TREES FOR WILDLIFE

PLANT A TREE AND HELP TO SAVE THE PLANET

EUCALYPTUS

The tree to tackle climate change, storing more carbon than any other, according to recent research. Elegant, with beautiful bark, but tall: in smaller gardens, coppice each spring for thickets of silvery stems.

YEW

Famously long-lived, yew locks up carbon for centuries. Birds love the lipstick-red berries (they’re poisonous to most mammals) and its dense, dark evergreen heart provides year-round shelter.

HAWTHORN

Craggy hawthorns may be pint-sized but they’re one-stop shops for wildlife: small creatures shelter among their thorns, bees sip the frothy blossom, and birds feast on scarlet autumn haws.

OAK

The poster tree for biodiversity, with stately, spreading branches supporting 2,300 different species of bird, mammal and insect. English oaks grow massive, but for smaller gardens slender Quercus palustris ‘Green Pillar’ is an elegant alternative.