By Deborah White, Kentucky Native Plant Society Board
Winter is a good time to focus on trees, and The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, in Lexington is a wonderful place to make a start in improving your identification skills.
Not only have they purposefully planted many of the trees growing across all the natural regions of Kentucky, a project beginning in 1991, but the Arboretum Explorer mobile platform also has a mapped location and identifies the species. So, you can walk up to a tree in the Arboretum, come up with an identification, and check your guess right there.
© Janet James
Janet James photographed the native trees and shrubs at the Arboretum (her project for the Master Naturalist program)–that’s 200 species. She photographed tree bark, leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, and form (and in different seasons) to assist in learning.
© Janet James
Robert Paratley, UK Herbarium Curator and professor, has already used these photos to help teach his dendrology class. “I am always trying to pass along good resources, especially visual images, to help my students learn tree identification,” he says. “Janet James’ images in Arboretum Explorer comprise an excellent portfolio to help them. Her photos are accurate, visually clear, and highlight key identification characters.”
So, if you have been meaning to learn trees by their bark, buds and beyond, try this wonderful tool. And then start over when the trees leaf out!
Deborah White has been a botanist for the Kentucky Office of Nature Preserves and Florida state plant conservation programs.