Customer Reviews

Illustrated Guide to Trees and Shrubs: A Handbook of the Woody Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada/Revised Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Graves' book is authoritative, comprehsive and clear. It includes virtually all the trees and shrubs you are likely to encounter in the area. The outstanding illustrations are a major resource in themselves; combined with the winter and summer keys and the descriptions of each plant this is the only tree and shrub book you will need.

a christmas present for my son in law -an environmental planner .

Response..... "this is the bible".

I've had this book for about 10 years and I've enjoyed using it during that time. The positives are that it has a lot of the trees of the Northeast, many illustrations (b/w line drawings), keys to genus and species for some groups and species accounts arranged taxonomically- also it's pretty cheap! You can identify trees either using the key or trying by leave illustrations. The negatives are that I think it was last revised in the 1950's so it's probably not the most up to date, the keys can be pretty technical and many traits are not illustrated, there are quirky things like leaves are always abreviated lvs. and a superscript 0 by a species name means it's a shrub and a 00 means it's a vine.
Overall, I really like this book, but you should expect something pretty technical and it would help if you've had a botany/field ID'ing class before.

All black & white with detailed written descriptions.
Needed color and clearer photos or drawings.