Winter, when plants are dormant and their leaves may have fallen, is a challenging time to identify woody flora. Designed especially for winter use and featuring almost six hundred illustrations, this taxonomic guide describes some nine hundred plant species by their twig, bud, and bark characteristics. All the trees, shrubs, and woody ground covers that grow without aid of cultivation in the Southeast are presented here, in a single reference.

Includes the following:native plants, as well as naturalized exotic species known to occur in at least two locations in the Southeastgeographical coverage from east Texas and northern Florida to southeastern Kansas and southern Delawarespring or summer features of a plant in the absence of any reliable winter diagnostic featuresa map of the guide's coverage area and nearly six hundred illustrations that show distinguishing characteristics of twigs and budsa brief introduction to botanical terminology and the use of taxonomic keys, descriptions of various habitats and physiographic regions of the Southeast, a glossary, a list of references, and an index that includes common and scientific names