Native Shade Trees - NJ

Question:  I want to plant a tree in my Princeton yard. I hear native (not imported) trees perform the best. What are the names of some native trees that grow well in our New Jersey climate?

Answer: Take this list with you to the tree nursery.

Native Shade Trees That are Deciduous (shed leaves annually):

• Acer negundo (box elder)
• Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple)
• Acer rubrum (red maple)
• Acer saccharinum (silver maple)
• Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
• Amelanchier canadensis (shadblow serviceberry, Juneberry)
• Betula lenta (cherry birch)
• Betula nigra (river birch)
• Carpinus caroliniana (blue beech, hornbeam, musclewood)
• Carya alba (mockernut hickory)
• Carya cordiformis (bitternut, swamp hickory)
• Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
• Celtis occidentalis (hackberry, sugarberry)
• Chamaecyparis thyoides (white cedar)
• Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
• Crataegus crus-galli (cockspur hawthorn)
• Diospyros virginiana (persimmon)
• Fagus grandifolia var. caroliniana (beech)
• Fagus grandifolia var. grandifolia (beech)
• Fraxinus americana (white ash)
• Fraxinus pensylvanica (green ash)
• Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
• Juglans nigra (black walnut)
• Liquidambar styraciflua (sweet gum)
• Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
• Magnolia virginiana (sweetbay, swampbay)
• Nyssa sylvatica (black gum, tupelo)
• Ostrya virginiana (ironwood, hophornbeam)
• Platanus occidentalis (sycamore, plane-tree)
• Populus grandidentata (large-toothed aspen)
• Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen)
• Prunus americana (wild plum)
• Prunus pensylvanica (fire or pin cherry)
• Prunus serotina (black cherry)
• Quercus alba (white oak)
• Quercus bicolor (swamp white oak)
• Quercus coccinea (scarlet oak)
• Quercus falcata (southern red oak, Spanish oak)
• Quercus marilandica (blackjack oak)
• Quercus palustris (pin oak)
• Quercus phellos (willow oak)
• Quercus rubra (red oak)
• Quercus stellata (post oak)
• Quercus velutina (black oak)
• Salix nigra (black willow)
• Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
• Tilia americana (American linden, basswood)
• Ulmus americana (American elm)
• Ulmus rubra (red elm, slippery elm)

Native Evergreen Trees:

• Ilex opaca (American holly, Christmas holly)
• Juniperus virginiana (eastern red cedar)
• Pinus echinata (shortleaf pine)
• Pinus rigida (pitch pine)
• Pinus strobus (eastern white pine)
• Pinus virginiana (Virginia pine)

Undesirable Characteristics of Some Native Shade Trees

• All hickories            large nuts, nuisance for lawn care
• black walnut            large nuts, loses leaves early, no fall color, lawn nuisance
• butternut                 large nuts, no fall color
• American chestnut  short-lived because of chestnut blight
• Osage orange        very large seed balls, bushy
• silver maple            susceptible to various insects and diseases, very weak branches
• pitch pine               poor form
• sassafras               usually has poor form, weak branches
• All Aspen               short-lived, soft wood
• black willow            root problems in sewers, not attractive
• All cherries            poor form, attracts tent caterpillars in spring
• paulownia              short-lived, messy, soft wood, no fall color
• elms                      susceptible to Dutch elm disease
• black locust           thorny, messy, poor form, weak branches
• red mulberry          messy fruit
• boxelder                messy, attracts boxelder beetles
• virginia pine           poor form, short-lived
• pin oak                  dead branches on lower crown are maintenance problem
• scarlet oak             same as pin oak though not as bad
• gray birch               not long-lived
• honey locust           thorny, large seed pods
• tree of Heaven        not long-lived, soft wood, easily damaged, messy, no coloration