There are dozens of different varieties each with their own unique leaf structures and shapes.
Identifying hardwood trees by their leaves.
About 90 percent of all the trees in pennsylvania s forests are hardwoods.
Red and white oaks are just.
What tree is that.
Most hardwood trees are deciduous trees which lose their leaves annually like elm or maple.
The texture and density of the wood a tree produces puts it in either the hardwood or softwood category.
Most evergreens have needles or scales while most broadleaf trees are deciduous meaning they drop their leaves when dormant.
The shape arrangement complexity texture and pattern of leaf veins will all help you to identify your hardwood tree.
Our illustrated step by step process makes it easy to identify a tree simply by the kinds of leaves it produces.
Hardwood trees lose their leaves each autumn.
Begin identifying your tree by choosing the appropriate region below.
How to identify trees by their leaves.
Oak leaves are easily identifiable because of their lobed leaves.
However there are exceptions.
When identifying leaves the first thing to look at is the arrangement of the leaves along the stem.
Also the margins of these leaves can be smooth serrated notched or lobed.
Hardwood trees are distinguished from evergreen trees because they lose their leaves when the weather grows cold a mechanism that protects the trees from dehydration when groundwater freezes during the winter.
Needles scales and broadleaf.
The starting point for most people when identifying trees species is the leaves.
Deciduous trees including oaks maples and elms shed their colorful leaves in the fall and sprout bright new green leaves in the spring.
Pennsylvania s forests grow some of the most valuable hardwoods in the world.
The remaining 10 percent are softwoods.
They have rounded or pointed knobs around the leaf.
Tree identification field guide.
The wood of these trees is generally hard and dense but there are exceptions.
At first glance this protective outer coating of a tree s trunk and branches may seem like an unending sea of gray and brown.
Trees that do not lose their leaves each year are called evergreen those that lose them are called deciduous we think of all conifers as staying green all year think pine trees like christmas trees and all trees with leaves as losing them.
When trying to identify a tree by its leaves you can also notice the venation patterns on the leaf as well as its color.
Softwood comes from a conifer cone bearing or evergreen trees such as pine or spruce.
There are three basic leaf types.
There is much more to identifying tree leaves than just by their shape.