This simple key and guide to the woody plants—trees, shrubs and woody
vines—which grow naturally in Dallas County, Texas, has been prepared to
help beginners of any age in getting better acquainted with these leafy
neighbors and friends. Woody plants offer one of the best places to
begin a study of nature: first because there are but few kinds to learn
in comparison with many other living forms—about 90 of these plants
against estimated numbers for the county of about 300 birds, 500 to 1000
other flowering plants and over 25,000 insects; second, woody plants
remain in one place, freely available for observation at any hour or
season and year after year—if they escape human interference. And what
more helpful link toward acquaintance with other interesting forms of
natural life can be found than an intimate friendship with their mutual
friends, the trees!
The distinctions between trees and shrubs or between shrubs and woody
vines are often purely arbitrary, depending in part on age. A plant
which grows at least twenty feet tall and usually (not always) has just
one woody, self-supporting stem at the ground is considered a tree. A
plant which rarely grows taller than twenty feet, in a given region, and
usually has more than one woody stem rising from the ground is
considered a shrub. The separation of herbs from woody plants divides
those plants which usually die down to the ground each winter from those
having woody stems which persist above ground year after year. Some
ninety different woody plants are distinguished from one another and
briefly described in this key and guide. Each description represents a
single species with the exception of the cactus, yucca, red oaks and red
haws; the differences between the various species of these plants are
too complex for this brief manual.
Scientific names are included here, not with any thought that they
should be memorized or that they need be used in ordinary conversation,
but to avoid the possibility of misunderstandings such as often arise
from some common names which are used by different persons to designate
different plants. Many plants have more than one common name and often
one common name is used for two or more quite unlike plants. Common
names listed first are the ones considered more suitable.
The first part of the scientific name represents the genus (plural,
genera), a degree of relationship or grouping smaller than the family
but more inclusive than the species. The second name represents the
species or specific kind of plant; species are occasionally divided into
varieties (var.). The abbreviation following the scientific name stands
for the name of the botanist who first described or named the plant,
scientifically. L. stands for Linnaeus, “the father of modern botany”,
who first used this double-name (binomial) system of scientific
classification.
More extended descriptions and further information about these plants
may be found in some of the reference books listed in the back of this
booklet; many, if not all of them, are available in the Dallas Public
Library. Only the more necessary technical words have been used and
these are defined or illustrated herein. Although this booklet endeavors
to include all the woody plants growing naturally in Dallas County, no
doubt omissions and errors will be found and the author will be glad to
be informed of them.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to Dr. W. M. Longnecker and Dr. E. P.
Cheatum of the Department of Biology, Southern Methodist University, and
to Dr. B. C. Tharp of the Department of Botany and Bacteriology,
University of Texas, for their most helpful suggestions and criticisms.
Although this booklet is based upon the field observations of the author
and her husband, Jerry E. Stillwell, who assisted her in many ways, she
has made free use of such technical information as was needed from the
volumes listed in the bibliography.
The illustrations used in this publication were drawn for it by Alice
Ferguson.
NORMA STILLWELL,
Dallas, Texas.
Copyright 1939 by the author.