Trees with scaly, plated bark
Bark broken into plates or scales. Their size and colour, and whether the tree is a conifer, narrow it down.
What to look for
- SycamoreShaggy, with small pale grey plates
Horse chestnutCoarse reddish brown scales
Holm oakSmall blackish squares
Norway spruceSmall rounded plates, on a conifer
Grand firClose rectangles, on a conifer
friendsofdrpep, CC BY 4.0SycamoreSmooth pinkish grey, then small pale plates
Horse chestnutSmooth when young, coarse plates when old
etrusko25, CC BY 4.0Holm oakBlackish, closely cracked into small squares
dawn2022, CC BY 4.0Norway spruceCoppery and shredding, later purplish grey plates
Harry Podschwit, CC BY 4.0Grand firGrey with resin blisters, cracking into rectangles
lisemari, CC BY 4.0AppleShallow scales in greys, browns and purples
Atlas cedarGrey, neat close plates between deep cracks
Matthew Flood, CC BY 4.0Crab applePurplish brown, in close scaly ridges
Indian bean treeShallow scaly squares, pinkish orange
Jeff Jones, CC BY 4.0Lawson cypressReddish purple, cracking into long upright plates
In the app
Not sure? Ask the app
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely names the tree
- No signal? The guided keyOne simple question at a time, about what you can see
- Every part, through the yearSo you can name it in winter as surely as in June
- A short round each dayUntil you know them on sight
Free to download.
Photographs: friendsofdrpep (CC BY 4.0), Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), etrusko25 (CC BY 4.0), dawn2022 (CC BY 4.0), Harry Podschwit (CC BY 4.0), lisemari (CC BY 4.0), ametsak (CC0), Matthew Flood (CC BY 4.0), bobwardell (CC0), Jeff Jones (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.