Institution

Resembling more of a tall shrub, the Hercules club (or prickly ash) is often confused by name with the Devil’s Walking Stick, although the Hercules club has distinct large bumps on its twisting trunk compared to the broken ridges and large leaf scars on the more vertical Walking Stick, and spread-out branches compared to the walking stick's umbrella shape. The other names for the Hercules club are “toothache tree” and “tingle tongue,” as chewing on a twig or piece of bark would cause the gums and tongue to go numb, which made it a popular toothache medicine for Indigenous Americans and later pioneer settlers.

Close-up of the Hercules Club's unique trunk

Illustration of Hercules Club by local artist Ann Bittick

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The bark of the Hercules club was chewed as a home remedy for toothaches. Its name comes from the distinctive bumps on the trunk.

Hercules Club

A walking tour of selected trees located throughout the town of Washington.

Branches In Time 

The Pioneer Cemetery was established around the same time as the town's founding in 1824. The town of Washington was named after George Washington, first president of the United States of America. Some of the graves in the cemetery are veterans of the American Revolution. Plots were added to the grounds until 1860, when a newer cemetery was dedicated on the north end of town on what is now the main highway to Nashville.One of the first grave plots at the entrance is that of Dr. Isaac Newton Jones and some of his family members. Daniel Webster Jones, the last caretaker of James Black, wrote that Black was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery. It is very likely he is buried next to the graves of the Jones family in an unmarked grave.Over the years, many of the markers, some made of wood, fell into disrepair and even disappeared. Historic Washington State Park maintains the grounds and continues to preserve both marked and unmarked graves.

Established at the founding of Washington in 1824, the Pioneer Cemetery is where most of the town's earliest settlers are buried, including the unmarked grave of James Black, the man who forged Jim Bowie's famous knife. Around circa 1860, a new cemetery was established named the Presbyterian Cemetery, located just north of town on present-day U.S. Hwy 278.

Like other yellow pines, the shortleaf pine grows across the southeastern United States. The red-cockaded woodpecker often bores holes in living shortleaf pines, feeding on insects in the bark and laying eggs in the cavities, which can also become home to other small birds and mammals. The seeds of shortleaf pines are also eaten by squirrels and other small birds. As the name suggests, the shortleaf pine has shorter needles in bundles of two, compared to the loblolly pine's longer bundles of three. The shortleaf also has smaller cones, usually less than half the size of a loblolly pine cone.

Similar to the loblolly pine, the shortleaf pine is easily distinguished by having only two needles per bundle and smaller pine cones on a short stock. Its slower growth as a young tree makes it less likely to be grown on tree plantations, but is harvested in old growth forests.

Shortleaf pine

The Devil’s Walking Stick is also known as an Angelica tree, but is also sometimes mistakenly called a prickly ash or Hercules club, although the Devil's Walking Stick is a distinctly different species with smaller leaves and without the distinctive bumps on the trunk. It typically grows as a set of vertical branchless trunks with broad leaves, often resembling a umbrella, and while not usually tall can grow twice as high in southern climates than in northern ones. The trunk of a Devil's Walking Stick, covered in leaf scars and broken ridges, turns from light to dark brown over time.

The roots and fruit of the Devil’s walking stick were used by the early settlers as a home remedy to improve blood circulation. Today we know that eating any part of the tree may be hazardous to your health! It usually grows as a straight, branchless trunk with a broad crown of leaves like a palm.

Devil’s Walking Stick

Sweetgum trees grow across the United States, and can take to poorer soils better than other plants. Not an attractive wood, sweetgum is usually harvested for practical uses like shipping pallets. Sweetgum sap is a light amber and being sweet and thick, which lead to sweetgum resin already being chewed on before its use in chewing gum. Male flowers grow along a stalk into small red-and-green round clusters on the top of the branch, while single round female flowers hang from below. Once pollinated, the female flowers grow into sweetgum balls, the small fruit resembling spiked green balls. Sweetgum balls are notable for not biodegrading quickly, leaving brown dried-out seed pods.

Sweetgum trees are easily recognized by their round spiky fruit that drop then dry out in autumn, and the star-shaped leaves that turn a variety of sharp colors in the fall. Sweetgum resin has been used for several purposes including chewing gum, which is where the tree gets its name.

Pioneer Cemetery

Hercules Club

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information