The conventional wisdom on Elms (American and Slippery) is that they can be recognized by their asymmetrical leaf bases. However, in my experience there is considerable variation from plant to plant and also even from leaf to leaf on single tree. Many of the elms I find have nearly symmetrical leaf bases—possibly because they haveContinue reading “Elms and their look-alikes”
Tag Archives: tree identification
Tree ID Continued: Oaks and Maples
Slowly but surely I am learning my trees. A couple weeks ago, in my post, “On Bark,” I wrote about ash, tulip, northern red oak, black locust and honey locust. Today I would like to add a couple oaks and maples to the list: Chestnut Oak, Black Oak and Sugar Maple. Quercus montana, or theContinue reading “Tree ID Continued: Oaks and Maples”
On Bark
Tree bark is one of those things difficult to describe without metaphor. It’s also one of those things people can recognize without being able to describe (giving rise to numerous not particularly helpful youtube videos, and demonstrating, by the way, that we can think, or at least categorize, outside of language). Whereas leaves can beContinue reading “On Bark”
recycled paper clips 