A Californian's Guide to the Trees Among Us

by Matt Ritter

We bring the strength and beauty of the natural world into our urban landscapes by planting trees, and California is blessed with a rich horticultural history, visible in an abundance of cultivated trees that enrich our lives with extraordinary color, bizarre shapes, unusual textures, and unexpected aromas. A Californian s Guide to the Trees among Us features over 150 of California s most commonly grown trees. Whether native or cultivated, these are the trees that muffle noise, create wildlife habitats, mitigate pollution, conserve energy, and make urban living healthier and more peaceful.Used as a field guide or read with pleasure for the liveliness of the prose, this book will allow readers to learn the stories behind the trees that shade our parks, grace our yards, and line our streets. Rich in photographs and illustrations, overflowing with anecdote and information, A Californian s Guide to the Trees among Us opens our eyes to a world of beauty just outside our front doors.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Dr. Matt Ritter is a botany professor in the Biological Sciences Department at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, where he studies California’s native plants and trees in the urban forest. He’s the author of several books, including the funniest and best-selling guide to California’s urban forest, A Californian’s Guide to the Trees among Us. He won the Cal Poly Excellence in Teaching Award and the International Society of Arboriculture Award for Excellence in Education. He’s an avid woodworker, mason, and gardener.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the first plant books I ever bought new. Looking back, I think it was a gateway book to quitting my job and going back to school for botany, and it is still one of my most frequently used botanical references. Matt Ritter is a botany professor at Cal Poly, but A Californian's Guide to the Trees Among Us is very accessible for non-plant people (color photographs! non-technical language! beautiful layouts!) while remaining highly useful to working botanists.

Pluses:

1. Excellent coverage of common ornamental trees planted in California. This book will cover about 90% of the trees you'll see in California neighborhoods or landscaping, and Ritter does a good job of including both NorCal and SoCal.

2. Great representative photos. You will instantly recognize many of these trees just from the well-chosen, full color photos included in this book. It's an attractive book to flip through, which I do sometimes when my expensive mapping software with every feature except autosave has just crashed. Recently, while driving, I identified an ornamental tree that is common in SoCal but I'd never before seen here just from its photo in this book. Any resource that enables drive-by-botanizing at 65mph in pre-dawn lighting has to be pretty amazing.

3. Dichotomous keys! I assume Ritter wrote these himself, and for any serious botanist, they are worth the price of the book. There are species-level keys for elms, maples, hackberries, and eucalyptuses, among many others, and they are remarkably clear and non-finicky. It's actually very difficult to find keys that include both native and ornamental species in California, yet I frequently need to be able to make the distinction between native and non-native trees within the same genus.

4. Organization. There are sections for gymnosperms and angiosperm dicots and monocots; within each, species are arranged by genus, which makes it easy to flip to the right page. (Plant books organized by common name are a headache - is it under dogwood or flowering dogwood? Ironbark or red flowering gum?) The index is also comprehensive and thorough.

In my botanical work along urban waterways, I often come across mystery ornamental escapees, and A Californian's Guide to the Trees Among Us has been invaluable for figuring them out. I'm raising my rating to a 5 because it is so useful and so thoughtfully put together. It's earned a permanent spot on my desk.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread plus a proper review (well, sort-of). In short, if you are at all interested in California urban botany, you need this book. Most every tree you are likely to encounter on city streets & urban gardens is listed here, in a concise, almost pocket-size guidebook format. Would fit in a large jacket pocket (I think), and looks sturdy enough to stand field use. Ritter writes clearly, loves trees, and is enthusiastic. Some of the photos could be better. Overall, 4.4 stars.

Interesting tidbits throughout -- forex, the tallest flowering tree in the Americas is a blue gum eucalyptus on Santa Cruz island, 240 ft tall in 2011. Compare this to the tallest Coast redwoods (no flowers!), at a shade over 370 ft. And Australia's tallest living eucalypt is around 325 ft. tall. A mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) felled near Melbourne in 1888 was 375 ft. tall. Taller than any living redwood! All impressively tall trees.

So, I need to buy a copy.... Or get it as a gift. Hmm. B'day coming up before long.....

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn't perfect, but it filled a hole in my life. Since moving to California I've always wanted a book of urban cultivated trees here. My main complaint is that I wish each entry had an example of a leaf, the bark and flower and fruit etc. I've found myself having to look up pictures of leaves online to try to confirm a species because the only photo in the book is of the whole tree. That said, this book has helped me identify many tree species and the text is very educational.

[Lolo S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really handy reference if you're interested in trees. The book focuses on common landscaping trees, only given quick shout-outs to common forest trees (giant sequoia, bay laurel). Book lay-out is sensible, with sections on gymnosperms, eudicots, monocots; entries for individual trees are listed alphabetically within those sections. Each page has photos and illustrations of leaves, inflorescences, fruit, etc, and well-written descriptions of the history and salient features of the tree. Plus the back cover has a ruler, which is always useful.

[José Gama · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is what it says it is: a guide. This was one of the first books gifted to me when I started my journey as an urban forester in Los Angeles. If you wanted an encyclopedia, I recommend the website https://selectree.calpoly.edu/.

It has the most common street trees in our wildly overdeveloped cities. For each tree it contains a biography of the tree, along with useful facts about the trees living conditions, origins or cultural value. I still have it and if you'd like to be an arborist in California, then this is a good book to have on your desk.

I pull it out whenever I want to teach a class, provide a tour or about to start a tree planting project.

The quotes, although a treat, could be more varied as Ritter mostly quotes American and European naturalists.

[Arlene S]

Great alphabetized compendium with photos. Includes a step-by-step identification key/process for trees that are listed/catalogued (although I needed to go to the glossary or dictionary for some terms used in the identification key). A good supplement to a phone photo i.d. app - which may or may not be accurate? Includes quotes about trees: from the introduction -- "Most pages in this book include a quote, an idea, or a famous piece of writing about trees. Some of these are medications on the meaning of life that trees seem to hold; some recount the story of the deep connection between humans and the trees around us; others are just funny or thought-provoking."

[Pam Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for identifying the most common trees in urban and suburban landscapes in California. The author tells the natural history of each tree and how it came to be a part of the California landscape. He does not include agricultural trees but focuses on 150 trees commonly used in landscaping.

[Lada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any nature guide that narrows down the number of things (trees) that might be the thing you encountered while walking around (or might want to plant here in California), is already really helpful. Compact enough that it can be read/skimmed cover-to-cover. Only nit is that the avocado and bay laurel shared the same entry. They deserve a page each!

[jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reference book: brief, with salient points of information, some witticisms, and pretty good pictures. Worth a spot in someone's library.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to be an excellent guide for identifying common trees.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally from the East Coast, I thought all California had to offer was palm trees.
Very mistaken.
Wonderful book with photos and facts showing the immense diversity of California trees.

[Kara Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

great for helping beginner learn to identify trees in california

[Nico Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful tree guide

[Lynne Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm such a tree lover, and lately been wondering about some of the trees that I come across everyday for years and years. Then this book called out to me at the public library, and I read it in one sitting. Wonderful photos, great background and history about each type of tree. I also mentions where they orginally came from. Now I know the names of my favorites. Oh, the quotes from famous people about trees on nearly each page are so lovely. This is truly a book that every tree and nature lover should read. I plan to buy and copy for myself. Thank you, Matt. You've done an amazing job.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to identify trees in California's cities and neighborhoods, this is the best possible book. The layout, the information; they are all amazingly easy to use and understand. You will learn a lot and have a great reference.

Sadly, I was looking for a book on the trees of California's wild nature. This book does not have much use while backpacking.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for identifying street trees. Great flow chart for identification. Lots of fun little tidbits of information.

If you live in CA and have ever asked 'what kind of tree is that?', this is the book for you.

[Mark Anthony Orejel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for those interested in trees, specifically those that can be found in California.