About

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Just a regular guy with a devotion to trees, forests, nature. I have no credentials other than my passionate amateur identification, appreciation, and study of all kinds of trees (and mushrooms, but that's another story). 

Use this blog to find more details about individual trees than what you will find in most of the comprehensive identification guides - by necessity they usually provide a few key features and photos of a large number of trees. Use an ID guide to get you started with a preliminary identification, then check here for more details. For the most part I will use layman's terms to describe the features where possible and technical terms parenthetically: "The leaves are smooth (glabrous), not hairy or fuzzy."

Each post will highlight a specific tree, and over time will be updated to introduce new information or pictures, such as seasonal changes.

Range: I am mostly interested in native trees in the Piedmont section of North Carolina. This simplifies my task in many ways. For instance, we only have one type of native beech, easily distinguished from other tree species like oaks, maples, etc. So when I see a beech, it's American Beech (Fagus grandiflora). In my area only two types of pine tree are native and common. We are west of some coastal species and east of some mountain species, although there may be a small number of wanderers or cultivated varieties that show up in the wild. It really makes identification simpler when you know the range.

Reasons for this blog: I have been walking around for a while now trying to identify trees in my environment /locale. I've gotten pretty good at it, using some of the sources listed here, along with a healthy dose of assistance from my son who learned a lot while working for the NYC Parks department.

One of the problems with IDing trees is the variation that exists within a species that can sometimes rival the variation between species.  Even more confounding, trees can look radically different when immature compared to older specimens. In this blog I will discuss these variations and developmental trends. 

I am also an enthusiastic if not particularly talented photographer looking for a practical application of my hobby. I will be providing ample photographic examples and documentation of the features described. Since I am starting this blog in January, I will update as spring, summer, and fall characteristics arise.

A final word about identification. It can be exceedingly difficult to nail the ID of a tree based on a single characteristic like bark or leaf shape. If you know your area you may get pretty good at spotting some species by bark alone - but bear in mind that there will be intraspecies variation and bark characteristics change over time (immature trees may look quite different from older trees) and may look different at the base of the trunk compared with higher reaches and branches. Where needed I will provide as much info as I can related to these details.

Lastly, I am endeavoring to provide enough information to allow for identification - I am not attempting to create an exhaustive list of every feature - for that there are already ample resources available.

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