Know your leaves
Twenty trees and vines you’ll meet on a fall drive, and how to tell them apart from a single leaf.
Leaf shape
Fall color
Showing all 20
- Sugar mapleAcer saccharum
- Red mapleAcer rubrum
- SweetgumLiquidambar styraciflua
- Northern red oakQuercus rubra
- White oakQuercus alba
- Tulip treeLiriodendron tulipifera
- SassafrasSassafras albidum
- GinkgoGinkgo biloba
- Quaking aspenPopulus tremuloides
- Paper birchBetula papyrifera
- American beechFagus grandifolia
- Black gumNyssa sylvatica
- Flowering dogwoodCornus florida
- Eastern cottonwoodPopulus deltoides
- White ashFraxinus americana
- Shagbark hickoryCarya ovata
- Staghorn sumacRhus typhina
- Tamarack and larchLarix laricina, Larix occidentalis
- Virginia creeperParthenocissus quinquefolia
- Poison ivyToxicodendron radicans
Three questions that narrow it down
1
Pairs or not?
Look where the leaves attach to the twig. If they grow in pairs straight across from each other, it’s almost always a maple, ash, dogwood, or horse chestnut. Remember “MAD Horse.”
2
One blade or many?
Some “leaves” are really a stem lined with leaflets, like ash, hickory, and sumac. A true leaf has a bud where it meets the twig. A leaflet doesn’t.
3
Lobes and teeth?
Deep lobes, smooth edges, fine teeth, or a few big teeth each point to different trees. Run a finger along the edge to feel the difference.
Careful with the prettiest red vine
Poison ivy turns brilliant red and orange in fall, and its rash-causing oil stays active all year. Learn it before you reach into a colorful thicket for a photo.
How to spot poison ivyUpdated