На прошлой неделе, я сидел с племянником (“Last week, I was babysitting my nephew”) and since the weather was nice, he wanted to прогуляться в лесу (“to go for a stroll in the forest”). And a прогулка по лесу (“walk through the woods”) actually offers a great opportunity for Russian vocabulary practice: not only learning some new words, but reviewing some words that you already sorta-kinda know, but you can never quite remember what gender they are, or whether the stress moves in the plural…

• За деревьями лес не видеть
(“One doesn’t see the forest behind the trees”)

Since it takes trees to make a forest, let’s take a second to recall the declension of дерево, “tree.” This noun is slightly unusual because the stem ends with a hard -в- in the singular, but it changes to a soft -вь- in the plural. And it’s worth studying the declension carefully, because a number of other high-frequency neuter nouns follow the same pattern — such as крыло (“wing”), перо (“feather”), and звено (“link in a chain”).

The same word also means “wood from a tree,” and usually it’s apparent from context whether you mean a living tree or wood as a construction material. But if you want to avoid ambiguity, you can always use древесина, which means “wood” in the sense of “lumber.”

• Parts of a tree

Maybe you already know the word корень (masc., gen. корня), which is “the root of a plant,” and лист (“a leaf”). But what comes between the roots and the leaves? First, there’s the ствол (gen. ствола), the main “trunk” of the tree. Growing out from the trunk may be multiple суки (sing. сук) — “large tree limbs; boughs”. And a smaller offshoot of a сук can be called either a ветвь (fem., gen. ветви) or a ветка, both of which mean “a tree branch that’s not quite big enough to be a сук.” On the branches, there are листья (“leaves”), each connected by a стебель (masc., gen. стебля), meaning “plant’s stem or stalk.” And finally, a skinny little branch, especially one that has dried up and lacks leaves, is a прут (“twig”).

By the way, don’t forget that лист has two different plural declensions, depending on whether it means “leaf of a plant” or “leaf/sheet of paper.” When you mean a plant’s leaf, the hard -ст- becomes a soft -сть- in the plural, similar to the pattern of дерево. Thus, листья, листьев, листьям, and so forth. But when you mean “sheet of paper,” the -ст- remains hard in the plural: листы, листов, листам, etc.

• If a tree falls in a forest…

…it becomes валежник — a collective term for упавшие и мёртвые ветки, суки, и деревья (“fallen and dead branches, limbs, and trees”). Although this word can refer to a (naturally fallen) “log” that is a home for fungi, insects, or snakes, it should be distinguished from бревно (pl. брёвна), which means a “log” that was deliberately cut down by humans for use as lumber. And whether a tree falls by the agency of the wind or an axe, the “stump” that remains behind is пень (masc., gen. пня).

• По их плодам узнаете их
(“By their fruits ye shall know them”)

Now that you know some words for a “generic” tree, let’s get a little more specific. We can broadly place trees into two groups: лиственный (“those having true leaves”), and хвойный (“conifers”), whose name comes from хвоя, meaning лист в виде иглы (“a leaf in the form of a needle”). All conifers are вечнозелёный (“evergreen”), while trees with true leaves may be either вечнозелёный or листопадный (“deciduous”).

Pretty much all of the лиственные деревья reproduce by means of цветы (“flowers”) and плоды (“fruits,” in the botanical sense). On the other hand, conifers produce neither flowers nor fruits — one of the traits that distinguishes them, in addition to being evergreen and having needle-like leaves. Instead, conifer seeds are contained in a шишка, “(pine)cone”. This is one of the reasons why plants such as падуб, “holly,” are not grouped with the сосна (“pine”). Although the holly and pine are both вечнозелёный, the holly’s ягоды (“berries”) are “true fruits,” while pinecones are not.

One of the most familiar of the хвойные деревья is the ёлка, which is literally “a small spruce,” from ель (fem., gen. ели). Of course, the same word — and especially the double-diminutive ёлочка — is often understood to mean “a decorated New Year’s or Christmas tree,” even if it’s not botanically a “spruce,” and even if it’s made of plastic or aluminum! But other conifers you might see growing in the woods are the сосна (“pine”), which has longer needles that a spruce, and the short-needled можжевельник (“juniper”), whose so-called “berries” (which are in fact tiny “pinecones”!) can be added to vodka to produce fake джин.

But while there are lots of pines in my area, the forests here are dominated by deciduous trees (which will be turning to spectacular colors in the next month or so). One of the most recognizable is the дуб (“oak”), whose плод is known as жёлудь (masc., gen. жёлудя), “acorn.” Acorns and oak leaves are full of bitter “tannins” that have long been used in processing animal hides, and thus leather that has been treated with oak-derived chemicals is called дублёный (“tanned”). Another derived word is дубина, а “big stout cudgel” (whether oaken or not) — in various fairytales, the hero comes into possession of a magical, self-operating дубина, allowing him to kick all kinds of butt.

Another easy-to-recognize tree is the клён, “maple,” which is known not only for its distinctive leaves, but also for its papery, winglike “seed” (technically, a fruit) called a крылатка that whirls helicopter-like down to the ground. Maples aren’t the only trees with крылатки; the ясень (“ash”) also has winglike fruits, though they don’t fly quite as well or as far as those of the maple.

And one more unmistakable tree, seen in the painting at the top of the post: the берёза (“birch”) that is so beloved to Russian artists and is famous for its белая кора, “white bark.”

• Не ищи под дубом шишек, а под ёлкой – желудей
(“Don’t look for pinecones under an oak-tree, or acorns under a spruce.”)

But under all the trees in a forest, you can expect to find different sorts of кусты (“bushes, shrubby plants”), also known by the collective noun кустарник. One familiar type is the already-mentioned падуб (“holly”), which is also known as остролист because its leaves have so many колючки (“prickles”). In fact, you should use care walking through a кустарник, because many of plants have колючки or (“thorns”) — and worse, you might run into a clump of крапива (“stinging nettle”), whose leaves and stems are покрыты жгучими волосками (“covered with little burning hairs”). Or, here in the States, there’s always the danger of an encounter with “poison ivy” — literally translatable as ядовитый плющ, although it doesn’t have a “native” Russian name because it only grows in the Americas. And, as you probably know, it’s not a true плющ (“ivy”) at all!

But not everything in the undergrowth presents a hazard to walkers. Generally, the папоротники (“ferns”) are harmless to humans, and many of them have been domesticated as houseplants because of their attractive leaves. And even closer to the ground — and often on the tree-trunks, too — you’ll see грибы (“mushrooms”), лишайники (“lichens”), and мох (“moss”). Just remember, if you happen to заблудиться в лесу (“get lost in the woods”), that the мшистая сторона дерева (“mossy side of a tree”) is NOT necessarily the northern side — that’s just a бабья сказка (“old wives’ tale”)!

Fortunately, getting lost isn’t a big problem when my nephew and I go out for a stroll — you can walk from one end of the “forest” to the other in under five minutes! (That’s the suburbs for you…)