conifer book for recommendation

[gleditsa]

can anyone recommend a decent book on conifer recognition ?
nothing to technical though !
thanks,

j.

[The Woodman]

The one I keep coming back from all the other guides, handbooks etc. is the Forestry Commission Booklet No 33 "Conifers in the British Isles - A Descriptive Handbook" by A F Mitchell. pub. HMSO (A 322 page "booklet"!)

Mines an old copy but a very useful one. I try to cross reference any ID's with other works and my second choice would be "British Trees - A Guide for Everyman" by Miles Hadfield, pub. J M Dent and Sons. There's so much information in those two books, the second has broadleaves as well.

I'm sure you'll get others to consider.

[gleditsa]

many thanks woodman, i will have a look for those two, at the moment i can't tell the difference between a pine and a fir

j.

[gleditsa]

managed to find both in stock at Amazon , so both ordered, and looking forward to receiving them ,

thanks,

j.

[The Woodman]

Well done, I'm sure you'll have many happy hours reading about the history of and places to see conifers, how they were named, varieties and Hadfields brilliant line drawings of ID features rarely found elsewhere.

Blame me if you don't!

[Jason Claxton]

I thought that anything by A. Mitchell was the benchmark Gleditsa,I also have the Collin's Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Europe by him,it is useful.And I have the Collins Tree guide."The Most Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Europe" by Owen Johnson and David More,plus a few others.The books that the Woodman has mentioned sound good,and I will try to get them too.I have only the Forestry Commission Booklet No.20 on Broadleaves ,revised by Alan F.Mitchell,and the line drawings are very good .I'm lucky in that I live next to an FC plantation,so I get to have a good look at those conifers that are most commonly used in forestry.Best of luck with it .Jason.

[gleditsa]

Originally Posted by Jason Claxton

I thought that anything by A. Mitchell was the benchmark Gleditsa,I also have the Collin's Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Europe by him,it is useful.And I have the Collins Tree guide."The Most Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Europe" by Owen Johnson and David More,plus a few others.The books that the Woodman has mentioned sound good,and I will try to get them too.I have only the Forestry Commission Booklet No.20 on Broadleaves ,revised by Alan F.Mitchell,and the line drawings are very good .I'm lucky in that I live next to an FC plantation,so I get to have a good look at those conifers that are most commonly used in forestry.Best of luck with it .Jason.

Hi Jason, thanks for the info on the books, i will look out for them, the Collins guides in other subjects are generally quite good, so the ones on trees ought to be also,
the two recommended by woodman are available from Amazon as s/h items if you are interested,

thanks,

j.

[Jason Claxton]

If you can find a book that is based on structure,that will be much better than just pictures Gleditsa.I found this when I studied ferns ,which often look much alike in the plates,I'm sure the same applies for conifers.For the ferns I used an FSC guide by James Merryweather,which is mostly line drawings but is backed up by colour plates.I dont know whether there is an FSC AIDGAP guide to conifers,but they have all been very good,the ones that I have bought.My FC no.20 Broadleaves came from a nearby charity shop,which can be a good source of cheap and deleted books also.Cheers Jason

[gleditsa]

the A.F. Mitchell book arrived today, i was suprised by the size of it ! a4 and quite thick, not bad for a "booklet" , and its stuffed full of info, even though the smaller details (foliage etc) are only line drawings, they are more than adequate for the task , plenty of photos too,

well pleased with it , so thanks for the recommendations,

j.