Prunus avium – Wild Cherry

Wild Cherry is a large deciduous tree with a tapering bole and high domed crown. Its bark is a shiny reddish brown with circular lines of lenticels peeling horizontally into tough papery strips. Its branches spread widely and terminate in smooth reddish twigs. Its leaves are ovate with a long pointed apex and forward pointing irregular teeth on the margins. The leaves grow up to 15cm long and have a smooth and dull green upper surface. The petiole is 2-5cm long with two glands near the leaf. It produces white flowers in long stalked clusters of 2-6 that open up just before the leaves. They have 5 petals up to 1.5cm long. Its fruit is round, up to 2cm long with a depressed apex and a dark purple/red-black shiny skin (sometimes yellow skin). It is a widespread native of most of Europe except for the far North and East. Birds are particularly fond of its ripe fruits and can completely strip a tree within a day or so. Its timber is hard and strong and used for turnery and making furniture.

Acer pseudoplatanus – Sycamore Maple

Sycamore maple is a fast growing, vigorous deciduous tree with a broadly domed crown. Its bark is greyish, broken up by numerous fissures into irregular patched that can sometimes fall away revealing an orange under layer. Its branches are quite thick near the main bole, terminating in grey-green twigs with pale lenticels and reddish buds.

Its leaves are opposite, up to 15cm long and divided into 5 toothed lobes. The leaves produce a bright green display in spring as they are so large and abundant. Its flowers are prolific, pendulous yellow clusters up to 12cm long opening about the same time as the leaves in April/May. Paired fruits ripen during the summer and reach a length of 6cm. They are green in colour to begin with becoming redder and finally brown and dried. It has a horseshoe shaped, winged fruit that spreads easily as it is carried effectively by the wind. Sycamore is native to the hills and uplands of central and South Europe but it is widely planted and naturalised elsewhere, including Britain and Ireland. It does well on heavy soils and tolerates coastal conditions as well as uplands. It can dominate woodlands and can be quite invasive if unmanaged. 

Populus nigra – Black Poplar

A deciduous tree, large spreading when mature with a domed crown and thick dark bole with gnarled bole covered with distinctive burrs and tuberous growths. Its bark is dark grey/brown and becomes deeply fissured and darker with age. Its buds are smooth and golden brown. Its leaves are small and triangular/ diamond shaped with a long stalk and finely toothed margin. Its male catkins are pendulous and red, its female catkins are a green colour. The black poplar is native to the British isles and prefers damp conditions.

Tilia x europaea – Common Lime

The common line is an upright tree with grey/ brown ridged bark and an irregular crown. Branches are generally ascending and arching on older trees. Young twigs are smooth and green. Buds are ovoid, 7mm long and red/brown in colour. Its leaves are broadly ovate with a short pointed tip, heart shaped base and a toothed margin growing up to 10cm long. The leaves are dull green above and paler below with small white hairs in vein axils. It produces yellowish white, 5 petalled fragrant flowers in clusters of up to ten. Its fruit is hard, thick shelled and rounded. It is very commonly planted in towns and parks. It can suffer heavy aphid infestation, causing honey dew to rain down which makes it unsuitable for street planting.

Acer campestre – Field Maple

 The Field Maple is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a rounded crown and twisted bole. Its appearance can be variable depending on its surroundings. Its bark is grey/brown and fissured with a slightly cork-like texture. Its branches are dense, sometimes almost impenetrable when cut and pruned regularly. Field maple leaves are up to 12cm long and usually strongly 3 lobed, these lobes themselves often have lobed margins and tufts of hair in the underside vein axis.  They are dark green and quite leathery, turning bright yellow and then reddish brown in autumn. It produces small yellow/green flowers in small clusters with 5 sepals and 5 petals. It also produces winged fruits in bunches of 4, these wings are horizontal and usually green with a variable tinge of red. These winged fruits allow the wind to carry them considerable distances thus spreading the seed quite effectively. It is a widespread and common native tree to Northern Europe, including parts of Britain. It thrives in calcareous soils doing particularly well on slopes of chalk downs in the South-East of England. It is seldom found in acidic or waterlogged conditions.

Sambucus nigra – Black Elder

Elders are small deciduous trees often with an untidy, large shrub/ small tree appearance. Its bole is normally short and an old bole often has fast-growing young shoots emerging from it. Its bark is deeply grooved and furrowed bark, greyish brown with a sometimes corky texture in older specimens. It has many branches, spreading and twisted. Branches and twigs have a soft white pitch in the centre. Its leaves are opposite and compound with 5-9 pairs of leaflets, each one up to 12cm long ovate and pointed with a sharply toothed margin and a hairy underside. It produces sickly sweet smelling flowers in dense clusters up to 24cm across. Individual flowers are small and composed of 3-5 white petals and anthers. Its fruit is a rounded and shiny blackberry, often produced in great numbers and pendulous heads. It is extremely widespread and common across Europe, including the British Isles, except in the far North. It is common wherever soil has a high nitrogen content. In some areas it is treated as a weed and removed, in others it is highly regarded for its edible fruit and flowers as it attracts an abundance of wildlife like Nectar-feeding insects and birds.

Prunus spinosa - Blackthorn

To me, the blackthorn appears to be rather uninviting and foreboding. It is rather untidy looking and densely branched with many spines. It is a deciduous tree with dark blackish/brown bark. Its branches spread and terminate in spiny twigs. Its leaves are oval, pointed at the tip with toothed margins growing up to 4.5cm long on a 1cm petiole. Its upper surface is a smooth dull green with prominent veins on the lower surface. It produces white flowers, mostly solitary, opening before the leaves creating quite an unusual appearance with white flowers on a dark frame. The flowers produce in such vast numbers that in early spring blackthorns appear to be completely white. It is widespread and common in Europe except from the far North. It is common in hedgerows at it forms a thick impenetrable barrier. Blackthorn leaves are the food source for a large number of moth larvae and is also an important source of food for bees in the spring.

Buxus sempervirens – Boxwood

Boxwood can be shrubs or small trees, they are evergreen plants, with leathery opposite leaves. They produce small pale yellow flowers and pale green/brown fruits. It is native to South and Central Europe. Its growth is typically limited to a height and span of 4-8 metres. Commonly used for topiary as it is great to prune and sculpt to make great shapes from.