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Trees identification by fruit


Garden Guides | How to Identify a Tree by Its Fruit

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By: Denise Bertacchi

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21 September, 2017

over-laden fruit tree image by Alfonso d'Agostino from Fotolia.com

Most trees can be identified by the fruit they grow--but not all fruit is the kind you find at a grocery store. Nuts, pine cones and seed pods are all kinds of tree fruit. Many tree fruits are very distinctive, like the oak's acorn, the maple's "helicopter" seeds or the pine's prickly cones. There are many types of fruit that grow on trees, so a good tree classification guidebook will also come in handy when trying to identify an unknown tree.

acorn scattering image by Anton Chernenko from Fotolia.com

Find the fruit. Trees bear fruit--which contains their seeds--after flowering in the spring, but sometimes you'll find fallen fruit around the tree well into the summer. Make sure you get the correct fruit from the tree you wish to identify by plucking it directly off the branch. Remember, fruit is anything that contains the tree's seeds: You could be looking for a nut, a seed pod or a berry.

winter pine cone image by Mary Lane from Fotolia.com

Examine the fruit. Is it a pine cone, a winged seed, a pod, an acorn or a fleshy fruit like something you might eat? Write down notes on the fruit's color, size and special characteristics.

maple tree seeds image by cvrgrl from Fotolia.com

You can determine the basic identification of a tree by classifying the fruit. Acorns come from oaks, pine cones come from conifers, winged seed pods come from maples, sweet gums have spiky ball-shaped capsules, and both walnuts and hickories have nuts encased in large green husks that turn brown after falling.

sweet red cherries image by Olga Chernetskaya from Fotolia.com

Compare the fruit to the photos and descriptions in the guidebook, or consult Internet sources to discover the tree's identity.

Oftentimes, new homeowners will inherit an unidentified fruit tree and not know how to care for it. Find out your region's plant hardiness zone to narrow down the list of possible fruit trees. The United States is broken up into eleven zones that differ in their average minimal temperatures. Most fruit trees require six to eight hours of sunlight, but there are a few that need shade. Tropical fruit such as the Garcinia can thrive in shady environments. Compare your drawing and all the other observations you have made with horticultural guides or with the descriptions of fruit blossoms on the Plant-Care.com website.

Never eat the fruit from a tree until it is properly identified. Many tree fruits are poisonous to humans.

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Warnings

How to Determine What Kind of Fruit Tree I Have | Home Guides

By Cathy Habas Updated July 15, 2020

It's exciting to move to a new property with pre-existing trees and plants. You don't necessarily want to hold off until summer – when the fruits make fruit tree identification much easier – to find out what kind of fruit tree you have, however. To get a great harvest from these trees, you'll need to give them appropriate care each season. Discover what kind of fruit tree you have by inspecting its bark, leaves, buds and flowers in order to appropriately prune its branches, fertilize its roots and spray it top to bottom for pests.

Common Fruits and Fruit Trees

The sheer variety of fruit trees in the world is astounding, but if you live in the United States, you're most likely to encounter trees with edible fruits that fall into one of three main categories: pome fruits, stone fruits and citrus fruits. Other common fruits, like blueberries (Cyanococcus spp., USDA zones 3-10), blackberries (Rubus fruticosus, USDA zones 4-10), raspberries (Rubus idaeus, USDA zones 4-8), grapes (Vitis vinifera, USDA zones 4-10), kiwis (Actinidia deliciosa, USDA zones 5-9) and strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa, USDA zones 3-10) do not grow on trees but rather on small bushes or vines.

If you swear you have "blackberries" growing on a large tree in your yard, it's actually a mulberry (Morus spp. , USDA zones 4-8). Another native fruit tree you may encounter is the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba, USDA zones 5-9), which has dark-red flowers and large leaves that are 6 to 12 inches long, according to the University of Florida IFAS Extension.

Characteristics of Pome Fruit Trees

Pome fruit trees include apples (Malus domestica), pears (Pyrus communis) and quince (Cydonia oblonga). Unlike citrus fruit trees and most stone fruit trees, pome fruit trees need extended exposure to cold weather for the best yields, making them hardy to USDA zones 4-7, according to Orange Pippin Fruit Trees, with some varieties tolerating zones 3, 8 or 9.

According to Canadian Tree Tours, an older apple tree's bark will look gray and a little bit flaky or scaly, but a young apple tree will have smooth bark with a hint of red and raised, horizontal bumps known as lenticels. If you're observing this tree in the early spring, you'll notice that the buds forming at the end of brand-new twigs appear white and hairy, whereas buds appearing along the length of a young twig will lay flat. An apple tree's oval-shaped leaves grow no longer than 4 inches, have a light-colored and slightly hairy underside and sprout from the main twig in an alternating pattern. Apple flowers are white, have five petals and appear in clusters.

Pear trees also have white five-petaled flowers, but unopened buds are pink. According to Canadian Tree Tours, one of the first things you'll probably notice about a pear tree is its straight and upright growth habit plus the rectangular scale-like appearance of its bark. The leaves of a pear tree have an overall oval shape with a pointed tip and are glossy in appearance. In contrast, the University of Florida IFAS Extension notes that you're actually looking at a quince if the leaves are fuzzy and dull in color and if the white flowers are tinged with pink when fully opened.

Characteristics of Stone Fruit Trees

Stone fruit trees include peaches (Prunus persica, USDA zones 6-7), nectarines (Prunus persica var. nucipersica, USDA zones 6-8), plums (Prunus domestica, USDA zones 3-8), cherries (Prunus avium, USDA zones 5-7) and apricots (Prunus armeniaca, USDA zones 5-8). According to the University of Florida IFAS Extension, apricots are perhaps the easiest trees of the bunch to identify thanks to their distinctly heart-shaped leaves. If the tree you're observing has long and narrow leaves that tend to want to fold upward, it's either a peach or nectarine tree. Cherry and plum trees have oval-shaped leaves that might make them easy to confuse with pome fruit trees.

The smooth bark of a cherry tree – pockmarked with an evenly distributed array of lenticels – also looks like the bark of a young apple tree, but it has a much darker color. According to the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, cherry buds are pink, but the flowers bloom as white clusters with a small notch or split at the end of each petal, which is another way you can tell them apart from an apple tree. Plum buds are also pink, but their flowers remain pink once they blossom, and the flowers do not form clusters. Plum tree bark is also dark in color but does not feature lenticels.

As for distinguishing a peach tree from a nectarine tree, you may not be able to truly tell the difference until the tree bears fruit. Peaches have downy skin, whereas the skin on nectarines is completely smooth. They're so similar because nectarines are simply a genetic variant of peaches, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Characteristics of Citrus Fruit Trees

Citrus fruit trees are hardy to zones 9 through 11, but their relatively small height, bushy growing habit and evergreen life cycle make them good candidates for growing indoors in other climates. Citrus trees include lemons (Citrus × limon), limes (Citrus × aurantiifolia), oranges (Citrus X sinensis) and grapefruits (Citrus × paradisi).

All citrus fruit tree leaves are oblong or oval in shape. There are two ways to know for certain that you're looking at a type of citrus fruit tree and not a pome or stone fruit tree: the presence of thorns (which may be absent in some cultivars) and the distinct shape of the flowers. Citrus flowers are white but have long, thin petals in comparison to the flowers seen on pome and stone fruit trees, which gives them a distinct star-like appearance.

According to the University of Florida IFAS Extension, lemon trees are easily distinguished from lime trees by their lemony scent, which is embedded in the leaves and flowers, not just in the fruit. Al Fresco also points out that lemon leaves have the most serration of all the citrus trees, but a leaf that has a heart-shaped petiole (which looks like a second, smaller leaf under the main leaf) is likely a grapefruit, according to the University of Florida IFAS Extension. If the tree is more than 10 or 15 feet tall, it's likely an orange or grapefruit tree since lemon and lime trees stay short and bushy, according to Garden Guides.

Grafting and Fruit Tree Identification

If you notice subtle differences between the branches and leaves of your fruit tree, you're neither going crazy nor looking at a strangely mutated tree. Through a process called grafting, a tree can have the root system of one variety of fruit and the budding branches of another variety or multiple varieties. Grafting onto a mature rootstock allows fruits to develop quicker in the home garden, and rootstocks are specially chosen to increase cold hardiness and for disease resistance, drought tolerance and more. Grafting multiple varieties onto a single rootstock also allows home gardeners to produce several different types of fruits despite limited space.

Typically, the different types of fruit trees grafted together will be closely related. For example, a stone fruit rootstock will be paired with stone fruit branches, whereas a pome fruit rootstock will be paired with pome fruit branches. Be sure to thoroughly inspect among all branches, leaves and flowers – as well as the main tree trunk – to note any discrepancies that may indicate the tree has been grafted. The actual grafting site will be difficult to notice if it was created with skill.

References

Writer Bio

Cathy Habas has been a full-time freelance writer since 2014. She graduated from Indiana University Southeast with a Bachelor's degree in English. She enjoys writing content that helps homeowners feel motivated and confident in handling projects around the home. Her work has been published around the web, including on home improvement sites like Ron and Lisa.

Best Mobile Plant Identification App

First Place: PlantNet App


PlantNet is the best free plant identification app available for both iOS and Android smartphones.

Before watching the video, go to the player settings, select "Subtitles | Translate | Russian". After that, Russified subtitles will appear in the video.

1. You can identify the plant from the photo.
2. The application database contains more than 4100 common plants and is constantly expanding through the use of user data.
3. Just take a photo of the plant and after a short search time, the result will be displayed on the screen with detailed information.
4. The application does not recognize ornamental plants.
5. Use a neutral background for photos. nine0004 6. After the definition, send the recognition result to the developers by clicking on the "Contribution" button. The result will be checked and entered into a common database.

Runner-up: Find & log animals and plants

Find & log animals and plants is available free of charge for Android users. For Apple devices, the application has not yet been created.

1. The application uses GPS tracking and tells you what animals and plants are around you. nine0004 2. You can add plants or animals that are not already in the application to expand the database. Professional naturalists may add descriptive information and observations of their own.
3. In the application, you can create a list of your favorite plant or animal species.
4. You can view lists of other users.
5. The lack of verification of the added information can be considered a minus of the application.

Third place: Leafsnap and Birdsnap

Developed by researchers at Columbia University, the University of Maryland, the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum London, you can explore numerous types of trees with the free Leafsnap app. nine0008

1. The application uses visual recognition and allows you to identify different types of trees.
2. Application base contains high-resolution images of leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and tree bark for recognition.
3. The application includes an extensive database of trees that grow in Canada, the US and the UK. Many of them are found all over the world, including in Russia. nine0004 4. To complete the picture, Leafsnap is best used in conjunction with Birdsnap's friendly bird identification software. Such a symbiosis will be useful for lovers of forest hikes.
5. The Birdsnap knowledge base contains more than 500 birds, allowing you to identify them from a photo (thanks to the algorithm used in facial recognition software), based on your location and the current season.

See also:

The 8 Best Plant Identification Apps

Technology has entered the gardening world with great force. We used to only use mobile phones for emergency calls, but now we use them for everything, even taking photos of our favorite cultures and then sharing them on social media, often with people who share our hobby. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter... have become incredible places where we can learn more about the plants we have at home and/or around us. But why not simplify the task? nine0008

If you have a smartphone or tablet, you will be able to recognize the name of what you care about with such care. You just need to download one of the apps to identify the plants we recommend below.

Index

Best Plant Identification Apps

Knowing the name of a plant is very important because it allows you to explore it. . Thus, a person who buys, for example, a Phalaenopsis orchid and knows that it is called so (Phalaenopsis), can find out that it is a tropical plant (that is, cold-sensitive) with aerial roots, which they carry. photosynthesis and therefore they need to be planted in transparent plastic pots. In addition, you will be able to know that it must be watered with rainwater, otherwise the purest, and that the roots will turn green. nine0008

If you don't know its genus and/or species, you risk losing it. That is why books, and now the Internet, have helped us discover all the secrets of cultivated plant species. But not only that, but Nowadays, the knowledge of what a plant is is what we have at hand. , literally. So, without further ado, let's see which apps are best for plant identification.

TreeApp

Do you like hiking in the mountains? Then this application will be very useful for you to identify trees. Based on scientific research from the Royal Botanic Gardens (CSIC), this is by far the most popular app, and for good reason:

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It's completely free. It is available for both Android and iOS.

If you are in the Canary Islands, you have ArbolApp Canarias with 92 tree species from this wonderful archipelago, described in 84 files. It is also available for Android e iOS.

iKnow trees 2 LITE

Do you want to identify European and North American trees? Now you can with this app which is actually This is a great library full of images (about 2000 in total) and descriptions. . It is so complete that it includes:

It's like having all the information in an encyclopedia on your mobile phone. The only downside is that it's a Lite version which is free, but if you want the full version you'll have to pay. Either way, you'll have a lot of fun with Lite; yes only is in English.

You have this for Android.

LeafSnap - Plant Identification

How many times have you seen a plant you loved but couldn't tell its gender? This often happens when you visit someone's yard or garden. It's not always easy to identify if you don't have an app that does the job for you.

By simply taking a photo and uploading it, you can find out the scientific name and its main characteristics. . You can also access very beautiful images of plants from anywhere in the world with their descriptions. Also you should know that:

And this is a free plant identifier. It is available for Android e iOS.

Image

This is an application that allows you to identify plants from photographs. You just need to compose one of the plants, and in this way you can find out interesting facts about it: its name, main characteristics (type of plant: tree, shrub, flower, etc. ), is it perennial or deciduous, its height and much more : nine0008

Available for Android e iOS.

PlantIn: Plant Identification

Have you ever been unsure which plant you have or want to buy? This happens often. Luckily, he has an easy solution. nine0003 With this app for identifying their names, you will surely never see yourself in that situation again, and this is what, just by taking a picture, you will find:

Even you can create a diary of your plant, and thus make sure you do what you need to be perfect.

Available for Android e iOS. nine0008

Plantsss - Environmental Radar

Would you like to recognize the plants around you? Know their names, their characteristics, if they have any use... If yes, then Plantsss is your app as it has a wide catalog of plant species. In addition, you can do it discreetly while walking in the mountains or visiting the garden, and this is the best free plant identifier:

Of course you should know that works with GPS . Available for Android e iOS.

plant tooling

Can you imagine having hundreds of thousands of plant and mushroom tokens on your smartphone? While this may seem impossible, it is actually not. This is an application with which you will find out what titles you have in a simple, fast and fun way. nine0008

Its characteristics:

Available for Android e iOS, this app is free.

What is the best plant recognition app?

It's a bit difficult to answer as it will depend a lot on what type of plant we want to identify, our tastes and even whether we have an Android or iOS device.

Learn more