SO WHAT NOISE DOES EACH MAKE?
THE ASPEN
ONE of the easiest tree sounds to recognise, as its leaves are almost perpetually in motion. Their sound is often likened to rainfall; a gentle summer shower, perhaps. Indeed, the Romantic poet John Clare once described a young shepherd running for cover when he mistakes the sound of the aspen for the onset of rain.
THE POPLAR
POPLARS also shake their leaves in the slightest breeze. They are often described as ‘shivering’, while to me they sound like running stream water.
THE BIRCH
THE birch has small, fine leaves on wispy, pendulous branches. The word ‘sibilant’, for a hissing noise, could have been invented to describe their sound.
THE FIR
THOMAS HARDY describes them as ‘sobbing and moaning’ but the word usually applied to pines is ‘whispering’, as though they were passing on a secret from tree to tree.
THE BEECH
THOUGH soft when they emerge, beech leaves become drier and stiffer through
THE PLANE
THIS common urban street tree reminds me of breakers on a shingle beach.
THE LIME
ANOTHER common street tree, with heartshaped leaves that gather dirt as the year progresses. Their sound has been likened to someone flicking through a book.
THE GINKGO
THIS beautiful Chinese tree is being increasingly planted on our streets. It has leaves shaped like a goose’s foot, or a Chinese fan. The poet Julian May suggests they sound like the fluttering of oriental silk fans.
THE ELM
MATURE elm trees are now few and far between, and although young ones still sprout, they reach only 12 or 15ft before being reinfected with Dutch elm disease. If you are lucky enough to come across one, their sound is rather song-like. Thomas Hardy described it as a ‘melancholic Georgian melody’.
THE ASH
THE leaf of the ash is deeply divided into two rows of separate leaflets. The sound it makes is like that of an old man running his fingers through his hair.
THE HOLLY
HOLLY leaves are stiff and crisp, though the sharply pointed ones often grow only on the lower parts of a tree. They often make a whistling noise.
THE YEW
YEWS are associated with a lack of sound, seeming to absorb all the noises around them. Stand beneath a yew and appreciate the silence of this ancient, historic and, sometimes, rather sinister tree.