Trees!

I have decided to begin looking at trees as my first steps getting to know Otterburne. My goal is to identify all the trees I can. At first all I can see is "Christmas trees" and "trees that loose their leaves." I know a bit more than that, but not very much. I can probably recognize half a dozen trees. In this post I will examine the various categories that trees are put into. I will then, in subsequent posts look at the tree profile. I think it would be fun to tie in the mythological ideas associated with the tree, but that might be too ambitious. I will also try and note what the trees have been used for traditionally.

How are trees identified?

There seem to be various categories one can talk about when referring to a tree. The first obviously is its name. There is a common name and there is a Latin one. I don't know what the Latin name is all about, but apparently it will tell you a lot about the tree. So, for example, a Bur Oak is also called a Quercus Macrocarpa. Now, I know that macro means big, but I am lost otherwise.

There are also a tree family. I assume this is a simple concept. Something more to search.

The next thing is the leaves. Good heavens there is a large number of classification schemes. hm. Here is a good link. Otherwise I will find my chart and put it in the locker.

We can also talk about the trunk.

There is probably more. But this is a start. One more thing that I am going to note:

There are 4 "organs" to a plant: Stem, roots, leaves and fruit. I got that from here. That seemed interesting.

So in my next post, I will be writing about the Bur Oak I think.