Trying to remember the trees I have met
I SPENT a day on a tree identification workshop and came back more confused than when I started.
To be fair, that wasn’t down to the person running the course, it’s just that when my head is full, it’s full and things start to spill out.
The first thing you have to get your head round is that we have only just over 30 native trees in the UK.
The site I was looking at had more than 100 species, some introduced, others were hybrids of a couple of species.
And it means there are lots of firs, quite a few oaks and different willows, other than our native goat willow and grey willow, which I can now tell apart.
And did you know that trees migrate?
Not like birds and insects, who have wings, but through seeds blown across huge continents over many thousands of years.
When the UK was cut off from the European mainland, 8,000 years ago, it stopped many species landing on our shores.
You thought I was going to talk about Brexit for a minute, but we’ve had quite enough of the that – this was trexit.
To be honest, this mass of information can be off-putting for most wildlife spotting and recording but the easy way to get over this is to keep things simple.
Just concentrate on one or two types of tree and once you get to know them you can begin to stretch out to other species and hybrids.
I had a brilliant day learning how to tell the difference using sight, sound, touch, smell and even taste – we ate some wild plums.
While you can tell most trees by looking at their shape, others are less obvious and you need to get into their bark and leaves.
Try to spot the difference between the leaf of an oak, a maple and a chestnut.
The best bit for me was actually touching the leaves and feeling a furry surface or following veins running from end to end.
The beech is amazing, it feels like such a delicate material that you barely want to hold it, but it is stretchy and strong. And there are some effects on the bark, including a ripple that is still intriguing scientists on some trees.
Being in a deep woodland really stirs your soul, particularly when you are among ancient trees.
Some of them tower above you and just imagine what they have seen over centuries.
And, of course, trees are amazing homes for wildlife – insects, birds and mammals all nest in and around our woods.
Woods are never quiet, there is bird song, buzzing of bees and the clatter of squirrels leaping around.
And the trees themselves are noisy with leaves shaking in the wind and rain and branches creaking, a bit like me when I get up in a morning.
With all this going on it’s no wonder I can’t retain information about the dozens of trees around me.
Days out like this do give you an appreciation of the splendour and diversity in our woodlands and should convince us all that they are worth protecting.