I've been particularly impressed by the site Dendrology at Virginia Tech with its excellent aids for identifying trees. Once a person gets down to a particular tree, the site has a page showing leaf, flower (catkin), bark, twig, and shape. Or thereabouts. So I thought I would be remiss if I didn't show the overall shape of the poplar (which turned out to be a Bigtooth Aspen, a species of poplar) I've been trying to identify:
In looking through various tree ID books, I become easily overwhelmed by trying to identify a tree's bark, so I've settled for an angle looking up the poplar. The bark texture is seen, as well as the general shape of its major branches. If you've come to this page without seeing my sequence from catkin to leaf for this poplar, it is right over here. Photo note: The first photo was taken with a Pentax LX and an SMC A 20mm lens (May 13, 2003), whereas the second was taken with a Sony F707 (May 20, 2003). |