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Trees: Revised and Updated (A Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press)
written by Herbert S. Zim, Alexander C. Martin
Studio : Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press
by Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press
Publisher : Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press
Released : 2001-04-14
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781582381336
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 7 reviews)
List Price : $6.95
Our Price : $3.24
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Product Description |
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This Golden Guide describes and illustrates in full color more than 140 of our most common trees. Learn:
-How to recognize tree shapes, flowers, buds, leaves, and fruits
-Where each species grows
-The parts of a tree and the various kinds of trees
Perfect for nature lovers of all ages, this is an indispensable guide for everyone who wants to be able to recognize the different trees in North America.
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Good first book |
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I used the original edition of this book and it was my introduction to dendrology. It shows the overall tree, leaf structure, and flowers, which are the main parts to use in identifying a plant. One thing it lacks is a close up illustration of the bark, useful in differentiating pines, firs, and so forth, and even hardwoods such as sycamore, which has peeling, deciduous bark, and the prunus genus, which contains cherry trees, which have horizontally striated, lenticele bark. This book covers North America so it can't be exhaustive in such a small book, but nevertheless, many important trees get covered, and it still makes a good choice for a young, budding naturalist. Also, trees are a good place to start with plant identification since they're so big and usually relatively easy to identify. Another great book on trees to start with trees Donald Culross Peattie's Natural History of North American Trees, which is now 65 years old and a classic, but still one of the best. |
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Excellent pocket reference. |
We wanted a compact reference for identifying trees while traveling and this fits the bill perfectly.
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quick reference |
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This is a quick light reference for throwing in your bag and hitting the trails. Not indepth and uses the leaves for identification. Illustrations are good. |
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Opens your eyes to the trees around you |
Another handy reference for amateur naturalists, this pocket book facilitates the identification and exploration of trees of all sorts.
There is some introductory information in the beginning that brings the reader up to speed on how trees work, and also suggests some strategies and uses for tree identification.
Some of the pictures are the soft colors that we have come to expect, but many of the pictures of leaves and nuts are more starkly drawn, perhaps because identification can be so difficult.
Trees are arranged by group (spruces, oaks, etc.), and each species has a picture, short description, and map depicting its natural range.
This is an invaluable book for amateurs, and has the Golden Guide trademark of being accessible to young naturalists without talking down to them.
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The North Star for trees |
When I was a kid, me and my grandfather (or Papaw as everybody calls him since we're from the South) loved to go walking in the woods. Unlike most people, we were more interested in checking out the trees than looking close for deer and rabbits. Being a curious little boy, I would ask him, "What kind of tree is this?" I don't know how he knew, but he was always right.
I got an earlier version of this book as a present and loved it! It was perfect with its easy reading and nice illustrations for anyone of any age. Most trees in the book are done like this: One page is devoted to them. Let's say you're looking at Mockernut Hickory. The top half of the page shows an illustration (there are no real photographs in the book) of the tree's leaves and fruits close up, along with a distant illustration of the tree in a scenic location. The bottom half of the page contains a paragraph that goes into more detail about the particular type of tree, such as describing its bark, where it grows, or maybe even a short history on the tree. Did you know that the pecan tree is a southern hickory that has transformed into a national symbol pretty much? It didn't even grow here in Alabama naturally, and now, due to widespread planting over the years, it's seen everywhere around here! Finally, at the bottom-right, we have a map of the United States. The parts that are shaded in are where the tree grows in its natural habitat. Oh, wait! It also tells how tall each tree gets and what family it's in (Beech family, Maple family, etc.)
That's a lot of detail for just one little page! But it never appears jumbled. There's a nice section at the beginning of the book that gives you an overview of trees in general, such as how wood forms, broadleaf trees and conifers, types of forests, and much more. Finally, it has a few pages where it groups major types of trees (Oaks, Maples, etc.) together and gives an overview of them, but it still has a page devoted to each separate kind (Water Oak, Southern Red Oak, Blackjack Oak, and so on). My only complaint whatsoever is that it doesn't show a close up of each tree's bark.
I used to look at this book and read it all the time out of pure interest, but there was an unexpected surprise as well. While my Papaw would simply say that one tree was "a hickory", I could outdo him and teach HIM that it was a SHAGBARK hickory. That is, until he got into this book as well. It really does have pretty much all the kinds of trees that you'll see in the United States, everything you know by heart like pines and oaks, to the more obscure, such as redbud, sycamore, honeylocust, and sassafras.
I lost that "earlier version" of this book years ago, but I recently purchased this revised copy as soon as I laid eyes on it and recognized it. Perhaps I lost it because I used to carry it with me nearly everywhere I went, and you probably will too. This book is about the size of a checkbook and it literally fits in your back pocket. Do you or someone you know enjoy walking in the woods or through trails checking out trees and identifying them? If so, this is the perfect beginning guide toward increasing your knowledge of these tall creatures in the world around you. |
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