This tree is old. I liked its gnarled roots sticking up from the ground as the cows most likely tread on it in the past. Does anyone know what type it is? I can’t place it. I wanted to get a picture of it before the area was developed further. Next door is a Walgreens. The White River runs in the background near the tree line. When I was a maintenance worker at a summer camp in Michigan, there was one particular tree that when I mowed under it, I couldn’t help but think the tree was majestic. It was a maple. I don’t have to mow under this one to consider it so.

[Update 1/7/2012: This tree became known as The Watershawl Tree because of it’s use in the Watershawl logo for a time.]

Hard maples are common in this area and grow very easily. I have transplanted several starts into pots to let them grow there before transplanting into the ground, but with limited success. Elm, walnuts, mulberries, and sumac also grow wild, but I tend to weed them out. Sumac have a very distinct smell when you pull them apart or up out the ground. This makes me dislike them even more. Sumacs are the opposite of hard maples for me.