It's a little embarrassing to admit that even as recently as this spring I simply didn't know much about trees; I knew maples from oaks, beeches, birches, white and red pines, and as of a maybe a year ago hemlocks and cedars. So the last six months or so have been an explosive time as far as learning trees goes. I could try to list all of the trees I now know by sight and it would be pretty long, and I'm sure I'd forget some, but I don't know them all—not even close.
In the last two months or so I've been looking over different tree books, and all have helped me to some extent.
It's helped me identify quite a few trees—sometimes just helping me distinguish between different species withing a genus, other times helping me with trees that were totally new to me. The images are somewhat lacking I guess, but they aren't bad. The book includes a key, but it's rather limited and hasn't helped me with identifying anything I don't think.
Overall, however, I feel like it's a decent book for what it is. Its small size make it nice for when I don't want to carry a bigger book around with me, and it still has pretty good descriptions of each tree's characteristics as well as its habitat and common traits.
More recently I checked out two other books specifically about Michigan trees from the library—Trees of Michigan: Including Tall Shrubs by Linda Kershaw and Trees of Michigan and the Upper Great Lakes by Norman F. Smith. The first is a book I kept seeing on the bookshelf of a gardening supply store when I'd buy mulch when I was helping a lady with some yard work.
I think this book is really nice, and it's helped me identify at least a handful of trees already. It is 292 pages and probably has most of Michigan's trees between it's pages. Almost every tree has one or two different color photos of its leaves, and usually another of its bark. A few trees have color sketches. Sometimes there are color photos of twigs, flowers, or fruit as well.
Each page has a few bulleted paragraphs that have informations about the tree, and at the bottom of the page has "quick reference" information about the range, other names, size and shape, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, habitat, and origin.
It also has a number of useful and expansive keys for leaves, fruits, flowers, twigs, and a handful of keys for families as well.
Personally I don't know that I could ask for more from a tree book. This will make a good shelf book or field guide, depending on what I feel like carrying on the particular day. I recently bought it at that gardening store for $20.95, but it can be found cheaper on Amazon and a few other online shops.
Trees of Michigan and the Upper Great Lakes is a book I liked but I didn't find it quite as useful as Linda Kershaw's book. It has multiple color photos of each tree but lacks in aids for identification.Where it shines is simply the amount of information it has. It begins with information about the forests of and forestry in Michigan, and throughout there are scattered tidbits from things as varied as forest succession to a chart listing heat output versus a ton of coal. Each page has a lot of information about the tree in question, even going into its root system, how easily it transplanted, shade tolerance, how many seeds weigh a pound, commercial uses for wood, diseases/insects that cause damge, and more. It is not lacking in information.
Because it doesn't provide a lot of help in identification I wouldn't recommend this as a field guide; however, because of the sheer amount of information contained it wouldn't be a bad book to have by any means. I'm considering buying a used copy to keep on the bookshelf, but at the same time I don't think it's totally necessary.
As you can see I've preferred to stick to books specific to my area. I have looked through a few different national books, and with the exception of maybe one I haven't found them to be as useful as regional ones.
I checked out the National Audubon Society's guide to trees at the same time I checked out these others. Personally I didn't find it very useful or informative, but of course your mileage my vary. I have also flipped through the Peterson's guide. I found it more helpful than the Audubon book, but I didn't necessarily find it very intuitive, and definitely lacking in pictures. I don't remember for sure whether or not it was for eastern trees or all North American species.
One "big" guide I think is probably worth checking out is The Sibley Guide to Trees. I haven't looked through it much or used it extensively, but in addition to having a large number of species, there is a good number of pictures (color sketches, not photos). I didn't get to see if it had useful keys or not. The downside is that it's a big book; at 426 pages I wouldn't want to carry it around—it'd definitely stay on the shelf.
So ... I guess my final recommendations are these: know what you want from your book, find one that meets your criteria, and use it! Personally I think regional books are preferable—with fewer species to get to it seems logical that the accounts for each one will have a little more detail. Depending on where you live it might be more or less likely to find a book you're pleased with, but look around and see what you can find.
Links
Some of the books I've mentioned this post have decent previews on Amazon. Also included is a Wikipedia directory that I stumbled upon that might be helpful to some.
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