Bushcraft has a strong and tangible link to natural history. For our hunter gatherer ancestors, the forest was the supermarket, the chemist, DIY shop, tailors, it was all out there.
I often suggest to our customers that trees are a good place to start with natural history as it’s a managable number. And that identifying trees by their leaves is probaly a good starting point. So I’ve put together this guide to identifying trees by leaf shape. You’ll still have some work to do, but this should narrow things down for you. I hope you find it useful.
Simple – A leaf that has one leaf on one leaf stalk
Compound – A leaf that has two or more leaflets on the same leaf stalk
Serrated – The leaf margin is like a saw blade
Lobed – A leaf with either pointed or rounded protrusions
Pinnate – Leaflets arranged on either side of a leaf stalk
Palmate – Leaflets grow from the same point and look like a spread hand
We teach identifying trees by leaf shape on our 2 Day & 5 Day Bushcraft Courses as well as the IOL Bushcraft Competency Course.
You can see plenty of photos from all of these courses on our Facebook page.
