The Illustrated Book of Trees: The Comprehensive Field Guide to More Than 250 Trees of Eastern North America

Rating:
Summary: More than identification
Review: I bought my 1983 edition when I was active as a park district volunteer. What sold me on this book was that it went beyond the tree's identification, and told you more about the tree itself. For example, looking up the Sycamore it says "The Sycamore is also known as the Buttonwood, Buttonball-tree, and the American Plane Tree. It is one of the most massive of all our native trees, perhaps exceeding all others in the diameter of its trunk... The wood is heavy, hard, tough and coarse-grained; being difficult to work or split. It is used for furniture - both solid and veneer, interior finish, siding, musical instruments, boxes and crates. Practically all butcher's blocks are made from the Sycamore..." and so on.

Rating:
Summary: More than identification
Review: I bought my 1983 edition when I was active as a park district volunteer. What sold me on this book was that it went beyond the tree's identification, and told you more about the tree itself. For example, looking up the Sycamore it says "The Sycamore is also known as the Buttonwood, Buttonball-tree, and the American Plane Tree. It is one of the most massive of all our native trees, perhaps exceeding all others in the diameter of its trunk... The wood is heavy, hard, tough and coarse-grained; being difficult to work or split. It is used for furniture - both solid and veneer, interior finish, siding, musical instruments, boxes and crates. Practically all butcher's blocks are made from the Sycamore..." and so on.

Rating:
Summary: This Grimm is no fairy-tale
Review: Very nice book! The edition I own is the 1983 printing, so I am unfamiliar with recent changes. Book has good drawings of leaves (often several), fruits, twigs, buds and leaf scars. Excellent info on summer and winter identification included in text and step-by-step outlines. The step-by-step outline starts at the front of the book and helps you identify the family in which the tree in question belongs. Then turn to the section on that tree family for help isolating which species you have on your hands. There are good text descriptions throughout to aid identification as well as information on history, growth, and commercial uses of the trees. Not a field guide for the size and weight conscious though. Keep it in your living room or SUV.