Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs: Northeastern and north-central United States and southeastern and south-centralCanada (Peterson Field Guide)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a wetland delineator in PA, this book proves invaluable for field identification of trees, shrubs, and vines. Especially useful is are the keys for identification of these plants in winter when leaves and fruiting bodies are non-existant. I have several other tree books for reference, but they rarely are worth carting along in the field now that I have this book. I highly recommend it.

Petrides' work is the most accurate I have found in tree identification. Color pictures are no substitute for a close-up examination of the stems, leaves and fruit of trees and shrubs. It is considered the definitive source for the John Burroughs Naturalist Award bestowed by the Buckeye Council of the Boy Scouts of America only upon those capable of sight identification of approximately 600 trees, shrubs and wildflowers.

No mere Peterson field guide, this scholarly work is a concise encyclopedia of all the trees native to the northeastern United States, with descriptions that can truly be used to tell them apart (a unique feat). Belongs in the backpack of any hiker who wants to learn trees. Fits in a half-gallon Ziploc. Remember you need a magnifying glass and a sharp knife to use the book properly.

This book would be a lot better if it had more pictures. It's hard to compare a real specimen to a written paragraph.

Granted, I'm not a botany person, more of a bird person, so I'm not used to using keys. This guide takes some getting used to, since the trees and shrubs are split up into multiple sections. You need to find the right one before you start to use the key. Then the key points you to a plate where hopefully you find you've correctly identified what you were interested in. There are also appendices in the back for winter keys and others. There are some tree silhouettes at the beginning of the guide but otherwise the plates only show leaves, twigs and fruit or flowers if present. I have succeeded in using it on a couple of hikes but it definitely takes some patience if you're plant challenged like I am.

Not for casual use. Designed for academics. Don't be fooled by the color photos and new design of the cover. It is old. Although trees don't change, its age shows in the printing - two colors often don't line up, variable darkness of text etc. A few things need updating. You have to have access to twigs and bud scars. These are helpful in winter without leaves, but not very helpful for tall trees. For summer, all you need is bark, leaves and flowers and fruit, but it has very little on bark - "rough" or "smooth" only go so far. I don't know if a good comprehensive field guide to trees with pictures exist, but I wish I would have looked around a bit more.

This is an wonderful guide to trees and one of the few that also includes shrubs. The format of keys and plates is very clear and an excellent introduction to the use of taxonomic keys.

This is a good basic book to have on hand for identification. I like how it covers shrubs and some vines in addition to trees. I use this book often as a reference, along with other similar guides I have. I always prefer to use more than one reference for IDs to make sure I have the correct plant.

I bought this book to teach myself how to recognize some of the main trees that I see around me.

I have not found it very useful. The lack of visual aids makes it difficult for someone who is just learning to figure his way around. An image is worth a thousand words... and this book appeals much more to words than to images.

I picked this guide up at a park visitor center a while back. It is just ok and not one of my favorites. The book was originally published in the 50's and seems to have been renewed in the 70's. It could definitely use a modern-day revamping.

It has a lot of content and covers a large area, however I find it above my level and hard to use. It uses complex wording and concepts that might be best suited for experts. I simply like to identify some plants as I hike. This book's difficulty almost takes the fun out of my hobby by making me feel like I need a college degree in botany to utilize its contents.

The guide only has a few silhouettes and line sketches and makes identifying species very difficult. Needless to say it could use some pictures; the book contains none (the cover is quite misleading). Most modern guides are very liberal with color pictures and I think that helps tremendously. As another reviewer said, a picture is worth a thousand words. Limiting it even further, the guide only provides a description to discern a particular species from similar ones. I feel like other guides I have read provide more info past a description.

I applaud Petrides for covering such an extensive amount of species but give it a 2/5 due to my poor experience with its usability and difficulty. I wish I had an alternative guide to suggest for the regions covered but this is the only guide I have that covers the Eastern US. Sorry!