{"id":25738,"date":"2021-11-02T14:59:04","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T14:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/?p=25738"},"modified":"2021-11-02T17:15:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T17:15:15","slug":"telling-your-trees-from-the-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/telling-your-trees-from-the-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling your trees from the wood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Enjoy forest bathing but don\u2019t know your mountain ash from your downy birch? Never fear – fellow botanical ignoramus David Lintern has a beginner\u2019s guide.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the summer, we went camping with the kids on the moors, pitching up for a couple of days near a small burn. After a brief but rigorous interrogation that any parent will recognise, I realised I had no clue what the slightly scrappy looking trees that lined the banks were. It\u2019s embarrassing to admit, but no surprise really \u2013 I grew up surrounded by bricks and concrete, far from where I stay now, and pretty cut off from the natural world. I\u2019m keen that my kids grow up knowing a little more than I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Felicity and Andrew<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I messaged a couple of people who do know about these things, and a few months later, found myself walking up the banks of a different burn with our guides for the day. Outdoor writer Felicity and forester Andrew are very involved in woodland regeneration \u2013 both at the Comrie Community Woodland and on their own small patch elsewhere – and I hope to revisit them there, another time. In the meantime, they\u2019ve been kind enough to share their decades of combined experience with us, here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learnt that there are around 20 tree species native to Scotland. We haven\u2019t included everything here, but it does mean we stand half a chance of getting to know them, over time. For me, doing a tree ID walk locally has been perfect, because it\u2019s repeatable. I just try to recall a little more, each time I\u2019m out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also learnt that trees are weird, their truths at least as strange as fiction. They can be multigender, form complex relationships with bugs and even have \u2018mouths\u2019. It\u2019s also fascinating to learn more about how our ancestors worked with them \u2013 not always in conflict, but often in collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the species that flummoxed me at the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alder<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Alder likes the damp and lines many of our small burns and rivers. The leaves are oval, medium sized and the trunks of old trees are often quite twisted. It was often managed through a process called coppicing (cutting young tree stems near the ground every so often, to encourage new growth) for firewood and fine grade charcoal, which because of its quality was often the first choice for gunpowder when mixed with saltpetre. The timber is very water resistant so was also used in pier structures and crannog \u2018stilts\u2019, as well as making clogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an amazing (and quite weird) act of plant-animal symbiosis, the alder provides a home for gall wasps (not pictured), who lay their eggs on young leaves. The tree then grows a protective gall around the larvae to shield itself from being eaten. The wasps provide food for many birds, including siskins, early warblers and blue tits. The ones that make it until autumn, fall with the leaf to the ground and pupate in the leaf litter, before repeating the process in the spring. There are hundreds of species of gall wasps, each adapted to individual tree species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wych Elm<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The native elm to Scotland has a broad, rough textured leaf with serrated edges. It grows well in hedges and likes riverbanks too. It\u2019s quite a resilient tree – it\u2019ll survive coppicing and if affected by Dutch elm disease, the roots can throw up new suckers even when the main trunk is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sycamore<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Sycamore is probably best identified by its Maple shaped leaf (think Canadian flag) and its red stem (or petiole<\/em> \u2013 the stalk that attaches the leaf to the twig or branch). Imported by the Romans, Sycamore is not technically native, but Andrew considers it \u2018naturalised\u2019. There are two other trees in the Maple family that are native to the UK, but they are smaller than this one. It\u2019s happiest near water, in rich, brown soils and is another tough species. Felicity points out they are often planted near farmhouses to provide shelter, and they thrive well on exposed coasts, seemingly impervious to salt laden winds. It is quite close to Ash in terms of its ecological niche and could replace it, should Dieback disease cause that population to collapse completely, which sadly seems likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holly<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A tree even I can recognise, Holly is an evergreen broadleaf with very dense timber that grows very slowly. It\u2019s dioecious, which means that the male and female flowers (berries) occur on different individual trees \u2013 these species need 2 parents, but most don\u2019t. Monoecious tree species have male and female flowers together on the same tree and then employ all manner of strategies to avoid self-pollination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically holly was valued as the best material for making riding crops. Side branches were trained and pruned of their lateral shoots and fashioned into crops and whips. It was also used in wood turning and as protective hedging, as well as for the seasonal decoration we\u2019re more familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scots Pine<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The only pine tree native to Scotland, and easily distinguished from other pine species by their twin-needles contained in a basal leaf sheath, which detach themselves as a \u2018wishbone\u2019. On a more mature tree, the upper branches also turn a salmon pink colour, which other species of pine don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n