Did you do a search for Petrides, George? His was the book we used in school.

NJTea, I just checked on Amazon for Petrides and found many Peterson Field Guides, which I've looked at in the past, but wasn't too impressed with. I'll take another look. I see that he also has a book called "Trees Of The Pacific Northwest" that's not a Peterson book. I'll try to find a copy of that one too. Thanks for your response.

"I'd just like to take it when I'm out strolling in local parks or up to the mountains when on vacation and ID trees that are interesting to me"

LOL ... I used such keys in college too but not sure it would be ideal for strolling around !! Thats a serious level of identification.

A good reference for your library may be "Plant Identification Terminology" .. by James Harris .. an illustrated glossary of botanical terms used to describe and identify plants .. it can be used anywhere in the world. A good magnifying loop and even a dissecting microscope is needed if you want a book that uses keys.

The "Jepson Manual" perhaps ... lots of keys but covers only natives plants of South Eastern California.

"Oaks Of California" and "Conifers Of California" do not make use of keys but are excellenet references... you will enjoy these in your library.

"Trees Of The Great Basin" another good book but more about the trees in general then precise identification using keys but good to read and useful if you go esat into the basin.

"The Manual Of Flowering Plants Of Hawaii" a two volume set is I believe the latest and greatest for Hawaii if you ever plan travel their but this work needs to be carefully studied .. it has lots of keys but it's not a picture book.

Can anyone add some more ??

Good Day ...

The problem is the desire for one stop shopping. This is asked for repeatedly on this site. With California's extensive native (and cultivated) flora you will probably have to take a multifaceted approach to make much headway - collecting samples of Plants of Mystery you find and comparing them with accounts in various references, labeled live specimens in collections and photos on the www. If there is a college nearby with a library containing many appropriate books that could be quite a help.

A couple recent UC Press field-guide-size books may be what you're looking for. Both _Trees and Shrubs of California_ by Stuart and Sawyer, 2001 (native plants only), and _Trees of the San Francisco Bay Area_ by Keator (includes introduced species, but if you're in southern Calif. you may need to supplement with another book) have dichotomous keys.

Jepson covers ALL of California, but it's big and heavy. I've taken it on day hikes, but I don't recommend doing so.

The Cachuma Press books, Oaks by Pavlik and Conifers by Lanner, are excellent.

I haven't been impressed by the Peterson books, either.

A great field guide that covers all of the US is _The Urban Tree Book_ by Arthur Plotkin.

Where are you in Calif.? Some of the best resources for identifying local trees are the various location-specific tree books: Trees of Santa Barbara, Trees of Stanford (a terrific one, just published), etc. If you live anywhere near these places, these books are worthwhile. Several other campuses, and at least a couple towns, have published these. Typically they don't include dichotomous keys, but they do pinpoint locations, so you can take yourself on tree walks.

And if you're on the north coast, Pojar and MacKinnon's _Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast_ has no equal. In addition to all the usual field-guide info, they include ethnobotany. I've taught field courses, and I think having a "story" about each plant helps make it memorable.
Another resource for tree ID is community college courses. UC Extension has wonderful ID classes, too.

Nature Study Guild used to publish small booklets that were essentially dichotomous keys only, with no descriptive info. They're simple keys and good for beginners, and a good adjunct to your other key(s), but they cover a limited number of species.

Thank you all for your suggestions. You've given me a lot of books to look into and ideas to consider.

JAMc