Some trees are really obvious and easy to ID but, to make ID easier, my habit is to include photos of:
a very closeup of leaves,
on big trees when I can not get close to leaves, I might use a telephoto to get the best view possible.
In pines, looking for number of needles per fascicle and needle length; in the cypress family, juniper in
particular, looking for scale leaf overlap, tip shape and leaf gland visible or not.
Some junipers are discerned by leaf margins at magnification, smooth/entire vs denticulate (at least
16x, 20x is better. I have some macro photos that show denticulate margins)
close up of seed cones (in pines, what looks like miniature cones are likely pollen cones;
in junipers, tear open a fleshy seed cone to check seed(s) number, size, and shape.
Notice if a tree has both pollen and seed cones (monoecious) or only one or the other (dioecious)
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Exactly ^^^^^
Thanks, Chauncey!
Chauncey thank you for this link that you sent earlier today. Any idea why iNaturalist won’t let me delete nonsense names, like when Seek or someone else calls something a plant for instance, ie a name so broad it doesn’t teach me anything
Very informative, thank you!
Thank you!!
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