How to identify a tree
1 · Leaf or needle?
Broadleaf trees have flat leaves and usually lose them in winter. Conifers have needles or scales and mostly stay green — cedars, firs, sequoias. That single split rules out most of the list immediately.
2 · How are leaves arranged?
Look at where leaves join the twig. Opposite (in pairs, facing each other) means maple, ash, horsechestnut, or dogwood. Alternate (staggered) means oak, cherry, elm, plane, and most others. "MAD Cap Horse" is the memory hook for the opposite ones.
3 · Simple or compound?
A simple leaf is one blade (maple, oak, cherry). A compound leaf is split into leaflets along a stalk — ash and horsechestnut. Find the bud: it sits at the base of the whole leaf, not each leaflet.
4 · Read the bark
Bark identifies a tree all year. Smooth silver-grey = beech. Camouflage patches = plane. Peeling cinnamon = paperbark maple. Spongy red and soft to the punch = giant sequoia. White with black diamonds = birch.
5 · Flower, fruit & season
Timing is a clue. Earliest pink blossom (Feb) is plum; the big double pink pom-poms in late April are Kwanzan cherry. Conkers in spiky husks = horsechestnut. Spiky dangling balls = plane or sweetgum.
6 · Maple sap trick
Two maples confuse everyone: snap a leaf stalk. Milky white sap = Norway maple. Clear sap = sugar/red maple. Norway maple's seed wings also spread nearly flat (180°).
The species, most common first
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