Plant ID Study Guide

Key ID feature: Opposite, deeply 5–7 lobed hand-shaped green leaves; smooth gray-green bark; slender red-tinged twigs.

Key ID feature: Leaves stay deep burgundy-red all summer (most red cultivars fade to green).

Key ID feature: Leaves finely cut into thread-like lace; low weeping, mounding shrub form.

Key ID feature: Crushed leaves smell like peanut butter; blue berries sit on bright red star-shaped calyxes.

Key ID feature: Palmately compound (5 leaflets) with silver-white veins along the center of each leaflet.

Key ID feature: Palmately compound with 5 toothed leaflets; tendrils end in adhesive disks; scarlet fall color.

Key ID feature: Camouflage bark peeling in patches of cream, olive and tan; fuzzy round seed balls usually in pairs.

Key ID feature: Twigs densely velvety like deer antlers in velvet; leaflets deeply cut/fern-like.

Key ID feature: Leaf sinuses rounded (U-shaped), lobes without many teeth; sharp-pointed brown buds; no milky sap.

Key ID feature: Speckled berries in porcelain blue, lilac and turquoise; grape-like leaves; white pith.

Key ID feature: Thick stems and leaf stalks covered in sharp prickles; huge 2–3x compound leaves.

Key ID feature: Every part — stems, leaf stalks, leaf veins — covered in yellow spines; giant maple-like leaves.

Key ID feature: Four pointed white bracts appear after leaves; raspberry-like red fruit; puzzle-piece exfoliating bark.

Key ID feature: Opposite pinnate leaves with 5–7 broad, nearly stalkless leaflets; native to wet PNW bottomlands.

Key ID feature: Distinctive coal-black buds; 7–11 narrow toothed leaflets.

Key ID feature: Seedless (male) cultivar; pinnate leaves with 7–9 leaflets; narrow paddle-shaped samaras on species.

Key ID feature: Smooth, muscular, mottled bark that sheds in patches; crinkled crepe-paper flowers in late summer.

Key ID feature: Deciduous conifer: soft needles in clusters on short spurs turn gold and drop in fall; upright cones.

Key ID feature: Leaves round with 7–9 shallow lobes; sprawling, vine-like multi-stem habit.

Key ID feature: Largest maple leaves (often 12"+); milky sap from the leaf stalk; moss-covered bark.

Key ID feature: Very narrow, columnar form of sugar maple.

Key ID feature: Heart-shaped leaves in pairs; fallen autumn leaves smell like burnt sugar / cotton candy.

Key ID feature: Big round 'mophead' flower clusters; blue in acid soil, pink in alkaline; thick glossy leaves.

Key ID feature: Leaves shaped like big oak leaves; cinnamon peeling bark; cone-shaped white flower clusters.

Key ID feature: Yellow flowers in summer followed by papery, lantern-shaped seed pods.

Key ID feature: White bell-shaped flowers hang below the branches in late spring; small glossy leaves.

Key ID feature: Very large round leaves (up to 8"); fragrant white flowers in long drooping chains.

Key ID feature: Cinnamon-red bark peels in thin papery curls; trifoliate (3-leaflet) leaves.

Key ID feature: Red buds, red flowers in early spring, red leaf stalks and red fall color; leaf sinuses V-shaped.

Key ID feature: Salmon-pink to tan bark peeling in shaggy curls; diamond-shaped leaves; likes wet soil.

Key ID feature: Chalky white bark peeling in horizontal papery strips; North American native.

Key ID feature: White bark with black diamond-shaped fissures at the base; weeping branch tips.

Key ID feature: Smooth gray, muscle-like (fluted) trunk; narrow upright form; double-toothed, pleated leaves.

Key ID feature: Long narrow leaves with large hooked teeth; nut enclosed in a very spiny bur.

Key ID feature: Palmately compound leaves (5–7 leaflets); large sticky buds; horseshoe-shaped leaf scars.

Key ID feature: Huge heart-shaped leaves in whorls of 3; long bean-like seed pods.

Key ID feature: Evergreen vine with 3–5 lobed leaves; climbs by hairy aerial roots on the stems.

Key ID feature: Star-shaped 5-pointed leaves; corky wings on twigs; spiky 'gumball' seed pods.

Key ID feature: Deciduous conifer with opposite, flat feathery needles; fluted reddish trunk with armpit-like pits.

Key ID feature: Glossy leaves with smooth edges; brilliant scarlet fall color; blocky 'alligator' bark.

Key ID feature: Leaves taste sour; drooping sprays of lily-of-the-valley-like white flowers; crimson fall color.

Key ID feature: Snakebark maple: green bark striped with white; red young stems and leaf stalks.

Key ID feature: Only maple with pinnately compound leaves (3–5 leaflets); green twigs often with a white bloom.

Key ID feature: Broken leaf stalk oozes milky white sap; samaras spread nearly flat (wide angle); 5-lobed leaves wider than long.

Key ID feature: Norway maple leaf shape (milky sap) but deep maroon-purple all season; yellow flowers contrast against purple new leaves.

Key ID feature: Snakebark maple: 3-lobed leaves with rusty-red hairs along the veins underneath; green & white striped bark.

Key ID feature: Very deeply cut 5-lobed leaves with silvery-white undersides; clustered round red flower buds; shaggy peeling bark on old trunks.

Key ID feature: Long narrow leaves with 20–24 pairs of tightly parallel, corrugated veins; hop-like fruit clusters.

Key ID feature: Opposite small reddish-stalked leaves; hanging bell flowers with red sepals around a purple skirt.

Key ID feature: Fan-shaped leaves with fork-split parallel veins (no midrib), clustered on stubby spur shoots.

Key ID feature: 4-lobed leaf with a squared-off, notched tip (like a tulip/cat face); flattened duck-bill buds.