American Elm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_elm

Ulmus americana is the tree you're thinking of, if you know anything about popular US trees that happened to nearly get wiped out because of Dutch Elm Disease. It's a larger tree, as one can see, and was practically perfect: it's fast growing but still has good wood (a lot of fast growing trees stink when it comes to wood quality); it rarely splits  - limbs can have some angles and it deals with that just fine; the internal veins of the tree are actually criss-crossed and this adds some strength to the wood. 

Due to its awesomeness it became the most widely planted tree in the US. 

People planted it everywhere. It went in yards, down streetsides.. The fungus would then go from one tree to the next and the next: limbs often touched each other, which was, in hindsight, a bad idea.

Now we have genus' (cultivars: not naturally occurring 'hybrids') that were bred to fight off Dutch Elm Disease. The disease was easily spread by beetles carrying the fungal infection, which essentially would freak out the tree and it would begin to start losing limbs (imagine cutting off body parts to escape never-ending gangrene, or flesh eating disease.)  Eventually, the whole tree dies from its own attempt to block off the offending presence of the fungus. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_elm

I happen to like the bark. It has some shape to it, and some highlights. It has no real uniform presence, but rather seems to have furrows that flow down the trunk as if water used to exist on it. 

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/AmericanElm/AmericanElmLeafWeb.jpg

 These leaves are what we call pinnate: there are 7, where the odd-leaf-out is at the tip. They're serrated and rough (like the willow, remember?) and are bilaterally asymmetrical: folding them in half doesn't give any superimposition; one side of the half will be bigger than the other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_elm

The tree has decent fall color, but if fall color is what you're looking for then I'd personally go elsewhere. However, I can't really say that's a good idea: the American Elm is a very pretty, robust type of tree. Dutch Elm, of course, is always a fear, but there are cultivars being developed that resist this problem better and better as time goes on. Eventually, our pretty tree will be back. I wonder if it'll be as popular once more??

Willow Oak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_oak

Otherwise known as Quercus phellos, is a big tree that transplants easily, grows easily and takes 'bad' soils. If one remembers about trees from my earlier posts, I seemed to lean toward the idea that fast-growing large trees like to toss limbs after a while. This one will toss a few, but not as badly as some similarly-growing trees. 

They have a full crown and generally grow to be pretty symmetrical. They grow down south pretty readily; up north, the similar option to cultivate is the pin oak. I've heard good things about both; people seem pretty bias toward one or the other for various reasons, but it's too hot down here for a pin oak.

The willow oak is pretty common here on Clemson campus, and have a nice fall color - usually. From what I've seen, the tree can be green, red or yellowy, which isn't half bad. It's commonly planted because of the good qualities I've mentioned, but it also gets bigger than some planners expect. It ends up putting roots through sidewalks and things because of that.

http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/quph50728.jpg

See the leaves? They cluster at the end (terminal bud). That's an oak trait. Maples, if you remember, like to go in pairs and don't really cluster like this at the end of the limb. Oaks tend to alternate and have two general differences: red oaks tend to have pointy little leaves like this picture up here. White oaks have rounded-tipped leaves. The two cannot interbreed, and so knowing how their leaves are (pointed or dull and rounded) is really helpful in identifying it.

forestfarm.com/images/products/3833/quph100v3.jpg

Notably, it's called a willow oak for a reason: it has leaves that are similar to a weeping willow (such as the Babylon Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica) but, apart from that, they aren't incredibly similar. Weeping willow, well, weeps, for one. If that doesn't tip you off, then I've got bad news for you.

gardens.missouri.edu/about/descriptions/treetrails/TTmaps/LowryMallPhotos/lowryweb/Quercus-phellos-fall-lg.jpg

forestry.sfasu.edu/faculty/jstovall/dendro//
images/tree_photos/querphel/querphel_fruit1.jpg

cas.vanderbilt.edu/
bioimages/biohires/q/hquph--fr15633.jpg

 This is a large tree.
 It has tiny acorns.
 Tiny, cute little acorns.

The bark is slightly furrowed and a medium-dark brown-grey sort of tone; I think I'd be careful not to mistake this with pine, myself, but I may be weird (no one opposes this).

http://www.discoverlife.org/IM/I_SB/0111/320/Quercus_phellos,_bark_-_of_a_large_tree,I_SB11159.jpg

Bald Cypress

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_cypress

I put this as the header photo for a particular reason. I think whenever I come up with bald cypress (otherwise known as Taxodium distichum), I think I'll likely think of bogs and marshes. A fan of wet places (or, at least, it seems perfectly fine being in those types of places; the ones on campus aren't exactly flooded, so it seems to be fine either way) it puts up little 'knees'. They were once thought to help the plant 'breath' - to collect or let off different gases depending on its needs - but that school of thought is out the window. Currently, it's thought that these growths are to keep the soil from washing away too far from the roots, like a truss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_cypress

Pyramidal in shape, the tree has needles year round but is not evergreen: they yellow and dry out, then fall off. They come back the next year, though; this process will scare some people, making them think they're little Christmas tree had died off. 

The tree is about a zone 6, and can reach up to around D.C. and Philadelphia before it just gets too cold - but it always keeps to the coast.

The tree is pretty great, though, and lends a nice, soft pine kind of feel to the landscape. It seems to grow more up than out (hence the pyramidal shape), so it isn't great for shade. I do like seeing them on campus: they seem to stick out from all the other trees. It's also the state tree of Louisiana as of 1963. I don't know about you, but when I think of Louisiana I think of swamps.

The needles give it a very soft appearance, and they feel similar to how they appear. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_cypress

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_cypress

The cones are little (not near the size you think of squirrels chewing on from those huge pines). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_cypress

The bark is shallow, though, and very easily damaged. It does appear very delicate, especially in comparison to things such as the maples I've posted about. It looks flaky.