Information used in the species descriptions has come from many sources (stealing from one is plagiarism, stealing from many is research :-). Listed here are the ones mentioned on the individual pages, which are cited as the shortest of mnemonic title, author or publisher; and (usually) date.
Many of these books have been purchased on our travels and may be hard to get in the UK. A substantial number are available, however, from the Natural History Bookshop, which source we have used and can recommend. The bookshop at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is also well worth a visit. Increasingly, worthwhile resources such as national floras, and government publications, are becoming available online, whihc means a much greater availability for these expensive items, and much less need to use up trees building expensive bookcases ! Online sources are not really a substitute for a good pocket-sized field guide when you are out wandering the world's forests, however.
Particularly good if you aren't very familiar with the wealth of trees to be found in North America, though the species coverage is far from comprehensive, and some of the scientific names are not those currently accepted. The range maps are very useful (if only the wild flower guides had these too !), though these very often include several subspecies or varieties on the same map. There are no keys, but the layout of the photographs makes it fairly easy to home in on the tree you are looking at.
An invaluable resource, not only for details of the trees themselves, hardiness, propagation, rates of growth and so on, but also for learned pontification on the correct scientific name and handy details such as dates of introduction and where to see excellent specimens in the UK. Easily worth the three hundred pounds or so (340 at 1998 prices, I think).
There were some web pages at http://biology.fullerton.edu/courses/biol_445/web/Trees~1.htm from California State University at Fullerton, but this URL got a "Not found" error when I last checked in September 2004. CSF Fullerton have ceased offering a Forest Ecology Course, and have reassigned the course number to Plant Cell Physiology, presumably removing all the pages written by former course members.
Some very detailed info about a small range of western American trees, derived from many of the same published sources as I have used, but also from much harder-to-come-by references from Fullerton's library. Very good on some of the pests and diseases which afflict these trees in their native ranges. Its a pity these pages have been taken down - they were very interesting and contained information and references I haven't seen elsewhere.
Covers introduced as well as native trees, but with lots of supplementary information such as planting and propagation details, including how to break dormancy if growing any of the trees from seed. Also includes a pronunciation guide to the scientific names. Those who did latin at school already cringe at the injuries to the language of "horticultural" names, but this guide adds the insult of a strong american accent. Makes up for this with good dichotomous keys and an excellent bibliography, as well as a mere $10 cover price.
This covers Arizona and Utah, which is slightly outside my "gardening" area, but was certainly useful when we were touring and plant collecting in Utah.
Much of the literature on trees grown in Britain refers back to these volumes, now long out of print. Although some names have changed with more modern views on classification, and perhaps there have been more introductions from different wild populations of some species, the botanical desriptions are accurate and the author had travelled widely to see many species in their native habitat. There is nearly a century more experience in growing exotic species in the UK, but for the species treated here, there is little new to add except the location of current specimens.
Being out of copyright, this material may be used freely, and this is one of the sources that are now available online, both as uncorrected OCR text, and as page facsimiles in the DjVu format.
Volume 2 is of particular interest to forest lovers, since most Gymnosperms are indeed trees, and many clubmosses, ferns and their relatives grow in forests. Even more expensive per volume than Bean, and with more volumes to get the set (which will not be all published for many years - volume 1 was just the introduction, the actual species descriptions start in volume 2), this is probably more technical and detailed than most gardeners will want for everyday reference, and covers the whole flora, not merely trees. It is, however, definitive, with unrivalled keys to identification, detailed botanical descriptions of every native species, together with range maps, details of synonyms, and excellent bibliographic references. It cannot be said to be well illustrated, so a thorough understanding of botanical terms is needed to get anything useful from it.
However, a great advantage is that the information is becoming available online, Volumes 1-4,22,23 and 26 are already available. The material is hosted at Harvard, but URLs linking directly to the site from other pages seem to be broken. Perhaps the most reliable place to start is at efloras.org where not only FNA but several other online Floras will be found.
I should refer you to some excellent online botanical glossaries at this point - and I will when I find the URLs and check if they are still online. I combined them into one massive web page here, and added literally hundreds of links from one term to another, but I daren't put it on the web, as it really is copyright material :-(
Derived from the huge New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening (four volumes, 1992), the Index is utterly packed with very terse descriptive information for almost any plant in cultivation. Height and spread tends to refer to the plant in cultivation in the UK, rather than in the wild. There is no cultural information here (how to grow the plants) apart from a hardiness zone. I use this for plants not from my main area (North America) - I can't find space for field guides to everywhere in the world ! Definitely the book to take with you when browsing round nurseries and garden centres (who rarely bother to tell you where a plant comes from originally).
This resource has only become available since I started compiling this part of my website, and I haven't used it much yet, but it does seem to be a very comprehensive source of information and includes photos, range maps and notes on ecology and ethnobotany in addition to the species descriptions. It also has comprehensive introductory notes and a huge bibliography. Most of this refers to paper publications, but there are numerous links to other online resources.
Like FNA, it aims to be completely comprehensive, and is aimed at those who are familiar with botanical terms. Illustrated only with line drawings, covering a lot more than just trees. Includes useful notes on cultivation relating to a series of Western American climate zones and the need for sun/shade and various forms of irrigation within those zones.
The Western volume has excellent descriptions of each forest type, with lists of indicator species and a series of enlightening essays. I found the Eastern volume somewhat less useful, but possibly this is because I'm not as "into" eastern tree species. Something of a pain to use if you normally think of everything by its latin name - very much the case for the international reader. You have to work backwards from the table of translations from common to scientific names, then use the common names in the index to find the species in the text.
Like Schmidt (see below) this is aimed at those growing native plants in gardens within their region of origin. But since the Pacific Northwest climate is rather closer to that in the UK, this is less of a disadvantage to those gardening here. Its nicely illustrated, full of helpful tips, but perhaps more for those with a smaller garden rather than rampant lovers of those Pacific Northwest trees which are among the world's tallest !
A translation of a work originally published in Prague, and unashamedly a gardening book, rather than a field guide. Has the advantage of covering many shrubs, which often fall into the gap between tree books and flower books. Used mainly because it was lying around before my interest in trees really started, but contains a few snippets of information unseen elsewhere and some some useful graphics.
Excellent description of many of the most important plant collectors responsible for tree introductions to the UK. Also good for describing the natural environment and associated species growing with each of the trees in cultivation in the UK, along with the "performance" of each species in UK conditions. Rather limited in its coverage of the hundreds of exotic trees now grown here.
Basically a European guide with a few changes in translation to note UK natives and the commonest exotics. Interesting illustrated keys make identification straightforward, but mean that the pictures of any one species are rather spread about the book. Has good range maps (at least, within Europe) for many, but not all, species.
Very good coverage of those trees which one might find grown in the UK - one has to look hard in specialist collections and arboreta to find species which aren't dealt with. Very clear, too, on the distinguishing features of similar species. Probably the best field guide once you are familiar with the very few native tree species the UK has to offer. Its main failing is a lack of range maps.
These modern reprints are books for sitting down and reading at leisure, as well as reference works. Lots of historical background and a veritable essay on many of the more important trees. Pretty good on covering local forms and subspecies that the compact field guides haven't room for. But not robust volumes, and not really suitable for identifying trees.
Very good descriptions of pretty much every conifer which could be hardy in the UK, including some which are not yet known in cultivation.
Written rather for those growing California plants in California, but nonetheless useful for its information on the soil and climate preferences and propagation of a wide variety of natives.
Lots of excellent colour photos of all the typical plants of the montane Pacific Northwest, including ferns, club mosses and other "lower" plants. Useful details include the ecology and associations of each plant.
Comes in two volumes, and at $144 for one volume, these would be out of reach of most amateur gardeners, but fortunately the text of these manuals is available online: Vol. 1 Conifers (paper volume now out of print) and Vol. 2 Hardwoods. Those links lead directly to the tables of contents with links to each species description. Again, this is a resource that has only recently become available, and I haven't made a great deal of use of it yet. There is, as you might expect, something of an emphasis on trees grown as a crop for timber, so many species of ornamental or botanical interest are missing. But for those species included, it is authoritative, and like all these online resources, good value for money :-)
A big, utterly comprehensive book, including a 28 page bibliography. If you want to grow a tree species which grows in North America (whether native or cultivated) from a seed, anything known to mankind about that seed is probably in here, from what it looks like, how much it weighs and when it's best to collect that seed, through how to clean it, store it and treat it for successful germination, to what fraction of the seeds are viable... And if it wasn't just trees you were interested in, try their earlier, smaller book Collecting, Processing and Germinating Seeds of Wildland Plants, Timber Press, Portland, 1986, ISBN 0 88192 057 6. Ideal for participants in the seed exchange arrangements of various gardening and botanical societies, and for those who insist on wild provenance for their specimen trees.
A few other books have proved to be of very great interest in understanding trees and their natural setting, though no info in these pages has been taken from these sources. Trees don't grow in isolation, but as part of large ecosystems. Trying to grow plants in a very different environment from their original home is very much a gardener's activity, but it helps to understand the ecology, climate and soils of the plants' origins and how these intreract with the plant itself. I found Ecology: Individuals, Populations and Communities, by Begon, Harper and Townsend (2nd Edition, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1990, ISBN 0 632 02344 9) to be a useful introduction to Ecology, as were the five texts accompanying the Open University S328 Ecology course (good field trip on this course, too :-).
Actually understanding how trees work needs a good Plant Physiology text. The O.U. S306 2nd level Biology course has a plant physiology section and is well worth doing if you don't have any kind of qualification in Biology (and if you are the kind of person who takes a hobby to this level, of course). Unfortunately the O.U. don't take this any further and provide a full Plant Physiology course (nor any Botany courses - shame !). Plant Physiology by Lincoln Taiz and Eduardo Zeiger (Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co., 1991, ISBN 0 8053 0245 X) makes interesting reading - I got my copy cheap and I think there is a new edition now.
Trees and Shrubs for Pacific Northwest Gardens, John A Grant & Carol L Grant, 2nd edition, Timber Press, Portland Oregon, 1994 is very much a book about gardening, but gives useful insight into how to look after a lot of these species.
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