Customer Reviews

Native Trees of the Southeast: An Identification Guide

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Native Trees of the Southeast by Kirkman et al. is an excellent field guide. As a professional forest ecologist I'm often faced with field identification problems for several groups of species. As such we usually carry several plant keys, floras, and field guides with us. These manuals are not always helpful because of the broad overlap in characteristics among similar species. Native Trees of the Southeast is a cut above for at least three reasons. First, the keys provided are concise and easy to use. Not all sources provide keys. Second, the inclusion of winter keys (a rare occurrence) is of particular assistance. Third, for each individual species the authors provide a section on how to distinguish that species from others that are similar in appearance. This last item alone makes this book a must have for anyone interested in tree identification.

This is the best field guide to southeastern trees I have found yet. It was exactly what I was looking for to help identify the hardwoods on our property (of which I have identified over a dozen species so far) as well as in the Appalachians when we go on hikes. The abundant color photos were exactly what I was after. The range maps are also very helpful for process of elimination. I have a much more comprehensive guide to eastern North American trees which contains more information than this one, but it has only line drawings for identification and is much harder for me to use. The only addition to this guide that would be nice for a novice would be one or more indexes based upon leaf shape and/or other attributes.

This is an excellent guide- The dichotomous keys rely on traits observable in the field, and are separated into summer and winter keys. Each species entry includes descriptions of relevant leaf, twig, bark, flower, and fruit traits, with color photos (with the text, not in a separate section) and distribution maps. One of my favorite features of the book is the "Distinguishing Characteristics" passage for each species; for some reason, some other keys I've used neglect to mention some very obvious identifying traits that are included here. There is also a glossary and illustrated descriptions of ID terms that would make this an easy key for beginners too.

This book does an excellent job at providing a detailed approach to identifying trees. For the beginner, it may take a while to find the tree families on a wholly unknown tree, but the information is there. The flower, fruit, bark, and leaf pictures are excellent as are the very helpful coverage maps. One of the most helpful sections under each species is the "Distinguishing Characteristics" section which not only helps to identify the differences between one species and other similar ones, but also can help point you to other species to look at if you are at the wrong species. The Naturalized Trees of the Southeast section is very helpful as well, though it would have been nice to have detailed information (including pictures) in this section as exists elsewhere. Finally, I really appreciated that the book educates you about the various features and terms in tree identication, raising one's tree IQ if you will.

I actually read this book cover to cover. That surprises me even more than it surprises my family.

I received it as a Christmas gift from my 4-year-old, and I couldn't put it down. As a transplant to the Southeast, I am struck by the variety of trees, most of which were unfamiliar to me, and this book gave me a lot of understanding of the trees around me. Now I don't just feel like an owner of trees, I feel like a patron.

This field guide has an excellent layout with professional photos covering many of the important characters for identifying trees. I agree with the review of Benjamin Hendersen in that it would be nice to have a picture of the entire tree, which would help amateur individuals that are not as familiar with the technical terms of identification. A nice feature is a key to the genera for the summer and winter. Then each genus has a summer and winter key to each species. The account of each species has identifying characters, distribution (nice maps too) and a uses section. Has a short but useful section in the back titled "Some Common Introduced and Naturalized Trees in the Southeast". This book is published by Timber Press and it has an excellent binding and cover to withstand fieldwork. This is a great book and if you are looking for THE guide to the native southeastern trees I would highly recommend it.

This is the book to have if you are in the Southeast. Great pictures and information make it easy to narrow down an unknown tree. I bought several other books and still could not ID a tree on my property. With this book I had it figured out in 15 minutes. The book has a great feel to it and looks great just sitting on the table.

The book is comprehensive,all I need to be well educated,inspired,and have reference on hand with great quality pictures.

The book is excellent for introduction to Native Trees of the SE. The opening pages give background information on identifying characters which can be used when keying out the species. The biggest drawback is some scientific names have been changed and this is not reflected in the author's book. However, as new information is obtained changes are made on speciation, etc and it can be difficult to keep pace with the changes. Otherwise a good book and it is being used by many members of our Dendrology class for identification of native trees.

This is a really good book for field identification. I use this book while studying Dendrology. The only thing I wish it had would be a few more photographs per tree. Some of the trees only have a picture of a twig or fruit. I would like to see a full size tree including bark and leaves.