Rod's video tree tours

Welcome to Rod's Tree Tours for the University of Nevada Reno.

These YouTube video tours take you around the trees and Arboretum areas of the University. At the beginning of each tour is a map to help orient you. The trees in these tours are identified by both common and scientific name.

Throughout the tours there are some botanical classification terms and references (e.g., Nevada State Champion) with which you may not be familiar and are defined in the appendices below.

Appendix A: Scientific names

Different people in different countries may call the same tree by different "common names." For example, what Americans refer to as Douglas fir has over 20 common names. In Chile, it is called "Pino Oregón."

Almost 300 years ago, Carl Linnaeus devised a system of nomenclature to avoid this confusion. This system extends to plants. The first part of the scientific name, usually a Latin name given in italics, refers to the genus. For example, in trees, the genus name of Douglas Fir is "Pseudotsuga" (translated into "False hemlock,” one of the common names of Douglas fir). It helps botanists around the world understand what tree they are discussing.

To further classify the plant, a species name is used; it is also in italics. In many cases, it tells something about the plant. For example, "Acer macrophyllum" refers to a maple (Acer) with large leaves (macro equals large, and phyllum equals leaf).

Possibly the most fun scientific name is Ilex vomitorium, which translates loosely into "Holly which should not be eaten." Sometimes genus and species are not sufficient to classify plants, so there are some other terms, including the following:

Appendix B: State champion trees