Latin

[phasthound]

I recently purchased a great book on trees to help educate employees. Unfortunately, the trees are listed in alphabetical order by their Latin names which is of little help to them. Can anyone recommend a good source that lists trees by their common names alphabetically followed by their latin names?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Most books use the latin taxonomy becuase it does not have as many synonyms as with comon terms, even when you cross languages.

When you get into regional variations there are some, such as the florida maple being it's own species, or a regional varient of Acer sacharum.

ArborDay.org has some basic tree ID books.

Geo. Symonds has a rather good ID book broke into photo plates of leaves, flowers fruit, buds, bark...using comon names

Amazon.com would not load, so I searched and here is a cover shot of the book
http://www.wmuma.com/tracker/booklist/booklistnature.html

 

[xander9727]

Peterson Field Guides "Eastern Trees" ISBN 0-395-90455-2
Has the scientific and common names for trees. The index is arranged in alphabetical order by both common and scientific names.

Plan b: refer to all the trees by their scientific name and over time the employees will only be able to work for you, a biologist or JPS.

 

[Sylvatica]

If your people are online, you could also refer them to one of the many hort sites, some of which will list by common or scientific names, as selected by the reader.

The downsides to this is the lack of portability in the field, and some of the trees do not have all the images helpful to ID easily. But might be of some value.

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/common/a.html

 

[Sylvatica]

JPS, I agree about Symonds, both the tree and shrub books. They are very good, and the fact that they are not in color doesn't seem to reduce their usefulness at all.

 

[jamie]

i found that starting with a few common species and getting their names down helped me remember them, then build on it, getting more species every time, i can now use a book to find species via common and latin names (well the ones i know.....)

jamie

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by xander9727
Peterson Field Guides "Eastern Trees" ISBN 0-395-90455-2
Peterson's should work pretty well for NJ, though your ag ext people or landgrant U may have a more local guide so you won't have to skip by the southern sp.

Plan b: refer to all the trees by their scientific name and over time the employees will only be able to work for you, a biologist or JPS.

Those employees, once they know the scientific names, will take pride in knowing more about what they're working with. (Keep the guides, trade mags etc in the truck to look at in between jobs --if you're paying someone to sit and ride, they may as well be learning something, and it may elevate the conversation beyond the usual bs.) The great majority of customers appreciate the difference between real names and nicknames.

Jamie's method of learning a few at first and getting to know the patterns is a good example that anyone can follow. Sticking to common names can be expensive--if you tell an employee to cut down the "pin oak" in Mr. Jones' yard, and they cut down the Quercus palustris instead of the Quercus phellos, Mr. Jones may have a case for taking a month or two's profit as compensation.

 

[The Climber]

the best book i've found 4 identification is the "National Audubon Society field guide to north american trees. you can look trees up by english name, or flip through color pics of leaves, bark, flower, or fruit

 

[The Climber]

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[The Climber]

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[The Climber]

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[The Climber]

you can also look them up by the color the leaves turn to in the fall