Shagbark hickory
Published by espringer,
Look for dramatic mature shagbark hickories along Laurel Brook Rd and at the beginning of the Wadsworth Park trail that enters from Laurel Brook Rd. As Michael Wojtech explains, every tree handles the challenge of its expanding trunk somewhat differently; in all local species except beech trees (which have a single outer periderm "skin" that expands), protective bark layers break apart as the girth of the tree strains their fibers. In the shagbark, there's very little horizontal strength to the bark; it splits easily into vertical strips. Although these thin shaggy layers of bark would seem to be a fire risk, they may also serve to insulate the tree against rapid temperature changes.
Over time, however, the strips of shaggy bark are weakened by further expansion of the tree’s diameter, and worn away by weather. The lower trunk of a fully mature shagbark tree retains nothing but the most expansion- and weather-tested connective fibers of its old bark:
