Complete Tree Guide - Everything You Need to Know About a Tree

Very little of a tree's volume is actually "living" tissue. Just one percent of a tree actually alive is working overtime! The living portion of a growing tree is a thin film of cells just under the bark (called the cambium). The cambial meristem can be only one to several cells thick and is responsible for Nature's greatest work - the tree.

Trees come in various shapes and sizes but all have the same basic structure. They have a central column called the trunk. The bark-covered trunk supports a framework of branches and twigs called the crown. Branches in turn bear an outside covering of leaves - and don't forget the roots.

Tree tissues are bark tissue, root tissue and vascular tissue. All these unique tissues made of numerous cell tyupes are unique to the plant kingdom and to trees specifically. To completely understand a tree's anatomy, you must study the tissues that suppport, protect, feed and water a tree.

There is not a place in North America where a tree can grow. There are very few places that do not have native and introduced trees. The United States Forest Service has defined 20 major forest regions in the United States and where certain trees are most often seen by species.

There are two major groups of trees in North America - the conifer tree and the hardwood or broad-leaved tree. Conifers are identified by needle-like or scaley-like leaves. The broadleaf hardwood tree is identified with wide-bladed, broad leaves.

Find a tree in the forest, collect a leaf or needle and answer a few questions. At the end of the question interview you should be able to identify a tree's name at least to the genus level. I am confident you can also select the species with a little research.

Trees are important, valuable and necessary to our very existence. Without trees we humans would not exist on this beautiful planet. In fact, some claim can be made that our mother's and father's ancestors climbed trees - another debate for another site.

Most trees use seeds to establish their next generation in the natural world. Seeds are tree embryos that burst into growth when conditions are exact and transfer tree genetic material from one generation to the next. This fascinating chain of events - the formation of seed to dispersal to germination - has fascinated scientists since there were scientists.

Autumn turns on a very miraculous switch that colors most trees in broad-leaf forests. Some conifers also like to display color in fall. The fall tree senses conditions that tell it to close shop for the winter and begins to prepare for cold and harsh weather. The results can be astonishing.

A tree prepares for winter in early fall and protects itself from winter. Leaves fall and the leaf scar closes to protect precious water and nutrients that have been collected during spring and summer. The entire tree undergoes a process of "hybernation" that slows growth and transpiration which will protect it until spring.