A Peterson Field Guide To Trees And Shrubs: Northeastern and north-central United States and southeastern and south-centralCanada (Peterson Field Guides)

Not a bad guide if you already have a knowledge base about trees and shrubs, but if someone can barely tell a maple from an oak then this book is not the most helpful. I can identify several tree families (i.e., birch, hawthorn, maple, aspen, etc.), but not the specific trees within that family. We also moved, and I wanted to find out about the trees that now surrounded our property.There are no color photos or drawings in this book, just black and white drawings with some of those for the leaves colored in green, and most entries don't have even that. The sections are divided based on leaf shape, and while this can help you narrow down what you are looking for, the often incredibly brief descriptions rarely did enough to help me identify the vast majority of leaves I was looking up. Even though this guide covers a reduced section of the US and Canada, there are still some omissions when it comes to giving information on each and every single tree that could possibly be found. Invasive species, people planting trees or shrubs not native to the area, newly developed tree or shrub types - I can see how it would be difficult to keep this guide as inclusive and up-to-date as possible and I don't fault them for this. However, this guide does tend to leave out important information such as whether or not a tree or shrub's fruit or seed is poisonous, if the sap is dangerous to humans, etc. I ended up purchasing the Peterson Field Guides Venomous Animals & Poisonous Plants which DOES have color photographs and more detailed descriptions.Maybe I should have looked further for a guide that was more specific to the geographic area I live in rather than the northeastern US. A generalized Google search with the aspects of the tree, bark, berries, and such was a much more successful way to identify the leaves I had collected. Peterson is a trusted name in guidebooks for flora and fauna of the world, and I would be happy to purchase this guide again should it be updated to include photos, a checklist to help narrow down what you are looking for, helpful tips on getting started with identification, or even an app such a checklist to input features of leaves, fruit, and bark to help puzzle out exactly what you are looking at.

I bought this book some time ago and as I recently attempted to determine a tree and shrub type on my property I found this guide incredibly useless. Paging through the field guide and you'll note a theme of "Not illus." in bold meaning not illustrated for so many trees and shrubs. There are no pictures and only illustrations and even those are really limited. When I purchase a true field guide I expect pictures and illustrations and this is a far cry from that. I literally own a library of Peterson field guides I use and enjoy but this one has been a huge let down. I ended up buying a book for my state which has been much more useful.So my point? If you expect a true field guide heavily laden with pictures and illustrations this is NOT what you are looking for sadly.

Too involved for me without much description of what I'm looking for. Seems more appropriate for some one more experienced or someone with a need to ID winter time trees. Would have liked better drawings/photos, they only show a leaf and twig. I tried IDing trees I know as a test and couldn't get to correct answer. To give you an idea, you will need a magnifying lenses to look at tiny holes in stems and to see were veins used to come into leaves etc. I had to google a lot of the stuff they were asking me to locate because book was vague

I ordered this in case of any unknown emergencies that could occur. It can be helpful, but I do wish that it had better organization. I really do dislike the way that it is organized. It is confusing to me.

I own several Peterson field guide books, and usually prefer them to the other brands, but this copy of "Trees and Shrubs" is disappointing. The other Peterson guides I own are printed on tough glossy paper that I'm not afraid to bring outside. But this book is printed on normal cheap paper that does not look safe to use in the field, which is a shame for an alleged field guide. This book also lacks the section of color plates that is at the beginning of every other Peterson field guide I own.

Should have read the reviews rather than relying on overall rating. More technical than I wanted for use with young children.

This is an excellent field guide for people interested in learning more about their environment and the types of trees and shrubs that are in their area. The first few pages show shilouettes of different trees in full foliage and without. There are also several pages that have diagrams of leaves for tree identification, as well. The bulk of the book are narrative descriptions of the characteristics of a given tree to help identify it by it's bark, roots, etc.

This book is really detailed

I'm really pleased with the information in this book, but I am a bit disappointed in the printing. It appears to be a reproduction of the original font / typesetting and it is actually a bit difficult to read because the letters are not crisp.

This book contains all the species I know to be around here, and has a lot of great information. It's lacking in photos though. If you're expecting to get a branch and compare it to a photo or even a drawing, don't get this book. If you know a bit already about trees, and want a book for positive identification, this one can be a real help.

very good book

Great book

Not as many plates as I expected, but still a great resources. I think one of the pros and cons is that it covers too much material. I think its a great accompaniment for when you have both an independent tree and a shrub guide!