Winter Botany

A lot of people find it near impossible to ID trees in winter. Ok, some have distinctive bark, or shape, but then there's the whole realm of trees out there that are just near impossible to identify without leaves. This really help work your way through tree taxonomy.

I'm a gardener at a botanical garden, but I have no formal training in botany, so take my remarks accordingly. I've found this book useful, although the key sequence is longer than the other two keys I use regularly. The book uses line drawings, which for buds & leaf scars actually works pretty well. The keys use quite a bit of plant science terminology- most of it is covered in the glossary at the end of the book. The biggest disappointment for me was the exclusion of coniferous evergreens from the book. On a day to day basis, I used another book "Fruit & Twig Key to Trees & Shrubs" more often, but this one covers more species.