Loftwings and Demons

A while back, a huge tree near where I live was cut down and it just feels like such an enormous loss. That tree was old--I can't imagine all that it must have lived through. And there are fewer trees of any significant age in this world every day. It was almost certainly not the oldest a tree can get, but it was immense and ancient compared to its neighbors. And a lot of the initiatives to grow trees are for fast-growing trees that are fated to live short lives so they can be a 'renewable resource' for the lumber industry.

After I learn to identify whether something is a pine, spruce, or fir, I also want to learn what specific type of pine, spruce, or fir they are.  Preferably down to the species, but since that's not always possible in plant identification, at least as specific as I can get by just using my own senses.

At some point, I'd like to try some of the edible varieties, but before I do that I also want to look closely into how to avoid mistaking a poisonous plant for the plant in question and what other things I should watch out for that could make eating a plant unpleasant or deadly (besides it just being poisonous in and of itself).

In this case my knowledge so far consists of what the basic difference between pine, spruce, and fir needles are, some interesting info about the cones, and the  fact that the highly poisonous yew tree is an evergreen tree with needles and so it's very important to be able to differentiate it from edible pine, spruce, and fir.  Fortunately there are a number of ways to positively differentiate edible species from this deadly plant.