Know your leaves
Thirty-four trees and vines you’ll meet on a fall drive, and how to tell them apart by their leaves.
Showing all 34
Wondering if needles count? They do. See are pine needles leaves?
- Sugar mapleAcer saccharum
- Bigtooth mapleAcer grandidentatum
- Red mapleAcer rubrum
- Norway mapleAcer platanoides
- Silver mapleAcer saccharinum
- Bigleaf mapleAcer macrophyllum
- Vine mapleAcer circinatum
- SweetgumLiquidambar styraciflua
- Northern red oakQuercus rubra
- Scarlet oakQuercus coccinea
- White oakQuercus alba
- Gambel oakQuercus gambelii
- Bur oakQuercus macrocarpa
- Tulip treeLiriodendron tulipifera
- SassafrasSassafras albidum
- GinkgoGinkgo biloba
- Quaking aspenPopulus tremuloides
- Paper birchBetula papyrifera
- American beechFagus grandifolia
- Black gumNyssa sylvatica
- SourwoodOxydendrum arboreum
- Flowering dogwoodCornus florida
- Eastern cottonwoodPopulus deltoides
- Narrowleaf cottonwoodPopulus angustifolia
- WillowSalix species
- Black hawthornCrataegus douglasii
- White ashFraxinus americana
- Shagbark hickoryCarya ovata
- Staghorn sumacRhus typhina
- Poison sumacToxicodendron vernix
- Tamarack and larchLarix laricina, Larix occidentalis
- Bald cypressTaxodium distichum
- Virginia creeperParthenocissus quinquefolia
- Poison ivyToxicodendron radicans
Three questions that narrow it down
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.”
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.
Lobes and teeth?
Deep lobes, smooth edges, fine teeth, or a few big teeth each point to different trees. Look closely along the edge to see the difference, and don’t handle a plant you can’t identify.
New to terms like petiole, midrib, and margin? See the illustrated guide to the parts of a leaf.
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 ivyLearn more about fall leaves
- Parts of a leafBlade, petiole, veins, margin, and more
- The life cycle of a leafFrom bud to fall color to soil
- What do leaves do for a tree?Food, water, air, and why it ends in fall
- What do trees do in winter?Dormancy, stored food, and surviving the cold
- When do trees bud and leaf out?The stages of spring leaf-out
- What are leaf buds?What’s inside, when they form, and how to read them
- How weather affects spring budsHarsh winters, false springs, and late frosts
- 25 unique leavesGiants, insect-catchers, movers, and leaves in disguise
- What’s damaging these leaves?Holes, brown edges, spots, galls, and webs, and what causes them
- Virginia creeper vs. poison ivyHow to tell the two red vines apart
- Why leaves change colorPigments, timing, and the weather behind a great year
- When do leaves fall?Timing by region and by tree
- Why evergreens stay greenAnd the few conifers that do turn
- Are pine needles leaves?Yes, and here’s why they look so different
- Why does it still look so green?Evergreens and fall color
- Why oaks and beeches keep their leavesThe dead leaves that hang on all winter
- Why aspen groves turn at onceWhole hillsides of cloned trees
- Why ginkgo drops its leaves at onceA golden carpet overnight
- Why poison ivy changes colorAnd why it’s still poisonous in fall
- What’s happening to ash treesThe emerald ash borer and white ash
- Should you rake your leaves?What experts say on both sides
- How to preserve and display fall leavesPressing, wax paper, and glycerin
- How to compost leavesTurn fall leaves into compost or leaf mold
- Why are evergreens turning brown?Normal needle drop, winter burn, salt, and disease
- How to identify trees in winterBuds, leaf scars, bark, and branching
- Why is my tree losing leaves in summer?And whether the leaves will grow back
- Why are my tree’s leaves turning yellow?Soil pH, water, roots, disease, and pests
- Why do leaves have different shapes?Size, teeth, lobes, needles, and sun vs. shade
- Why are some leaves purple all summer?The hidden green under red pigment
- Why don’t houseplants lose their leaves?No winter to prepare for, and why they still drop leaves