How good are you at trees?

[Yellow Fang]

How good at you at recognising trees? For decades I've barely been able to tell a yew from an oak. So, I decided to put that right, bought a book and started looking up the species of trees I came across. It has not been straightforward. There are so many exotic species around, and many species look similar. To identify a tree you need to see the flowers, the leaves, the bark and the fruit (whether they be berries, fruit, nuts, winged fruit or something else). The shape of the trunk and branches is helpful too. Then you need a book at least an inch thick, and about ten or fifteen minutes to leaf through it.

 

[on the road]

You're having the same problem I discovered when I decided to find out what the trees were. After some books that didn't go far enough, I ended up with a book that was nearly two inches thick (I can't remember the name of the book), that helped a bit. When I found a possible candidate in the book I then Googled it to see if the images looked like the trees I was trying to find, that helped a lot.

 

[Paulus]

Try learning the native British species first. Take your book and go to a local woods or forest. Look for native Oak, Ash, Birch and Sweet Chesnut go from there. In many parks there will be non native exotic species bought in from afar by victorian collectors. Once you can identify native species and the varieties of those then you can go forward.

 

[PeteXXX]

There is a Tree Identification app you can get for your mobile. The one I saw cost £1.12
Might be easier than leafing through a book in the woods :-)

 

[Headgardener]

Join the Woodlands Trust they do a nifty tree reconition swatch that fits in your pocket, both for native and non-native speices.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Try learning the native British species first. Take your book and go to a local woods or forest. Look for native Oak, Ash, Birch and Sweet Chesnut go from there. In many parks there will be non native exotic species bought in from afar by victorian collectors. Once you can identify native species and the varieties of those then you can go forward.

I can just about recognise those now, although there are several species of oak and birch to confuse things. Living near the town centre, I would have to go some way to avoid non-native species. Around here there are trees I never heard of before, such as Indian Bean Trees (lots), London Planes (lots), Trees of Heaven, Cedars of Lebanon, some tree with smooth edged, heart-shaped leaves which is not described in either of my tree identification books. Another problem is that it is sometimes difficult to tell a tree from a shrub.

 

[Yellow Fang]

There is a Tree Identification app you can get for your mobile. The one I saw cost £1.12
Might be easier than leafing through a book in the woods :-)

I don't have a smart phone, but I would be astounded if an app could identify all the trees that are around.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Why do you need to know their names? Just admire them for what they are. A rose by any other name ...

Being ignorant of the names of the trees you see around you seems pretty poor to me. It seems like the sort of thing you should know. It's a sort of indictment on education that you may be taught about the sexual reproduction of plants, about xylem, phloem, chloroplasts and lignin, yet not have a clue what a cowslip looks like. A bit like being taught about the formation of ox-bow lakes and the names of the Japanese islands, but not knowing all the street names around where you live.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

HUG

 

[snorri]

Then you need a book at least an inch thick, and about ten or fifteen minutes to leaf through it.

I like the way you slipped in the leaf joke
This thread provides me with an opportunity to post a photo from my cycle run today. A nifty bit of wood carving supporting an information board for a Woodlands Trust project which provides walks through one of their forests.

 

[rich p]

I once lost my house in a bet that ginkgo beloba was spelled gingko beloba. My friends still let me live in it for a peppercorn rent. A couple of bottles of viognier very other week.

 

[Noodley]

Is it not painful for the trees to see one of their mates made into a book?

 

[Yellow Fang]

I once lost my house in a bet that ginkgo beloba was spelled gingko beloba. My friends still let me live in it for a peppercorn rent. A couple of bottles of viognier very other week.

Nice to have friends like that. I looked up gingko beloba and saw another name for it was Maidenhair. I can recognise those too. I was hoping it was that tree with the heart-shaped, smooth-edged leaves that I keep seeing specimens of, but which is in neither of my books.

 

[rich p]

Nice to have friends like that. I looked up gingko beloba and saw another name for it was Maidenhair. I can recognise those too. I was hoping it was that tree with the heart-shaped, smooth-edged leaves that I keep seeing specimens of, but which is in neither of my books.

Ahem, as I'm a nice guy and before I seize your house !
It's ginkgo not gingko as I learnt to my cost!

 

[rich p]

Nice to have friends like that. I looked up gingko beloba and saw another name for it was Maidenhair. I can recognise those too. I was hoping it was that tree with the heart-shaped, smooth-edged leaves that I keep seeing specimens of, but which is in neither of my books.

Catalpa? aka Indian Bean tree with large dangling pods