Conifer ident tips and tricks.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Good thread.

 

There's the classic Cedar trick, comparing the branch form with the first letter of the species...

 

Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) = A = Ascending branch tips

Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) = L = Level branch tips

Deodar (Cedrus deodara) = D = Descending branch tips

 

i like it, never heard that one before:thumbup1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Probably gonna embarass myself here but 'hey ho' never stopped me before!

 

Picea = 'peg' retained at base of needle when plucked

Abies = 'absence of peg' when plucked.

 

(Hope that's the right way round.)

 

The other one I remember is 'fern, urn = Western" (Red Cedar, Thuja plicata). The fern relates to the 'fern like foliage', the 'urn' relates to the little cone looking like an 'urn' and together they point to it being a 'Western.....Red Cedar'.

 

Tony pinched my last one...boo hoo!

 

Cheers all..

Paul

 

PS When doing Conifer id's for college previously I found a trip to the local garden centre, provided they were correctly labelled of course, was a big help.

 

yeah right! if i had a pound for everytime ive found a miss labeled nursery stock! probably not so bad in comercial ones but I just couldnt help myself when i saw a stack of Acer psuedoplatanus labbeled as "Nizetii's!

[Al Cormack]

Good thread.

 

There's the classic Cedar trick, comparing the branch form with the first letter of the species...

 

Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) = A = Ascending branch tips

Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) = L = Level branch tips

Deodar (Cedrus deodara) = D = Descending branch tips

 

I remember getting taught this when I was at Merrist Wood:thumbup:

 

Another one to tell the difference between lawson and leylandii is to hold a fern upto the light. Leylandii has small translucent windows in the centre if the ferns and laswon does not. (Think that is the right way round)

[Andrew B]

very good, keep them coming.

 

Andrew

[Ian Flatters]

Larches- Look at the cones

 

decidua - Cones are tight and upright

kaempferi - Cones are open and droops

X eurolepis - Cones are a mixture of upright and drooping

 

 

Metaesquoia remember as MOG = Meta opposite Glypto, needles sit oppersite.

Taxodium remeber as TAD = Tax adjacent Distich, Needles sit adjacent

 

Piceas - cones go down

Abies - Cones go up

 

Douglus fir - 3 pointed buds

 

Scotts pine needles twist to kind of make a S

 

Nigra - long needles

 

Bhutan - droops and is soft to touch

 

Juniper - Crush and smells like gin

 

Tsuga canadensis - leaves curl over, has a reflex leaf (on top some leaves turn over to show a silver underside)

[Ben90]

Dawn Redwood (Metasequioa glyptostroboidies) = Dawn comes at (nearly) the same time every day = the shoots are opposite (shooting at the same time) - I link it to the botanical name by thinking 'try saying Metasequioa glyptostroboidies at the crack of dawn'

 

Coast Redwood (Sequioa sempervirens) = Coasts (i think beaches) are scattered all over the country = shoots are scattered all over (alternate) the young branch. - I link it to the botanical name by thinking 'semperviren' means evergreen, unlinke the dawn redwood which is deciduous.

 

Giant redwood (Sequioadendron giganteum) = foliage looks totally different from the other 2 lol - i link it to the botanical name by thinking 'damn, that things gigantic!.'

 

Edited April 15, 2010 by Ben90

[Ian Flatters]

Ok heres some naff drawings i've done i hope they give a bit of help.

[Paul Barton]

Nice mr target! Looks like the 'dowson' method of conifer ident?!

[Ian Flatters]

Nice mr target! Looks like the 'dowson' method of conifer ident?!

 

You mean the 'dowson,summerly' effect?

[kmac]

just wanted to say thanks for the tips! I've only just come across this trying to work out the difference between Leylandii and Lawson for my tree ident. Thanks guys