Learning basic tree/plant identification

**Anitcol** · 08-07-2013, 08:08 PM

Hello everyone, i'm new here to the forums. I'm sure you have had your 100 posts a day about "best this, best that" with out the user knowing fundamentals of the outdoors. For example, "the best knife, or batoning or etc...". I am taking a different route to understanding the great outdoors; I want to learn some basic trees and plants. My reasoning behind this is because you can have the best knife in the world, but if you do not know what your touching, cutting or about to use, how can you utilize the goods you have gathered well? If you have not noticed, I stick the KISS theory; Keep It Simple Stupid.

With that note, today I went around my neighborhood and took a few pictures of a few trees and bushes.

EDIT: I'll upload pictures when I can... =o

**hunter63** · 08-07-2013, 08:52 PM

So what did you find......?, maybe make a list to start with?

Sounds like a good basic way of identification.

**nell67** · 08-07-2013, 09:02 PM

Welcome to the forum. Learning trees and plants is a great endeavor. however,and I am not being condescending here, if you are looking to learn wild edibles,that you can eat in a shtf situation, basic can get you killed,or sick,or sick and wish you were dead. You need to make sure that you learn everything about any plant that you might consider consuming, taking pictures now is a GREAT start, mark the plants you are taking pictures of,and then take picture of them again in the spring when they are newly emerging and make your own scarp book of the plants as you learn them. Also learn about ANY look alike for that plant and take pictures of those also making sure to note the distinguishing characteristics between them so that you know for sure which is the safe edible plant.

Good luck to you!

**Highhawk1948** · 08-07-2013, 09:23 PM

Glad you joined. A good resource is your local State Forest or Natural Resource Dept. They usually have booklets on native trees and plants.

**Anitcol** · 08-08-2013, 01:53 AM

-Nell67: I am not looking to eat wild edibles for a long time. As you mentioned, their are many look alike, and many either can kill or make you terribly ill; and before I would attempt to find wild edibles, I would rather learn how to identify the trees and plants around my area first.

-Hunter63: From what I have seen, (these are not 100%!!! This is what I believe they are)

Eastern Redcedar - From my picture I taken, it's more scaley and leafy; not like pine needles but more rough. This tree has small round berries; their colors are blue and very light green.

Poison Ivy and Poison Oak - I always knew what Poison Ivy looked like, but just recent have been able to identify Poison Oak. Oak resembles Oak Leaves; but the ends are much smoother with 3 leaves per stem (like ivy); can be vines or small shrub.

Poison Sumac - I took pictures of bushes that I believe are poison sumac; I found a couple that resemble it but i'm pretty sure their not. I'll host pictures to confirm them.

Pine - Long green needles with pine cones. I haven't figured out what "pine tree" it is yet.

Sugar maple - The leaves are well... Maple leaves. Green, large leaves with sharp defined points that the red maple does not have.

I have more I can identify, I just have not had the time to complete them all, I'll continue to figure out what plants/trees of pictures I have. I'll see I can upload the pictures to another website and link to the plants I have taken pictures of and identified to see if I am on the right track

Is their any good website I am able to use to figure out plants? Tree's seem to be easier to identify.

**crashdive123** · 08-08-2013, 05:27 AM

There is a link right on this site called Edible & Medicinal Plants & Mushrooms Database http://www.wildcrafting.net/

**Rick** · 08-08-2013, 07:52 AM

Welcome home. If you want to really learn plants then draw them instead of taking a picture. It doesn't matter if you can draw or not. The act of drawing focuses your attention to things you would not otherwise notice. It takes more time so you spend more time examining the plant and its characteristics. You will also want to learn what that plant looks like in all 4 seasons.

You can look at wild edibles in your area. You don't have to eat them to identify them any more than you have to eat a tree to identify it. But you are learning plants and learning which ones you CAN eat.

Pick up a good plant identification book. Edible Wild Plants of Eastern/Central North America - A Peterson Field Guide is one I use but there are many good ones on the market. Good luck!!

**Anitcol** · 08-08-2013, 06:12 PM

-RICK: I like that suggestion a lot, I used that same technique to learn Human Anatomy, being able to draw the details really embeds it well. I'll keep that in mind thank you.

Wild Carrot / Queen Annes Lace - Large head with many small white pedals; often with black bud in center and mature flowers curl up. This plant also had a prickly stem; have to be careful as hemlock is almost identical but it's stem is smooth, does not smell like carrots and does not have that dark colored bud in the middle.

I wish I could post links for the pictures but I suppose I have to keep waiting lol

**Rick** · 08-08-2013, 07:20 PM

Five more posts and you can.

**Winnie** · 08-10-2013, 03:28 AM

One piece of advice. Don't just learn to recognise the edible plants. Make sure you can differentiate between good and bad. Wild Carrot is a classic example. Hemlock closely resembles it.

**mountainmark** · 08-10-2013, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by Anitcol

-

have to be careful as hemlock is almost identical but it's stem is smooth, does not smell like carrots and does not have that dark colored bud in the middle.

You got the smooth stem part right, they also have a powdery bloom over the stem. However, If you pull up the root, you will notice that poison hemlock does indeed smell exactly like carrot.

**your_comforting_company** · 09-01-2013, 06:30 AM

Again.. it makes NO difference if a plant is edible or not, if you can't properly identify it. The best field guides will not have edibility information in them, although they may tell you if the plant is toxic.