Tree leaf identification Western Region

Tree leaf identification in the Western Region of North America is a fairly expansive subject area, with more than 300 species of trees to be found, some introduced from other continents but many native to the region.

The Digger Pine, is widely seen in California, often found at elevations of between 300 and 900 metres, in the dry foothill woodland communities of California's Central Valley.

The huge female cones, long flexible needles in bundles of 3, growing on a crooked, forking trunk, with branches that are not horizontal. The needles are dull gray green and droop noticeably.

Mature trees are usually between 40 and 50 feet tall, the tree bark is dark gray, thick, and broken into scaly ridges.

The Austrian Pine, brought to the USA in the late 1800's is widely spread across North America

Has evergreen needles, 4 to 6 inches long, flexible with two thick, dark green needles per fascicle. The tree reaches up to 100 feet tall with a very dense crown. The cones are ovoid, 2 to 3 inches long, yellow-brown.

The Russian Olive is another non-native species, having been introduced from Germany in the late 1800's.

In the West, Russian-olive occurs mainly in the Great Basin Desert region at 800-2000 feet elevation and is also abundant in riparian zones of the Great Plains, for example, the Platte River in Nebraska.

It is a small, usually thorny tree that can grow to 30 feet in height. Its stems, buds, and leaves have a dense covering of silvery to rusty scales. Leaves are egg or lance-shaped, smooth margined, and alternate along the stem. Highly aromatic, creamy yellow flowers appear in June and July and are later replaced by clusters of abundant silvery fruits.

Because Russian-olive is capable of fixing nitrogen in its roots, it can grow on bare, mineral substrates and dominate riparian vegetation where over story cottonwoods have died.

The Sitka Willow, by contrast, is a native tree, growing predominately in Western North America from Alaska to California and east to Montana.

The Sitka Willow is a 1-8m small tree with sparsely hairy and velvety twigs, alternate deciduous and tapering leaves with a green and sparsely silky upper side and a satiny and short-haired lower side. Found in stream-sides, thickets, lake shores and wetland margins and clearings at up to 400m elevation.
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A very useful guide to tree and tree leaf identification in the Western region, is


National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Western Region (Audubon Society Field Guide)


Please feel free to post comments and suggestions to this blog on tree leaf identification

Tree leaf identification - Moss Rock Reserve Alabama

Improvements to the trails at Moss Rock Preserve, make tree leaf identification an easier prospect.

The wilderness within the preserve is only getting better as hardwoods age, grow taller and trails become permanently beaten into the forest floor. In addition to a fleshing out and expansion of trail, numerous improvements such as maps, signage, and nicely built wooden footbridges now grace the cool woods. A 0.2-mile section of the White Trail, which makes up the second half of the loop, now features a series of tree identification stations.

Moss Rock Preserve is set in 250 acre and abundant with trees and plants, rock outcroppings, streams, waterfalls, wildlife and other unique natural features. Currently Moss Rock Preserve is home to four rare species of plants and a rare variant of Little River Canyon Sandstone Glade - one of only 35 known occurrences of the bird around the world.

HOW TO GET THERE

From downtown Birmingham, take U.S. 31 south. Turn onto Patton Road South. Drive 1.5 miles and turn left onto Chapel Lane. Drive 0.5 miles and turn right on Al Seier Road. Drive 1.9 miles and turn right onto Sulphur Springs Road. Drive 0.5 miles and turn right into a gravel parking area on your right.

A great tree identification guide to take with you is here

For more ideas on tree leaf identification, bookmark this blog

Tree leaf identification - fall colors

Tree leaf identification in fall, is one of a variety of changing colors anda great time to be out in the field.

Having looked at a number of guides, I have found one which meets the criteria, of being useful in the field and with enough information to be of value at home.

Fall Color Finder: A Pocket Guide to Autumn Leaves is a superb pocket guide for fall leaf identification. The identification system is step by step with leaf diagrams and ordered pairs of identifying characteristics. A process of elimination keeps the features that best match a particular leaf, and a quick comparison can be made with color photographs to confirm identification. Fall Color Finder is a useful guide for getting to know fall leaves.

Beginning with an explanation about changing leaf colors, the book is a great resource for field trips, for collection purposes, leaf identification projects, and personal interest.

Fall Color Finder: A Pocket Guide to Autumn Leaves a great pocket source to aid in tree leaf identification

Tree leaf identification walk Springfield Missouri

Received notification of a tree identification walk in Missouri on 20th October.

Learn to identify common trees by a variety of methods and enjoy spectacular fall color on this guided hike. Ages 12-adult. Registration required. Call 888-4237. at the Springfield Conservation Nature Centre

Tree leaf identification, Sheffield UK

Just had notification of this even in December

Winter Tree Identification

14 Dec
09:00

Can you tell your Oak from your Ash? How to identify trees during Winter. - Includes an informative walk through a local site. - Cost £55

Contact: Tel 0114 263 4335 or email: training@wildsheffield.com
Location: Sheffield Wildlife Trust - Training Department, 37 Stafford Road, Sheffield, S2 2SF

Tree leaf identification I want it computerised

One aspect of tree leaf identification, which can make life a little easier, is to use cd-roms, these have the advantage of taking less space and can be used for more intensive investigation.

One of the beauties of cd-rom based identifiers, is they can contain far more information, without requiring a bookshelf to themselves.

It is also sometimes, helpful to have a guide on a laptop while being out, or when looking at images on a computer, possibly from friends asking for n identification and at times like that, I find being able to use the computer is a handy way of identifying trees.

I have had a look at quite a few different packages and found

this to be a useful tool, for North American tree identification.

The 3-CD set has a simple menu that gives you basic tree information, then becomes more specific by breaking the guide information down and into family, genus and species levels.

There are over 20,000 pictures and full text descriptions of leaves, twigs, fruit, flowers, bark, form, and range maps for 860 species of woody plants. Multiple pictures of important distinguishing features are also provided. Similar species can also be compared side by side, with the most distinguishing features highlighted.

Woody Plants in North America Cds is a useful guide to enhance tree leaf identification both in the field and at home

Tree Leaf Identification Caledonian Forest

Tree leaf identification in the Caledonian Forest is a fascinating and worth while activity.

The Caledonian Forest, used to cover 1.5 million hectares of the Scottish Highlands, with a wide range of plants and animals, it now covers just 1% of that original area. The surviving remnants of the forest are ageing and fragmented, and because of overgrazing, the trees are struggling to regenerate naturally. While the variety of trees in the forest is low, the forest is undergoing a restoration programme, with the aim to expand the forest and bring back extinct species.

Amongst a growing number of other trees in the forest, there are two types of birch. The Silver and Downy.

Silver birch is distributed throughout almost all of Europe and in Asia Minor. Downy birch also occurs throughout much of Europe and in north Asia, and is one of the very few native trees in Iceland.

Both species of birch are widespread in Scotland, with silver birch occurring principally on well-drained, drier soils and downy birch preferring wetter locations. Scotland has a wetter west side than the east, so there is typically a transition between silver and downy as you cross the country.

Birches occur within other forest types and as birchwoods. Prior to deforestation, it is unlikely the Birches were as proportionately as predominant as they are today.

Silver Birch, is the faster growing of the two trees, but both are fast growing pioneer trees, which easily grow in open ground. As pioneer trees, they are typically not long lived, between 60 and 90 years old and are slender trees, reaching a height of 30 metres in the case of the silver and about 20 - 22 metres for the downy.

As young trees, both have a reddish brown bark, which changes as they mature. The downy becoming a greyish white interspersed with horizontal grooves, while the silver, becomes a more prominent white with patches of black.

The leaves of the two trees emerge in April, as bright green, with the colour becoming a duller green in a week or so, changing to Yellow or Brown in Autumn. Silver Birches tend to turn a brighter yellow than the downy, which more typically turns dull, or brownish. The leaves drop towards the end of October

The two species can be distinguished by their leaves, the downy birch being rounder in shape than silver birch, and having a single row of teeth on the margin, while the silver has a double row of teeth. They can also be identified by their twigs, which in silver birch have small white warts, those on downy birch are covered in small hairs or 'down'. Silver birch has an overall drooping, pendulous shape to its branches, whilst the branches on downy birch tend to be more upright. However, intermediate forms exist between the two species, with various combinations of these characteristics, and this can make the identification of individual trees difficult.

Top: Silver birch leaf
Bottom: Downy birch leaf

A great source of information tree leaf identification in Scotland, not just the Caledonian forest, is this guide

A Pleasure in Scottish Trees