Falling into Classification Recognizing Wisconsin Trees Miss Emily Ranch Today we are going to be looking into classifying trees. I know we just read a “little kid” book about leaves but I thought it would be a good break and transition from math so that we are all thinking about the tangible universe around us. There are so many different trees in Wisconsin and now is such a beautiful time to stop and take a look at some of the natural wonders around us as the season changes.

Trees are everywhere but did you know there are so many different types of trees! There are 750 types of trees in North American and 100,000 in the world! How many people are in this classroom? 10? For each one of us there are 10,000 different types of trees. With this realization we are going to focus our search for the specific types of trees to just the tree in our environment and state, Wisconsin. There are about 750 types of trees in North America and about 100,000 in the world.

Vocabulary Classifying trees takes an advanced vocabulary Lets tackle some new words Each word will help us identify the trees Before we start classifying trees on our own we will have to learn some very important vocabulary. Please take out a notebook and jot down the definitions of the words we are about to learn. They don’t have to be word perfect but make sure you make note of things that will help you as you tackles leaves by yourself. With each word we learn we will get more specific from the type of tree to the type of leaf to the exact species which is represents. So lets begin…

Coniferous Deciduous Coniferous and Deciduous are the two basic categories of trees all over the world. Coniferous trees are just like your Christmas Tree in the winker. They are evergreens that have cones and pokey needles. The deciduous trees are the ones that we normally see changing vibrant colors and loosing their leaves in the fall. Because these are such huge categories to place tree in I have some examples that we can look at on the next slide.

Examples Coniferous Deciduous Balsam Fir White Spruce White Pine Tamarack Box Elder Black Ash Sugar Maple Silver Maple (Look at two websites for coniferous and deciduous trees). These are just a few examples of coniferous and deciduous trees in the surrounding areas.

Coniferous Deciduous So after we decide if our leaves are from coniferous or deciduous tress we continue on down the path of investigation. For sake of our slide show we are going to first pretend we are looking at a coniferous tree and then a deciduous.

Leave Needles NOT Shaped Coniferous Leave Needle Shaped Leave Needles NOT Shaped Once you have labeled your leaf as deciduous you have to look and the actual needles that are displayed. Are the needle shaped or not needle shaped? How can you tell? Can someone point out some visual differences between these to pictures? If the are NOT needle shaped then you your search is over. If the ARE we must continue on.

Needle Shaped Leaves Single Grouped Clustered If you are holding some needle shaped leaves you now have three choices to chose from: Single, Grouped, or Clustered. A single leaf has just one main center that stretches down with little needles pointing from it. The grouped leaves have much longer needles and are all connected slightly by a thin base. The clustered needles are not a easy to move around as the grouped ones and as you can see they are shorter. If you have a single leaf you have once more option you must observe:

Single Leaves Flat Needles Angled Needles Are you individual needles flat or angled. One easy way to determine this is to pike the end of the needle gently…is it sharp? If not it is probably a flat needle.

Coniferous Deciduous Those are the options you will run into when deciding coniferous trees. Can you see how we move from general to specific until we finally find a species the leaf belongs to? We are not going to move onto deciduous trees.

Deciduous Alternate Branches Opposite Branches First lets focus in on the stems are they alternating branches or opposite. Who can describe to me, looking that picture, what each of these terms mean?

Leaf Type Simple Complex

Leaf Ridge Smooth Outline Toothed Outline Next we will consider the leaf ridge. This is an easy term to remember because all you have to do is run your finger over the edge of the leaf and you’ll be able to identify if it is toothed or smooth.

Pith Type Plated Pith Not Plated Pith This next term will probably be the most difficult to identify in our search today. Pith is the stem the leaves are connected to. In order to determine the type of pith you have we may have to take out our classroom set of microscopes. Plated pith has lines in it while as not plated pith is just a random assortment of materials inside the stem.

Leaf Lobe Simple Lobed Non - Lobed The last thing you will have to know before we begin our own search is how to identify different leaf lobes. Now, leaves don’t have ears (ha ha) but they do have simple and non-lobes. Simple lobes have defined parts in their leaves like the picture on the left, see how there is almost 3 leaves in one? The non lobes don’t have those deep groves instead they are al just one lobed leafs.

Lets Get Started! Now that we know what we’re looking for we can successfully identify some trees Now I have given you the tools you need to successful classify leaves! Lets go through one together before I set you our on your own today.

Example http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/veg/treekey/index.htm Go through website with kids. Example http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/veg/treekey/index.htm Let’s do it together.

This is just another example if I feel the children aren’t catching or need one more review of the material before they go find their own leaves in nature. Example #2

Trees are a beautiful creation especially in the fall Trees are a beautiful creation especially in the fall. Lets go outside and see what we can find. Who knows all the colors and species we will be able to identify right in our own school yard!