Tree id help

[Will Cobb]

Im not the best at tree id anyone got any advice on how to get better?

[Joe]

if you work with any one doing tree work get them to constantly quiz you on both the Latin and normal names of trees you work on and drive past, that's what i did before i started college and in about an hour of driving i already knew about 10 trees in Latin and English

[Tree Man Tom]

Get a good tree ident book, and just look at the trees around you. If you dont know what it is, look it up and try and remember. Just keep doing this at every oportunity, go for walks, visit arboretems, check out the trees in your local park, and when you notice a tree you dont know, look it up.

 

This is what i do, works for me. Ive been slacking recently though, need to get back into it lol

[Tree Man Tom]

if you work with any one doing tree work get them to constantly quiz you on both the Latin and normal names of trees you work on and drive past, that's what i did before i started college and in about an hour of driving i already knew about 10 trees in Latin and English

 

Il second that aswell

[Will Cobb]

cheers guys i will do tht everyone else keep sugestions coming

[Ben90]

I'm also slacking. I have a tiny pocket tree guide but it only has the most common trees, and my main tree guide is too bulky to carry around (one of those moments when you wish men could carry handbags and it be socially acceptable)

 

I used to find a tree on my day-to-day, look it up, learn it in English and Latin and repeat it in my head throughout the day. Then each time I'd go past the tree, I'd try to recall it.

[josharb87]

assoiation is a good way to learn, from associating the fruit to the tree (chestnuts=chestnut family) or fruit to leaves, if you see a horse chestnut conker on the tree, next to those big leaves, next time there may be no conkers, but you remember the leaves

to assoiating the latin names and common, for example, field maple is Acer campestre, acer is maple, and you camp in a field (camp . . .campestre)

[Ben90]

I do that too. One example of differentiating the Dawn and Coast redwoods (apart from the fact one is deciduous) is that the shooting pattern on a coast redwood is sporadic and unpredictable, like the coasts around a country. Whereas the Dawn redwood has a predictable opposite shooting pattern, such as the dawn which, predictably, comes every day. It's also called the last name you'd ever want to say at the crack of dawn..Metasequoia glyptostroboides!

 

I hope that made sense, it did in my head =p

Edited September 16, 2009 by Ben90

[scuff]

Like everything learn slow remember long time.

[chilli]

When I was starting out on plant i/d, I carried a little pocket notebook & jotted down a note or drawing of some detail that would help me remember the tree/plant; leaf, flower, fruit or bark together with common & latin name. It seemed that the act of making a note caused the detail to stick in the grey matter & I rarely had to refer back to the little notebook.