In the woods, in parks, in the garden and right around the house, plenty of plants can be observed and admired in the winter. Maybe the most fun comes from identifying them, and noticing their special winter adaptations. Books are the main helpers we have for that project. Here are some books you can review and order from Amazon.com:

Winter Tree Identification:

• Winter Botany (an old classic but still useful)
• Tree Bark: A Color Guide
• Fruit Key and Twig Key to Trees and Shrubs
• Winter Tree Finder
• Trees of North America : A Guide to Field Identification (mainly for summer, but also discusses twig features)
• Manual of Cultivated Plants Most Commonly Grown in the Continental United States and Canada (fairly technical and largely deals with flowers, but has many fruit descriptions)

Herbaceous Plants:

• Winter Weed Finder: A Guide to Dry Plants in Winter
• A Guide to Wildflowers in Winter: Herbaceous Plants of Northeastern North America
• Season of Promise: Wild Plants in Winter: Northeastern United States

Grasses, Sedges, etc.:

• Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes of the Northern United States
• How to Identify Grasses & Grasslike Plants: Sedges and Rushes

Gardens:

• Gardens in Winter
• Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guide to the Winter Garden : Plants That Offer Color and Beauty in Every Season of the Year

Mosses & Liverworts:

• How to Know the Mosses & Liverworts (most useful if you have a microscope)

Ferns:

• A Field Guide to Ferns and their related families : Northeastern and Central North America with a section on species also found in the British Isles and Western Europe (most fern fronds die back in the winter, but several common species are evergreen or semi-evergreen)