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I am a little (to say the least) frustrated…
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We have been doing Charlotte Mason for few years now and one thing I always, always, always hate with passion is coming home after a nice nature walk at the park to try to Identify a tree by its leaf we found… forget bushes..we are talking about huge trees. I can Never find what tree it is and I have tried so many website and answered all these questions like on arbor website only to come to the end and have them give me the wrong tree that doesn’t match my leaf at all. I do not know anything about my surroundings. I do not know any flower names besides maybe two or any tree besides the general oak or maple. How can I teach my kids then? My children just found a branch of a tree they have been in love with for years and I have been sitting for a whole hour trying to figure out the name of the tree and nothing… I tried MN ID for trees, national ID for trees you name it… So I am giving up and kids are a little sad because they wanted to know the name..but I just don’t have another hour. This happens all the times though AND I am quiet discouraged to bring anything in the house to try to identify it. Can anyone suggest anything else besides just having a normal walk and figuring things out? It doesn’t seem to work for us for nature study.
Thanks all for hearing out me complaining….
I feel your pain!
What if, instead of bringing home a sample and trying to identify it you learn a few basic trees which are common to your area and call it a day? Start small. 🙂 Then, as you are out and about you might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
I plan to use this method with fossils next Friday because I don’t know any of them and we’re going to a spot that is supposed to have a bunch. We’ll learn about a few by looking at pictures and then see what we find.
It’s hard if you didn’t grow up learning the names of things. I know the names of seashells from walks on the beach with my grandmother but didn’t know many flowers until I started my own garden and I know very few trees.
For identifying trees, it is better to bring a field guide and/or tree identification key with you to the tree than trying to identify it at home. A field guide that shows pictures of the leaves, bark, fruit, and shape of the tree will help you identify the tree more easily than one that shows only the leaves. A wonderful book for identifying trees is The Tree Identification Book: A New Method for Practical Identification and Recognition of Trees by George Symonds.
Also, keep in mind that a tree found in an urban or suburban neighborhood might not be found in a field guide. Field guides help identify native trees to a region, not ornamental trees used in neighborhoods. To identify trees in a neighborhood, check catalogs of garden suppliers or local plant nurseries. Your local county extension office or a nature center are good resources for helping to identify trees, shrubs, and other plants in your region, too.
Another place for help if the above doesn’t work (I agree, a field guide is much more helpful if you get a good one!) is to look for an arboretum to visit (trees are usually labeled), possibly call around to find a garden center, and some tree companies (who cut down trees) have certified arborists who could help identify trees too (because they need to know about the trees to know how to cut/trim and care for them.
There is even a bark field guide, by the way. I take photographs of all the parts of a tree for details so I can look later if I don’t have a couple field guides handy.
I have found that old-fashioned paging-through-the-book-and-looking-at-all-the-pictures works best for us when we’re trying to ID a tree, animal, or bug. The benefit is that eventually the kids catch on and start looking through the book themselves and then they bring you the book and they’ve already narrowed it down to two or three possibilities.
You could always keep a pic or drawing handy to show someone at church or somewhere. I think older folks I know learned more about nature than what I did as a child.
Local nature centers can be a great help here too. Many have educational programs for families. We learned to identify sugar maples and even tap a tree at one of these places.
Trees are hard for me too! Birds are much easier. 😉
You have all been so helpful. Thank you all so much. I am planning on investing in some field guides and looking into the arborists centers. I think starting small is a key here because I feel overwhelmed often by all that I don’t know!
Thank you all, I so appreciate your kind and and encouraging words!Tristan I noticed he focused on northeast area… we live in north central…would this be useful to us or would you suggest a different source?
I have no idea! I’ve always lived in one area (Ohio) so I do not know how different the tree varieties are. You can learn more about the book on the author’s website, including which species are listed here. http://www.knowyourtrees.com/bark-book/
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