Is there a book of leaves?

SueAtoo

Having moved into a new garden, there are plants, mainly shrubs, that I want to identify. Most books have pictures of flowers and flowering shrubs but lets face it, most plants are flowerless for most of the year. I'd like a book that concentrates on the leaves, close-ups and detailed descriptions. I bought Dr Hessayon but still not enough. Is there such a book? With all the requests for identification on here, there seems to be a need.

coccinella

There are guides to plants which often have a pic/drawing of their leaves as well. I don't know of a book that concentrate on leaves only. Try Colins or Dorling Kinderley guides.
I doubt you will ever find a book with every plant even if it concentrates in one region.

AnniD

I did think of the Hillier guide, then l remembered that it doesn't have pictures 🙄.

To be honest, l think you'd be better off posting photos on here to get an identification. There are some extremely knowledgeable people on this forum.
 It always amazes me with the answers they come up with, plants and shrubs l've never heard of.

Hostafan1

Upload a photo on here and I'm pretty sure you'll get a correct ID .
A photo of the whole plant is useful as well as a close up of a length of stem with leaves clearly visible.( individual leaves are trickier than a stem with leaves in place )

ShepherdsBarn

Otherwise you could try a plant app like PlantNet or BritishTrees which are pretty good. 🙂

didyw

All books have leaves in them.  *ducks*.

AnniD

🙄😁😁 @didyw

steephill

It would be a huge and expensive book. As an example the standard text just for identifying grape varieties by examining leaves is "A Practical Ampelography" by P. Galet. It is 248 pages and has been out of print for years with second hand copies fetching hundreds of pounds. You would need something the size of the old Encyclopedia Britannica for a comprehensive guide.

Hostafan1

steephill said:

It would be a huge and expensive book. As an example the standard text just for identifying grape varieties by examining leaves is "A Practical Ampelography" by P. Galet. It is 248 pages and has been out of print for years with second hand copies fetching hundreds of pounds. You would need something the size of the old Encyclopedia Britannica for a comprehensive guide.

Indeed so. 
Much easier to tap into the collective knowledge of Forum members

SueAtoo

Thanks all, will have to treat myself to an app.

LG_

There is indeed a Book of Leaves, and I have it. It's beautiful, it's printed on high quality paper and is a weighty tome... but it only covers '600 of the world's great trees', so not quite what you were looking for!



For most things I use a combination of Google Lens, which is excellent, but useless on its own. Occasionally it comes up with an obviously correct answer straight away, but I use it more for pointers for further research, and usually double check on here.