Every leaf is a letter.Every tree, a story waiting to be read.
An enchanted field atlas for the mountains and gardens of western North Carolina. Learn the quiet language of leaves, bark, seeds, and seasons.
Read the forest, one clue at a time.
This atlas adapts the supplied WNC Tree Reference Book into 87 interactive portraits. It includes native trees, trees native elsewhere, introduced species, hybrids, and named garden cultivars.
Use several independent clues. The guided key narrows this collection; it is not a complete key to every tree in western North Carolina and cannot confirm an identification on its own.
A cultivar’s name usually requires nursery provenance or a plant label. Species-level photographs and leaves cannot reliably prove a named cultivar.
Images open uncropped and enlarged up to their available resolution. They are not automatically life-size. The optional calibrated ruler estimates screen scale; leaf-length ranges describe variation, not a measured specimen in a photograph.
Original source panels are retained in private research. This public edition displays credited botanical reference photographs with their attribution and license links. Teaching diagrams are simplified illustrations, not specimen photographs.
Learn by observing fallen material and accessible branches. Do not taste unknown fruit, strip bark, or disturb a living tree for an identification.
Bookmarks, notes, comparison choices, and lesson progress are saved only in this browser. The wildlife volume is unchanged.
