First, before I say anything else:
THE OGHAM IS NOT A TREE CALENDAR OR A TREE ALPHABET
Right? Okay, got that? I'm here to talk about a tree list, which is one of many many types of ogham lists (including lists for things like hunting dogs and sows and other livestock). It's just a list. Some of the letter names are trees yes but they aren't all trees. And on the tree list they are a few things we might not we'd normally consider trees - there are shrubs and vines and things too, okay. But since part of what I'm doing in my work with ogham is integrating it into my larger practice, which is very tied to the land in which I live (the Chesapeake Bay Watershed), I would be remiss if I didn't explain my own list of trees (and shrubs and vines) that are native to my own region. But pleasepleaseplease pay more attention to the Bríatharogaim (the "word oghams", or kennings, which you can find translated elsewhere online, promise) instead of just going off of "tree vibes", yeah? These are supplemental.
Okay, now that you've all read my disclaimer and agreed (haha), a little backstory. Some of the ogham feda have more than one tree in the surviving sources, so I'll list out both where I'm aware of that, and I'll indicate which one I "picked" or was guided to by my interactions with the spirit of that fid, by underlining it below. But as I built my list it became obvious to me early on that I wasn't building out a single tree list but rather a list of tree triads. In some cases, one of the trees will be native to only the Great Lakes region (where I was born) and one will be native to the Chesapeake Bay region (where I now reside) and one will be native to both. Where possible, all three are native to my current region. But this is an ongoing process, and this blog will be a sort of time capsule: this is a snapshot of my relationship with trees and with land and with the ogham Today. But rivers keep flowing and slowly changing the landscape. Also, I'm going to give the latin names (as best as I can manage) of the trees for clarity, and I'll add in my personal kennings again just for reference (mostly my own reference, but maybe it will help explain why I picked some of the trees I picked, since I'm otherwise not really getting into the very personal Whys).
Ogham Tree Lists
Beith - Beginning Healing
Traditional: birch (silver birch, Betula pendula)
My Triad: paper birch (B. papyrifera), sweet birch (B. lenta), sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
Luis - Lush Vibrancy
Traditional: rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), or elm
My Triad: mountain ash (S. americana), silky dogwood (Cornus amomum), flowering dogwood (C. florida)
Fearn - Fierce Protection
Traditional: alder (Alnus glutinosa)
My Triad: speckled alder (A. incana), smooth alder (A. serrulata), american elm (Ulmus americana)
Saille - Cyclical Currents
Traditional: willow (white wilow, Salix alba)
My Triad: black willow (S. nigra), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides)
Nin - Knotted Weaving
Traditional: ash, or nettle
[Note: after guidance from the spirit I settled on a nontraditional: spindle tree, Euonymus europaeus; see Onn. I retained nettle in my herb list, however.]
My Triad: strawberry bush (E. americanus), eastern wahoo (E. atropurpureus), blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata)
hÚath - Humanity's Hedge
Traditional: hawthorn/whitethorn (Crataegus monogyna)
My Triad: mayhaw (C. aestivalis or possibly an indigenous form of C. monogyna... they hybridize easily and how many species there are is in fact hotly contested as far as I can tell!), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), common prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum americanum)
Dair - Dignified Steadyness
Traditional: oak (common european oak, Quercus robur)
My Triad: white oak (Q. alba), red oak, (Q. rubra), shagbark hickory (Carya ovata)
Tinne - Tested Resolve
Traditional: holly (common holly, Ilex aquifolium), or elder
My Triad: american holly (Ilex opaca), mountain holly (I. mucronata), american barberry (Berberis canadensis)
Coll - Canny Guidance
Traditional: hazel (Corylus avellana)
My Triad: american hazel (C. americana), american black walnut (Juglans nigra), pecan (Carya illinoinensis)
Ceirt - Queer Wit
Traditional: apple (Malus sylvestris, the wild european apple); also sometimes holly, rowan, aspen
My Triad: american crabapple (M. coronaria), common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), american pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
Muin - Madly Intoxicated
Traditional: grapevine, or bramble (Rubus fruticosus)
My Triad: northern dewberry (R. flagellaris), american red raspberry (R. strigosus), american wild grape (Vitis riparia)
Gort - Growing Continually
Traditional: ivy (Hedera hibernica)
My Triad: woodvamp (Decumaria barbara), cross-vine (Bignonia capreolata), virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
nGétal - Yesterday's Wounds
Traditional: broom (Cytisus scoparius); also reed or fern
My Triad: cattail (Typha latifolia), broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus), pointed broomsedge (Carex scoparia)
Straif - Strengthening Changes
Traditional: blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), or willowbrake
My Triad: canadian plum (P. nigra), osage orange (Maclura pomifera), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
Ruis - Raging Fires
Traditional: elderberry (Sambucus nigra), or bogberry, fern
My Triad: american black elderberry (S. canadensis), red mulberry (Morus rubra), wild raisin (Viburnum cassinoides)
Ailm - All Timeliness
Traditional: pine (scots pine, Pinus sylvestris) or fir
My Triad: longleaf pine (P. palustris), red pine (P. resinosa), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
Onn - Onward Momentum
Traditional: gorse, furze, or ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
[Note: since this spirit was very clear they should be ash, and I didn't want ash twice, I went back after to talk to Nin and we settled on spindle]
My Triad: white ash (F. americana), green ash (F. pennsylvanica), american basswood (Tilia americana)
Uir - Unending Cycles
Traditional: heather (Culluna vulgaris) or whitethorn
My Triad: wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), virginia mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum), wintergreen teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens)
Édad - Ending Mundanity
Traditional: aspen (Populus tremula), yew, or "test tree"
My Triad: quaking aspen (P. tremuloides), largetooth aspen (P. grandidentata), tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Idad - Indelible Memories
Traditional: yew (Taxus baccu), or service tree, juniper
My Triad: juniper (Juniperus communis), eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), black spruce (Picea mariana)