RANGE PLANT NAME COMMITTEE WILLIAM A. DAYTON, Chairman Chief, Division of Dendrology and Range Forage Investigations RAYMOND D. GARVER Director, Forest Survey, Division of Forest Economics BERT R. LEXEN Assistant Chief, Division of Forest Management Research ELBERT L. LITTLE, JR. Forester (dendrology), Division of Dendrology and Range Forage LAWRENCE W. SMITH Technologist (wood), Division of Forest Products Trees, native, naturalized, and cultivated Previous lists of forest trees of the United States.. History of Forest Service tree nomenclature.... 23 4 5 6 7 10 14 17 17 Check list of native and naturalized trees of the United States This check list aims to compile the accepted scientific names and current synonyms, approved common names and others in use, and ranges of the native and naturalized trees of the United States of America (including Alaska). It is primarily a reference for foresters, botanists, students, and all others interested in trees. One of its important objects is to encourage uniform usage of names for trees. The third in a series, this is the official standard for tree names in the Forest Service. There are four outstanding reasons for issuing a new check list. First, the former standard for tree names in the Forest Service, Check List of Forest Trees of the United States by George B. Sudworth (44)' issued in 1927, is out-of-print, antiquated, and moreover, chiefly under the obsolete "American Code" of nomenclature. Second, some changes in scientific names have been required to conform to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (14a), formerly the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature (1, 4, 30) which incorporated certain desirable features of the "American Code" when the two were consolidated in 1930. These rules were officially adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture on April 30, 1940, and were revised slightly in 1950. Third, the common names have been revised by the Forest Service Tree and Range Plant Name Committee. Finally, much additional information about the trees of the United States, their taxonomy or dendrology, has become available through numerous investigations and researches by botanists and foresters during this 25-year interval. Critical field, herbarium, and experimental studies have resulted in taxonomic revisions of various genera of trees and better understanding of the different kinds of trees and their relationships. Botanical exploration of the country including even the most remote regions has been advanced greatly by numerous plant collectors and field workers, aided by improved automobile transportation. A few new species of local range and additional varieties and natural hybrids have been named among the native trees. Likewise, many former varieties and some species have been found upon further study not to be distinct and have been reduced to synonymy. Range extensions northward of Mexican and tropical species along the southern boundary have been recorded, and with the passing of time more introduced trees have escaped from cultivation and have become naturalized. Tree individuals have been found among species previously known only as shrubs. Many good State and local floras and publications on trees have contributed much valuable information on distribution, so that the ranges of individual tree species are now known more accurately and in much greater detail. However, as much of the 1 Italic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited, p. 24. 1 |