Reviews

Trees by Sly Barlowe, Dorothy Barlowe, Alexander C. Martin

finesilkflower's review

5.0

Despite being pocket-size, this little book packs in more information than the big guys. The text on each tree is brief, but each small page is packed with sumptuous watercolor illustrations by Dorothea and Sy Barlowe, including a full tree in a landscape context and a close-up of an important detail (e.g. leaf, cone). Many tree guides only include leaves, but I find it much more useful to see the overall shape of the tree, so this is extremely appreciated. In addition to the tree profile pages, there are also a number of helpful spreads comparing, say, the leaves of different types of maple, the acorns of different types of oak, or the bark of different types of birch.

I got this book both to identify North American trees and to aid in painting them, so seeing how the different types of trees are painted and differentiated is really helpful.