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Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to every common species
Paul Sterry
An essential guide to every species of tree found in the British Isles – outside of arboretumsThis easy-to-use guide covers the 360 species of tree that are found in Britain & Ireland. Each species is covered in detail with information on how to identify, whether from a leaf, twig, bark or whole tree, plus extra information on where the tree grows (including a map), how high they grow, what uses it is put to and history.Every species is also comprehensively illustrated with photographs of every useful feature – bark, leaf, seed, flower, twig and whole tree.Sample identification section:Silver Birch Betula pendula (Betulaceae) height to 26mA slender, fast-growing deciduous tree with a narrow, tapering crown when young and growing vigorously. Older trees acquire a weeping habit, especially if growing in an open, uncrowded situation.
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_e80b1aca-5df3-5fff-8f0c-c0a96b703eb6)
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
The Collins website address is: http://www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk).
Collins is a registered trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
First published in 2007
Text © 2007 Paul Sterry
Photographs © Individual photographers as indicated in the picture credits
Paul Sterry asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Source ISBN: 9780007211777
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780008144593
Version: 2015-04-22
Colour reproduction by Nature Photographers Ltd
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
DEDICATION (#ulink_e787005c-d56c-5e46-b691-496d9497e21b)
The book is dedicated to the memory of Bramley Frith.
CONTENTS
Cover (#uec6544f0-cdf8-5770-91f0-43e00e2f3519)
Title Page (#u52321872-d945-5735-88bf-bdc8f02cd288)
Copyright (#ulink_b4f43c9b-90a0-5441-9ddf-7997e86ede72)
Dedication (#ulink_424eaf2f-822a-5738-8238-a83c8fc8cb8c)
Introduction (#ulink_50771edb-c26d-5b58-a3c6-d8b2b567eeec)
How to Use this Book (#ulink_c79cc358-e193-5b21-b3d6-bd004eb0a417)
Glossary (#ulink_18aa40df-d251-5fee-ad99-67e1fbebfea4)
Basic Tree Biology (#ulink_533a57ab-7744-55cb-b7a1-c52eefd18d2b)
What is a Tree? (#ulink_7eacddeb-aaea-51ec-aa99-c6faaf2183cd)
Tree and Shrub Families in Britain and Ireland (#ulink_30ddb860-b3b4-57fa-9d07-d75f056f4756)
Identifying Trees (#ulink_e1bb28ac-c2d2-5f17-9ef5-c29b278fb4c5)
The Life Cycle of a Tree (#ulink_f6efea17-8ffe-5e61-aff8-7c007d4abfc8)
Growth Rings and Ageing a Tree in the Field (#ulink_780a1f94-b2b3-5ae4-ab86-1cc35d867b3c)
The Ecology of Trees and Woodland (#ulink_13d76421-9bea-52b3-bad9-3e294ea97167)
Fungi, Trees and Woodland (#ulink_cb925825-a45f-5e80-8356-6904de3c484f)
Galls (#ulink_5da539c6-4283-5e0e-9009-cb0516d408ea)
Mosses, Liverworts and Lichens (#ulink_c6f1c56f-ef88-5d07-ad01-634c7833fdec)
Hedgerows (#ulink_e813b8c5-0d3b-5642-820a-c838a718e159)
Winter Twigs (#ulink_e5a46e81-9aab-59b4-821a-3e04e11431fc)
Comparing Leaves of Common Trees and Shrubs (#ulink_6762c2a4-e660-599f-ae1a-13b1a1c1ed75)
Comparing the Bark of Common Trees and Shrubs (#ulink_b616d2ef-f0f0-5cce-aa24-42051749089e)
Fruits and Seeds (#ulink_48061bb0-4d2d-596c-9af4-faceba0fbfba)
History of Woodland Management (#ulink_c3ce6680-4ce2-5ac2-af8c-35cd62da215b)
Traditional Timber Uses (#ulink_b36e5aeb-248f-5ed9-b4f0-1bc86e2c8439)
How to Use an Oak Tree (#ulink_b6845960-8e75-5ef7-b932-1a899a2bc758)
Recognising Timber (#ulink_0f59f386-b01d-5386-8565-f62cc503d9f8)
Places to Visit (#ulink_75c98475-65dd-5f08-a709-bcc1291a6cc3)
Conservation (#ulink_3082a024-34ef-5104-9658-fa070000e2a7)
Species Descriptions (#ulink_91259e85-02ab-5ec3-bb38-eb82b42ec91c)
Keep Reading (#u5ce1992b-c9d8-5ca2-a7a9-b02fa72659c0)
Further Reading (#ulink_d3ba0b3c-afe2-5bd0-83fb-8bffd92bc220)
Index (#ulink_009f4c1c-663a-5b80-8121-0d3884080b51)
About the Publisher (#ulink_2e580fc4-e03f-5ff7-a1ca-988893ce8436)
INTRODUCTION (#ulink_bf6bfcea-268e-5649-b562-da1c25c4ed7c)
Trees and shrubs are such a feature of the British scene that many people take them for granted. However, imagine what the landscape (not to mention the parks and gardens) of Great Britain and Ireland would be like without them and you can begin to appreciate their significance. Indeed, in many ways it is our trees and shrubs, more than other living things, that help define what we think of as the British countryside.
Native tree species have an ecological significance that goes beyond their individual presence. The role they play in the ecology of our native woodlands particularly fascinates me, perhaps more than their appearance. So I make no apologies for this book being biased in favour of native species. However, introduced trees and shrubs also have a role to play in today’s world. Some are widely naturalised, many soften our otherwise often brutal urban landscapes and still more are familiar and valued features of mature gardens. Consequently, I have included a wide range of familiar planted species, along with a selection of more unusual or exotic trees and shrubs mostly associated with collections and arboreta.
Whether planted or growing in the wild, the Common Beech produces autumn colours that cannot fail to lift the spirits.
Known best for its colourful berries, the Rowan is widely planted in urban settings and is a welcome sight in autumn.
My personal interest in trees and shrubs extends beyond enjoyment of trees for their own sake and their role in our ecology. I am also fascinated by the uses of timber and tree products in woodland crafts and traditional practices. Sections of the book reflect this interest.
THE REGION COVERED BY THIS BOOK
The region covered by the book comprises the whole of mainland England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, as well as offshore islands including the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Scilly and the Channel Islands.
THE CHOICE OF SPECIES
The coverage of the book is restricted mainly to what most people understand to be trees and larger shrubs; the former are usually defined as single-boled plants with a trunk that exceeds 5m, while shrubs are typically multi-stemmed. However, for the sake of completeness, and as a minor self-indulgence, I have also included native members of tree groups such as willows and birches that should not qualify for inclusion, in the strict sense, on the grounds that they are too small.
Complete British Trees will enable amateur naturalists to identify all native and widely naturalised tree and shrub species found growing wild in the British countryside. With an eye to the exotic, it also allows naturalists and gardeners alike to identify ornamentally planted trees, and to anticipate what any given specimen tree will look like if bought and planted. I hope that the range of popular garden species included in the book helps in this regard.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK (#ulink_9d949b51-4008-528f-aeac-883948f87ff0)
The book has been designed so that the text and photographs for each species are on facing pages. A system of labelling clearly identifies each tree or shrub. The text complements the information conveyed by the photographs. By and large, the order in which species appear in the main section of the book roughly follows standard botanical classification. However, because parts of the field are in a state of flux, the order may differ slightly from that found in other guides, past, present or future.
SPECIES DESCRIPTIONS
At the start of each species description the most commonly used and current English name is given. My primary source of reference for this, and for scientific names, has been Clive Stace’s New Flora of the British Isles. Essentially this covers native and widely naturalised British species. For non-native garden trees and shrubs I have followed the naming employed by Owen Johnson in Collins’ Tree Guide.
The English name of each plant is followed by its scientific name, which comprises the genus name followed by the specific name. In a few instances, where this is pertinent, reference is made (either in the species heading or in the main body of the text) to a further subdivision: subspecies. Some cultivated trees and shrubs are known best, or sometimes exclusively, by their cultivar name, so where this helps with recognition I have included it; some hybrid trees and shrubs are now known only by their horticultural names.
The text has been written in as concise a manner as possible. Each description begins with a summary of the tree or shrub. To avoid potential ambiguities, the following subheadings break up the rest of each species description: BARK; BRANCHES (occasionally SHOOTS); LEAVES; REPRODUCTIVE PARTS; STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION; COMMENTS. Not all these headings are used for every species. Within the sections dealing with plant parts, colour, shape and size are described; these tend to be more constant, and hence are more useful for identification, than the overall size of the tree or shrub.
MAPS
The maps provide invaluable information about the distribution and occurrence of species in the region, but obviously they are only relevant in the case of native species and widely naturalised ones. Magenta has been used to represent the range of native species while cyan denotes the occurrence of naturalised alien trees or shrubs; the intensity of the colour gives an indication of a species’ abundance in a given area. In compiling the maps, I have made reference to a number of sources, including An Atlas of the Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe, various county floras, the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora and my own notes. The maps represent the current ranges of trees and shrubs in the region in general terms. Please bear in mind that, given the size of the maps, small and isolated populations will not necessarily be featured. Furthermore, the ranges of many species (particularly invasive introduced species and declining native trees and shrubs) are likely to change as the years go by.
Map coloration helps distinguish between the native and introduced distributions of species such as the Scots Pine.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Great care has gone into the selection of photographs for this book and in many cases the images have been taken specifically for this project. Preference was given to photographs that serve both to illustrate key identification features of a species and to emphasise its beauty. In many instances, smaller inset photographs illustrate features useful for identification that are not shown clearly by the main image.
GLOSSARY (#ulink_e1842a90-6df3-51f6-a446-b07ca48d0549)
Achene – one-seeded dry fruit that does not split.
Acute – sharply pointed.
Alien – introduced by man from another part of the world.
Alternate – not opposite.
Anther – pollen-bearing tip of the stamen.
Auricle – one of a pair of lobes at the base of a leaf.
Axil – angle between the upper surface of a leaf, or its stalk, and the stem on which it is carried.
Berry – fleshy, soft-coated fruit containing several seeds.
Bract – modified, often scale-like leaf found at the base of flower stalks in some species.
Calcareous – containing calcium, the source typically being chalk or limestone.
Calyx – outer part of a flower, comprising the sepals.
Capsule – dry fruit that splits to liberate its seeds.
Catkin – hanging spike of tiny flowers.
Clasping – descriptive of leaf bases that have backward-pointing lobes which wrap around the stem.
Compound – (of leaves) divided into a number of leaflets.
Cordate – heart-shaped at the base.
Corolla – the collective term for the petals.
Cultivar – plant variety created by cultivation.
Deciduous – plant whose leaves fall in autumn.
Dentate – toothed.
Dioecious – having male and female flowers on separate plants.
Drupe – succulent or spongy fruit, usually with a hard-coated single seed.
