Popular dendrotaxonomy

[muckefuck]

How many types of tree can you name?

Over the weekend, I talked to a Canadian who said there were three kinds of trees: "Palm trees, pine trees, and 'other'." His wife had taught him how to recognise maples ("Sure, they're the ones with leaves shaped like the design on the Canadian flag," commented lhn), but he confessed that if someone hung apples on a maple tree, he wouldn't know the difference. When I expressed surprise, he asked me, "Are you a city boy or a country boy?"

The answer to that is, of course, "Yes." I've always identified as a city boy, but the truth is that did spend many of my formative years in the country--some of my earliest memories are of playing house in a pine grove. More to the point, my father was, until recently, a horticulture teacher and gardening is pretty much the only skill he ever passed on to me. When I visited him recently, he made time to take me around his yard and point out all the trees and shrubs he had planted or would plant. I miss having him around more often, since every stroll in the city or elsewhere brings me into contact with plants I can't name and wish I could. (Have I already gone on about naming as an act of symbolic possession? No doubt I have.)

As a result, I can name dozens of trees (although the number I can reliably identify is somewhat less; you could say that I don't know my ash from my elder). I realise this is unusual, but I don't know how unusual. Can the average person tell an oak from a maple? Does he have a name--even a made-up one--for catalpas, magnolias, and locusts?

Comments

[grahamwest.livejournal.com]

The Larch

[keyne.livejournal.com]

I can tell oak from maple from pine, and I think the majority of Americans probably can. I've learned birch since moving to New England, and I know a few specialties from other regions I've lived in (e.g., palo verde, buckeye), but I am still sadly unsure of most other trees without a tree guide in my hand.

It's a sadness.

Taxonomy Rules

[foodpoisoningsf.livejournal.com]

Depends on what you mean by "average."

Re: Taxonomy Rules

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

And also on what I mean by "tree" (vide infra) and "name".

[juniperesque.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I could pick out a Maple from the leaves. Oak trees have acorns, so that one is easy too. But the rest? Lordy, I have no idea. I could pick out a dogwood probably, those were in the yard growing up.

Oddly enough, I'm very good at naming bushes. Forsythia make me nostalgic for my childhood, and everyone loves honeysuckle.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

I can probably identify about a dozen different kinds of trees on sight, and can name a whole lot more than that. I don't know how average a person I am in that regard.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I could probably identify birch (from the bark), oak (from leaves and acorns), horse chestnuts (leaves and conkers), and... that's about it. Palm trees (as a category). Gummibäume. Coniferous trees (though I couldn't tell a Tanne from a Kiefer, most likely).

[markusn.livejournal.com]

Oh that you could (Tanne is Christbaum, Kiefer is long needled with rough scaly red bark), but Tanne from Fichte you would probably have a hard time.


It's very much a question of interest. Since she's a kid I have tried to get my daughter interested in tree names. She just can't be bothered to learn. She is interested in language, so she knows the names (in English, even), but what tree goes with which name, hardly ever.

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

I know oaks, maples, birches, dogwood, willow. I know the difference between two kinds of coniferous trees by their use, but not by their name. I can name a lot of different coniferous trees (spruce, pine, fir, cypress) and a lot of fruit trees (apple, cherry, pear, plum), but not necessarily tell them apart. Though I can usually recognize apple.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

To be fair, them fruit trees is hard. Almost all of them are Prunus genus and quite similar in appearance. I'm hard-pressed to tell a pear tree from an apple unless they're fruiting.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

MONKEY PUZZLE TREE

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Auf deutsch, "Chilenische Schmucktanne".

[tonique.livejournal.com]

Random comment. Having lived in Finnish Lapland, I know many of the plants from that area and thereafter other parts of Finland. Then I've become more and more interested plants.

Trees (some not naturally occurring): Norway pine, Norway spruce, fir (but don't know their varieties), birches (European white, downy, arctic dwarf), common juniper, Norway maple, English oak, European linden, Siberian larch, apple tree, alders, aspen, horse chestnut, goat willow (Salix caprea), crack willow (Salix fragilis). There are several in Finland that I can't name; then I know some that don't grow here.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Can you name them in Finnish and Sami as well?

[tonique.livejournal.com]

Not in Sami, which I only had at elementary level for two years when I was 10-12. In Finnish, of course. They are in the same order as in the previous list...

mänty, kuusi, pihta [non-native plant], koivu (rauduskoivu, hieskoivu, vaivaiskoivu (really a shrub)), kataja, vaahtera, tammi, lehmus, lehtikuusi [non-native plant], omenapuu, leppä [two species], haapa, hevoskastanja [non-native plant], raita, salava

The name for 'willow' in general is paju.

Of course, I forgot two very familiar ones: rowan/European mountain-ash and bird-cherry (pihlaja, tuomi).

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I know broad categories, but am lacking in specifics. I can tell oak from maple, but not burr oak, white oak, red oak, post oak, black oak. Live oak I can tell, although I never lived where they do.

I just learned box elder at the botanical garden in St. Louis that you recommended visiting.

Fruit trees are easy when the fruit is on them. (Mmmm persimmons!). Nut trees -- walnut is easy, pecan is reasonably easy, although a bit close to hickory which is kinda like butternut.

I bought a tree book to try to remedy the situation.

[plethorax.livejournal.com]

I stalked over here from Linguaphiles and, seeing this, feel like I have to add something you might find interesting: # of commonly-known tree terms has decreased markedly since the 1800s, species (oak, maple, pine) are still pretty strong in the vernacular, but varietal terms (burr oak, sugar maple, sycamore, birch) are dying out, even in the OED. Here's a ref for you: Evolution and Devolution of folkbiological knowledge (http://www.psych.northwestern.edu/psych/people/faculty/medin/PDF%27s/evolution%20and%20devolution.PDF), which treats sort of the same question.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! I don't know if I fully accept their methodology using the OED, but this paragraph certainly addresses exactly what I was wondering about:

A recent survey we conducted at Northwestern University provides some index of what undergraduates know about one domain of biology, namely trees. We provided the names of 80 trees and asked the students to circle the trees that they had heard of before, regardless of whether they knew anything about them. More than 90% said they had heard of birch, cedar, chestnut, fig, hickory, maple, oak, pine, and spruce. But fewer than half
indicated any familiarity with alder, buckeye, catalpa, hackberry, hawthorn, honeylocust, horsechestnut, larch, linden, mountain ash, sweetgum, and tuliptree--all of which are common to the Evanston area where Northwestern University is located.

(BTW, I work on that campus and it's news to me that there are larches and mountain ashes there. I need to pay closer attention!)