Tips on pics to ID tree species

[StihlyinEly]

Hey all:

There have been a pretty fair number of threads asking to ID firewood. As a longtime naturalist, photographer, woodcutter and tree service fella, I can tell you ID is not always easy, and pics of a few rounds/splits of firewood often are not enough to distinguish between similar looking species.

I know when we're cutting trees for firewood we're often doing it when the trees are dormant, so leaf pictures can be hard to come by, but I thought I'd offer a short list of photographs that are best to provide in case there's opportunity.

1. Full tree in its setting before felling (even if tree is dormant). The tree's growing environment can offer strong clues.
2. Leaves, buds, leaf scars, seeds, nuts or fruits. If the tree is dormant, pics of some of the leaves laying on the ground below the tree can help.
3. Closeup of bark, showing maybe a 1-foot vertical run of bark at about head level.
4. Cross section of cut trunk/end grain.
5. Closeup of wood grain on inside of a split piece.

If most or all of these pics are provided, I doubt anyone could stump the panel in here for long. Of all the pics mentioned above, photographing the leaves is actually most important. Leaf alone is usually (not always) enough to ID the species.

Good cutting out there and be safe, everyone!

 

[TreePointer]

:agree2: Great post!

I'll also add that pictures of leaf scars (where leaves had been attached) can help with some species.

If you want to take closeup pictures (within a couple inches of the subject), try using the macro mode/function on your camera. It's made for getting good closeups.

 

[Gunther274]

Steve makes a great point here. I can ID basically any tree north of Missouri with a picture of the bud and twig, or the leaf and twig. A picture of a split piece of wood is nothing to go on. Most of us who have had some kind of education in the tree ID field have the buds, leaves, and twigs burned into our heads.......

 

[woodbooga]

Awesome post, Steve. I gotta admit - even though I can ID my own firewood in almost zero light in the woodshed, some of the pics posted inside of this forum are real brain scratchers.

A few things to add I find helpful...

5. Closeup of wood grain on split piece.

I'll add that end grain and side view of a split are helpful.

Also too...trunk shots are good. But allotta times, views of smaller branches give telltale hints. Specifically, I'm thinking of the occasional popple whose trunk might masquerade as an ash or an oak...but then you see the not fully mature bark of one of the branches that makes the lightbulb go on over one's head.

 

[StihlyinEly]

Awesome post, Steve. I gotta admit - even though I can ID my own firewood in almost zero light in the woodshed, some of the pics posted inside of this forum are real brain scratchers.

A few things to add I find helpful...


I'll add that end grain and side view of a split are helpful.

Also too...trunk shots are good. But allotta times, views of smaller branches give telltale hints. Specifically, I'm thinking of the occasional popple whose trunk might masquerade as an ash or an oak...but then you see the not fully mature bark of one of the branches that makes the lightbulb go on over one's head.

Thanks, men.

Booga, your end grain and side view of a split are what I was talking about in Nos. 4 and 5. I edited them a bit to make it more clear.

 

[outdoorlivin247]

:agree2:...

Excellent post...

 

[woodbooga]

thanks, men.

booga, your end grain and side view of a split are what i was talking about in nos. 4 and 5. I edited them a bit to make it more clear.