National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of No…

Pretty dry but at least it gives you an exhaustive method to identify trees. There are introductory sections for all the main taxonomic families. An “ID tip” is also provided for every tree to easily distinguish it from similar trees.

I also liked the short sections explaining the various habitats, families, ecosystems, and things like forest fires. That in particular was interesting, I didn’t know that the seeds of certain trees (like the pitch pine) are freed more easily with the intense heat of a fire, and the ashes act as a good fertilizer for others (Alders i think). And that alders “fix” nitrogen in the soil preparing it for larger trees that then actually supplant them. The forest really does look like a giant evolving organism.

I wonder if field guides like this are still used nowadays though.

Usually my rule is that I have to read an entire book before I can count it as "read" on Goodreads, but that doesn't make sense for a reference book, plus this one has been my constant companion for the past 2 summers. My son and I have identified numerous trees with the help of this book. I've thumbed through other tree guides in bookstores and researched others on Amazon and settled on this as one of the best.

Key features: good photographs, interesting background information, and helpful hints for identification. In fact, probably my favorite feature is the ID tips that accompany almost every entry. These tips focus on a reality that other tree books seem to ignore: it is difficult for the beginner to tell apart certain similar species, for example red oak vs. black oak. Most books just seem to describe each and go merrily along. This book specifically says things like, "Red oak is easily confused with black oak. The key differences are..." and so forth. Smart and helpful.

One complaint is that the photographs are inconsistent. I would prefer an isolated photo of every leaf, isolated and alone against a white background. Some of the entries have such a photo, but some have a photo in-situ of an entire branch with the rest of the tree or a forest floor in the background. This hinders identification. Also, some fruit/seed photos are present, but not all. However, it's impossible for one book to do everything without becoming a gigantic, expensive textbook. I did also like what I saw when browsing Sibley's guide, which is multiple drawings of leaves from the same species, showing the variation possible (another difficulty for the beginner.) But the bottom line is that over the past 2 years I've gone from being able to ID the dozen or so trees that most people can probably ID to at least 50. (My 5-yr-old son can ID nearly as many as I can.) Most of that is thanks to this book. (As a side note, a few iPhone apps like LeafSnap were helpful, but overall, this book was far more helpful than apps or online tree ID aids.)

I'm tempted to hide this review because of spoilers. Ha ha!

The book has nice essays, a visual glossary, location information, distribution maps, clear photographs, 700 species covered, useful organization, a species index, silhouettes, and a waterproof cover. I carry it everywhere.

However, for best field use, choose a location-specific guide (state, county, regional). This book is amazing, but if you are new to identifications it may serve you well to have a lighter-weight book in your hands and less to sort through.

This is an exceptional field guide, complete with color photos of leaves and bark, sometimes an entire tree, flowers, nuts, berries, etc.-- it is accessible and easy to use for novices such as myself, making walks in the woods even more of a pleasure. All sorts of area maps and botanical facts. Thorough and interesting. Highly recommend.

This book is how I passed botany in High School.

I wish there were more CA local trees contained within, but the book provides foundational information and taught me about trees in general. 4.2

This is a beautifully put together, very well done book. This is THE book I generally consult first when looking up trees and to my mind, if you are only going to buy one field guide to trees, hands down this should be it.

Why? So many reasons. Gorgeous photos of for most species flowers, fruits, seeds, nuts, leaves, trunks, branches, bark, and often the whole tree. Range maps. Detailed habitat notes, including elevation notes. Quick reference index on the last page to find trees when you know it is say oak, holly, or cherry. Index searchable by common name and by scientific name. Introduced and even some ornamental trees are included right in the main part of the book, not in a separate section as with some field guides.

I especially love the ID tip included for the majority of the trees, a few sentences to a paragraph that really lets the reader home in on what they have before them. Truth be told I never thought to try to identify pine trees until I started to look into those tips (and the entries for each species as a whole). An entire group of plants that I never even tried to identify before now seem if not easy at least quite accessible to me now thanks to this book.

Other groups this book does well with include the various Prunus species, the plum trees, a sometimes confusing group that is nicely handled in several pages with side by side photos, descriptions, and range maps, and the magnolia genus (the book making the identification of those species positively easy it seems).

Another plus is the section prior to the species entries, a mini textbook (quite accessible though to the beginner) on the botany of trees, with photos and line drawings of the types and arrangements of flowers, the types and parts of fruit, leaf shapes, twig features, types of bark, etc. Very informative and well done.

I also like how each major section, be it say pines, cypresses, or trees with alternate, simple leaves have a page or two introduction, often accompanied by useful diagrams and photos (and helpfully color coded at the top of the page, at least the larger groupings are). That combined with the aforementioned last page index, the in depth main index, and the quickly read almost bullet point species accounts make this book designed for fast and easy use in the field. I often go to my other books for more detailed information or with species I am just not quite sure about but for the quick ID, this book is it.

One of the things I have noticed about national field guides is that they have included not only such a large swath of territory but so many different terrains, everything from mangrove swamps to alpine meadows. With wildflowers that can be overwhelming, drowning the reader in “choices” that aren’t really choices or leading the writers to only include representative samples of some groups. I think with regards to trees there is just the right number of species that makes this a more productive effort than say with wildflowers. Just a thought. Not saying nationwide field guides for anything don’t have a place – people in between say eastern and western U.S., those who regularly handle out of range exotics and accidentals, those who travel a lot – but sometimes say for me, lugging around in the field a hundred pages on desert plants while hiking through the southern Appalachians is not much appreciated. Here I think with trees there is not that problem!

Includes reference to both little and big leaf Linden trees .

The most amazing present a boyfriend could give... :)

I use this book for the trees on my outdoor adventures. It is very detailed and extensive.

Beautifully illustrated and very detailed. This is what a field guide should look like in my opinion.