Nov 4, 2022
Much as I love a woodland walk, my tree identification skills leave a lot to be desired, so I travelled to Londonthorpe Wood, Grantham for a lesson from the experts. We join tree ID guru Sally to learn how to recognise common trees from their leaves, catkins, bark and berries. From apple and ash to hawthorn and hazel, she also tells us more about the trees’ value for wildlife. I learned so much during this episode, and I hope you do too.
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Transcript
You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland
Trust, presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for
people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife
thrive.
Adam: Do you know what? I have been wandering around woods for many
years and I've been doing so rather ignorantly. I mean, I like it
and everything, but I actually don't know the names, or the
histories, or the importance of a lot of the trees I am passing.
So, I’ve tried to correct that, and to do that I'm taking a little
lesson. I’m going back to school, and I'm doing that with the
assistance of Sally Bavin, who is the assistant conservation
evidence officer at the Woodland Trust. And we’re going to
Londonthorpe Wood, which is near Grantham, which is in fact near
the headquarters of the Woodland Trust. And she's going to run me
through some of the key things to look out for in trees.
Now, of course, we're coming to the end of the easy season to
identify trees because leaves are a big clue. Leaves are falling
off the trees, as is their wont at this time of year. But
nonetheless, there are still enough of them around for me to make a
good guess and I thought it was high time I learn something and
hopefully have a bit of fun and share that insight with you.
So, off to Londonthorpe Wood, it is! And I'm gonna meet Sally Bavin
from the Woodland Trust.
So, Sally, hi! We’ve met under a tree. Look at… I can tell straight
away it’s an apple tree because it has apples on it! [Laugh]
Sally: Yes!
Adam: But I come for some lessons – gone back to school. You know,
how to identify trees when they don't have apples on them, so they
are not as easily identifiable. So, is this what you do at the
Trust? Go around identifying trees? Is this what you do
normally?
Sally: [Laugh] Not all the time, but a small part of my role is,
erm I lead a tree ID course. So, it's just an afternoon, we run it
about every six months.
Adam: Yes, I have to say, I mean I was very keen to do this, well,
because I’ve gone to lots of woodlands, I am very ignorant about
identifying trees. And I was thinking, we’ve gotta rush before all
the leaves fall off, because then it's a lot harder, but they're
still, there are trees that have got lots of leaves.
So, before we start the course. Why is it important to know what a
tree is – what species of tree you're looking at?
Sally: Yeah, well, I think it depends. It depends on who you are as
to what your interest is in the trees. I think generally for just
the public it's a nice thing to note, help you understand your
surroundings of a lot better and it's a sort of the first step into
connecting with nature, at a bit of a deeper level than just
enjoying the greenery. Because you can then look for the specific
things about different species that changed throughout the seasons,
and you can be expecting the apples and looking out for them in
summer when they're only just appearing. That sort of
thing.
So, it's good for helping people to connect with nature on a more
personal level. Because the type of trees in a woodland can tell
you a lot about the sort of story of the woodland. So, it could
help indicate whether it’s ancient woodland. It could tell you
about what sort of soil types underlying the sites are and that
kind of thing. What ground flora, therefore, you’re likely to sort
of expect and indicate the condition of the woodland in terms of
ecological health. So, if you've got lots of non-native tree
species there that could tell you that the woodland’s perhaps
degraded and in need of restoration, that kind of thing.
Adam: Okay, fantastic, and you’re going to take me on a little
journey and we're going to identify some trees. Now, I have to say
first of all, about me personally, and I think others as well might
find this whole thing rather daunting because there are probably
thousands of tree types, and you think how on earth am I going to
get to know any trees? Really as I’d have to go back to university
really. Is it as daunting as it sort of first sounds?
Sally: No, definitely not. There's only a handful really of really
common species. So, for example, maybe sort of ten of the most
common would be oak, ash, hawthorn, birch, beech, Scots pine,
rowan, hazel, blackthorn and willow. And then you get to know those
and then you sort of gradually pepper some more interesting species
in between.
Adam: Right, so that's very manageable. Super! There are sort of 10
of some of the most popular, well-known, widely dispersed UK native
trees, the list of which I've already forgotten. But if you know
those ten you can sort of work your way around the woodland fairly
well.
Sally: Yeah. And it depends on where you are coz you won't
necessarily see all of those even.
Adam: No, okay, very good. Well, let's not where we are. This is
clearly an apple tree because it's got nice… got a very good
harvest of apples on it. If it didn't, how do you spot an apple
tree?
Sally: Okay, so yeah, so first of all it is important to note that
this is an apple tree, it is a domesticated apple variety of some
description, this one, and the reason why it's here at
Londonthorpe, though it's not a wild tree, is to help with the sort
of engagement with visitors.
So, I think the idea when this wood was planted back in the 90s,
was for it to, be very much, to engage people. That people could
have a snack as they went around and have that sort of engagement
with nature. If you wanted to have a taste of one, although they
are a bit higher up [laugh], you’d know that it tastes a lot
different to the crab apple that we’ll see later on, which is very
much…
Adam: The crab apples are tiny, aren’t they?
Sally: mmmm.
Adam: I didn't think they were edible?
Sally: Well, the wild ones are, yeah, I think that they’re edible,
they’re just not very palatable…
Adam: Not very nice, okay.
Sally: So, our ancestors bred them to be different [laugh].
Adam: Okay, alright. So, but anything about the sort of branches or
leaves one could look out for.
Sally: So, yes, so. A lot of fruit trees are members of the
Rosaceae family, so the Rose family. And quite a feature of those
is that they tend to grow these sort of short woody spurs from the
twig, which then have a spray of leaves all emerging from a kind of
cluster.
Adam: Right, right. Yep.
Sally: Which is one characteristic of an apple tree. The leaves are
simple leaves that are oval, and they have some tooth edges as
well. So, they’re generally kind of slightly glossy and darker on
the top than they are on the bottom.
Adam: Right.
Sally: So, in the spring, obviously you wouldn't have the apples on
there.
Adam: No.
Sally: You’d have the blossom which is a white, with a slight…
Adam: It’s beautiful isn’t it, apple blossom, it’s
beautiful.
Sally: Yeah. A slight tinge of pink to the petals.
Adam: Okay, well, wonderful. And [inaudible] to be honest, I never
eat anything in the wild because I'm terrified of killing myself
and I don't think I should. Because I'm with an expert, I feel much
safer, so is it okay if I grab…
Sally: You can grab…
Adam: I mean neither of us are particularly tall, but there are a
couple in about stretching height here, so hang on a
second…
Sally: Yep, go for it.
Adam: I’m getting stuck on this already.
Sally: I have to say, I definitely agree that if you're not 100%
confident, definitely don't eat anything. But this is definitely
okay. This is definitely an apple tree.
Adam: Oh ooo look I’ve got one, I’ve got one.
Sally: [laugh] Go on.
Adam: Okay.
Sally: Not the biggest.
[Laughter]
Adam: It’s not, it’s, I haven’t had breakfast. And I don’t think
lunch is on the menu, so this might be it, okay, hold on a second,
you'll hear this. [Chomp]
Sally: Fresh as anything!
Adam: Mmmm [chomping] – I can tell you it's lovely. Mmmm okay that
was very good, very good. Okay. So, that's our first tree, lead on
and we shall find our second!
Sally: Let’s go this way So yeah, you’re tasting the sweetness that
our ancestors bred into it.
[Chomping]
Adam: Do you know what type of apple this is?
Sally: [Laughing] I’ve no idea.
Adam: No idea.
Sally: No. [laugh]
Adam: It’s a tasty one that’s all. Mmmm very nice!
Sally: Okay, we’ve come to a… Adam: Well hold on hold on a second,
I’ve gotta finish this mouthful. [Laughter] Sally: We’ll see lots
more, so carry on chewing.
Adam: Okay, Let me just finish this before – I’ll spit apple all
over you otherwise. [Chomping]
Sally: So, we’re reaching another tree here, that’s again one of
the really common ones that you'll see in lots of woodlands across
the UK. So, this is an ash tree.
Adam: Okay. So first, well can you describe it for us?
Sally: So, this one's a fairly young tree. It's only maybe seven
centimetres in diameter on the trunk. It's got really quite pale
bark, which I would say is quite characteristic of ash, a sort of
ashen colour.
Adam: Also, as opposed to the apple tree, which is really broad,
had lots of leaves. It was really sort of dense-like
bush-like.
Sally: Yeah.
Adam: This one, you see the main trunk, which is very thin and only
a few branches and a few leaves. It's much more minimalist.
Sally: Yes. So, these, so, ash trees are one of the most common
trees in this area that you find in hedgerows. When they’re mature,
they can be, you know, really have a good size trunk on
them…
Adam: Right…
Sally: and a real spreading crown. But this one’s young, it's not
reached that size yet, but the main ID feature at this time of year
I'd say is the leaf, which is very characteristic. So, experts
describe it as a compound. They’re a bit far away, but we can get
the idea from here. So, it's a compound leaf because each of those
leafstalks has pairs of leaves coming off it.
Adam: Right. One to the left, one to the right.
Sally: So those, what look like small leaves, are actually leaflets
and the whole thing is a leaf. So each thing is um, each whole leaf
emerges from the stem and has a green leafstalk. The whole thing is
shed in the autumn and then comes back.
Adam: Right, we’ve gotta go back over this. So, what I think is a
leaf, you're telling me is not a leaf, it's a leaflet. Leaflet,
have I said that right?
Sally: A leaflet, yep. So, you’ve got pairs of leaflets.
Adam: So actually, there’s sort of one, two, three, four… four
pairs and one at the end. So, there’s eight, nine leaves, what I
think of as leaves. You're saying technically that's one leaf
actually.
Sally: Exactly. And that's because the whole thing emerges from one
bud. And is shed as a whole thing in the autumn.
Adam: I see. Now, the ash, obviously one hears a lot about this,
ash dieback. So, this tree looks quite healthy though.
Sally: Oooer
Adam: No, well okay, it doesn’t look healthy.
Sally: No, if you look at the top you can see the leaves the left
on it are only really in a sort of central area. All of these
branches which are extending to the edge, to the extremity, of the
tree are bare already.
Adam: Yes, so it’s not healthy. I’m a complete idiot. It doesn’t
look healthy at all. It looks very sick.
Sally: Sadly, the fact that it has dieback is now one of the key,
sort of, features to ID ash, which is very sad. [Adam: right] If
you see a tree that looks like, you know even in the height of
summer, that it’s lost quite a lot of its leaves, quite often that
will be an ash tree with ash dieback.
[Break]
Adam: So, you’ve stopped underneath, this tree, much darker bark.
So, what is it?
Sally: So, this is a wild cherry.
Adam: Okay, so, no cherries on it. So, before you sort of explain
the defining feature, can you just describe the tree generally?
Sally: Yes. So, it's another member of the rose family. So, leaves
are kind of similar to the apple in that their ovals and they sort
of emerge in these sprays, but they're a lot more pointed. And the
teeth around the edge, I would say, are a lot more defined. And
this one's sort of a medium-aged tree, I would say – like many in
Londonthorpe as they were planted in about the 90s, so. Um, the
bark has these, sort of, horizontal lines across it which are very
characteristic of cherry. And as you say, it's a dark colour. This
one's not as red as they come – they sometimes look a bit redder
than this.
Adam: Right. You can see, I think some of the branches have been
cut off, haven’t they? And there it looks red.
Sally: Yeah, yes, you can see the sort of red tinge to the wood
inside there. So, you mentioned it doesn't have any cherries on it
– we’re a bit late for cherries, ‘cause they’re something that’s in
season in the midsummer. That time of year, and the birds
absolutely love them, so they get hoovered up as soon as they’re on
the tree, basically as soon as they’re ripe. And that’s reflected
in the name, the scientific name of the trees. Prunus – so that
means they’re part of the plum and cherry family – and then avium
is the species name, obviously referring to birds there – so how
much they love the cherries.
Adam: So, so it's a good thing for the wildlife.
Sally: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Adam: Very nice. And then, so the leaves now. So, I know that you
were previously telling me what I thought was a leaf was a leaflet
– these, each individual one here is a leaf?
Sally: Yeah, these are simple leaves. So, yeah as you’d expect the
stalk joins directly to the woody stem and the whole leaf beyond
that is one single leaf.
Adam: So, the definition of a leaf is something that, sort of,
sprouts from a bud? [Sally: Yes, yeah] So each leaf will come from
its own individual bud on this cherry. Brilliant!
Sally: Let’s head on. [laugh]
[Walking, crunching of twigs under foot]
Sally: We’re coming up to the crab apple here.
Adam: Oh, oh, ok. So, this is a tree loaded with fruit – these
tiny, tiny, mini apples. So, this is, this is [Sally: this is a
crab apple] a crab apple.
Sally: So, if you look at the leaves again, they’re very similar to
the apple tree that we saw before, not much difference in the leaf.
Pale on the underside, and glossy on the top [Adam: right] and
arising in these little sprigs, but the apples are tiny. Um, and if
we try one [laughter] they’re… I’ll try one, I'll take one for the
team.
Adam: yeah, you take one for the team [laughs]
Sally: and you’ll tell by my reaction…
Adam: Oh okay, go on then…
[Laughter, inaudible]
Adam: It’s a lifetime of going ‘never eat anything’, well together.
Sally: Together.
Adam and Sally: Okay. One, two, three…
[Crunch, chomping]
Adam: Urgh, not keen on, I dunno its unusual.
Sally: It’s the aftertaste.
Adam: It’s unusual. It… hmmm.
Sally: It gets more sour, I think, the more you chew it.
Adam: It does. It does a bit.
Sally: Not as nice as the one that has been bred.
Adam: It’s not as nice. It’s a bit odd in a sense that no one ever
sells crab apples. You know, I mean.
Sally: Yeah. You can make this jelly.
Adam: crab apple jelly, I've heard of that.
Sally: Anything tastes nice when you bung a load of sugar on
top.
Adam: Yes, that’s true, that’s true.
[Laughter]
Adam: [joking] You could just eat the leaves, take the leaves and
chuck a load of sugar on, I don't know why. Now, I think I've had
my fill…
Sally: Strangely morish.
Adam: No, not for me. I'll stay with my apple.
[Laughter]
Sally: They’ve definitely got a bitter sour kick, haven’t
they?
Adam: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sally: Not as sweet.
Adam: Is it okay if I just throw this into the verge for the
animals?
Sally: There’s lots of windfall ones down there anyway.
Adam: I can see. Yeah, you don't have a cup of tea to take away the
taste, do you? [Laughter] No, no. So, there we are.
Sally: So, that was to demonstrate the difference between a
domestic apple and the crab apple. Which of course, is one of the
ancestors of the domestic apple.
Adam: Is it? [Laugh] I’ve been offered a polo to take away some of
the taste. Oh, go on, go on, I will have one. I said no, I will
have one. That’s very kind, thank you.
[Unwrapping a polo, laughter]
[Walking]
Adam: Right, we’ve come up to a very different looking one, which
has got very particular leaves and tiny little red berries. I know
that you don’t like to reveal the tree at the beginning because we
love the drama of it! Go on then, you talk me through this
tree.
Sally: Okay, so this one’s hawthorn. [Adam: Ahh right.] A common
component of hedgerows up and down the country. Also known as
quickthorn, sometimes, because it does grow very quickly. This
shows an example of how they can grow if they're not kept trim into
a hedgerow. So yes, there's that shrubby growth habit, even though
it's not being cut. And the leaves are very small. Yet another
member of the rose family and the leaves are, we describe as lobed,
so it has these, sort of, sticking out sections.
Adam: They’re much smaller. How ignorant a statement is it that
there's a similarity between this and an oak leaf?
Sally: Yeah, not too ignorant.
Adam: Not too ignorant.
Sally: Not too ignorant because they’re both lobed, both lobed
leaves, but the size is very different.
Adam: This is much smaller.
Sally: Um. So lovely autumn colour as you can see, they’re going
yellow in colour. So, if you're thinking about managing a hedgerow
for wildlife. You want to make sure that the tree is allowed to
produce its flowers and then later in the year produce berries. And
hawthorn and another hedgerow species in the UK, like blackthorn,
which we might see some later, they produce their flowers only on
the previous year's growth of wood. Which means if they’re flailed
annually – every year that new bit of growth gets chopped back to
where it was at the beginning of the year, and therefore it’s never
allowed to flower and therefore set berries. So, the pollinators
suffer from that, and the birds suffer because they don't have the
berries. The berries are a really important winter food.
Adam: So, it’s important actually, from a nature point of view, for
this to be a bit untidy. If you keep it too manicured, it'll never
flower, it will never have berries.
Sally: Yeah, and you can. The advice is that hedgerows – if you cut
them every three years, but you don't have to let them go out of
control, you can cut one side one year, and then the top and then
the next side, so that every year there's always some availability
for wildlife.
Adam: Okay that’s a good idea.
[Voices]
Adam: I think there’s a dog called Ian that’s got lost [Laughter].
So, if you’ve just heard that? Come here, Ian. Either it’s a
wayward husband or a wayward dog [Laughter]. Either of which we’re
going to pass them shortly… Ian, Ian looks like a dog! What an
unusual name for a dog… Hello Ian! [Laughter] No, Ian’s not
interested, he’s off!
[Laughter, voices, walking]
Adam: So, we’ve made another stop. So again, very different look.
So, do you want to describe it before we get to what it is?
Sally: Okay, yeah, this might be one. This is a very common one.
I'd say this is in the top two, top three.
Adam: It’s so embarrassing, I don’t even know what it is.
Sally: You haven’t got a clue, no?
Adam: I’m an idiot, so no…
Sally: So, if I if I say it's silver does that give you an
idea?
Adam: Birch!
Sally: It’s a silver birch!
Adam: Aww, yes, that helps me along, if only you were there during
my O levels.
[Laughter]
Adam: So yes, so it's got a very, it's got this very slender, it’s
got one very small, sort of, main trunk, which is silver. It's got,
are they called catskills?
Sally: Catkins!
Adam: Catkins! Sorry! Catkins, how would you describe these
then?
Sally: Yeah, I guess it's like a little sausage shape hanging down.
The ones that we’re looking at are from the previous year so
they’re very, sort of, dried up.
Adam: And these are the seeds are they or…
Sally: Yes, yes. So, they’re the flowering part. In the spring they
look, sort of, yellow and fresh. They release their pollen, so
we’ve got a little gust of wind to demonstrate how the seeds
disperse, and how the pollen is dispersed as well in this species.
So, a wood that is dominated by a lot of young, densely populated
birch trees - you can kind of get the idea that's probably a
naturally regenerated woodland because it's a good pioneer at
covering new ground.
Adam: And again, does it fruit or anything? Is it good for wildlife
if there’s something for birds and wildlife to eat off this?
Sally: It's a really popular one with blue tits because… not
because of the fruit, but because it's really popular with insects.
So, after oak, birch supports lots and lots of different insect
species. Oak supports the most, and ash as well, and birch is
definitely up there.
Adam: But why? Why is it? Why is it so supportive if there…? I
mean, if there’s no fruit on the thing? Surely something like
cherry or apple – that would support most because it’s easy to
eat?
Sally: Yeah. Well, the insects are after the leaves and the sap and
that sort of thing. So like aphids, caterpillars… [Adam: They like
this.] So, for the birds that eat aphids, caterpillars – like blue
tits – especially in the spring when they’re feeding their chicks
it’s a really important species.
Adam: Okay, onward.
[Walking]
Sally: Hello again, so you can’t see a huge amount of acorns on
this one.
Adam: Oh well, you’ve given it away! You always like keeping us in
suspense, but I know therefore we are looking at an oak. So, the
oak leaf is, sort of, our national symbol. I mean it's a symbol of
Woodland Trust anyway. [Sally: Exactly] You might as well describe
them though, for those that don’t know much about the
oak.
Sally: So, in this part of the country, we’re in the East Midlands,
you’re likely to see English oak, and that's characterised by a
leaf, which goes all the way up to the woody stem. There isn't any
exposed bare leafstalk in between. And on the acorns – the acorn
comes with a stem. Which is, that is the peduncle. Hence peduncular
oak. [Laughter]
Adam: That just reminded me of my French and German lessons. I’m
feeling a bit lost, but okay, but lots of other people won’t be
lost.
[Walking]
Adam: So, we’ve come across a clump of trees that are very similar.
Ah, they’ve all got little red berries on. An erm, I’m trying to
see. Ah, lovely little leaves. Now! Hold on a second. Hold on a
second here, see I am already learning. I would say this was ten
leaves, but actually, this is one leaf, and these are leaflets,
aren’t they?
Sally: Indeed, yep, you got it!
Adam: I’ve jumped to the top of the class! Okay, so that's very
good. So, there's a, there's a stem leading from the main woody,
woody branch and on that has a little collection of little leaves,
which are called leaflets. So what tree is this?
Sally: So, as you really correctly described that it's very similar
in leaf shape to the ash that we saw before. Which gives rise to
one of the common names of this species, which is mountain ash,
sometimes people describe it. But the most commonly used name is
rowan. [Adam: Right] So, it's a small tree. As we looking around
here, it's kind of, it's really standing out as part of the
understory here, under these taller ash and birch trees, because
they’ve all gone this really lovely orangey russet colour in their
autumn glory. [Inaudible]
Adam: Yes, they’re turning quicker than the other trees, aren’t
they?
Sally: Mmm. And their really bright berries stand out as well in
these lovely clusters of red…
Adam: I’ve seen, I’ve seen rowans that looks a lot nicer. These
look a bit bedraggled. Is that part of this particular tree or is
that the nature of the rowan?
Sally: I think it's because of the situation they’ve grown in here.
They’re under quite a bit of shade under other trees.
Adam: So, we've got these leaves, they have little red berries on
them and the main trunk thin, and well here, it’s sort of, a rusty
green colour. Is that fairly typical?
Sally: Mmm. Quite a pale, sort of, colour, and quite smooth. Erm
but, they never grow into a big tree I would say, is one of the key
features of them.
Adam: And er, good for nature?
Sally: Yeah, so we can see all the berries here, loved by
blackbirds. They are quite a common tree for people to plant in
their garden coz they don't grow too big. So yeah, lovely for
attracting the birds.
Adam: Very good. [Gap] OK, so we’ve come to another oak – very low.
Now, this is interesting, isn’t it? So, you can tell it’s an oak –
very big substantial leaves.
Sally: Mmm, it looks very healthy, doesn’t it?
Adam: It does, except what's odd is that all the branches start
really low down. [Sally: yeah] It feels like, I dunno, has man got
involved here, so has it been cut back? This is odd!
Sally: Yeah, well, it's a really interesting point that you make
because it shows how the situation that tree is growing in really
affects its growth habit. So, the oak that we saw before was
growing in woodland in dense situation with other trees in.
Adam: So, you have four, five foot at least of tree trunk before
you got any branches?
Sally: Yep.
Adam: This branch starts about ten centimetres off the ground.
Sally: Yeah. So, because that one that we saw before was growing in
the woodlands. It's grown competing for light. So, it's put all its
energy into growing upwards – tall and thin – which is good for
timber. That's what a forester would appreciate in a
tree.
Adam: This has grown out.
Sally: Whereas this one, because it's in an open space, it’s had
space to spread its wings as it were, to spread its branches out
and to really create this kind of bushy habit. And although this
is, this one's quite young, this is almost, I would describe it as
like a proto-ancient tree. It could, this one has the potential
because it's grown in this open situation and with a real sort of
broad base, stocky, stout growth habit, it has the potential to get
a lot older.
Adam: This is gonna be very stable.
Sally: Yeah.
Adam: It’s also a fun tree, to go… I mean I could climb to the top
of this tree, almost… just, because it’s about five foot high.
[Laughter] This is sort of fun. I could imagine kids hiding in
there, really lovely.
So, I didn’t realise, so, if you happen to be planting trees, you
know, if you’re lucky enough to have a garden where you can plant
trees, and you wanted this sort of thing, you’d put it in by
itself. And it’d grow nice and short, big round and lots of bushy
sort of stuff, because it's not competing, it’s putting its energy
elsewhere.
Sally: That’s it. It’s, sort of, characteristic of a type of
habitat that we call wood pasture, which is often… you'll see at
stately homes like in the nearby Belton estate, you get a scattered
collection of usually oak trees in an open grazed landscape, and
they’re… usually, they’re very old because they were planted or
established a long time ago. And because they grow in the open
area, they've withstood the test of time, so if they’re tall and
spindly they get blown over a lot more easily. But they last a lot
longer when they’re grown in the open.
Adam: Fantastic, okay, I’ll… I’m just going to take a photo of this
as well. [Gap] There we are. You’ve gotta stand there so I’ve got
something to scale [laughter]. Otherwise, it could be thirty foot
high! There we are, there we are, got it. [Laughter]
[Pause]
So, loads of trees, you’ve stopped by another one, which is very, I
mean it's very low. I can't even see the trunk here because of the
leaves. But it also stretches quite high, very bush-like, quite
large leaves. I'll, I'll let you do the rest [laugh].
Sally: Mmm, do you have any clue on it?
Adam: It’s got these things that I’ll mispronounce, I’m going to
mispronounce again. Catkills?
Sally: Catkins.
Adam: Catkins. So, these are the seeds, but these are much
prettier. Very small, delicate ones, umm err, there are individual
quite large hand-shaped leaves. [Sally: They’re broad.] Yes broad
leaves.
Sally: Shall I put you out of your misery?
Adam: Yeah, go on then… [laughter]
Sally: It’s hazel, this one [Adam: Right] So, you’re very correct
to observe that it's growing in, again, a shrublike habit.
Adam: That’s normal… that’s not just because of the way this tree
is?
Sally: Yeah, they have the habit of growing in that, kind of,
[Adam: Very low down] shape. They’re quite often coppiced and if
you go to an ancient woodland the traditional management practice
of managing a woodland would be coppicing the hazel.
Adam: Don’t you get hazel that you make fences out of and
stuff?
Sally: Yes. Yeah, that’s it!
Adam: Is it very bendy, the wood?
Sally: Yes so, the young… the reason why they would coppice it is
to get the regrowth that sprouts back. It’s then in narrow, sort
of, poles [Adam: Right] and has that flexible property. Um, yeah,
so also good for hazelnuts – your Ferrero Rocher [laugh]. I don’t
know if we are allowed to advertise on this [laugh].
Adam: Yes, that’s fine… The ambassador likes them, and other
nut-based chocolates are available, I suppose we should say. Okay
no hazelnuts at the moment, too early for that, or too
late?
Sally: I would say that it already is probably, you have to look on
the bottom of the branches…
Adam: It’s the right time but someone has nicked them
all.
Sally: It’s the right time but it could be the squirrels.
Adam: The squirrels have been here before us.
Sally: Yeah! Grey squirrels will take them even before they are
ripe. They will take them when they are still green. So, it's quite
often a bit of a challenge to actually find any nuts, but if you
do, they’re in a little cluster, usually of three and they have a
kind of, little frilly outer case to them and then a hazelnut, well
you know what a hazelnut looks like?
Adam: I do know what a hazelnut looks like! Well look, I think you
promised me ten trees, but we’re just not going to have time to do
them all. So, we might have to do another podcast. We won't get
another one in this year. We’ll have to wait until the next leaf
season.
Sally: We could do a winter, a spring…
Adam: I’d have to say I’d love to do a winter one, but aren’t you
just looking at bare trunks?
Sally: Winter is, yeah, next level up [laugh].
Adam: Could you identify the trees in winter?
Sally: Yeah, [inaudible]
Adam: Ah you see now; you see you shouldn’t have said that!
[Laughter] You shouldn’t have said it, because I will come back
then, and we’ll see how good you are at identifying completely bare
trees. I’d think that’d be quite an interesting thing to do.
Sally: I’d have to brush up. There are keys and guide that can help
you do it.
Adam: Well, and you say that, and of course the Woodland Trust has
its own tree identifier app [Sally: it does] and there are others
out there, there are books as well, you can use… as well as the
blog that goes along with this – photos will be on there!
Sally: In fact, um, if you become a member of the Woodland Trust,
you get a free little swatch book, which is like a pocket guide
with the most common trees that you are likely to see on there, so
you’ll be always armed, always armed!
Adam: Do you know I’m not sure I got that? Maybe, I don’t know! An
outrage! [Laughter] I probably got it and lost it is the truth!
Probably got it and lost it. [Laughter] Anyway, well
look…
Sally: Perhaps we’ll try and find you a new one.
Adam: Okay, that will be very kind. Okay good, so look I have
learned a properly enormous amount, I’m not just saying this, a
properly enormous amount today. I’m gonna listen back to what you
say and make some notes as well, because I don’t know, I don’t have
a professional interest in this at all, but I think it’s quite nice
not to wander around ignorantly, and just go ‘oh that’s a hazelnut,
that’s ash and there were lots of things you were saying about why
that’s good for birds’. And it’s, I mean your background is science
and you work for the Woodland Trust, but how difficult is it for
people to get a working knowledge of this stuff?
Sally: I don’t think it's too difficult to get to a point where you
feel familiar with your local collection of trees that you see on a
regular basis in your landscape and I think even if you take from
this session that we’ve done – if you take a couple more that you
knew before that’s getting you towards know a higher proportion of
them and then you’ll know which ones you can rule out if you’re
looking at something different, erm so yeah I think it’s very
doable, and I agree that it makes it a lot more… your walks, they
have an extra layer of meaning and you can read the landscape a bit
more.
Adam: [inaudible] And of course, I mean if you are new to the
Woodland Trust or not a member, new to woods, and you want to find
a woodland near you, you can go to the Woodland Trust website,
which is woodlandtrust.org.uk/findawood, and you can find a wood.
Thank you very much, it’s been a fantastic, fantastic day
out.
Sally: You’re very welcome, Adam I’m pleased you’ve learned
something.
Adam: Thank you.
Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join
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