Reply to: How many tree species can you identify?

[TimberWolf]

I went to the garden centre today and bought a Christmas Tree. The assistant asked me, "Will you be putting that up yourself?"

I replied, "No, you sick ****. I'm putting it in my living room."

[oscarose]

I would also say that bird watching is more about bird listening. Once the leaves are on the trees bird listening is less frustrating.

We’ve got some irritating thrush around at the moment.

[OrangeHopper]

Sorry, I forgot to mention field maple in the most common list.

[TimberWolf]

If you do a fair amount of walking then it can add to the interest if you can identify trees.

Start with the most popular British trees - oak, ash, beech - and go from there.

I would also say that bird watching is more about bird listening. Once the leaves are on the trees bird listening is less frustrating.

I agree and will learn the most common big trees. To wit, I have compiled the following in anticipation of woodland/parkland identification forays:

Oak. Most common in woods. 20m.
Leaves: lobed, acorns.
Bark: pale brown and deeply grooved.

Ash. 4th most common. Bows, tool handles. 20m.
Leaves: 3cm * 10cm, 6 to 12 pairs of oval, paired, leaflets. Each leaflet has irregular teeth.
Bark: pale grey and smooth, but grooves begin to appear with age.
Can be confused with : Elder, which has 5-7 leaflets instead.

Beech (common). Used for plywood. 20m.
Leaves: 6cm * 10cm, wavy edge. Leaf edges are smooth and fringed with silky brown hairs.
Bark: smooth and grey

Horse Chestnut. Produces conkers. Woodcarving. 20m
Leaves: 5-7 toothed stalkless leaflets spreading from a central stem, 25 cm long.
Bark: Scaley with cracks.

Sycamore. Shady tree.
Maple family. All maples have five lobed leaves.
Leaves: The leaf stems are characteristically red. 20cm * 20cm. The sycamore has many large coarse rounded teeth/serrations on each lobe.
Bark: Pinkish-grey and smooth. After around 80 years small pale grey plates develop.

Lime. Common in parks. 20-40m.
Leaves: Heart/Triangular. 10 * 10cm. Flimsy leaves with the undersides a shiny pale green.
Bark: Pale grey-brown and irregularly ridged. Characteristic large burrs and covered in leaf shoots at the base of the tree.

Hawthorn. Most common in woodland. 12-15m.
Leaves: Lobed. 6cm. Toothed lobes cut at least halfway to the middle or 'mid-rib'. Main veins curve outwards. There are tufts of hair on the underside of the leaf where the veins join. (A bit Maple leaf-like?)
Bark:

Cedar of Lebanon: A grand tree planted in the parks and gardens of stately homes and mansions. It has a distinct shape with several trunks and clear horizontal layers in the foliage.
Leaves: Needles.


Pine.
Leaves: Needles.

Fir (all types)
Leaves: Needles.

Yew:
Leaves: Needles.

Willow. Easy.

Birch. Easy.

The Woodland Trust | Introduction
BRITISH TREES - A CHART OF TREES, LEAVES AND FRUIT

Birds seem much harder to tell apart and will wait for another day. I fancy I would stand a better chance with birdsong than by ocular means of identification.

[OrangeHopper]

If you do a fair amount of walking then it can add to the interest if you can identify trees.

Start with the most popular British trees - oak, ash, beech - and go from there.

I would also say that bird watching is more about bird listening. Once the leaves are on the trees bird listening is less frustrating.

[xoggoth]

Taking your own pics?

Not in the app, my sister paints them, although I am also trying to get a webpage together with photos for both trees and the existing wildflower app. If they have a signal the options they chose to identify could take them to the species there if its not in the phone's database.

[DaveB]

The Larch

[EternalOptimist]

Not only how far away, but the way that you say it
Is very important. Perhaps you may never get
The knack of judging a distance, but at least you know
How to report on a landscape: the central sector,
The right of arc and that, which we had last Tuesday,
And at least you know that maps are of time, not place, so far as the army
Happens to be concerned - the reason being,
Is one which need not delay us. Again, you know
There are three kinds of tree, three only, the fir and the poplar,
And those which have bushy tops to; and lastly
That things only seem to be things.

- Henry Reed, Lessons from the War

very very true. for a soldier

and the last one- That things only seem to be things- camoflage, well I have an excellent story about that

[Pogle]

I have a woody growth that needs to be identified, also it's struggling in this dry weather and could do with a bit of TLC and moving into a damp shaded area to enable it to reach it's full growth.

I may post a photo

[Diver]

I have a woody growth that needs to be identified, also it's struggling in this dry weather and could do with a bit of TLC and moving into a damp shaded area to enable it to reach it's full growth.

I may post a photo

[Gonzo]

Not sure if it's worth the effort.

Probably not. Just make sure that you recognise a triffid in case you should come across one.

[alluvial]

Weren't these once the standard fare for school woodwork classes? None of my kids has ever brought home a mug tree. Educational standards ain't what they used to be.

Not the metal kind anyway.

[mudskipper]

Weren't these once the standard fare for school woodwork classes? None of my kids has ever brought home a mug tree. Educational standards ain't what they used to be.

[pacharan]

Yeh, doing an android tree ident app at mo. Not in hurry as will probably have to be free, too many others with more species.

Taking your own pics?

[xoggoth]

Yeh, doing an android tree ident app at mo. Not in hurry as will probably have to be free, too many others with more species.