On trees

[graheim]

Reading the Forested Landscape is an excellent book. I can say this despite only having read one chapter of it. It's like a textbook that you want to read, which I don't think I've ever encountered before. It's also hammering home how woefully insufficient my knowledge of plants is

Comments

[ellyane]

because the leaf could look like a maple leaf if you ignore several key features of maple leaves

I love you.

[devonai]

So snarky! Snark levels are off the chart!

[ellyane]

not snarky at all. I actually find him quite endearing when he makes comments like this. :)

[graheim]

Yeah, no snark there. Two of things she loves about me most are my sense of humor and my willingness to admit my mistakes.

Oh, man

[bruorton]

Kaph is going to be thrilled you share her passion. On her first visits to VT, I was able to tell her what a number of trees were that she didn't recognize. Now she answers my questions about them. =)

On a related note, we both got to go on a walk in the woods with Tom Wessels this spring, which was quite fun. I agree that RtFL is like an engaging textbook (almost a detective story!), though I've found it's best digested in small bites, because it's so much to retain. He did say he's hoping to put out a condensed "field guide" type version of it soon, though.

[kaph]

Oh, I'm so glad you like the book! If you need a good tree guide, I highly recommend the National Wildlife Federation's "Field Guide to Trees of North America;" it is the most comprehensive, easiest to follow guide I've seen.

Since living in NY, where plane trees abound, I figured the army-fatigue-barked sycamore was some type of plane tree. Only last year did I discover that the "London plane tree" is actually a hybrid of the American sycamore and the Oriental plane tree.

I am woefully ignorant when it comes to oaks, since it is too cold here for them. (Though they grow down in South Royalton - Tunbridge is half a USDA zone colder than SoRo.) So when Tua and I go for walks in Ohio, I'm just like, "Wow - look at all the purty oaks!"

[graheim]

You read my mind! I'm absolutely buying that book.

Oaks keep throwing me. At first I read about red oaks and white oaks and thought that was that. Then I realized that there were actually many trees in each category. They're going to take awhile.

[devonai]

I used it locally to find out (though not a surprise) just how young this area's forests are.