Trees & Leaves Photo Guide

Home Nature Trees Trees & Leaves Photo Guide

Common Local Trees & Their Leaves

Learn to identify trees by looking at their leaves.

How to use this guide.
There are 5 categories of leaves: 4 for decidous trees, 1 for evergreens. Click the photos.

When you're ready

Simple smooth-edged leaves

A single leaf attaches to a twig or branch. No saw teeth around the edge.

Example: Dogwood

Click the photo

Simple toothed leaves

Single leaf with saw teeth around the edge.

Example: Mulberry

Click the photo

Lobed simple leaves

Single leaves with lobes.
Lobes look somewhat like a hand with fingers.

Example: Sassafras

Click the photo

Compound Leaves

Compound leaves have more than one leaflet.
Leaflets are attached to the same leaf stalk.

Example: Black Walnut

Click the photo

Evergreens

Evergreens have leaves that stay on the tree through the winter.

Example: Shortleaf Pine

Click the photo

Photographs and text by Peter Callaway. Sources: National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees, Eastern Region,by Elbert L. Little, 2000, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Flora of Missouri,by Julian A.Steyermark, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1981.

This is the Web site of the Bryant Watershed Education Project, based in West Plains, Missouri. Our site is a toolkit for exploring the Bryant Creek, North Fork, Eleven Point and Upper Spring watersheds in the southern Missouri Ozarks.
Learn more.

Top