Nature Challenge #7 – The Beauty of Bark!

For most of the year, trees are covered with leaves sometimes distracting our eyes from the beautiful bark of the tree. Now that the leaves are gone and the trees are bare, the bark is the star of the show.

This week’s the challenge is to make some bark rubbings.

Take a walk outside.
Examine the bark of several trees.
Do a few bark rubbings.
Submit a photo of your art.

Winter Tree Identification

Each tree species has a different bark making bark a great way to identify trees in the winter. Some trees have very distinctive bark making them easy to identify like the American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) or the shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), while the bark of other trees, like the silver maple (Acer saccharinum), take a trained eye to identify. Some trees, like the sugar maple (Acer saccharum), have different looking bark depending on their age. The sugar maple has smooth bark as young tree which as it matures turns into bark with scales or plates.

Here are some great resources that you can use if you want to learn more about how to use bark to identify trees.

Bark! A Great Way to Identify Trees in the Winter – University of New Hampshire Extension

How to Identify a Tree by Its Bark – Treehugger

Winter Tree Identification Guide – Champaign County Forest Preserves

Now that you have learned a little bit about bark and have hopefully seen the beauty in it, it is time to get outside and make some bark rubbings. All you need for this activity is some plain white paper and some crayons with their wrappers removed. Find a tree with a nice flat area that has no branches. Hold the paper against the bark and rub the crayon against the paper until the pattern of the bark becomes visible. If you have been able to identify the tree, record the name of the tree next to the rubbing. You can use a different piece of paper for each tree, or you can put multiple rubbings on the same piece of paper to create a design.