The Sibley Guide to TreesThe definitive field guide to the trees of North America, featuring maps, detailed illustrations, and information on more than 600 species of trees, from the preeminent, bestselling author and illustrator “A beautiful, masterful, and much-needed work that will henceforth be our guide to the North American trees.”—Edward O. Wilson The Sibley Guide to Trees is an astonishingly elegant guide to a complex subject. It condenses a huge amount of information about tree identification—more than has ever been collected in a single book—into a logical, accessible, easy-to-use format. With more than 4,100 meticulous, exquisitely detailed paintings, the Guide highlights the often subtle similarities and distinctions between more than 600 tree species—native trees as well as many introduced species. More than 500 maps show the complete range, both natural and cultivated, for nearly all species. No other guide has ever made field identification so clear. Highlighted features include: • leaves (including multiple leaf shapes and fall leaf color) • bark • needles • cones • flowers • fruit • twigs • silhouettes Trees are arranged taxonomically, with all related species grouped together. By focusing on the fundamental characteristics of, for example, oaks or chestnuts or hickories, the Guide helps the user recognize these basic species groups the same way birders recognize thrushes, warblers, or sparrows. In addition, there are essays on taxonomy, on the cultivation of trees, and on conservation issues, reflecting Sibley’s deep concern with habitat preservation and environmental health. An important contribution to our understanding of the natural world, The Sibley Guide to Trees is a necessity for every tree lover, traveler, and naturalist. |
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acorn Alder bark Birch Black bracts branches brown buds California catkins Cherry clusters Common Commonly cultivated zones cones Crataegus crown cultivars dark green Deciduous dense drooping Eastern Evergreen fall color forests fruit furrowed genus Ginkgo gray habitats Hackberry hairy Hickory hybrids leaf shape leaflets leafstalk leaves small lenticels Live Oak lobes Magnolia Maple mature trunks Medium to large medium tree usually moist monly cultivated narrow native to North needles North America Northern Red Oak Oak Quercus orange oval paler Paper Birch persist PINE Evergreen Pine Pinus plants Plum Prunus Quercus Rarely cultivated reddish relatively ridges rocky rounded scales scaly seed Serviceberry Shrub or small similar slender Small to medium small tree usually smaller smooth soils Southern Live Oak spring Spruce stalk swamps tall max tree-like twig tips twigs Uncommon Uncommonly underleaf underleaf pale green upright Walnut whitish Willow winter woods yellow young trunks