Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

by Paul Sterry

This easy-to-use guide covers the 360 species of tree that are found in Britain & Ireland. Each species is covered in detail with information on how to identify, whether from a leaf, twig, bark or whole tree, plus extra information on where the tree grows (including a map), how high they grow, what uses it is put to, and history. Every species is also comprehensively illustrated with photographs of every useful feature?bark, leaf, seed, flower, twig, and whole tree. Sample identification "Silver Birch Betula pendula (Betulaceae) height to 26m A slender, fast-growing deciduous tree with a narrow, tapering crown when young and growing vigorously. Older trees acquire a weeping habit, especially if growing in an open, uncrowded situation."

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Reference, Gardening, Field Guides

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Paul Sterry has written and illustrated more than 50 books. Trained as a zoologist, Paul has been a wildlife photographer for over 20 years and regularly undertakes research expeditions.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book but sadly it's in no coherent order. There is no order be it species, region or alphabetical.

Interesting but not suitable as a field guide.

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely the best tree species guide book out there. Good to take on nature trails, camping and National Trust trips. lots of photos and descriptions.
I would argue a lot of these didn't need to be in the book as they weren't British trees you would be likely to come across at all but interesting all the same.

[Kaya Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this guide is very good, it's not one of the best for identifying trees.

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent reference book. several pages in the front are great to photograph, and you can identify bark, leaves, twig, and fruit by a couple pages. best reference book I've found so far

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this very useful. It might not be the most informative, in-depth or well-organised tree identification guide out there, but I find it pretty good. The photographs, in particular, are a great help. It might be over-marketed and I wonder if there is a better guide (there probably is!), but it does the trick.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no key at the begining so it makes it difficult to accuratly identify the tree your looking at, but the pictures and descriptions and measurments are very accurate, providing you can recognise the family the tree is from. would reccomend that there are better books for identifying trees than this one, but if you like pretty photos of leaves this is the book for you

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best bits of this book are about the tree biology. Now I'm collecting samples of leaves and berries and fruits. I hope to be able to hug some woody friends soon. Essential knowledge for all elves and pixies.

[James Emmans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book that gives you the confidence to identify trees.