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ISA Certified Tree Climber (formerly Tree Worker Climber Specialist) — Practice Exam

Tree identification and health: practice questions

Our ISA Certified Tree Climber bank has 30 questions on this topic. Here are 5 of them with answers; the full mock exam draws from every topic, like the real one.

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Question 1

What is an epicormic sprout?

  1. A new root from a branch
  2. A seedling under the parent tree
  3. A shoot from a latent or adventitious bud, such as a water sprout or sucker
  4. A new root that forms where a branch touches the ground
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C. A shoot from a latent or adventitious bud, such as a water sprout or sucker — In older wood they often follow severe defoliation or radical pruning.

Question 2

Which conifer drops its needles in fall?

  1. Eastern hemlock, with short flat needles in two rows
  2. Eastern white pine
  3. Tamarack (eastern larch)
  4. Eastern redcedar
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C. Tamarack (eastern larch) — Baldcypress is the other deciduous conifer in the Ohio key.

Question 3

In a pinnately compound leaf, how are the leaflets arranged?

  1. Along a central axis (rachis), like a feather
  2. Radiating from one point, like fingers
  3. Radiating from one point at the tip of the stalk, like fingers on a hand
  4. In a whorl around the twig
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A. Along a central axis (rachis), like a feather — Palmately compound leaflets radiate from one point like fingers of a hand.

Question 4

Which tree forms does the USDA Forest Service call excurrent and decurrent?

  1. Excurrent: round; decurrent: pyramidal
  2. Excurrent: strong central stem, pyramidal; decurrent: spherical with competing laterals
  3. Both mean the tree has a single leader
  4. Both describe root systems
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B. Excurrent: strong central stem, pyramidal; decurrent: spherical with competing laterals — Most conifers are excurrent; most hardwoods decurrent.

Question 5

Where do hardwoods form reaction wood on a leaning stem?

  1. On the underside, as compression wood
  2. Evenly all around
  3. Only in the roots
  4. On the upper side, as tension wood
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D. On the upper side, as tension wood — Softwoods form compression wood on the underside.

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