Urban Trees

Please note that this is a partial guide listing several of the most common urban trees. This is not comprehensive, and you may find trees that are not in the guide.

Sugar Maple

Sugar Maples have distinct leaves with shallow indents and sharp points. Their bark is usually greyish with reddish brown grooves.

Norway Maple

Norway Maples look similar to Sugar Maples, but they have larger leaves and diamond-pattern bark. They may also have purple leaves.

Silver Maple

Silver Maples have leaves with deep indents and many pointy teeth. The bark is smooth or broken into long strips.

Red Oak

There are many different kind of Oak that are similar to Red Oaks. All of them have leaves with pointy tips and moderate to deep indents.

White Oak

Like the Red Oaks, there are many different types of White Oak. White oak leaves usually have deep indents and always have rounded tips.

Paper Birch

Paper Birch trees have white, papery bark that peels off the tree easily. Native Americans would use this bark to make canoes and buckets.

River Birch

River Birches also have peeling bark, but the bark peels off in small segments. This bark is normally reddish and the trees are usually skinnier and clumped together.

Photo by Kaitlyn Tatro.

Sycamore

Sycamores have large, maple-like leaves and bark that peels off the tree. This makes their trunk look patchy with white, tan, and brown blotches.

Black Walnut

Black Walnut trees have dark brown bark with a diamond pattern. Their leaves are long and look like they are made of many smaller leaves.

Honey Locust

Honey Locusts are common street trees. Their leaves are made of many smaller leaves (called leaflets) and their bark "peels" off the tree in thick ridges. In the fall, Honey Locusts drop large purple seed pods that look like large pea pods.

Cottonwood

Cottonwoods are very tall trees, and they may be too tall to see the leaves well. Their bark is orangish or brown with thick ridges. When the wind blows, the leaves at the top of the tree shake a lot.

Pear

Pear trees are not native to Michigan, but are very common in urban areas. They have greyish bark and leaves with many small teeth on them.

Pine

Pines are evergreen trees that make cones. There are several types of pine tree, but they all have long needles that are held in bunches.

Spruce

Spruce trees are also evergreen trees and make cones. However, spruce trees have lots of small needles all the way down the branches.

All images by Edward Douglas/ Audubon Society unless credited.