25 May Your Pocket Guide to Identifying Trees

A guide to identifying trees

Table of Contents

If you’ve been wanting to get to know your trees better, you’ve come to the right place. There’s an incredible amount of different species out there. It can seem overwhelming but once you know a few tricks, you’ll be an effortless pro. 

We’ve compiled a speedy guide just for you. This gives a quick rundown on how to identify different types of trees. Fancy getting into the nitty gritty? Follow us along to the in-depth guide below. 

Let’s begin with…

The speedy guide

The quickest way to narrow down the species of your tree are through the characteristics listed below. This is great if you want to get a quick rough idea of what your tree is. If you want to go more in depth, read or jump to the bottom of this speedy guide section.

At the end of the article there’s a library of trees you can try to match your tree up to. Feel free to jump to the bottom to finish your speedy identifying journey!

Leaves

You can identify a tree quite quickly through their leaves. To start off with the easy stuff there are two categories of trees that have certain types of leaves:

• A conifer is a tree with needles or scales (not completely pointed needles, overlapping like roof (shingles). Most conifers are evergreen, keeping their leaves all year round.

 

• A tree with a flat leaf that doesn’t stay on the tree all year round will be a broadleaf tree. For example, a Maple leaf or oak leaf.

 

Bark

Bark can help to differentiate trees that have multiple similarities. You can narrow down a species by considering these:

• Texture
  
  
• Colour
  
  

A good example of this is a birch tree, it’s know for its classic silver/white or sometimes red papery peeling bark.

Flowers/fruits

If it’s the right time of year, a trees flowers or fruits can be an easy identifier.

For example: 

• A tree with acorns will be an oak tree.
• A sweet chestnut tree can be differentiated from a horse-chestnut by the shell of the fruit.
  E.g: Sweet chestnuts are covered in long hair like growths. Horse-chestnuts however, have short spikey spread out growths and the chestnut & husk itself is much bigger.

Diving into the in depth guide

Now it’s time to jump into the in depth guide!

There are a few ways to break down trees into categories to help you identify what species and tree type it is. Once you’ve followed these steps you can match it up in the tree library below.

First off – a small tip. It helps to know that Conifers are Softwood and broadleaf trees are hardwood. Don’t fret too much about remembering this, it will just help as you get further down. ‘Evergreen’ and ‘deciduous’  however, categorise the trees behaviour rather than the physicality of the tree.

Let’s start off with Step 1, you’ll be a tree identifying novice in no time.

Step 1: Tree’s Behaviour

Deciduous Tree:

Leaves shed at certain points of the year.
Fun fact – In tropical climates deciduous trees lose their trees during the dry season which is the opposite to the UK.

Evergreen tree:

Evergreen trees are characterised by their name ever-green, never failing to brighten up the countryside when deciduous trees give up their colour.

 

Step 2: Types of leaves

Leaves are the easiest way to identify a tree. Be sure to note how many lobes it has, how the edges appear and any notable characteristic.

There are three categories of leaf’s:

• Broadleaf – (common for deciduous trees) characterised by having span to the leaf even in a variety of shapes.
• Needles – pointy needles, often make you think of christmas tree needles.
• Scales – verlapping like roof shingles, very similar to needles but not needles!

Further things to look out for are:

• Opposite leaves – Leaves grow completely opposite each other on the stem.
• Alternate leaves – Alternating along the stem.
• Single or Compound leaves – Single leaves are the only leave attached to a stem which then attaches to the twig or branch. Compound leaves are when more than one leaf is attached to a single stem that is then attached to a twig or branch

Step 3: Bark

Bark can be a great give away for identifying a tree. Take note of the colour of the bark, if it peels, if it’s smooth, ridged or has a notable texture.

Step 4: Fruits and seeds

Broadleaf trees can have a wide array of fruits and seeds ranging from berries, samaras (those fun paper like boomerang seeds that twirl down from the tree), nuts, catkins, berries, stone fruits, fruit such as apples, capsules and cones.

All conifers produce cones that have seeds in them which are also classed as their fruit.

A Note: Some conifers are evergreen meaning they keep colour and their needles all year round however not all conifers are evergreen and vice versa (shown by holly)

Tree library – Identification Guide:

 So, now you’ve broken down your trees data, it’s time to get to the good part. What tree is it then?

Types of conifers (Softwood)

 

• Pine Trees
  Long needle leaves, most common type of conifer. If the needles are in groups of two, three or five it will be a pine tree. Pines will also have two types of cones per  cluster, a small one to produce pollen and a larger one to develop and drop seeds.
• Larch Trees
  More common in Siberia and Canada, larches also have needles grow in groups of 2-5 however they only have one cone grow per cluster of needles.
• Fir Trees
  Soft flat needles and their cones grow in the up right position. Fir needles when rolled between the fingers. If the it doesn’t roll easily, feels flat and is attached individually it will be a fir needle.
• Spruce Trees     
  Have shorter stiffer needles and produce small cones that hang down from branches. If the needle has four sides and is attached individually to the stem and rolls easily it is a spruce needle.
• Cypress Trees
  Needles grown singularly on twigs, yellowish green in colour and fall from the tree in autumn. Their leaves are generally scaly apart from bald cypress trees which have needles. Their fruits grow in clusters.
• Hemlock Trees
  Hemlock trees have needle leaves that are flat, with blunt rounded tips. They can be anywhere from 0.5cm – 2cm long and grow singularly and not in clusters. Their cones hang downwards from branches and can be greenish to reddish-purple. The bark is smooth gray that becomes scaly and flakes off to reveal reddish-brown inner bark.

Types of Broad-leaved Trees (hardwood)

Here are a select few common broadleaf species of trees. Broadleaf’s have a long list of species, compared to confier’s modest 6 species. Even going into branches of broadleaf species makes you appreciate this – Oak trees have about 450 different species in their family

• Hickories
  Hickories leaves are compound and consist of 3-17 leaflets on a stem and have serrated edges. It’s bark has shallow or deep ridges, generally a grey colour that darkens with maturity and it’s fruit (nuts) are surrounded in a green spherical husk.
• Maples
  Maples have well known leaves that are 3-5 lobes that look like a hand spread out, they alternate on the branch and are single on twigs/branches. It’s bark can range from grey to reddish and when young is smooth, then developing into bark with ridges or a scaly texture. The fruit/seed of a maple is a helicopter seed (two papery wings with seeds at top), professional name being samara. I’m sure you’ll remember chasing these as a child!
• Oaks
  The classic oak is characterised by it’s 5 lobed leaf, generally rounded and single on the twig and alternating with it’s leaf mates. A young oak will have smooth bark whereas an older oak will have ridged and grooved bark. It can vary in colours from Grey to Red. Finally we have the famous acorn – the fruit of an oak. Theflowers are catkins on these classic trees.
• Birch
  You can identify a Birch tree by its triangular or egg-shaped leaves that are pointed at the tip and have serrated edges and alternate on a twig or branch. A Birch’s bark is smooth and resinous marked by horizontal pores which generally peels in thin sheets, with the sheets getting thicker the older it gets… The bark can vary from white to multicoloured and its flowers are catkins.
• Ash
  Ash trees have compound leaves, consisting of 3-6 opposite pairs of light green oval leaves with a pointed tip. The bark is generally grey with diamond shaped ridges, particularly with mature Ash Trees. Both female and male flowers are purple growing at the tips of twigs. The fruits are similar to helicopter seeds however with only one wing.
• Beech
  Beech leaves characteristically have wavy edges that are not serrated and are the classic oval shape with a pointed tip. It’s trunk consists of smooth grey bark and the fruit is generally two nuts inside a husk. It has male and female flowers that hang down and are generally green and in clusters.
• Elm
  Elm’s have rounded leaves with serrated edges and a pointed tip that are generally singular and alternate on the branch. It’s bark is dark grey with deep furrows on the trunk. A sign of an elm tree is if its fruit are samaras (helicopter seeds) but round and thin, which is different to a maple tree.

You should now have the essentials to find out what mysterious species of beloved trees you have! 

Did you find this helpful? Is there anything you didn’t know before reading this?

Let us know in the comments below.