Children best at name-that-tree

Nine-year-olds know more about Britain’s trees than people in their twenties and thirties, according to a survey.

The younger generation fared better than twentysomethings when asked to identify some of our most common species.

Fewer than half those aged 18 to 24 could identify an oak, compared with 59 per cent of children aged nine.

Just over 80 per cent of those in their late 20s and early 30s identified the holly, but that still lagged behind 94 per cent of youngsters who correctly identified it.

The survey was commissioned by the Woodland Trust to test people’s knowledge of trees, as the charity marked a 10-year partnership with Pearson, an education company that has helped support its Woodland Carbon scheme by planting thousands of trees.