AUTUMN LEAVES

Know your beech from your birch and your hazel from your hawthorn? Our handy guide will help you branch out.

Hazel

Toothed edge leaves, with a hairy underside, much like the caterpillars that like to munch them. May look like elm leaves, but softer to the touch.

Horse Chestnut

Introduced from Turkey in the late 16th century, in autumn it’s not the leaf that’s sought after, rather the fruit. It came, it saw, it conkered.

Sycamore

While the leaves are simple - with five distinct lobes - these trees are no softies. Hardy enough to survive coastal spray, they live for up to 400 years.

Lime

With this heart-shaped leaf, it’s all about what lies beneath. Flip it to discover prominent veins with small tufts of hair in the angles.

Beech

Like humans, these leaves darken and lose their hair as they age. Unlike mere mortals, however, they can live for hundreds of years.

Birch

For Celts, birches were a symbol of renewal. Think on that as you watch their yellowed, triangular leaves flutter downwards - spring will come again. Once seen to symbolise death, Hawthorn actually teems with life and can support more than 300 insects. Just perhaps not all on one 6cm leaf. The only wavering associated with the steadfast oak is its leaf shape; slow and steady, it doesn’t produce acorns until it’s at least 40. Once believed to prevent travellers from getting lost, you’ll find this tree through its pinnate leaves; five to eight pairs plus one terminal leaflet. Images courtesy of the Woodland Trust Image Library (woodlandtrust.org.uk/autumn).

Hawthorn Oak Rowan