Forestry & Wildlife Sciences Extension

Recognize these leaves? They're from the 55 kinds of trees you're most likely to see. The species shown here represent most of the genera, or kinds, of trees in the United States. All these leaves make food for the tree. And this tells much about their shapes. For example, the narrow needles of a Douglas fir can expose as much as three acres of chlorophyll surface to the sun. The lobes, leaflets and jagged edges of many broad leaves have their uses, too. They help evaporate the water used in food-building, reduce wind resistance--even provide "drip tips" to shed rain that, left standing, could decay the leaf.

Red alder	White ash	Quaking aspen	Baldcypress	American basswood

Beech	Paper birch	Box elder	Butternut	Northern catalpa

Black cherry	Eastern redcedar	Northern white-cedar	Kentucky coffee tree	Eastern cottonwood

Flowering dogwood	American elm	Balsam fir	Douglas fir	Ginkgo

Hackberry	Hawthorn	Eastern hemlock	Shagbark hickory	American holly

American hornbeam	Horse-chestnut	Rocky mountain juniper	California laurel	Black locust

Honeylocust	Southern magnolia	Sugar maple	Red mulberry	White oak

Osage-orange	Cabbage palmetto	Pecan	Persimmon	Eastern white pine

Balsam poplar	Eastern redbud	Redwood	Sassafras	Giant sequoia

Red spruce	Sweetbay	Sweetgum	American sycamore	Tamarack

Tuliptree	Black tupelo	Black walnut	Black willow	Pacific yew

School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences Extension
602 Duncan Drive · Auburn University, Alabama 36849

Recognize these leaves?