Learning to identify trees is a great way to enrich your experiences in nature, whether you practice on a walking trail in the forest or your backyard! With this guide, you’ll be able to identify some of the common trees in Virginia.
Learning how to tell trees apart can be a little tricky once you get past determining if a tree is deciduous or coniferous! Here are some features that you can study to help you determine which species of tree you’re looking at:
While this isn’t a comprehensive list, here are some of our favorites!
White Pine is a majestic tree native to eastern North America with beautiful blue-green foliage. The branches curve up naturally, making the needle bundles look like brushes.
A fun way to remember how to identify White Pine is to know the needles occur in clusters of 5, just as the word ‘white’ has 5 letters.
The tree has an asymmetric, oval/pyramidal shape with light gray bark that turns black as the trees age. They stand 50-90 feet tall and spread 20-40 feet.
The cones are 3-6 inches long, tapering gradually with a light tan color on the inside, which changes to white on the outside of the cone scales. These cones also don’t have any prickles!
This coniferous tree hails from Europe and is great for ornamental purposes and windbreaks. It stands 50-70 feet tall with a 25-30 foot spread. It is pyramidal in shape with grayish brown, flaky, scaly bark. The tree’s cones are 4-7 inches long and are light brown without a taper.
The needles are 0.5-1 inch long, with a slight curve that points forwards and upwards. The lateral branches are ascending and slightly curved, and the branchlets droop and divide into smaller twigs. The branches hang down and become pendulous when the tree is mature.
This bright green maple turns red in the fall with a columnar, broad crown. Standing 50 feet tall and 25 feet wide, this tree knows how to make a statement. It is native to the eastern deciduous forest and has light gray bark that darkens when it matures, and the bark strips curl outwards.
The branches and twigs grow in an opposite pattern, and the twigs are delicate and thin, holding the beautiful leaves that we admire seasonally.
This green-blue beauty is a gorgeous tree native to the inland mountains of the Pacific Northwest and south to northern Mexico. It has short needles at 1-1.5 inches long, which are slightly pointed, flattened, and grow all around the branch. The cones are 1-4 inches long, and the bark is grayish-brown with flaky scales.
A mature Douglas fir stands between 50-70 feet tall, spreading 25-30 feet. It has a pyramidal shape with dense, compact foliage that carries the traditional “Christmas tree” fragrance.
This tree has a spread of 45 feet, standing 60-75 feet tall. It is native to Eastern North America and has yellow-green catkins (a tree’s version of a flower) in April and May. It yields 0.75-1 inch acorns when mature. The scaly bark can be dark red or grey-brown, and the green foliage turns to bronze and red in the fall.
The Northern Red Oak has alternating branches and leaves 4-8 inches long with 7-11 pointed lobes on each leaf. The tree’s crown is dense and round—with fall colors, it’s sure to catch your eye.
The Black Hills Spruce, also commonly called White Spruce, with dark green to blue-green needles and a dense, compact habit with ascending lateral branches starting at the ground. The cones are 1-2 inches long with a cylindrical shape and tan color.
The tree stands 30-60 feet tall, spreading 15-25 feet with a pyramidal or conical crown. The bark is ashy brown or gray and is flaky. The needles are 0.3-0.75 inches long, pointed, rigid and arranged spirally around the branch.
We hope this was informative and got you excited to learn more about identifying trees in your backyard! For more information, come see us at Greenstreet Gardens!
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