Bioimages home summer tree key
Cheater's guide to some trees of Vanderbilt in spring
Note: this key is for TREES (greater than 2 meters tall).
Ignore shrubs and bushes shorter than that.
Click on any image to see it enlarged.
1. Leaves, needles, or scales evergreen (if leaves, thick and leathery): go to 2
1. Leaves not evergreen, or leaves not present: go to 5
2. Leaves needle-like or scale-like: go to 3
2. Leaves broad: go to 4
3. Leaves are scale-like: Juniperus virginiana (eastern red cedar) [start over]
3. Leaves are needles: Pinus strobus (white pine) [start over]
4. Leaves large with entire (straight) margins: Magnolia grandiflora (southern magnolia) [start over]
4. Leaves small with prickle-tipped margins: Ilex opaca (American holly) [start over]
5. Fruits, developing fruits, catkins, or fruit remnants present: go to 6
5. Fruit-like things not present: go to go to 15
6. Fruits a conglomerated unit attached at a single point: go to 7
6. Fruits, developing fruits, or catkins attached separately to twig: go to 10
7. Fruits ball-shaped: go to 8
7. Fruits elongated: go to 9
8. Fruits a spiky ball with holes, bark ridged: Liquidambar styraciflua (sweet gum) [start over]
8. Fruits not spiky, composed of fluffy parachutes, bark peeling in irregular plates to leave white patches underneath: Platanus hybrida (London planetree) [start over]
9. Fruits remnants of an aggregate of bladelike seeds which break off and fall, usually high in the tree: Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree) [start over]
9. Fruits an aggregate of purse-like containers that open to drop seeds; leaves large, evergreen and leathery: Magnolia grandiflora (southern Magnolia) [start over]
10. Catkins present, bark smooth and white: Betula platyphylla (whitspire birch) [start over]
10. Catkins not present, fruits or developing fruits long and thin, or flattened, perhaps with developing wings: go to 11
11. Fruits long and flattened, dried and remaining from the previous year: go to 12
11. Fruits small, emerging from flower parts and developing in the current year: go to 13
12. Fruit single-seeded and having a single wing extending from the seed away from the stem: Fraxinus spp., in most cases F. americana (white ash) [start over]
12. Fruit a pod containing many seeds: go to 12a
12a. Fruit a bean-like pod that often attaches directly to the trunk or large branches, may have pink or purple flowers: Cercis canadensis (redbud) [start over]
12a. Fruit a very long and thin pod that splits down the middle, found only at branch tips, no pink or purple flowers: Catalpa speciosa (northern catalpa) [start over]
13. Flowers and developing fruits red, developing fruits showing evidence of development of two wings: Acer rubrum (red maple) [start over]
13. Flowers and developing fruits not red: go to 14
14. Developing fruits oval shaped with a single seed, wings extend beyond seed to form pincer-like tips, tree often has characteristic "urn" shape with trunks and large branches splitting as they ascend: Ulmus americana (American elm) [start over]
14. Developing fruits two-seeded with evidence of development of two wings, flowers/developing fruits may hang from very long stems, bark often grayish with characteristic ridges whose edges curl away from the trunk: Acer saccharum (sugar maple) [start over]
15. Tree has no showy flowers but bark on older trees distinctive: unusually smooth, or having an orange color, or having plates or ridges that curl away or flake off from the trunk: go to 16
15. Tree has showy flowers OR bark not distinctive, rather bark on older trees may have ridges separated by furrows but without curling or peeling away from the trunk: go to 24
16. Bark of large tree smooth and gray or white,
with or without corky lumps protruding, without irregular patches of different
colors: go to 17
16. Bark of large tree
not smooth, or smoothish with irregular patches of different colors: go to 20
17. Bark primarily gray and very smooth (but possibly with some lumps sticking out of it), NOT chalky white, and NOT with splitting and ascending trunks and branches: go to 18
17. Bark fairly smooth and chalky white, or bark gray and having splitting and ascending trunks and branches: go to 19
18. Bark with few to many corky lumps protruding
(on very large trees look up to large branches), sometimes with significant
cracking on old bark: Celtis
spp.
(hackberry)
[start over]
18. Bark smooth, light tan leaves from the previous year still hanging from
branches:
Fagus
grandifolia
(American beech)
[start over]
19. Bark chalky white, catkins hanging from branches of
tree:
Betula platyphylla (whitspire birch)
[start over]
19. Bark gray and somewhat rough, tree often has characteristic "urn" shape
with trunks and large branches splitting as they ascend:
Zelkova serrata
[start over]
(Japanese zelkova)
20. Bark parts having several colors such as an orange underlayer or
patches of varying shades of green and gray which may flake off from the tree: go to 21
20. Bark parts all having the same grayish color: go to 22
21. Bark having a tendency to peel off in strips, exposing an orange underlayer, branches arch downward as they spread from the tree: Maclura pomifera (Osage orange) [start over]
21. Bark having patches of varying shades of green and gray, remnants of ball-shaped fruits may be hanging from tree: Platanus hybrida (London planetree) [start over]
22. Bark flaking in small, round flakes, depending on
developmental stage may have round swollen buds, greenish developing flowers, or
white showy flowers: Cornus
florida
(flowering dogwood)
[start over]
22. Bark NOT flaking in small, round flakes: go to 23
23. Bark grayish, having ridges that curl away from the trunk,
developing fruits two-seeded with evidence of development of two wings,
flowers/developing fruits may hang from very long stems, twigs have a definite
single terminal bud with an adjacent pair of opposite axillary buds:
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
[start over]
23. Bark having elongated plates whose edges peel away from the trunk,
developing fruits one-seeded with no wings and no stalk (not yet developing at
this time), twigs have a cluster of buds at the end with axillary buds alternate
on the stem:
Quercus alba (white oak)
[start over]
24. Flowers showy: go to 25
24. Flowers not showy (small and green) or none: go to 29
25. Flowers white: go to 26
25. Flowers red or pink: go to 27
26. Flowers with no odor and four white petal-like bracts and having a cluster of small yellowish flowers in the center of the cluster, bark with small round flakes: Cornus florida (flowering dogwood) [start over]
26. Flowers with a bad-smelling odor and usually five true white petals, bark smooth or furrowed, but without small round flakes: Pyrus calleryana (Bradford pear) [start over]
27. Flowers red and arising in a large cluster from a flower stalk, leaves opposite and palmately compound: Aesculus pavia (red buckeye) [start over]
27. Flowers purplish and attached directly to branch, leaves often not present when flowering: go to 28
28. Flowers small and often found arising directly from the trunk or larger branches of the tree in clusters, usually some bean-like fruits from the previous season can be seen on the tree: Cercis canadensis (redbud) [start over]
28. Flowers large and usually only found singly at the ends of twigs, as petals fall the developing composite fruit can be easily seen: Magnolia x soulangiana (saucer magnolia) [start over]
29. Twigs noticeably green: Sassafras albidum (sassafras) [start over]
29. Twigs not noticeably green: go to 30
30. Twigs have a cluster of buds at the end with axillary buds alternate on the stem, dead leaves on the ground pinnately veined with lobes: go to 31 (oaks)
30. Twigs without a cluster of buds at the end, dead leaves not like above: go to 33
31. Tree has a label on it (boy, did you ever luck out!): use the name on the label (Quercus [something])
31. Tree does not have a label: go to 32
32. Leaf has 5-7 narrow lobes that extend straight out from the center vein: Quercus palustris (pin oak)
32. Leaf has 7 or more wide lobes that have "teeth" and bend slightly toward the apex: Quercus rubra (red oak)
33. Tree has characteristic "urn" shape with trunks and large branches splitting as they ascend, looks exactly like an Ulmus americana but blooms in the fall rather than the spring: Ulmus serotina (September elm) [start over]
33. Tree does not have that shape: go to 34
34.
Tree has a label on it: use the name on the label [start over] 334. Tree
doesn't have a label on it: give up, you're not going to be able to
figure out this tree at this time of year [start over]
.
.
