Trees – of Britain & Ireland
| Jon Stokes | WILDGuides | 2025 | Flexibound | 360 Pages, 3000+ colour photos, 270+ colour illustrations, colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9780691224169 |
The Publisher’s View:
Descriptions of all Species with a Common Name
Trees of Britain and Ireland is packed with practical information, photos and illustrations that will help you identify trees throughout the year. It covers all of Great Britain and Ireland’s native trees and shrubs as well as a range of ornamental and widely planted trees from other areas of the world. This guide also offers an overview of tree biology and ecology, describes the importance of trees as habitats and presents a brief history of British and Irish treescapes.
– Includes more than 3,000 photographs and 270 illustrations showing key identification features of each tree and highlighting some of the animals, plants, fungi and lichens that depend on it
– Covers all 113 native trees and shrubs, including all 42 currently recognised Whitebeam species, as well as 190 common non-native species and subspecies
– Features keys that allow easy, accurate comparison of similar species, up-to-date distribution maps and charts that summarise when trees flower, fruit and leaf
– Explains how you can help with practical tree conservation
The Author: Jon Stokes is the Director of Trees, Science and Research at The Tree Council-the UK charity that brings everyone together for the love of trees. One of Britain’s leading tree conservationists, Stokes has been working in the world of trees for more than thirty years. He has seen all of Great Britain and Ireland’s native tree species and is passionate about how they contribute to our landscape and provide habitats for countless other living things. He is the author or co-author of ten books on trees.
Fatbirder View:
Fatbirder followers will know I love the WILDGuide series. In the multimedia age I’ve downsized my library… a shadow of its former self, now mostly fieldguides and, among them, half a shelf of these excellent guides, handily placed for easy access. Moreover, they all have formats making them very transportable, fieldguides and reference works both.
I’ve been waiting for this one as those reference works I have on trees are not quite up to snuff. All good in their ways, but not having all I want in one place… this one does! The production quality is top drawer… not only in book design making them easy to read and with excellent illustrations, handy sidebars and so forth, but also Lightweight yet robust covers and pages that look wipeable should I spill my coffee or drop one in the mud. The latter always possible when an outdoor expedition combines with me literally losing my grip.
Most pages have a ‘did you know’ fact that adds a fun dimension to its ID use, I loved learning these random facts and, even more finding out about associative species including birds! For example, I knew oak has tons and tons of associated invertebrate species, but didn’t know that holly only has ten including the Holly Blue. The book also shed light on the mysterious transparent patches on my holly’s leaves. Apparently, a Holly Fly lava’s work.
I see that the author has seen every native tree species in the UK… I’ll have to try and ‘tick’ more than the dozen species I find easy to ID. This guide will help massively.
Fatbirder