Coming from a tropical country, I didn’t know much about trees that typically grow in European forests. Heck, I don’t even know much about trees that are commonly found in rainforests, because I grew up in a city and never bothered to learn about them (embarrassing I know, considering that my father used to work in national parks and dedicated most of his life to forest preservation).
Anyway, we all have to start somewhere, so J introduced me to the various types of trees we encounter during our walks/hikes and helped me learn their names. Considering I usually remember people’s faces and names quite well, I thought this learning experience would be a breeze, but boy was I wrong. For some odd reason, I found it terribly challenging to remember the physical characteristics and names of trees, despite having seen and heard them more than thrice. So I thought I’d try out a new technique to hopefully boost my decaying memory skills: filming a video during a 7-km forest hike in Central Bohemia.
In the video below, I’m showing you (and myself, for future reference) how typical trees in Central European forests look. I said “Central European” because I’ve seen the same trees here in Berlin and Brandenburg — they’re not unique to the Czech Republic. I also spelled out their names in English, German, Czech and Indonesian. Unfortunately, because the hike took place in winter and most of the trees are deciduous, I couldn’t show many leaves.
Since trees are probably easiest to recognise by their leaves, my plan is to visit the forest again in spring/summer and try to identify them by their leaves instead of relying simply on how the bark looks. I’ll also take pictures of them and post them here. In the meantime, to better etch the names in memory, I’m going to list the names of the trees mentioned in the video here and provide a link to articles that detail how to identify them.
Oak / die Eiche / dub / pohon ek
Learn to identify it here.
Spruce / die Fichte / smrk / sejenis pohon cemara
Learn to identify it here.
Birch / die Birke / bříza / pohon birch
Learn to identify it here.
Beech / die Buche / buk / pohon beech
Learn to identify it here.
Larch / die Lärche / modřín / pohon larch
Learn to identify it here.
Pine / der Kiefer / borovice / pohon pinus atau tusam
Learn to identify it here.
Fir / die Tanne / jedle / pohon fir
Learn to identify it here.
Rosehip / die Hagebutte / šípek / sejenis mawar liar
Learn to identify and forage it here.
Cherry tree / der Kirschbaum / třešeň / pohon ceri
Learn to identify it here.
Chestnut tree / der Kastanienbaum / Kaštan / pohon kastanye
Learn to identify it here.
If you struggle to remember tree names like I do, I hope the above helps. Or do you have a special technique to memorise them? Please share it with me if you do!
