Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast Author: Visit Amazon's Michael Wojtech Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1584658525 | Format: PDF
Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast Description
Review
"This reviewer always assumed that bark was too variable to use as a primary characteristic for tree identification, but natural history/tree researcher Wojtech has proven him wrong . . . Recommended." —Choice
"Periderm and lenticels are generally not topics to inspire poetry or jump-start conversations, but naturalist Michael Wojtech's Bark: A Fietd Guide to Trees of the Northeast may change that. Packed with cocktail-party ready facts and an easy-to-use identification guide for 67 Northeastern species, the surprisingly readable text is a must-have for both tree nerds and new-to-nature types."—Adirondack Life
"This book will be a great addition to other tree books that we use in the field. No native tree shall go unidentified!"—New York Flora Association Blog
"Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast provides a unique look at some of the most majestic components of the northeastern flora and is a wonderful alternative to more traditional keys based on leaf or twig traits."—Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society
Review
"The section on how bark is formed and the discussion of possible advantages of different bark styles—thick bark protects from fire; photosynthesis can take place beneath thin bark—help prepare the reader for the serious business of identifying a tree just by looking carefully at its bark. But this is not as daunting a task as you might imagine: the detailed keys and descriptions and the excellent photographs make matching bark to tree an enjoyable and gratifying process." (Virginia Barlow, co-editor, Northern Woodlands)
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- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: UPNE (April 12, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1584658525
- ISBN-13: 978-1584658528
- Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I was really excited to see this book, and I think it's great to see that someone has covered tree bark in this level of detail. It is ironic that most tree field guides focus on buds, twigs, flowers, and leaves; yet almost all tree recognition in the field is done on the basis of bark and shape, and nothing else. This book helps us understand why this is so. It is hard to find specific, concrete, easily describable, or "keyable" characteristics for bark. Bark is essentially a texture, and textures are hard to describe. Or perhaps, such descriptions are hard to assimilate. The author has done a great job--indeed, I don't think I've seen bark texture and pattern ever described in greater detail, or in more concrete terms, than in this book. Despite this, bark alone remains a difficult way to IDENTIFY a tree. Once you have identified a tree many times and have taken the time to become familiar with the bark, however, you will find bark to be the most useful feature for RECOGNIZING a tree. A similar pattern holds true for herbaceous plants, too. We learn them by such details as their leaf shape and arrangement, stem cross-section, flower structure and cluster arrangement; but once familiar, we recognize them foremost by their shape and leaf and stem texture. It's almost as if texture, whether of bark or leaves, is too complex for the conscious, logical mind to readily process, but just right for the subconscious process of pattern recognition or "search image."
The reason I only gave four stars is because, as much as I like the book's concept, I don't think it quite accomplished its goal. I can recognize all of the trees in the book at a glance by bark, but I don't know if I could do it with some of them, starting over as a novice, using the book.
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