Native Trees of the Southeast: An Identification Guide

by L. Katherine Kirkman, Claud L. Brown, Donald J. Leopold

The diversity of woody plants in the Southeast is unparalleled in North America. "Native Trees of the Southeast" is a practical, compact field guide for the identification of the more than 225 trees native to the region, from the Carolinas and eastern Tennessee south through Georgia into northern Florida and west through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas into eastern Texas. For confident identification, nearly 600 photographs, close to 500 of them in color, illustrate leaves, flowers and fruits or cones, bark, and twigs with buds. Full descriptions are accompanied by keys for plants in both summer and winter condition, as well as over 200 range maps. Crucial differences between plants that may be mistaken for each other are discussed and notes on the uses of the trees in horticulture, forestry, and for wildlife are included.

Genres: Plants, Nonfiction, Nature, Reference, Field Guides, Science

Paperback

First published July 15, 2007

Reviews

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must have for any personal library on southeastern U.S. botany. It covers a region neglected in some books on identifying plants – which endlessly focus on the northeastern U.S. as if that was the only place people wanted to identify trees – and shines a spotlight on the region like no general U.S. or even eastern U.S. book can.

What states does it cover? The Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Arkansas and Texas. If you ask me though, even if you live outside that area (but still in the eastern U.S.) the book is still useful as many species have very wide distributions.

To me the book really shines in two regards. One, it focuses on a lot of southern species that have a very limited distributions, often left out of national or even eastern U.S. field guides. Plants I had never heard of, with some very limited ranges, such as the Sand Pine (Pinus clausa, found only in central peninsular Florida), Mountain Camellia (Stewartia ovata, known only from a few scattered localities, mostly in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, north Georgia, and north Alabama), and Georgia Plume (Elliottia racemosa, one of the rarest native trees of the region, found only in a few localities in eastern and southeastern Georgia and neighboring South Carolina), get entries with range maps, physical descriptions, and full color photographs.

The second way this book shines is dealing with the smaller trees, as many, many, MANY books don’t do much with the smaller, shrubbier, understory trees, leaving many species out. Some of the most interesting and even showy trees (especially when they are in bloom) get short shrift in other field guides. Common trees, the grand trees of the forest, they have excellent fields guides aplenty, but the smaller guys and gals don’t have much out there. This fills in quite nicely I think.

The actual entries are good, with clearly defined sections describing leaves, flowers, fruit, bark, and twigs, a separate section – ever so useful – on distinguishing characteristics – and useful habitat and range notes along with a range map. Most if not all entries also have notes on wildlife usage, ecological role, and human uses as well.

There also keys both summer and winter, covering conifers and flowering trees. The opening chapters have useful diagrams of leaf shapes, parts of flowers, leaf scar shapes, and parts of a twig (the latter two the best I have seen anywhere in a popular book).

My only complaints would be that non-native trees get shoved to the back of the book with no pictures or range maps. True, the title includes the word native in it, but I don’t always know what is native and what is not. For those who try to identify a plant by playing match the picture the book is not useful for doing that quickly, though I have found as I develop my knowledge of the different tree families and genera I can turn to the right section pretty quickly. It is a little more advanced I suppose in that regard than some books but still friendly to the amateur botanist.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful for field identification.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Native Trees of the Southeast: An Identification Guide by L. Katharine Kirkman (Timber Press 2007) (582.16097). This is a compact field guide for the identification of over 225 trees from the Southeastern U.S. from the Carolinas to East Texas. My rating: 7/10, finished 2008.

[Darinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful field guide for identifying tress in the Southeast US.

[Tom Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough, good images.

[Olivia Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

1000/10 one of the BEST field guides for identifying trees in the Southeast. It even includes species that aren’t native, but that we see regularly.