Posted by Felicia clemons on February 3, 2006

Q: Besides experience, what is a helpful way to identify deciduous trees in winter??

A: Experience, as you've guessed, really does help but that's what "practice makes perfect" is all about. Deciduous trees in winter can seem quite perplexing at first but there are a variety of puzzle pieces that one can put together to figure out what you're looking at.

To begin with, it really helps to have a good book or two on tree ID for your area. This doesn't have to be a professional book but simply one that points out the typical trees one is likely to find in your general area of the country with some good illustrations. Knowing what trees are likely to be found where you live, really narrows the field. Granted, field guides tend to focus on tree leaves but they often provide tree profiles and illustrate their fruits and silouettes that helps too. It's also important to consider the habitat one is looking in - mature woods, young woods, bottomland near water, dry, sandy areas etc.will often be remarked upon in field guides and these can help you know where to "expect" to find certain species. Knowing what grows in a particular habitat certainly won't guarantee tree ID but it helps put things in perspective. Be sure to take a look at the bark, whether or not a tree is oppositely or alternately branched and when all else fails, look on the ground for last year's leaves - these often can be extremely helpful although you can't always be sure which tree they fell from. There are some good tree guides that use buds and bare twigs for ID but these are for more advanced searchs and may not be suitable. During the summer months, when tree ID is much easier, get a good look at the various trees in your area and identify what you can and when winter arrives and the leaves are off the trees, you'll probably know most if not all of the trees you see.

One word of caution; if you look at trees in town or yard, you're quite likely to run across an assortment of exotic trees from other areas so don't let this throw you off when making an ID with your field guide. I personally find trees to be extremely enjoyable and like the fact that they stand still and give you all the time in the world to look at them closely! Hope this helps and thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( February 3, 2006)