Maclura pomifera

National Arboretum DC
It is a member of the mulberry family, Moraceae. Due to its latex secretions and woody pulp, the fruit is typically not eaten by humans and rarely by foraging animals. Controversial suggestions have been made that it was consumed by extinct Pleistocene megafauna, but these claims have been criticised as lacking empirical evidence.
Maclura pomifera has many names, including mock orange, hedge apple, hedge, horse apple, monkey ball, monkey brains and yellow-wood. The name bois d’arc (from French meaning “bow-wood”) has also been corrupted into bodark and bodock..– Wikipedia

We used to call them brain trees.
Horse high, bull strong, hog tight…

root plate

big tree blown horizontal
Blowing down a big tree, the force required to break the grip of a root plate is immense. A tall tree’s stem is a huge lever with branches that offer commodious sail area. Come a powerful wind, the tree is laid down. In time, we all fall down.

Europeans and their plants

smith lane gauntlet
English ivy, english privet, tree of heaven, japanese honeysuckle. Native plants displaced.
military woods
This is an artificial landscape, triangular planting of trees, 99% resident in the Tidewater. Waiting for the canopy to close then will work on understory…

Acer saccharinum

Like most maples, silver maple can be variably dioecious (separate male or female trees) or monoecious (male and female flowers on the same tree) but dioecious trees are far more common. They can also change sex from year to year.
Native Americans used the sap of wild trees to make sugar, as medicine, and in bread. They used the wood to make baskets and furniture. An infusion of bark removed from the south side of the tree is used by the Mohegan for cough medicine. The Cherokee take an infusion of the bark for cramps, dysentery, and hives. They boil the inner bark and use it with water as a wash for sore eyes. They also take a compound infusion of the bark for “female trouble” and cramps. They take a hot infusion of the bark for measles, and use the tree to make baskets, for lumber, building material, and for carving.– Wikipedia