Alabama has beautiful and diverse scenery that everyone will appreciate.
Among these sceneries are the trees that grow in the area.
You’ll see various common trees from the rivers, streams, uplands, coastal plains, and other areas in Alabama.
Here’s a compilation of the various kinds of trees that grow in Alabama to explore its diversity:
Willow Oak
Willow Oak is one of Alabama’s common oaks that sheds its leaves seasonally.
They commonly grow up to 100 feet and live long.
The tree looks a little round, proliferates, and can bear acorns once it reaches 15 years.
You’ll mostly see this oak as a street tree or a landscape for a park, yards, and golf courses.
Virginia Pine
Virginia Pine tree is common in Alabama, usually found in highly elevated and old lands.
It stands up to 40 feet tall and thrives around the same kind in dry soil.
Compared to other pine trees, this species is more petite.
To grow a Virginia Pine, you need well-drained, dry, or poor soils with full sun shade.
Related Reading: Sunflower fields of Alabama – Learn More Here.
Winged Elm
The full-grown Winged elm can reach up to 60 feet with a short trunk.
The branches grow while bending upward like a crown.
When planted in a forested area, it can grow higher and straighter depending on the soil condition.
It grows well on partially shaded areas with moist to dry conditions.
However, you can still plant it on loam, sand, clay, or rocky soil.
Silver Maple
Silver Maple got its name from the silvery side of its leaves.
You can usually spot it in streams, rivers, or flood plains.
The barks start as an attractive gray to dark brown and get flaky scales, making them look shaggy.
It is an ideal landscape plant because it grows fast while looking graceful but has weak wood.
Loblolly Pine
Loblolly Pine stands up to 90 feet and is a part of the evergreen gymnosperm tree family that looks like an oval crown.
During spring, the tree produces red and yellow male flowers and yellow and purple female flowers.
It proliferates, which makes it a good wood material for plywood and pulp.
They are also best used for forest management.
Mockernut Hickory
The Mockernut Hickory is an enormous tree that slowly grows up to 80 feet and sheds leaves during fall.
It produces edible nuts in its 25th year.
The strong trunk makes it a perfect material for firewood and a landscape plant for parks and large yards.
It grows on sandy and clay loam soil as long as it is well-drained and has a full sun shade.
Water Oak
Water Oak stands 100 feet tall at most in rivers, streams, forests, and sloped lands with dry ground.
It produces acorn and male and female flowers when planted in medium to wet acidic soils in full sun shade.
You can use the water oak as a street or shade tree for open or naturalized areas and wet sites.
Eastern Cottonwood
The Eastern Cottonwood is a rapid-growing tree that can reach up to 200 feet on fine sandy or silt loams near streams.
Its female seed has silky white hairs when you open them that look like cotton.
Thus, Easter Cottonwood got its name from it.
It is not much of a lumber favorite because of its weak wood but is still functional for plywoods, pulp, crates, and magazine papers.
Related Reading: Spiders Of Alabama – Click Here To Read More About Spiders.
Blackjack Oak
The Blackjack Oak tree stretches up to 50 feet tall in fields and woodland edges, where usually there is poor soil.
It prefers a well-drained and average to dry soil while fully shaded by the sun.
It is best for naturalized areas or woodlands, so you’ll never see it as a common landscape plant.
Shagbark Hickory
The Shagbark Hickory is another tree common in mountains and coastal areas that sheds leaves in fall. It stretches up to 90 feet tall.
It bears nuts that wildlife animals consume and humans commercially use.
Its wood has many uses, including meat curing.
It thrives well when planted on the fertile, well-drained ground in partial to full shade.
Bitternut Hickory
Bitternut Hickory doesn’t grow well with shade but can thrive on different soil types, usually in open moist, rich soils.
Its mature form depends on where it matures, but it can reach up to 70 feet or more for bottomlands.
It produces nuts at 30 years old and has a rigid and firm wood.
Its open shade allows other plants to grow under it.
Cucumber Tree
The Cucumber Tree is common in moist, dry slope lands and sub xeric forests.
Their maximum height is 80 feet.
It produces cucumber-shaped fruits and tulip-like flowers, making it a beautiful spring and summer scenery.
Its symmetrical shape makes it a good tree for parks, residential areas, and golf courses because it produces dense shade.
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Shortleaf Pine
Shortleaf Pine reaches 100 feet in height.
The tree produces a purple male cone and a pink female cone.
It thrives best in dry to medium and well-drained soils under the full sun shade.
But it can also survive with light shade.
Short leaf pine is a remarkable timber tree because of its uses like paper, plywood, and lumber.
Common Persimmon
Persimmons can grow to be male and female trees which you need to harvest fruit.
Its flowers bloom during spring to early summer.
Meanwhile, its fruits are an excellent food source for some animals and humans.
It is also an ideal tree for home landscapes.
You’ll need moist and well-drained soil with a full sun shade to help it reach its maximum height of 15 feet.
Eastern Redbud
Considered native in eastern North America, the Eastern redbud is a deciduous tree of the pea family.
When matured, the tree reaches 30 feet with a rounded crown and weak branches.
This flowering species blooms its pink to purple flowers during early spring, which makes it a pollinator’s favorite.
Related Reading: Snakes In Alabama – Get To Know More About Snakes Here.
Chestnut Oak
The Chestnut Oak tree is a slightly large deciduous tree that stands 80 feet tall at its maximum height.
It is natively common in swampy areas or low woodlands because of their moist and well-drained loans.
Chestnut Oak can also grow in urban conditions, making it excellent for parks or yards.
Black Walnut
Black Walnut is a valuable and beautiful species that prefers wet to dry loam in full sun.
They produce edible nuts and male and female flowers.
You can also use the fruit as a dye.
It became scarce because of its significant contribution to medicine before, but its wood is perfect for furniture and veneer uses.
American Beech
The sturdy and large American Beech tree typically stretches up to 80 feet, making it a better landscape plan for larger spaces.
You can find them in mountain coves and areas with oaks and hickories scattered nearby the plant.
It survives well on well-drained and moist soil with full sun shade but can tolerate shaded lands.
Southern Red Oak
Southern Red Oak is a large tree that reaches 100 feet in height.
You can usually see them along streams and uplands.
It can withstand drought but needs well-drained and acidic soil with partial to full shade.
It also bears acorns considering it’s an oak.
This large species is ideal for a park, residential areas, and street trees because of its broad shade.
Eastern Redcedar
Eastern Redcedar is an evergreen tree that bears beautiful flowers and fruit that bloom from early spring to late winter and fruit.
It is an excellent material for fence posts, cedar chests, and rails because of its insect-repellant feature.
They grow in dry to moist and well-drained soil under a full shade.
These trees are common in swamps and dry, rocky glades.
Shumard Oak
Shumard Oak comes from the red oaks in the beech family.
It can reach up to 70 feet with its pyramidal shape towering.
It is rapid-growing and drought tolerant, so that you can plant them in dry soils.
It can also withstand short-term flooding and storms.
Planting in average soil can be as good as a landscape tree for a park and other open areas.
Longleaf Pine
Another large plant on the list is the Longleaf pine which stands up to 120 feet tall during maturity.
It produces purple female flowers, dark purple cones, yellow-red male flowers, and purple-blue cones.
You can achieve its best state under full sun and well-drained sandy soil.
They are suitable for lumber, tar, resin, and pitch uses.
American Elm
American elm is common in swamps, bottomland forests, slopes, and other moist soil-rich areas.
It adapts to wet and dry areas and can achieve its best state under rich and moist loam soils with full sun.
It can easily contract the Dutch elm disease, which makes it hard or rare to use for landscaping.
River Birch
River birch is a flowering species that do well in low elevations, wetlands, and partial to full shade.
It can tolerate heat, flooding, and wind. You’ll spot them at riverbanks and streambanks.
You can use it as a shade tree for woodland and naturalized areas.
Red Maple
Red maple is a large tree that can reach up to 120 feet.
It is common in upland forests with medium to wet soil.
It produces red flowers during late winter and shows various beautiful leaf colors during spring and fall.
The red maple makes a good choice if you want to plant a soft maple.
It is ideal for the streets, parks, yards, and lumber uses.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home in Mobile, Alabama
If you want to visit a spot where you can appreciate plants better, there’s no better place than Bellingrath Gardens and Home.
They are home to azalea mecca, various native trees, and the most beautiful flowers that bloom during spring.
It is 65 acres big so that you can explore most plants you will not usually see in your yard.
Related Reading: Strawberry Picking In Alabama – Read The Full Post Here.
Wrapping Up: Trees in Alabama
Trees play a vital role in the world because they provide oxygen, soil stabilization, natural resources, and more.
Hopefully, this article inspired you to visit the nearest forest or garden to explore more of the trees around Alabama.
Having trees in your area is an excellent thing because it’s a breath of fresh air for any busy life that you may have.
