Training one’s eye to identify trees is a fun way to connect with the world around us and can be useful for making home landscape selections. Trees are often identified using leaf shape and color, ...

Mary Jo DiLonardo has worked in print, online, and broadcast journalism for 25 years and covers nature, health, science, and animals. Young trees sometimes have smooth bark that's unbroken by ridges.

Gardeners who limit their love to leaves and flowers are barking up the wrong tree. Sure, those ephemeral features are undeniably seductive, but their allure is limited to warmer months. In the ...

One of the best ways to brighten up the dreary winter season is to add specimen plants now that will really pop then. Fortunately, most trees and shrubs that provide interesting winter bark will also ...

Second of two parts. Read part one here. Bark is a tree’s skin. Its main job is to keep out bacterial and fungal infections and wood-eating insects. Last week I wrote about the many ways tree bark ...