Training one’s eye to identify trees is a fun way to connect with the world around us and can be useful for making home landscape selections. Trees are often identified using leaf shape and color, ...

Gardeners who limit their love to leaves and flowers are barking up the wrong tree. Sure, those ephemeral features are undeniably seductive, but their allure is limited to warmer months. In the ...

Many of nature's treasures have been buried by recent snow. Yet trees offer opportunities for exploration regardless of snow depth or season. Tree bark has many functions, and upon close examination ...

Flowers provide color and texture. So does foliage. What is less often considered is that the bark of many trees and large shrubbery can be aesthetically appealing as well. Bark is usually thought of ...

If asked to describe what tree bark looks like, most people probably would say something like: “It’s rough and brown and covers the trunk of a tree.” That is a good description of many trees, but not ...

The reddish gray-brown bark of the red oak tree with its darker vertical markings is one of the key features to identifying the tree in winter. (Clay Wollney) Leaves are the most useful and frequently ...

The seasons are changing from fall to winter, and one of the major changes to the environment is that the deciduous trees have lost their leaves. Evergreen trees may still have green needles, but all ...

Clockwise from top left: (1) Two lodgepole pines growing side-by-side with notably different bark textures, (2) a rough-barked limber pine that has been attacked by bark beetles, (3) a limber pine ...

If you want to be a true outdoorsman or woman, and a true survivor, you’ve got to become a plant person. I know, I know—it’s not as cool to walk around with your nose in a book as it is to sling lead ...