Tree of the Week

Week 14 – Sorbus aucuparia; Rowan, Mountain Ash

Fresh in to flower now, with rounded white flower heads about the size of your hand but made up of many tiny flowers. They have red berries in Autumn, which are valuable for birds. In a cold winter they will have some Autumn leaf colour too. Useful because of their tolerance of cold winds, small size (usually about 10m) and the fact that they tolerate light, poor soils and dry conditions. The leaves are quite distinctive and a good way to check your identification – they are composite (made up of many small leaflets) with the tooth-edged leaflets held in opposite pairs along the central twig. Other Rowan species and S. Aucuparia varieties are available, with orange, pink, white or yellow berries.

n.b. a close competitor for tree of the week this week was copper beech, their leaves are so newly out that they are green/pink/red all at once and look amazing in Manchester at the time of writing. Copper beech is of course not its proper name, find out why here.

Tree of the Week

Week 13 – Larix decidua; Larch

Chosen this week because of the “new bright green needles combined with distinctive cones” (thanks, Alice) Larch is a great conifer for a number of reasons. As it is deciduous you get the benefit of seasonal change but with the aesthetic qualities of a conifer. The new leaves are held in soft tufts along the twig, interspersed with upright pink female cones which look a bit like tiny pineapples. The  yellow male cones are smaller, drooping down. The twigs are very knobbly, though this is more obvious in winter, and the autumn colour is a bright yellow, often dominating a hillside. They are native to mountainous regions in central Europe and do well in similar terrain here. Form is reliably fairly conical and mature cones are about 3cm long, scaly, egg-shaped and woody. Fast-growing and of course used widely for timber, but currently threatened by Phytophthora ramorum, about which you can read more on the Forestry Commission’swebsite.

Tree of the Week

Week 12 – Malus sylvestris; Crab apple

In my opinion this has the most appealing of all the Spring blossom, alongside its edible relative Malus domestica, because of the very delicate pink-white hue. Most apple trees have this colour as they are not the truly wild pure white species, but crossed with M. domestica. They are at their peak now in Manchester, though today’s stormy weather hasn’t done any of the blossom any good.  The leaves are just about unfurled, and are rounded ovals with toothed edges and pointed end. At this time of year the leaves are downy. Bark is grey-brown, and on a mature specimen quite scaly and cracked. Form could be very variable so the below winter skeleton is just a guide.

There are many ornamental cultivars, with bright red, yellow or orange fruits. Beware of planting these over paving as the fallen fruit makes a slippery mess in the autumn. Look at the (probably) infallible RHS website for more on these.

Tree of the Week

Week 11 – Pyrus communis; Common Pear

This wild pear produces small sour fruit with a gritty texture – the pears we eat are a related variety. Pear trees can be found in hedgerows and field margins and are sometimes domestic ‘escapes’ or remnants of old orchards. This tree is deciduous, 8-20 metres tall, somewhat spiny and in flower now, as are most domestic pears in our gardens and allotments. The blossom, below, is simpler than most cherries, with five white petals and reddish stamens. Leaves, also below, with fruit, are slightly glossy and with a serrated edge. The other wild pear, Pyrus pyraster, now uncommon, is similar but with more spines along the twigs, and the fruit is smaller and even less edible. For a good ornamental pear tree, check out Pyrus salicifolia (meaning leaves like a Salix – ‘willow leaved’) pendula and Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’, both of which blossom well and have distinctive forms.

Wikipedia has a good article about Perry, here.

Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula'

     
          

             Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer'

Tree of the Week

Week 10 – Salix sepulcralis Chrysocoma; Weeping Willow

Weeping willow is fairly easy to identify due to its size and distinctive form. You will have noticed that it loves moist soil and so grows on river banks and pond edges, with the long weeping branches often brushing the surface of the water. For a couple of weeks now it has been eye-catching because the fresh new leaves are such a vivid green and the domed form of the whole tree suddenly stands out against slightly later-leafing species. It reaches about 12m high in 25 years. Catkins are also out now, longer and more slender than the Goat Willow catkins, see picture below.

The roots will seek out water so plant well away from drains, mains water pipes and septic tanks. Not native, but completely hardy, this tree makes quite a grand impression in parks and grounds.

Ashridge nurseries are a reliable source of information about trees, read more about this tree here; www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Weeping-Willow-Trees-Sepulcralis.

Tree of the Week

Week 9 – updates!

I am on holiday this week. I’m not abandoning you, though – instead of a new tree, here are some updates on trees you have already identified, and what they are doing in the UK right now. Look out for them and see if you can still get them...

Aesculus (Horse Chestnut) leaves unfolding and flower buds emerging

Crataegus (Hawthorn) leaves out and flower buds visible

Fraxinus excelsior flowers, with last year's keys still hanging on and leaf bud visible

Tree of the Week

Week 8 - Flowering  Cherries (Prunus spp.)

A departure for Tree of the Week this week, with almost a whole genus rather than a single species of tree. I’m just being indecisive because on the streets near you right now, looking ridiculously cheerful, are so many flowering cherries of various kinds it is not realistic to choose just one. There are many varieties and they have been on our shores since the early twentieth century, with the exceptions of two natives; the bird cherry – Prunus padus, and Prunus avium, the wild cherry. Prunus avium is more common in the south of England and Prunus padus, preferring wetter and more acidic soils, in the north. They aren’t keen on cold winds and the blossom only looks amazing for a few short weeks, but you have to admit that for that time they really do the business.  Most also have great Autumn colour, in yellows and bright reds, so this isn’t the only season of interest. It can be hard to tell one from another. Almond and blackthorn blossom are both similar (both also Prunus), but you won’t mix these up as cherries always have those oval or linear horizontal markings on the bark of the trunk, which are the lenticels through which gas exchange occurs between the plant’s tissues and the atmosphere, see examples below.

Prunus padus

Prunus avium