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Allen J. Coombes

Auteur van Bomen

33 Werken 1,024 Leden 11 Besprekingen

Over de Auteur

Botanist Allen J. Coombes is the author or co-author of several books He has also contributed to The American Horticultural Society A-Z of Garden Plants. Allen's interests include the taxonomy and nomenclature of woody plants, and he is a member of the Horticultural Taxonomy Group. He has led toon meer botanical tours to a variety of destinations, including China and Mexico toon minder

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Werken van Allen J. Coombes

Bomen (1992) 604 exemplaren
Dictionary of Plant Names (1985) 179 exemplaren
Trees (Pocket Nature) (1600) 29 exemplaren
The Complete Book of Shrubs (1998) 23 exemplaren
AHS Practical Guides : Small trees (2000) — Auteur — 17 exemplaren
Hamlyn A-Z of Plant Names (1994) 10 exemplaren
RHS Practical Guides : Trees for small gardens (2000) — Auteur — 9 exemplaren
Arboles (1993) 7 exemplaren
Trær og busker (2005) 5 exemplaren

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How the hell are you supposed to know what oak, ash, or thorn look like? What’s a rowan tree? Inquiring minds studying the craft (don’t ask which one, lol) want to know. Although this obviously is written from a more general-public perspective than I have, that’s good for getting a wide readership, and I enjoy feeling like I’m getting different perspectives (and a free pass from the local library, lol).

But there’s not a whole lot you can say about the basic identification process, even if you’re descended from loquacious little elves like me. (The g-man/corporate spy obviously is either too far away or too close to the ethnic miracle to let the word that rhymes with ricks pass without a red underline, and I can’t deal with red underlines today.)

Here are the trees commonly found in New Jersey/Lenape-land, although it can be hard to decide whether to include some of the species that have been introduced that you might possibly find but probably not, so it could have been longer:

(I suppose I should specify further that I am basically concerned with that part of Lenape-land that is the Merlin of Monmouth’s stomping-grounds. “There is no Merlin of Monmouth.” Ah, YET…. 🦇 lol 😂)

Wikipedia helped argument this data, btw. (Which ones are garden trees, basically. The habitat info—eg ‘swamps’ are book quotes, though.) If they can’t put up ads, they shouldn’t whine to me about their own bad decision. OMG, corporate goons, they lie! Prestige people who hate money, we can trust them—and only them!)

—white cypress (native) [‘usually swamps, wet ground, and moist places’]
—Leyland cypress (garden origin) (only gardens)
—Kashmir cypress (introduced) (only gardens)
—Chinese juniper (introduced) [‘hills and mountains’]
—Common juniper (introduced) [‘open places, from coastal rocks to high mountains’]
—Eastern red cedar (native) [‘woods and rocky slopes’]
—Atlas cedar (introduced) [‘forests’]
—Dunkeld larch (garden origin) (only gardens)
—Black spruce (introduced) [‘mountain slopes and bogs’]
—Pinus x holfordiana (garden origin) (only gardens)
—white pine (edge of native range) [‘woods at low altitudes’]
—eastern hemlock (edge of native range) [‘hilly or rocky woods’]
—common yew (introduced) [‘lime-rich soil’]
—dawn redwood (introduced) [‘moist ground and riverbanks’]

—hedge maple (introduced) [‘woods, scrub, and hedgerows’]
—acer cissifolium (introduced) [‘by streams’]
—David maple (introduced) [‘mountain thickets and woods’]
—Amur maple (introduced) [‘thickets by river-banks and exposed positions in mountain valleys’]
—box elder (native) [‘riverbanks, on moist soil’]
—Japanese maple (introduced) [‘thickets’]
—Norway maple (introduced) [‘mountain woods’]
—sycamore maple (introduced) [‘deciduous mountain woods’]
—red maple (native) [‘moist ground’]
—silver maple (introduced) [‘moist soil and riverbanks’]
—acer shirasawanum (introduced) [‘mountain slopes and valleys’]
—acer sieboldianum (introduced) [‘sunny ridges, stream banks in the mountains’]
—American smoke tree (introduced) [‘rocky hills’]
—shiny sumac (native) [‘mountains, woods, and scrub, on dry soil’]
—rhus thichocarpa (introduced) [‘mountains and roadside thickets’]
—staghorn sumac (introduced) [‘meadows, scrub, and wood margins, often on dry, rocky soil’]
—highclere holly (garden origin) (gardens only)
—English holly (introduced) [‘woods, particularly those of beech and oak’]
—Ilex x koehneana (garden origin) (only gardens)
—American holly (native) [‘sandy soil near the coasts and moist woods’]
—castor aralia (introduced) [‘riverbanks and other moist places in forests’]
—common alder (introduced) [‘by rivers’]
—cherry birch (edge of native range) [‘moist woods at low altitude in the north to mountains in the south of its native range’]
—river birch (native by coasts) [‘wet woods and by streams’]
—silver birch (introduced) [‘light, especially sandy, soil’]
—American hornbeam (edge of native range) [‘moist woods, riverbanks, and swamps’]
—carpinus japonica (introduced) [‘woods and thickets’]
—catalpa x erubescens (garden origin) (only gardens)
—common box (introduced) [‘usually alkaline soil’]
—European spindle tree (introduced) [‘woods, thickets, and hedgerows’]
—pagoda dogwood (edge of native range) [‘woods, thickets, by streams’]
—Cornus Eddie’s White Wonder (garden origin) (only gardens)
—flowering dogwood (edge of native range) [‘acid soil in woods’]
—cornus ‘Porlock’ (garden origin) (only gardens)
—[common] persimmon (edge of native range) [‘woods and dry soil’]
—eucryphia x intermedia (garden origin) (only gardens)
—eucryphia x nymansensis (garden origin) (only gardens)
—eucryphia ‘penwith’ (garden origin) (only gardens)
—American chestnut (native) [‘woods’] {critically endangered}
—sweet chestnut (introduced) [‘woods’]
—American beech (edge of native range) [‘rich woods’]
—sawtooth oak (introduced) [‘woods’]
—white oak (native) [‘dry woods’]
—scarlet oak (native) [‘woods and sandy soil’]
—Spanish red oak (native) [‘dry woods from coast to mountains’]
—holly oak (introduced) [‘hills, woods, scrub, and dry places’]
—laurel oak (introduced) [‘woods, sandy soil, and swamp margins on the coastal plain’]
—black jack oak (native) [‘woods and poor, often sandy soil’]
—pin oak (edge of native range, inland) [‘swampy woods’]
—willow oak (edge of native range) [‘moist and swampy soil’]
—English oak (introduced) [‘woods’]
—northern red oak (edge of native range) [‘woods, and mountains in the south of its region’]
—post oak (native) [‘dry soil’]
—Turner’s oak (garden origin) (only gardens)
—black oak (native) [‘dry woods, sand dunes’]
—sweet gum (edge of native range) [‘moist woods’]
—Persian ironwood (introduced) [‘forests’]
—red horse chestnut (garden origin) (only gardens)
—Indian horse chestnut (introduced) [‘forests and shady ravines’]
—butternut (edge of native range) [‘deciduous forests, in swamps, and on riverbanks’]
—shagbark hickory (edge of native range) [‘rich woods and valleys’]
—black walnut (native) [‘rich woods’]
—pterocarya x rehderiana (garden origin) (only gardens)
—sassafras (native) [‘woods and thickets’]
—mimosa (silk tree) (introduced) [‘woods and river banks’]
—redbud (introduced) [‘moist woods’]
—yellow wood (introduced) [‘rich woods and rocky bluffs’]
—Mount Etna bloom (introduced) [‘rocky slopes’]
—honey locust (introduced) [‘rich, moist woods’]
—+ laburnocytisus adamii (garden origin) (only gardens)
—common laburnum (introduced) [‘mountainous areas, woods, and thickets’]
—robinia x holdtii (garden origin) (only gardens)
—black locust (introduced) (‘woods and thickets’]
—Japanese pagoda tree (introduced) [‘woods, thickets, and dry valleys in mountains’]
—Chinese tulip tree (introduced) [‘mountain woods’]
—tulip tree (edge of native range) [‘deciduous woods’]
—cucumber tree (introduced) [‘rich woods’]
—Osage orange (introduced) [‘rich, moist soil’]
—white mulberry (introduced) [‘hill slopes’]
—Tupelo [nyssa sylvatica] (native) [‘moist woods and swamps’]
—Chinese fringe tree (introduced) [‘woods and on cliffs in sunny, moist places’]
—fringe tree (introduced) [‘moist woods and riverbanks’]
—green ash (native) [critically endangered) [‘moist woods’]
—Chinese privet (introduced) [‘hillside woods and river valleys in mountains’]
—London plane [tree] (garden origin) (only gardens)
—American sycamore (edge of native range) [‘rich, moist soil’]
—common buckthorn (introduced) [‘woods, thickets, and hedgerows, on chalky soil’]
—alder buckthorn (introduced) [‘woods and scrub, usually on wet soil’]
—serviceberry [amelanchier arborea] (native) [‘woods and thickets, on moist soil’]
—Allegheny serviceberry (native) [‘woods, thickets’]
—cockspur thorn (native) [‘thickets in dry, rocky places’]
—crataegus x lavallei (garden origin) (only gardens)
—common hawthorn (introduced?) [‘woods and thickets’]
—Washington thorn [tree] (introduced) [‘woods and thickets’]
—crataegus prunifolia (garden origin) (only gardens)
—x cataemespilus grandiflora (garden origin) (only gardens)
—Siberian crab apple (introduced) [‘woods and scrub’]
—malus florentino (introduced) [‘scrub and rocky slopes’]
—Japanese crab apple (garden origin) (only gardens)
—malus x purpurea (garden origin) (only gardens)
—malus transitoria (introduced) [‘woods and thickets’]
—crab apple hybrids (garden origin) (only gardens)
—photinia davidiana (introduced) [‘woods, thickets, and cliffs’]
—photinia x fraseri (garden origin) (only gardens)
—photinia villosa (introduced) [‘woods and by streams’]
—sweet or bird cherry (introduced) [‘woods and hedgerows’]
—hill cherry [tree] (introduced) [‘woods and hills and low mountains’]
—Manchurian cherry (introduced) [‘woods’]
—prunus x schmittii (gardens origin) (only gardens)
—black cherry (native) [‘woods, pastures, and roadsides’]
—Callery pear [tree] (introduced) [‘thickets and alongside streams in mountains’]
—sorbus cashmiriana (introduced) [‘mountain woods’]
—sorbus esserteauana (introduced) [‘mountains, cliffs, woods’]
—sorbus forrestii (introduced) [‘mountain woods’]
—sorbus vilmorinii (introduced) [‘mountain woods’]
—white poplar (introduced) [‘woods, in moist and dry places’]
—crack willow (introduced) [‘riversides’]
—bay willow (introduced) [‘riverbanks and meadows’]
—salix x sepulcralis (garden origin) (only gardens)
—golden rain tree (introduced) [‘hot, dry, river valleys’]
—paulownia tomentosa (introduced) [‘mountains’]
—epaulette tree (introduced) [‘woods and alongside mountain streams’]
—styrax hemsleyana (introduced) [‘woods and thickets’]
—Japanese snowbell (introduced) [‘sunny places, usually on wet ground’]
—styrax obassia (introduced) [‘moist woods’]
—American linden (edge of native range) [‘moist woods’]
—Littleleaf linden (introduced) [‘on limestone’]
—broad-leaved linden (introduced) [‘moist woods’]
—Hackberry [celtis occidentalis] (edge of native range) [‘rich woods and hill slopes’]
—Ulmus x hollandica (introduced) [‘woods and hedgerows’]
—smooth-leaved elm (introduced) [‘woods and hedgerows’]
—Chinese elm (introduced) [‘rocky places’]
—Siberian elm (introduced) [‘sandy or stony soil’]
—Japanese zelkova (keaki) (introduced) [‘moist soil near streams’]

N.B. I’m sure I might have excluded the odd tree I might find in the Merlin of Monmouth’s bailiwick, and of course included many I probably won’t find, but at least I have included some I will find and excluded some I won’t find.

…. Concluding note: Anyway, Eckhart Tolle talks about how naming things isn’t mystical—basically, This is the Name Tree; I own it. ~ And there is some truth to that. A lot of music/art appreciation in schools follows those lines: This is Bach; I own him. Play a song for the children, Bach—and science naming can run into the same facile-arrogance, you know. But if you know what something is in its specifics, where it grows, what it looks like, what it’s used for, (I guess we’re allowed to use, plants, at least), and what gods are associated with it, then you can tell a story about it, and I think that’s something different (or at least more entertaining & worldly-wise, which is the same for me), than, This is the Name Tree. I own it.

…. And just ~way~ too much fucking Latin.

—The whole world must have one language, one speech. It must be the speech of white men! And not just these common white men here; not their language just because they’re our local white men. Of course, no one who couldn’t read English would really benefit from the book. But once, children, once the Old White Men conquered the world! Everything happened for them! They were the Romans, children! They were the Greeks!…. Yes, you: you in the back.
—Can I get the fuck out of here?
—The community pays me to terrorize you-children when your parents are busied with other things; say, ‘MAY I get the fuck out of here?’!
—Screw you!

…. (TikTok person, persona A) My name is John Ireland Jackass, and as I own this tree—it’s mine! I found it! It’s mine!—I have decided to call it the Jackass Tree.
(persona B) Where does it grow?
(persona A) Tibet.

(persona A) The Jackass Tree has leaves. Its leaves help it grow. Look, they’re colored leaves—not black and white.
(persona B) In Tibet where the, ah, Jackass Tree grows, the Tibetan shamans who find meaning in nature say that it—
(persona A) Oh, fuck the little baby races; this is Boston, dammit.

Etc, etc.

…. Concluding note: Anyway, I’m not putting this in the main review, but any tree I actually find and get to know and figure out which god likes it best, I’ll give my own personal common name, you know. Bloody ugly white boy names, Sheldon Cooper names, and they don’t mean anything….

…. BUT: I do think it’s good to have a book for this, and not just wander like a lost duckling through Wikipedia, since even a book has a lot of obscure stuff you’ll never find; the wiki is a good supplement, but if you were to use only it, without any sense of necessary editing, there’d just be no perspective, no getting through it, really.

In a better world where people cared about nature there’d be a book this length about trees in a smaller local region—like say, the Mid-Atlantic, at least—but clearly we are not there yet.

…. Science can be quite colonial, quite…. Strange. “All the nations of the earth must use the Latin names.” Don’t kid yourself—the Chinese book, or even the French book, on trees wouldn’t be of any use to the monolingual Anglophone, even if they bowed the knee to the Latin naming system. All the other words would be in Chinese or French. There is a genius to classification, of course, and there would be utility to an Official English Language Natural Science Classification System for (Trees, Plants, etc.)—and what they call it in Paris is none of our business. To insist on Latin is just weird, though; as though you can’t speak fucking English when that’s ~all, you speak. Right?

It’s just inertia, really. The dead hand of the British Empire. It’s certain not good copywriting for the trees, you know—care about (a long chain of gobblygook words follows)! They’re dying! ~Bro, I’m good. I’m solid. I’m watching football.

Of course, the football bros don’t listen to me, either, but—it’s not satisfactory to continue like this, you know. The gods live in the trees. They’re not useless; they’re not relics of Greco-English colonialism; they’re just not commodities, although they deserve good branding. Even our strange human system of labeling should be filled with strange meaning, you know. It’s not satisfactory to call a tree, arbus joensis, because some jackass named Joe said that some spearman used to say in Greek the thing about having one ruler and one king—and he found a tree, right.

People who write books about trees and study them should actually fucking care about the trees as living energy; this chess club deadness is not sufficient. Scientists should take some responsibility for the climate crisis, and not just because they invent the technology that normies abuse. They write crap like this and they assume that people are going to pay them something other than lip service? “I have the ideas and no one listens. That proves I’m right.” You think you don’t need to change…. because your behavior is giving rise to ineffective results? 4 reel?
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
goosecap | 5 andere besprekingen | Jan 12, 2024 |
Interesting investigations into origins of names of common plants.
 
Gemarkeerd
MLRALibrary | 2 andere besprekingen | Aug 3, 2022 |
This book begins with an introduction in which readers learn what defines a “tree,” what its parts are, what are the types of fruit, types of bark, and so on. The rest of the content is arranged according to the two major tree groups: conifers and broadleaves. The groups are then divided into families and then by genus and species. This means the index is essential to find the common name for the tree type you are looking for - say, oak, or birch. And what if you don’t know even the common name? There are excellent color photos with each entry, showing both the silhouette of the whole tree, details of leaves, fruit if any, and how the tree and leaves look at different stages and different times of year.

There is also plenty of information about each tree. Following a general description, the author provides indications of height, shape, leaf persistence (evergreen or deciduous), native region, habitat, and remarks of interest.

Overall, this is an excellent resource in a handy size to take with you out into the field. I will say however that I could not find apple or citrus trees in either the broadleaf section or the index. There are some other fruit trees included, however.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
nbmars | 5 andere besprekingen | Apr 5, 2021 |
Conifers & their allies, Braodleaves
 
Gemarkeerd
jhawn | 5 andere besprekingen | Jul 31, 2017 |

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Werken
33
Leden
1,024
Populariteit
#25,156
Waardering
3.8
Besprekingen
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ISBNs
66
Talen
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