How to identify trees in winter, without their leaves

Bare trees still have plenty to say. Branching, buds, bark, and a few other clues are enough to name most common trees in winter.

Without leaves, trees can look alike, but each one still carries clues. A popular way to remember where to look is the three B’s: branching, buds, and bark (UNH Extension). Add leaf scars, a twig’s smell, any fruit still hanging on, and the overall shape of the tree, and most common trees can be named in winter. This guide covers the method and then the trees from our leaf guide that are easiest to spot without leaves.

Step 1: opposite or alternate?

Buds form where a leaf joined the twig, so the bud pattern matches the leaf pattern. On most trees, buds alternate from side to side. On a few, they grow in pairs directly across from each other (Virginia Tech).

Opposite branching narrows things down quickly. Remember “MAD Cap Horse”: maple, ash, dogwood, the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), and horse chestnut or buckeye. If a tree’s buds are opposite, there’s a very good chance it’s one of these (Virginia Tech). Check several twigs, since a broken bud can hide the pattern (New York State Parks). Catalpa is an exception, with buds in threes (Virginia Tech).

Step 2: read the twig

Buds. The bud at the tip of the twig is the terminal bud; the ones along the sides are lateral buds. Flower buds are usually fatter and rounder than leaf buds (College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University). Some trees, including elms and birches, have no true terminal bud: the tip dies back and the last side bud takes its place (College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University; Virginia Tech). The scales covering a bud are clues too. Most buds have several overlapping scales; tulip tree has just two that meet at the edges, willow has one, and some viburnums have none at all (University of Wisconsin–Green Bay; Virginia Tech).

Leaf scars. Where each leaf fell, it left a scar, and inside are tiny dots called bundle scars, where the leaf’s plumbing connected to the twig (College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University). Their shapes can be distinctive: walnut and hickory scars can look like a monkey’s face, and catalpa’s are sunken little craters (Virginia Tech).

Bud-scale scars. Rings around the twig mark where a terminal bud opened in a past spring. Count them back from the tip to see how many years of growth you’re looking at (College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University).

Step 3: other clues

Bark changes with age, so a young tree may look nothing like an old one of the same kind (UNH Extension). Pith, the soft center of a twig, can help: slice a twig lengthwise and walnut shows a pith divided into little chambers (Virginia Tech), while a crosswise cut through an oak twig shows a star shape (Woody Plants of Ohio).

Smell is a surprisingly good clue. A scratched twig smells spicy-sweet on sassafras, of wintergreen on sweet (black) birch, peppery on spicebush, and unpleasant on silver maple (Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech). Thorns point to trees like hawthorn and black locust (Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech).

Fruit left on the tree can confirm an ID: long catalpa pods, the upright seed clusters of tulip tree, ash and boxelder seeds, and sumac’s fuzzy red clusters (Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech; Virginia Tech). Missing fruit doesn’t rule a tree out, though (New York State Parks). Finally, step back and look at the shape of the whole tree. Some trees have distinctive shapes: Lombardy poplars grow tall and narrow, while oaks growing in the open often develop broad, spreading crowns (University of Minnesota Extension).

Trees you can name in winter

Each name links to that tree’s page in our leaf guide, so you can see what its leaves look like in summer and fall.