In addition to leaves and flowers, you can look at a tree's bark to identify it. Discover which tree bark characteristics are worth a second look.

Most trees can be easily identified by inspecting their leaves, seed pods, flowers, bark, or shape.

Is it smooth, deeply ridged, shaggy or peeling? Beech trees have very smooth bark, cottonwoods have deep grooves, and shagbark hickory trees have large peeling bark. Look closely at the bark color.

In this edition of ID That Tree, we’re going to introduce you to a southern oak found in Indiana, cherrybark oak. This species can typically be found in bottomland areas in extreme southern Indiana.

Since most deciduous trees drop their leaves in the winter, what clues can we use? Remember to look at the three “Bs" — branches, bark and buds — for all of the information you need.

The first steps in identifying a tree is to look at its shape, leaves, bark and if it produces fruit -- like berries -- or nuts. Observe the trees in your neighborhood.

Leaves are the most useful and frequently used characteristics for identifying the species of a tree, but as trees lose their leaves in the autumn, other features become important. The bark ...

Its leaves are relatively large, as trees' leaves go, sometimes over a foot wide, and looking something like a big maple leaf.

The longer you let beech bark disease advance, the more lethal it becomes. Learn to spot scale disease quickly to protect your precious beech trees.

Clearly, bark varies considerably from species to species, and some types of trees are easily identified by the kind of bark they have.

The trunk of the tree is covered with thin, mostly smooth bark, and even on small trees it is commonly rippled and waved, appearing to some like taut muscle.