Native Conifers of North America Introduction

INTRODUCTION

"The Native Conifers of North America" was prepared by Robert W. Poole of Nearctica.com.

"The Native Conifers of North America" is an introduction and field guide to all of the conifer species native to North America except two shrub species (see below). Each species is treated with a description of its morphology, identifying features, and distribution. You'll also find line drawings, photographs, and a distribution map for each species as well as links to other webs sites with information about that particular species. "Native Conifers" also contains identification keys and separate pages for each of the genera. The individual species accounts can be accessed from a list of the genera and species, from the generic accounts, or by moving through the identification keys. A few important points. First, please do not try to identify ornamental conifers from your yard or neighborhood from the photographs and species descriptions. "Native Conifers of North America" covers only species native to North America and a signification proportion of conifers planted as ornamentals in North America are from Europe or Asia. Secondly two conifer species occurring only as shrubs are not included, although they are mentioned in the site. This may seem strange. However, our intent is to make "The Native Conifers of North America" part of a larger segment of Nearctica covering the trees of North America at some point in the future.

Nearctica.com, Inc. wishes to express our great gratitude to Dr. Carrie Burroughs and the California Academy of Science for permission to use some of the magnificent photographs of conifers from California taken by Charles Webber. Each of these photographs is individually acknowledged throughout this segment of Nearctica. The complete collection of Charles Webber photographs may be found as part of the CalFlora Database web site, itself part of the Digital Library Project at the University of California at Berkeley. This incredible web site contains photographs, California distributions, and other information about the majority of California vascular plants. We strongly recommend you take a look.

The line drawings are, for the most part, from:

Sargent, C.S. 1922. Manual of the Trees of North America (Exclusive of Mexico). Volume 1.

Many of the verbal distribution descriptions are taken from:

Silvics of North America. R. M. Burns and B. H. Honkala eds. Agriculture Handbook 654, in 2 volumes. U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Distribution maps are modifications of the range maps to be found at the web site:

Atlas of Relations between Climatic Parameters and Distributions of Important Trees and Shrubs in North America. Robert W. Thompson et al., U.S. Geological Survey.

All textual material unless otherwise indicated is copyright by Nearctica.com, Inc. and may not be used without our permission. Photographs marked "Photographer Charles Webber" are the property of The California Academy of Science. The California Academy of Science has a very liberal policy on the use of these photographs for educational, non-profit purposes, but please contact them before using them for any reason. All other photographs at the property of Nearctica.com, Inc. Up to 20 of these photographs may be used for your web site at any one time under the following conditions:

1. No more than 20 photographs are to be used.

2. Their use must be strictly non-commercial, non-profit, and educational.

3. Users of these photographs must receive written permission from Nearctica.com, Inc. at webmaster@nearctica.com

4. All photographs must be labeled as the property of Nearctica.com in any web page and a link provided to http://www.nearctica.com/

All of the line drawings are in the public domain except for a few schematic drawings prepared by us. The latter schematic drawings are here declared to be in the public domain.