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Tree Identification Guides
Nearly every tree guide claims to enable you to identify any tree you are likely to encounter. The snag with this, even if it is true, is that although you are unlikely to encounter any particular rare tree in a couple of hours spent wandering round any habitat with a rich variety of planted trees, you are likely to encounter at least one uncommon species or cultivar ... which can be frustrating. The only really comprehensive yet usable identification guide I have come across is Johnson & More, the first book listed below.
| • | The Collins Tree Guide – Owen Johnson & David More (Collins, 2004) ISBN: 0007139543 —Absolutely indispensable, packed with information and excellent colour drawings for about 1000 species and 1600 taxa (i.e. including varieties, cultivars, etc). Definitely not a pocket guide however, and it also glosses over natural hybridisation (e.g within the Salicaceae) by generally assuming it to be rare. |
| • | Trees: A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe – John & Jill White, S. Max Walters (OUP, 2005) ISBN: 019851574X — A photo guide: most photos are of the whole tree, or if closeup are too small to be clear, making it difficult to use as an identification guide. An excellent focus on ecology, particularly of native or naturalized species, and on the complexities of natural hybridization, but with a corresponding omission of some quite common cultivars. |
| • | Trees of Britain and Europe – Keith Rushforth (Collins, 1999) ISBN: 0002200139 — I have not seen this, but I gather it the most comprehensive guide currently in print (?), and it certainly should be at over 1300 pages! |
| • | Mitchell Beazley Pocket Guide to Trees – Keith Rushforth (Mitchell Beazley, 2000) ISBN: 1840002697 — A rather selective but definitely pocket-sized guide. Some of the drawings are a bit iffy; however I find the consistency with which it supplies dimensions for leaves/fruit/flowers/buds, etc for the featured species a helpful complement to Johnson & More (see above) which sometimes gives a more subjective description. |
| • | Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain – (Reader's Digest, 2001) ISBN: 0276425073 — This is a bit well ... Reader's-Digesty, with lots of historical background and in an annoying horizontal format so that the cover creases the first time you open it. Having said that, it has some excellent pages comparing features across the whole spectrum of the species covered, particularly the pages comparing buds and winter twigs. Moreover it is the only guide I have come across that treats the commoner shrubs as well: shrubs masquerading as trees are most irritating to the tree purist, and a knowledge of common shrubs is essential if rare small, bushy trees are not to be missed! |
| • | Hillier - The Gardener's Guide to Trees & Shrubs – (David & Charles, 2004) ISBN: 0715320211 — This is not, and doesn't seek to be, an identification guide. However it has over 3000 photographs of trees and shrubs, and is therefore a great resource for identifying some of the more unusual cultivars, and also those omnipresent tree-wannabe large shrubs. It also gives a good idea of the range of dwarf cultivars out there which may some day grow big enough to be considered trees! The problem is finding anything you haven't already identified as there is no key and everything is just in alphabetical order... |
| • | Trees of Britain and Northern Europe – Alan Mitchell et al. (Collins, 1992) ISBN: 0002192136 — The predecessor of Johnson & More (see above) |
| • | A History of Britain's Trees – Gerald Wilkinson (Hutchinson, 1982) ISBN: 009146000X — An out-of-print book which is full of interesting information about the introduction of tree species to the UK, and which also introduces the great tree-hunters who found them and brought them back. |
| • | Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles – W.J.Bean, (Murray, 8th ed, 1973-1989) — The authoritative series of tomes on the subject, well worth dipping into in your local reference library. |
Online resources include:
| • | The Trees and Shrubs Website — Keys to identifying 80 of the commonest British trees, in and out of leaf, and including distribution maps |
| • | Wikipedia — (where else!) - just look up the Latin genus to get a global perspective. |
| • | Trees of Britain and Ireland — the Wikipedia list of native and naturalised species (with links) |
| • | British-Trees.com — some (rather limited) information and images of native trees |