How to Identify Trees by Their Bark

Leaves fall. Flowers bloom for a week or two. Fruits come and go. But bark is there year-round, every day, rain or shine.

If you learn to read bark, you can identify trees in any season—including winter when most people give up and wait for spring. Bark is also useful when a tree is too tall to see its leaves clearly.

Here’s how to decode what bark is telling you.

Bark Basics

Bark is the outer protective layer of a tree’s trunk and branches. It’s dead tissue (the living layer is just underneath), and it protects the tree from physical damage, pests, disease, and water loss.

Different tree species produce bark with characteristic textures, colors, and patterns. These differences arise from how the bark grows and how it handles the expanding trunk beneath it.

As a tree grows, its trunk gets wider. The bark has to accommodate this expansion somehow. Some trees continuously produce new bark that pushes the old bark outward in plates or scales. Others develop deep furrows as rigid bark splits. Still others shed bark regularly so it never builds up.

These growth patterns create the distinctive textures you see.

Major Bark Types

Smooth Bark

Some trees maintain relatively smooth bark throughout their lives.

Beech: American beech has iconic smooth, gray bark that stays smooth even on old trees. People have been carving initials into beech bark for centuries because the smooth surface is so inviting. (Don’t do this—it damages the tree.)

Hornbeam: Smooth, gray, and rippled like muscles under skin. The ridges give it the alternate name “musclewood.”

Birch: Young birches have smooth bark before they develop their characteristic peeling. Paper birch bark stays relatively smooth even as it peels.

Aspen: Smooth, pale, waxy bark with black knot scars. Doesn’t develop furrows or scales with age.

Trees with smooth bark often have thin bark that would be damaged by fire. They typically grow in moist, shaded environments where fire is rare.

Peeling or Exfoliating Bark

Some trees shed their bark in strips, sheets, or curls.

Birches: Peel in thin, papery horizontal sheets. Paper birch peels white; river birch peels in salmon and cinnamon curls.

Sycamore: Sheds bark in irregular patches, revealing cream, tan, and olive-colored inner bark. Creates a distinctive camouflage pattern.

Shagbark hickory: Peels in long, vertical strips that curve outward at the ends. The “shaggy” appearance is unmistakable.

Paperbark maple: An ornamental maple with cinnamon-colored bark that peels in tissue-thin sheets.

Eucalyptus: Many species shed bark in long ribbons, often revealing bright colors underneath—greens, oranges, and purples.

Exfoliating bark helps trees shed parasites, fungi, and lichens that accumulate on the surface. It may also help some species reflect heat in hot climates.

Furrowed or Ridged Bark

As bark ages and can’t expand, it cracks into patterns.

Oak: Deep furrows with flat-topped ridges. White oaks tend to have lighter gray bark with scaly ridges. Red oaks often have darker bark with rounded ridges.

Ash: Diamond-shaped ridges creating a regular pattern. The diamonds become more pronounced with age.

Cottonwood: Thick, deeply furrowed bark on old trees. Furrows can be several inches deep.

Black walnut: Dark brown to nearly black bark with deep, rough furrows.

Tulip tree: Bark develops interlacing ridges that create a somewhat woven appearance.

Furrowed bark is common in species that experience fire. The thick bark insulates living tissues from heat.

Plated or Scaly Bark

Rather than deep furrows, some bark breaks into plates or scales.

Pine: Many pines develop bark that flakes off in irregular scales or plates. The color varies—ponderosa pine plates are often orange-brown with dark furrows.

Black cherry: Develops distinctive “burnt potato chip” scales on mature trees. The dark, flaky plates are easy to recognize once you’ve seen them.

Hackberry: Corky, warty bark with irregular ridges. More lumpy than truly scaly.

Persimmon: Distinctive block-like pattern, almost checkered, with deep furrows between square-ish plates.

Corky or Warty Bark

Some trees develop unusual textures.

Cork oak: Extremely thick, spongy bark harvested commercially for cork products.

Hackberry: Covered with corky warts and ridges.

Sweetgum: Develops corky wings on branches and sometimes on the trunk.

Winged elm: Has broad, flat corky wings running along the branches.

Bark Colors

Color helps narrow identification, though it can vary with moisture, age, and growing conditions.

White to gray: Beech, aspen, birch, sycamore (patchy), hornbeam

Reddish-brown: River birch, pine, redwood, sequoia, madrone (underneath peeling layers)

Nearly black: Black walnut, black cherry (mature), black oak

Greenish: Young beech, aspen, striped maple

Orange-brown: Scots pine, ponderosa pine, madrone (under peeling bark)

Wet bark often looks darker than dry bark. Bark on the north side of a tree may look different from bark on the south side due to moss, lichen, and moisture differences.

Reading Bark Patterns

Lenticels

Those horizontal lines on birch and cherry bark are lenticels—pores that allow gas exchange. Different species have different lenticel patterns.

Birch: Prominent horizontal lines across the white bark.

Cherry: Horizontal bands of lenticels that become less visible as bark ages and roughens.

Aspen: Lenticels appear as dark marks on pale bark.

Resin and Sap

Some trees produce visible resin or sap on their bark.

Pine: Often has resin running down the trunk, especially where damaged.

Fir: Resin blisters—smooth bumps full of sticky pitch—on young bark.

Spruce: Less resin than pine but still present.

Sweetgum: Oozes fragrant resin when cut.

Lichens and Moss

These aren’t part of the bark, but they can be identification clues.

Certain lichens prefer certain bark textures and chemistry. Moss usually indicates the north side of a tree (in the Northern Hemisphere) where moisture lingers.

Heavy lichen or moss growth can obscure bark patterns. Gently brushing it aside reveals the underlying texture.

Common Trees by Bark

Distinctive Barks

White birch: White, peeling in papery sheets

Shagbark hickory: Long, shaggy strips curling outward

Sycamore: Mottled camouflage pattern of cream, tan, green

Beech: Smooth gray even on old trees

Black cherry: Burnt potato chip flakes

Persimmon: Checkered blocks

Ponderosa pine: Orange-brown plates with vanilla scent in furrows

Madrone: Smooth, peeling to reveal red-orange and green

Harder to Distinguish

Oaks: Similar furrowed patterns across many species. Distinguishing white oak from red oak by bark alone requires practice.

Maples: Young maples have similar smooth gray bark. Older sugar maple develops shaggy strips; red maple stays smoother.

Hickories: Aside from shagbark, hickory barks are similar—tight furrows and ridges.

For these groups, leaves, fruits, or habitat clues help confirm bark-based guesses.

Photographing Bark

For the best identification results:

Get close. Fill the frame with bark texture, not the whole tree.

Show the pattern. A foot-wide section of bark tells more than a distant trunk shot.

Include scale. Your hand or a coin helps show how deep the furrows are or how large the plates are.

Photograph mature bark. Young bark often looks different from mature bark. The trunk’s lower sections typically show the most developed patterns.

Avoid shadows. Even, diffuse lighting shows texture best. Harsh shadows obscure patterns.

The Tree Identifier app analyzes bark texture and color well. A clear close-up often produces confident matches, especially for trees with distinctive bark like birch, sycamore, or shagbark hickory.

Bark Through the Seasons

Bark changes less than any other tree feature, but it’s not static.

Wet vs. dry: Bark looks different after rain. Colors darken; lichens brighten.

Winter: Leafless trees invite bark study. This is the best season for learning bark patterns without leaf distractions.

Growth changes: Very young trees may have smooth bark that becomes furrowed with age. The bark you see on a sapling won’t match the bark on a mature tree.

Using Bark in Combination

Bark alone identifies some trees easily. Others require additional clues:

Twigs: Twig color, thickness, and bud shape help distinguish similar barks.

Habitat: A tree growing in a swamp suggests different species than identical-looking bark on a dry ridge.

Range: Knowing which trees grow in your area narrows possibilities.

Fallen leaves or fruit: Even in winter, the ground often holds clues.

Learning bark takes practice. Start with trees you already know—find an oak, birch, or maple and study its bark closely. Then look for those same patterns on unfamiliar trees.

After a while, you’ll glance at a trunk and know immediately: oak. Or birch. Or sycamore. The patterns become as recognizable as faces.