The 10 Best Tree Guides (2023 reviews)

We consider a tree guide to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your needs from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: David Allen Sibley Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best For any time Of year: Buy: National Audubon Society Peterson Guide READ REVIEW

Best For home: Buy: Elbert L little Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Some basic Identification: Buy: may Theilgaard Watts Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Texas Tree Identification: Buy: National Audubon Society Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Full color Pictures: Buy: Bland Crowder Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Trees: Buy: Rushforth Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best pocket Guide: Buy: Stan Tekiela Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Most common subject matters: Buy: Petrides Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best Book: Buy: Mikolas Tree Guide READ REVIEW

Best Overall: David Allen Sibley Tree Guide

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David Allen Sibley line of guide come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. Even if you're only mildly interested in trees, this book contains all the information you could ever want. The Sibley Guide to Trees has a great format that has worked so well in wild life guide books, pertinent illustrations and well written descriptions. It has a design that is subtle but sharp. It is very complete and helpful for doing tree identification.

This book has a section for each family where it clearly details the hallmarks of each family and, in some cases, explains what separates that family from similar families. The distribution maps showing where species occur are nicely done, and the written descriptions for identification are concise and clear. It is easy to use reference to the area where different species are located. The better ones will have drawings pointing out unique and identifiable features. The pictures are beautiful & detailed, & help a lot when it comes to identification.

• Light weight, easy for use in the field
• Good illustrations and account of species
• Index is comprehensive and easy to use

Best For any time Of year: National Audubon Society Peterson Guide

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The national audubon society peterson guide might be a relatively new release, but it's still nothing short of impressive this year. If you want to identify tree species or varieties in the Eastern United States, this is the guide to carry with you. It helps you identify trees by leaves, bark and general design. The photographs are fantastic, and it gives excellent information about the characteristics and locations of these trees. It also includes sections with flowers divided by color, acorns, nuts fruit pods, and ect.

The high quality, vibrant photos guide the user to printed info that helps ensure you have the correct species identification. The leather cover makes it so comfortable in your hands, or pocket. It can be carried in a standard cargo pants pocket.

It is easy to navigate and great pictures for identification. If you'd like to identify a stranger, Little's organization by thumb tabs based on leaf shape makes it easy to find the section where your tree is pictured with its leaves, bark and general design.

• Perfect for a novice to identify trees
• Helps keep you acclimated to what you see while hiking
• New and hot release

Best For home: Elbert L little Tree Guide

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We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't mention elbert l little tree guide for daily purpose. As far as a good tool to increase one's knowledge of the natural world, this field guide is helpful and deserves a place in any naturalist's library. For an up and coming arborist, it's a good base for tree identification. This is the perfect field guide for trees in the western region. It's easier to flip through a bunch of similar-looking images than to have to wade through interspersed text and images.

The color plates are the best in all the field guides. This field guide does not limit itself to indigenous or " native " species. It is great for field or home. The quality binding of this newly updated edition is nice quality, and easy to carry. It's great for a field or home.

• Well illustrated and descriptions of birds
• Very rich color photos, identification tips, and thorough descriptions
• Very help field book for hiking and other

Best For Some basic Identification: may Theilgaard Watts Tree Guide

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Not everyone likes to purchase guide for their daily purpose, but the may theilgaard watts tree guide would be an anomoly. This tree guide is small enough to fit in your back pocket while on a hike. It is good for some basic identification. There are a series of (usually) binary choices, eventually leading to species identification. Each question has 2 answers, and the book directs you to a specific page or part of page based on your answer until you eventually find what tree the leaf is from. It is easy to use and follows some very logical steps to make an identification.

At 6" x 4", it’s lightweight and pocket-sized to bring with you. The size of it is great, fits into a pocket, and has a handy ruler printed on the back so you can measure leaf size and other things.

• A tidy little addition to your nature or plant library
• Wonderful compact tree book that compliments the other larger tree
• Simple yet comprehensive field guide to tree identification

Best For Texas Tree Identification: National Audubon Society Tree Guide

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate guide. The national audubon society tree guide is exactly that - it's a simple guide that hits all the right notes. This is an outstanding guide to north american trees and merits space in any collection serving either robust forest hikers or armchair naturalists. There is a very good short section at the beginning on the natural history and biology of trees that is great for beginners. It gets a page which is well organized in a consistent visual format. It provides some lore and a conservation status as well as photos and descriptions that are useful to understand the plant's appearance.

The trees are not alphabetized and it is difficult to find the one you are looking for. There are two sets of silhouettes for each tree. The range maps are accurate about 50% of the time. It comes with an attractive attached ribbon bookmark.

• Great book for learning the names of trees and what they look like
• Effectively cutting off a significant portion of its range
• Good brand reputation

Best For Full color Pictures: Bland Crowder Tree Guide

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The bland crowder tree guide is capable of outshining several other guide featured in this list in overall features for the price point. This is an interesting little field guide for general application. It includes scientific name, photograph of a mature plant, illustration of leaf, flower and fruit, a paragraph about the tree, and key facts with anatomical details of the leaves, flowers, fruits, and growth range. You will have basic identification abilities but not detailed photos for further identification issues such as seasonal leaf color changes or bark age differences This is a great guide book to get a basic understanding and identification of the most common Trees and Shrubs.

This is a pocket size book and you carry it with you as you wonder the trails it is in color, too. Its small size and sturdy binding makes it handy for a field trip. It is easy to use index at the back of the book. The pages are made of strong stock and should stand strong through much use for those who are carrying it around when outdoors. The one "negative" of this volume is that it requires intellectual work on the part of the reader and student.

• Handy pocket guide useful for identifying trees and shrubs
• Sturdy, colorful, perfect size, and very educating pocket guide
• Perfect guide for identifying strange trees
• Perfect for hiking, camping or backpacking

Best For Trees: Rushforth Tree Guide

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Rushforth line of guide come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. This guide includes a number of exotic species and hybrids that are frequently planted in yards, parks, and along roads, so if you want to be able to identify those species, this is a good choice. It is easy to read, and a great guide for the beginner. It does not cover shrubs, which might be considered small trees.

This slim guide has drawings of the trees and leaves. It consists of more than 260 pages packed with information on literally hundreds of trees, and well illustrated with quality drawings of those trees. It shows considerable usage, and that speaks for its' usefulness. It is missing range maps and does not always show all the parts (flowers, fruits, bark) of the trees. It is a gift for a family member who needs it in their work for identifying trees.

• Good guide for urban (exotic and hybrid) trees
• Nice design and handy for the pocket
• New and hot release

Best pocket Guide: Stan Tekiela Tree Guide

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Compared with other guide in this category, the stan tekiela tree guide has a convenient design. It is an award-winning author, naturalist, and wildlife photographer. It provides helpful, trusted information—from leaf basics to identification tips. The giant pictures and blurbs about the trees are great. It is simple and fun with species organized by leaf type and attachment. It's definitely helpful that this field guide skips trees outside of the region of Ohio. The pictures are beautiful and the descriptions help in the identifying process.

• A good addition the forest-hike backpack
• Great pocket guide book for hiking and outdoor enthusiasts
• Thoroughly covers maples, oaks, and elms, hickories, buckeyes, and the other big trees
• Perfect size and handy field guide

Best For Most common subject matters: Petrides Tree Guide

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate guide. The petrides tree guide is exactly that - it's a simple guide that hits all the right notes. The Peterson field guides are always great,great info, easy to navigate and superb information. It is good for a young child and easy to carry in a backpact. The pictures are better than the old ones and they are still easy to navigate, however these are truly a pocket guide and much thinner.

This little book is perfect to take along on a trip or picnic to identify trees. It is thorough, it is light, and has clear illustrations. The drawings are accurate and they give specific indicators for each species. It is good one for the field and fits in your pack.

• Great guide, gift for a friend who is a biology/nature person
• Good investment for long term

Best Book: Mikolas Tree Guide

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The mikolas tree guide should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. If you love trees and want to learn more, this is the book. It is an excellent book for a budding tree enthusiast. Instead of using leaves, buds and flowers, it highlights the key characteristics of each tree that enable the reader to simply recognize a tree any time of the year.

Prologue tells you how and why the book is structured, and that it’s better to be able to identify a tree from its bark and branches. It is so much fun and reliable.

This is the opposite of other guides that have you obsessively working through some sort of sequential algorithm while looking at the tree. It focuses on easy to identify unique features of each species, specifically how to identify mature trees that you can not get to the leaves or buds. It makes the tree memorable and even relatable.

• Interesting, informative book with easy to follow illustrations and pictures
• Focuses on trees of the northeast and is organized in two main categories
• Easy and effective for the novice