Plant identification. Solving problems, too. Help us help you.

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pdqdl

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In order to help our members identify trees, plants, or even fungi, we will need useful descriptions.
One picture won't be enough, take plenty! Try to keep them in focus, too.

The best tree identification needs more than just a leaf or a closeup of some bark. Send us a whole tree picture, closeups of the bark, twigs, leaves, and small branches. We'll need to know what your climate is and what part of the world you are in. Soil types and plant history are important if we are diagnosing a problem.

While flower parts and seeds are often not available, these might be the best aids to positively identify a plant. Closeups that reveal petal count, the presence or absence of things like sepal, pistles, anthers & how many are present, can be important. How the leaves attach to the stem, whether ligules are present are important, too. Sometimes the final diagnosis will rely on a cross section of a twig, or the shape or features on one of the buds; perhaps even the time of year that the picture of the buds was taken.

Some plants are very easy to identify, others are even difficult to ID by experts with only part of the information needed. Please! Give us all the information you can.

A related story:
I was taking a college course in plant taxonomy, and brought a sample of a plant in to my professor. It was a tall bushy plant about 5 feet tall, but the leaves looked exactly like poison ivy. The description of poison ivy even allows for free standing plants with woody stems, and I wasn't quite sure what it was.​
So I brought in a nice big leaf. Leaves of three, let it be! Easy to identify, right?​
No. Not like you would think. :dumb:
While the professor did identify the plant, he also pointed out to me that box elder trees have opposite branching, and poison ivy has alternate branching. Otherwise, the single leaves can be almost indistinguishable.​

Hopefully, this will help get your plant identified. We have members expert on nearly any topic, so please feel free to put up your questions.

Another thing: While following a really comprehensive plant ID source, one whole branch of your ID key might depend upon whether there are tiny hairs on the bottom side of a leaf, or whether the ligules are glabrous (without hairs). Don't worry about whether or not you know these terms. Our members probably do. Please come back and follow your thread for a few weeks. If we need more pictures, or have any questions, you can't get an answer without checking to see what we came up with.
 
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After reading above post, I have a tree that needs identifying. As you can see it's been dead awhile, no bark or leaf to be found. However I thought the moss growing on it would be a good clue. Also to help with the ID I've added a good close up of the cut end. Thanks
Before I forget does anyone have any free firewood?
 
Ok, you. For any readers that don't already know, Raintree is funnin' you. He is one of our best helpers and is quite expert in this forum. His advice is almost golden.

One of my most favorite trees: Koelreuteria paniculata
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The common name of this tree is "Golden Raintree"
. Although they are a bit messy in a landscape, and are prone to self seeding an area, they are otherwise an excellent tree. Strong, few diseases, they survive a wide variety of climates and soil types. As a landscape feature, they are spectacular when the flowers are up, and the showy panicles of developing seeds add interests almost all summer long.
 
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