Summer Key to Trees of Tennessee

Rating:
Summary: If you want to identify a tree, this book works!
Review: This book is primarily a guide to the identification of a tree by its leaves -- i.e. there is no discussion of a specific species of tree, only a hierarchical chart of genus and species according to their summer characteristics. There is a page of diagrams and some discussion in an appendix to show what is meant by different leaf types, however.

Not mentioned in the book, but stemming from East Tennessess folklore is the high probablilty that almost any tree found in the continental U.S. is also found in Tennessee, primarily because of the wide range of habitats from Mississippi River swamps to the Great Smoky Mountains. Thus the book has potential value for anyone, not just to Tennesseans (it worked well on the Purdue University Campus, for example).

Here's how it works. Let's say you are looking at a chestnut oak. The book will start you at Deciduous because you somehow know that the "leaves of one year fall before the subsequent leaves expand." It then sends you to "trees without thorns" then through subsequent hierarchies of "Trees with alternate leaves", "Leaves simple, sometimes deeply lobed, but never with individual leaflets" and "Genera with Alternate Simple Leaves".

Continuing through the hierarchy leads to "Leaves clustered at tips of twigs" which is genus Quercus. Tracing the hierachy down through quercus, one finds that the difference between the upland Chestnut Oak (Q. prinus L.) and the swamp Chestnut Oak (Q. michauxii Nutt.) is location and yellowish green leaves on the upland species.

The classification hierarchy is not well organized typographically and takes a little getting used to; however, the information in the hierarchy will almost always lead to a proper identification with little or no prior knowledge of trees. (The white pine has 5 needles in a bundle, the Loblolly has 3 and the Shortleaf has 2, for example, but if there are 2 needles to a bundle and they are less than 5 cm long, it is a Scrub Pine).

All told there are 66 Genera and approximately 180 species of trees, including escaped (MIMOSA) and shrub-like (poison sumac) species identified.

Rating:
Summary: For Botany Majors
Review: Unless your major is botany - forget this "pamplet". I bought this book as a novice, thinking it would help me to identify some of the trees on our property. Unfortunately, unless you are already pretty much an expert and only interested in the scientific identification of a tree, this 24 page 1/2 sheet size pamplet is of no use. Using this book to identify trees would be about as easy as reading a book to learn brain surgery.