Gardeners Tips

Common Ash trees row widely in the UK and other Ashes grow in Asia and America. Our Ash has dark almost black buds and some species have interesting flowers but it is as a tree the provided wood to make bows that the Ash is best known in Britain.

Key Features of the Ash

• Latin name – Fraxinus excelsior – other names; Common Ash or European Ash
• Height – up to 150 feet
• Type of tree – Deciduous
• Leaves – Green pinate with 7-15 ovate-oblong leaflets
• Flowers – small purplish in short clusters
• Fruit – winged keys in clusters of glossy green turning brown
• Bark – grey-brown fissured when mature
• Family – Oleaceae

Origins and Distribution of the Ash

• Grows widely across Europe and there are many North American species.
• Tolerant of wind swept and coastal areas.

Uses and Attributes of the Ash

• Ash can make a noble shade tree quite quickly.
• Use to make bows, hurling sticks, baseball bats and historically car and plane frames.
• Strong, flexible and easy to turn the wood also burns well and is used in some smoking.

Gardeners Tips for the Ash

• Select a smaller growing variety like the Manna Ash.
• Dislikes sandy or acid soil.
• Weeping Ash make a statement tree.

Other types of Ash and key species

• Members of the Sorbus family, Mountain Ashes or Rowans are unrelated.
• Fraxinus is an extensive genus of hardy Ash trees including White Ash or Autumn Purple Ash, Black Ash, Blue Ash, Singleleaf Ash and Fragrant Ash.
• The Ornus group of Ashes are attractive flowering trees also called Manna Ash.

Ash comments from elsewhere

• In Norse mythology the first man was made from Ash.
• Yggdrasil the ‘Tree of the World’ is thought to be an Ash

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits
frêne fraxinus by Luberon (sb) CC BY-NC 2.0
Common Ash Tree by denovich CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Ash Tree by Gemma Grace CC BY-NC 2.0

The Sycamore is a picturesque tree the largest member of the European maples. It is one of the most common trees in the northern temperate zones enjoying exposed situations in most types of soil.

Key Features of the Sycamore

• Latin name – Acer pseudoplantanus – other common names; False plane-tree, Scottish maple, or mock-plane.
• Height – 120-140 feet
• Type of tree – Deciduous
• Leaves – Grey palmate leaves with 5 toothed lobes
• Flowers – Borne in pendulous clusters, green insignificant
• Fruit – Winged keys in pairs.
• Bark – Grey-pink
• Family – Aceracea

Origins and Distribution of the Sycamore

• Western Europe and Northern temperate zones.
• Colonises open ground with some success.

Uses and Attributes of the Sycamore

• Strong creamy white timber is not durable outdoors.
• Sycamore is used for flooring, furniture making and joinery.

Gardeners Tips for the Sycamore

• The seeds are held in pairs with wings that allow the seed to spin and ‘helicopter’ down some distance from the aprent tree.
• Leaves can attract a fungus that leaves the leaves with unsightly black or red spots .
• The mature trees have a large canopy and are not suitable for small gardens.

Other types of Sycamore and key species

• Sycamores are not to be confused with Plane trees the ‘American Sycamore’ Platanus occidentalis, Platanus racemosa or Platanus wrightii the Arizona sycamore nor with Ficus sycomorus a fig.
• Atropurpureum has purple undersides to the leaf and ‘Brilliantissimum’ is a cultivar notable for the bright salmon-pink colour of the young foliage.

Sycamore comments from elsewhere

• Sycamore was the favoured wood for making ‘love spoons’ in Wales. These wedding gifts are linked with rings and were traditionally made from a single peice of wood.
• The Drumlanrig Sycamore is reputed to be the UK’s tallest sycamore.It dates back to the 18th Century and is one of the largest girth and spread in Britain. It is one of Scotland’s top 100 Heritage Trees.

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits
The Drumlanrig Sycamore by I like CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Sycamore Gap – Hadrian’s Wall by El Villano CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Sycamore in Bud by Durlston Country Park CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Sycamore Gap by Jonathan_W CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ‘Sycamore Gap is where they filmed on of the opening scenes in “Robin Hood Price of Thieves”

The slow growing Yew is one of the longest lived trees capable of living for thousands of years. Britains oldest Yew in Fortingall is believed to be over 3000+ years old.

Key Features of the Yew

• Latin name – Taxus baccata other common names English Yew, European Yew or Common Yew
• Height – up to 80 feet
• Type of tree – Evergreen Conifer
• Leaves – Flat sharp-pointed needles growing in a spiral around upright shoots
• Flowers – Male spherical catkins beneath shoots, female tiny buds near shoot ends generally on separate trees
• Fruit – Single seeds encased in a red berry
• Bark – Grey-brown with scaly patches revealing purple-red bark underneath
• Family – Taxacea

Origins and Distribution of the

• Yews have survived for many thousands of years and have adapted to climate changes
• Native to the UK, western, central and southern Europe and as far south as northwest Africa.

Uses and Attributes of the

• All parts of the Yew are poisonous and should be treated with care. There are new compounds (taxol) being developed from the tree to fight cancer.
• The wood is hard, elastic and resistant to water. It was used to make long bows.
• The Yew is associated with folklore and is often found in churchyards.

Gardeners Tips for the Yew

• The yew can be clipped or pruned into topiary and makes a good hedge or wind break. As it is slow growing it is easy to keep it within bounds.
• Old trees can have a girth of 20-30 feet.
• Will grow on dry chalky soils and in the shade.
• Taxus boccata ‘Erecta’ is a columnar form worth growing in your garden.

Other types of Yew

• Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’ or the Irish Yew is one of over 100 cultivars and the several cultivars with yellow leaves are collectively known as “Golden Yew”.
• Taxus brevifolia or the Pacific Yew is native to northwest America.

Yew comments from elsewhere

• ‘The Yew is considered to be the most potent tree for protection against evil, a means of connecting to your ancestors, a bringer of dreams and otherworld journeys and a symbol of the old magic. In hot weather it gives off a resinous vapour which shamans inhaled to gain visions. Yew wood was regarded as especially magical to the Celts, due to its connection with the dead and the ancestors which were deeply respected. Archaeologists have recently found well-preserved Yew wood carvings at ancient sites of springs and wells which were probably votive offerings. ‘read the full story on White Dragon

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits
Yews, Stow on the Wold by 1967geezer CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ‘A pair of yew trees flanking St Edward’s church door.’
Yew – Taxus baccata by lifeinthewild CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Larch trees are common in forestry plantations and high ground in the UK. Larch are fast growing and loose there leaves in winter. The wood from Common Larch trees is still used for a range of purposes.

Key Features of the Common Larch

• Latin name – Larix decidua other common names European Larch
• Height – up to 120 feet
• Type of tree – Deciduous Conifer
• Leaves – flat soft needles growing in whorls on side shoots and stems
• Flowers – male yellow, female pink catkins
• Fruit – oval brown cones with straight scales and visible bracts
• Bark – Grey, smooth when young fissuring with age
• Family – Pinaceae

Origins and Distribution of the Common Larch

• Indigenous to hilly regions of Europe.
• Now widely planted in north America.

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The name Hornbeam derives from ‘hard tree’ a reference to the property of the extremely tough wood.

Key Features of the Hornbeam

• Latin name Carpinus Betulus other common names Ironwood, American hornbeam, blue-beech, or musclewood
• Height up to 80 feet spread useful for hedges
• Type of tree – Deciduous – dictoyledons
• Leaves – Dark green, oval, double toothed with ridges.
• Flowers Male and female catkins on the same tree
• Fruit Ribbed nut held in a three leaved bract
• Bark Silver grey and smooth
• Family Corylaceae related to Birch and Hazels

Origins and Distribution of the Hornbeam

• Found in Europe and China.
• Other species are also found in America.

Uses and Commercial Attributes of Hornbeam

• Traditionally the hard white wood was used for Ox yokes, tools, butchers blocks and mill cogs.
• Can be coppiced for charcoal production.
• Chess peices and piano actions can be made from Hornbeam

Gardeners Tips for the Hornbeam

• Makes a good stout hedge and retains leaves through autumn.
• Hornbeam tolerate quite deep shade.
• Make good bonsai subjects

Other types of Hornbeam and Species

• The Oriental Hornbeam Carpinus orientalis occurs in southeast Europe and southwest Asia
• The Japanese Hornbeam Carpinus japonica is similar to Carpinus orientalis
• The North American species, American Hornbeam Carpinus caroliniana is similar to Carpinus betulus in leaf size and shape.

Hornbeam comments from elsewhere

Hornbeams were once coppiced and pollarded (cut back to promote new growth) on a regular basis in its native woodlands of south and south-east Britain. Epping Forest in Essex, where this practice took place, is now protected and is home to thousands of hornbeams that live alongside oak, beech, birch and holly trees.

One of the reasons Carpinus betulus can live in such close proximity to these large trees is that it is extremely tolerant to shade. However, it prefers a warm climate and does not live above 600 metres, restricting its natural habitat to the more southerly parts of Britain. Kew Gardens

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits
Beneath the hornbeam on a summer afternoon by pcgn7 CC BY-NC 2.0
“Hornbeam with mushrooms by OpenEye CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Hornbeam leaf the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2