Holly - Ilex aquifolium

 

Holly is an evergreen plant with shiny dark foliage with strong sharp prickles.

 

Holly often stays as a shrub but can sometimes grow into an impressive conical tree. It is a very slow growing species.

It's bark is smooth and silvery grey. With age the bark can develop fissures and tubercles.

In it's youth its branches turn upwards but when older, its branches sweep downwards.

 

Leaves are very alternate on Holly plants, they can be different from tree to tree.

It's leaves can grow up to 12cm long and have very leathery, waxy and tough surface. The lower surface is pale in comparison to the dark green upper surface, as you can see in the picture above.

They can also have a variegated leaf which is dark green in the centre but is framed with a creamy white colour around the edges.

 

Smaller ilex tend to have a more curved, pointy leaf. Larger trees tend to have more flat, mostly spineless leaves. This suggests that the smaller holly species have evolved to fend off predators with their prickly leaves, where as taller plants do not have to deal with predators as they are too high to reach.

 

Hollies produce small 4 petalled flowers in small clusters on the leaf axis. Male flowers are fragrant.

They produce small, round, bright red berries which can be around 12mm long.

 

Holly is native to Britain and Ireland but is found in woodland and open habitats across Western and Southern Europe as well as parts of Western Asia. It is commonly found underneath the canopies of large deciduous trees like Oaks and Beech.



English Oak - Quercus robur

 

Oak has the highest status and highest order of all trees on the British Isles.

It is a large deciduous tree with a dense crown of heavy branches that usually stem horizontally from the trunk. It has thick grey bark which, in mature Oak trees, becomes deeply fissured which gives it a beautiful enchanting aesthetic. Almost as if it has wrinkled with old age.

Oaks can grow up to around 800 years old. Older Oaks can become what is called 'stag headed' which is when the trees old dead branches are lifted above the trees canopy and stick out from the top like a stags horns. Oaks trunks can also sometimes hollow out when they get very old.

 

 

Quercus leaves are deeply lobed with two auricles at the base. English oak leaves have no petiole which makes them more distinguishable. English Oak leaves are also replaced by a 2nd crop midway through the summer, this is called lammas growth. This is why Oaks can sometimes appear to be losing their leaves before the Autumn has come.

 

 

 

 A dioecious tree, meaning it produces both male and female reproductive parts on the same plant. Male and Female catkins appear at 1st flush of leaves in the spring. Male catkins die after pollination, leaves are fully opened by this time.

Oaks produce acorns. Acorns are on long stalks held in roughly scaled cups, normally in groups of 1-3.

 

Oaks prefer heavier clay soils, which shows that they can survive, and favour, wet/damp conditions.

They are often dominant in woodlands and lowland areas but do occur at higher altitudes too.

 

English Oaks are also extremely important in ecological terms. They support invertebrate life in abundamce, the larvae of several hundred moth species feed on its leaves. Gall-forming insects are also associated with it and even in death, Oak supports life in the form of wood-boring beetle, larvae and fungi.

 

Oak is an extremely important building material. It has always been, in Britain, the timber of choice in wooden framed buildings. Historically all buildings, especially larger manor houses, would have had an oak frame. Oak is still used in building to this day and used in many different ways including 'green oak construction.' 

 

Beech - Fagus Sylvatica

Beeches are large imposing deciduous trees with a broad rounded crown.

Their bark is smooth and grey but occasionally becomes rougher.

It produces reddish brown buds which are smooth and pointed and grown up to 2cm long.

Its leaves are long, oval shaped and pointed with a wavy margin. They also have a fringe of silky hairs when freshly opened. 

Its male flowers grow in clusters at the tips of it's twigs. Female flowers grow in pairs on short stalks and are surrounded by a brownish 4 leaved enclosure.

Nuts also grow in pairs. They are 3 sided, shiny and brown and are enclosed in a prickly case.

Beeches originate in Western and central Europe. They are used widely for hedgerows and also for ornamental purposes.

Beeches prefer drier soils like chalk soils. Which comes as no surprise as it originated in Western Europe where soil tends to be much drier than in Britain.

Its timber is widely used but mostly for furniture as it does not last well outside.

It's canopy is so dense that hardly anything grows beneath it and no other trees can compete. Only some plants manage to grow beneath beech trees, like Orchids which can survive in more dimly lit conditions. 

 

 

 

Horse Chestnut - Aesculus hippocastanum

The Horse Chestnut is native of the mountains of the Balkans. It is widely planted in Europe and arrived in Britain in the late 16th Century.

It has a huge domed crown.

It's bark is greyish brown and often flakes away in large chunks.

It's name is believed to have come from its 'horseshoe' shaped leaf scar which appears below the trees buds in the winter.

It's leaves are large, long stalked and palmate. Each leaf contains up to 7 leaflets, which can grow up to around 25cm long. They are sharply toothed and are all an elongated oval shape.

Horse-Chestnut Leaves

In spring creamy white flowers cover the tree in abundance. Each made up of 40 or more 5 petalled, pink spotted, white flowers.

The tree produces conkers which are large, round, smooth seeds each with a pale scar on one side.

Rowan/ Mountain Ash - Sorbus Aucuparia

Rowan's have a large, open domed crown. Their bark is a silvery grey, mostly smooth but sometimes ridged.

It has widely spaced branches that are hairy when young but smooth later in life.

It's leaves are compound and pinnate. Composed of 5-8 pairs of toothed leaflets, each one growing up to 6cm long.

Mountain Ash flowers grow in May. Each flower is around 1cm in diameter and has 5 creamy white petals.

Rowan fruit is bright red/ scarlet and are all under 1cm long. The fruit persists even after leaves have fallen.

The tree is native to a wide area of Europe including Britain and Ireland.

It grows in both woodland and open land, but does not grow as well in wet soils. It is able to grow and survive at higher altitudes than most species which suggests it has strong, deep roots. Hence the name 'Mountain Ash.'

The mountain ash is often used ornamentally in urban areas. Due to its bright fruits it attracts many species of birds and even encourages them to migrate to busy town centres.