Trees

[ssmith1627]

Forget identying wood once it's already lumber -- who knew it was so hard to identify TREES ? I feel like a little kid who is totally unaware of the world around him. I have some box elder trees on my property so I bought a couple of books from Borders on trees. I just wanted to identify the rest of what I had on my land. Several cedar trees, two different types of maples. But I can't for the life of me figure out exactly which type of maple they are. And I can't identify some of the other trees -- one is possibly a persimmon.

My wife and I have been birdwatching for the past year and we've gotten pretty good at figuring out what is what there. Maybe 26 types of birds in our yard in that much time so it's been fun. But this tree thing -- whew -- much harder.

Are there any good websites out there ?

This stems from wanting to take down a few trees and at the same time turn them into useful lumber. I'm in love with the idea of building something that came from wood on my own land.

Steve

[reddog552]

tree identification

http://www.oplin.org/tree/Try this site

[cabinetman]

This might be one that you bought, The International Book Of Trees, by Hugh Johnson, is an excellent book. Searching on the internet for particulars of certain species may take some time, but should turn up specific information.

[Ken Massingale]

Tree ID'ing is fun, but for me can be frustrating due to all the sub-species. I usually do better starting with the bark and not the leaves. I've been in the southeast woods all my life and still don't feel like I've made a dent in ID'ing all the species and sub-species.

http://www.hardwoodinfo.com/species_guide/display_species.asp

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php is very helpful. The members are anxious to assist with identifying and other aspects of trees, from planting to milling.

Enjoy the new interest, Steve.

[Daryl]

Persimmon will have a real chunky type of bark. I imagine your maples are sugar and water maple.

[dlminehart]

Did you notice that a new species of bamboo was just identified in Appalachia, I believe. One of only 3 indigenous to the US. Local people even had a name for it ("cane grass"?), but no botanists had identified it. Hard to believe!