What Are the Most Common Landscaping Trees Used in the Northeast?

Maples

• Maples are majestic hardwoods that are favored for shade and street trees in the Northeast. The Norway maple, Acer platanoides, is one of the most common selections, according to Harvard's Arnold Arboretum. It has a full-round spreading habit that makes it ideal for a yard-cooling shade tree. The red maple, Acer rubrum, grows to 60 feet tall, providing shade in the summer and deep red foliage in the fall, reports the University of Vermont Extension. The sugar maple, Acer sachharum, grows even taller, with a full, oval-shaped crown, and turns shades of brilliant orange and scarlet in autumn. The sugar maple stands as a dooryard sentinel, and is even tapped for maple syrup in home landscapes across New England.

Birches

• Several species of birch trees, Betula spp., are ubiquitous natives to the northeastern United States. The yellow birch, Betula allegheniensis, and river or black birch, Betula nigra, grow in forested areas throughout much of the Northeast and form an integral part of the wooded areas of many homeowners' landscapes. However, the white paper birch, Betula papyrifera, is an iconic tree in the New England landscape, and popular in homeowner plantings as far west as Minnesota. White birch trees are planted singularly or, more commonly, in clumps, and arise in groupings in recently cleared lands. Their seeds provide food for wildlife, according to The Heart of New England online magazine. The familiar peeling white bark presents an attractive visual contrast to evergreens and hardwoods with dark gray-brown trunks.

Pines

• Towering white pines, Pinus strobus, are widely used in the Northeast as a landscape tree, reports the University of Connecticut Law School in an inventory of campus trees. Along with the related red pine, Pinus resinosa, white pines can grow to more than 80 feet tall, and work well in the landscape to help block wind and snow from your property. Along New England shores, the shorter, rugged-looking native Jack pines, Pinus banksiana, and pitch pines, Pinus rigada, are also common additions to the landscape.

Firs and Spruces

• Spruce and fir trees are commonly used in the northeastern landscape as privacy screenings and hedges and to provide windbreaks and winter shelter for wildlife. The University of Connecticut Law School Campus, for example, includes the Norway spruce, Picea abies, along with a weeping cultivar with elegantly downward-draped deep green branches. The Douglas fir, Pseudotsuga Menziesii, and sweet-smelling balsam fir, Abies balsamia, are also common dark green pyramid-shaped trees with needled branches that remain on the tree down to nearly ground level, making them ideal for blocking a view, noise or the wind. The Colorado blue spruce, Picea pungens, can be found in a majority of yards in the Northeast, often set off against a line of darker-colored evergreens. Firs and spruces also make a dramatic deep-toned background for perennial flower plantings or contrasting plantings such as the white birch.