Trees Back to Wildlife

This is a list of the major tree species found in the park, please click on a tree for more information. Some pictures and additional trees will be added in the future.

1. Alder, Common (Alnus glutinosa)
2. Ash (Fraxinus execlsior)
3. Aspen (Populus tremula)
4. Birch, silver (Betula pendula)
5. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
6. Cherry, wild (Prunus padum)
7. Crab apple (Malus sylvestris)
8. Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)
9. Elder (Sambucus nigra)
10. Elm, wych (Ulmus glabra)
11. Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
12. Hazel (Corylus avellona)
13. Holly (Ulex aquifolium)
14. Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
15. Maple, field (Acer campestre)
16. Oak, sessile (Quercus petraea)
17. Oak, pedurcutate (Quercus robur)
18. Rose, dog (Rosa canina)
19. Spindle (Enonymus europaeus)
20. Sycamore (Acer pesudoplatanus)
21. Willow, goat (Salix caprea)

Common Alder - (Alnus glutinosa)
Family: Birch
Average Height: 22m
Distinctive features: Round leaves, bark is rough and sprouts new shoots.
Top uses: Alder does not rot underwater so is often used to shore up canal and river banks. Other uses include production of tool handles and clogs.
Interesting facts: Alder has small nodules on the roots that contain bacteria that fix nitrogen, which is good for keeping the soil nutrient rich.

Ash - (Fraxinus execlsior)
Family: Ash
Average Height: 40m
Distinctive features: Leaves are long and come in 4 - 6 pairs along a stalk with a single leaf at the tip. From a distance they look light green and sparsely leaved, compared to other species.
Top uses: Walking sticks and lobster pots can be made from coppice which grows fast and straight.
Interesting facts: Ash is not seen as a good forestry tree due to its tendency to split, making it unsuitable for milling into planks. Ash is very bendy even when seasoned and can be used to create things that require curved objects.

Aspen - (Populus tremula)
Family: Willow
Average Height: 20m
Distinctive features: Has small rounded leaves, bark is silvery-green in colour and furrows with age.
Top uses: Decorative tree, not of any real use as a timber tree.
Interesting facts: Aspen uses both seeds and suckers to spread itself and create new trees making it versatile and adaptive.

Silver Birch - (Betula pendula)
Family: Birch
Average Height: 15-30m
Distinctive features: Silver bark
Top uses: Bark naturally peels and is excellent for fire lighting.
Interesting facts: Silver birch was one of the first trees to recolonise Britain after the last ice age and to this day is often one of the first species to move into an new area.

Blackthorn - (Prunus spinosa)
Family: Rose
Average Height: 4m
Distinctive features: Small ovular leaves with fine jagged edges, all limbs are covered in thorns with a tiny barb.
Top uses: Hedging is the primary use of blackthorn, it is a dense shrubby plant that prevents larger animals from passing.
Interesting facts: Blackthorn is the traditional wood for making shillelaghs, a heavy throwing stick for hunting, in Ireland. The sloe berries produced in autumn can be used to make sloe gin, a popular seasonal drink.

Cherry, Wild - (Prunus padum)
Family: Rose
Average Height: 9 - 12m
Distinctive features: Shiny bark that peels horizontally.
Top uses: Valuable timber that can be polished to resemble mahogany.
Interesting facts: Produces distinct white blossom in the spring and goes onto produce cherries, often eaten by birds long before they can be picked.

Crab Apple - (Malus sylvestris)
Family: Rose
Average Height: 9m
Distinctive features: Has a flaky bark and grows in a dense mass of small branches. Produces sour apples as a fruit, can be seen from late May in their small state.
Top uses: The wood of the Crab Apple is excellent for carving and burning, making it sought after by wood turners.
Interesting facts: All modern apples are derived from the the Crab Apple through the use of selective breeding and grafting onto roots. The Crab Apple is still essential to make fertile new apple species.

Dogwood - (Cornus sanguinea)
Family: Dogwood
Average Height: 4m
Distinctive features: Leaves are oval shaped, pointed and have distinct furrows on their surface.
Top uses: Used to be used to make secures for meat, used in butchers and in cooking to hold meat in shape.
Interesting facts: Most of the hedges in the Hadleigh Country Park car park are made from dogwood.

Elder - (Sambucus nigra)
Family: Honeysuckle
Average Height: 9m
Distinctive features: 5 - 7 opposing leaves on a stalk with one leaf at the tip. Cracked twisted bark. Small white flowers in large groups.
Top uses: The pith in the centre of the stems can be used to store biological samples. Flowers can be used to make elder-flower cordial.
Interesting facts: Can be used to make straws by pushing the piff out of the centre of the stems.

Hawthorn - (Crataegus monogyna)
Family: Rose
Average Height: 14m
Distinctive features: Leaves have deeply divided lobes, bark is smooth with sharp thorns.
Top uses: Hedgerows are the top use for hawthorn, they also make excellent firewood when dead and dry.
Interesting facts: In the 18th and 19th century over 200,000 hawthorns were planted to make hedgerows for livestock control. Hawthorn is seen as the May Day plant due to it flowering spectacularly in May.

Hazel - (Corylus avellona)
Family: Birch
Average Height: 9m
Distinctive features: Smooth bark, leaves are hairy on both sides. Hazel tends to grow straight.
Top uses: Making hazel mats for wattle fences by weaving hazel poles.
Interesting facts: Deliberate coppicing of hazel has been used for over 4000 years to produce rapid growing, long straight poles. A hazel pole can be bent and twisted through 180 degrees without snapping, making it a very useful tree for construction. (We used hazel in the walls of the roundhouse)

Holly - (Ulex aquifolium)
Family: Rose
Average Height: 20m
Distinctive features: Leaves are evergreen and have sharp spines around their edges. Distinctive red berries in autumn.
Top uses: Generally used for inlay work in carpentry, and in hedgerows.
Interesting facts: Only the leaves at the bottom of a holly bush are spiky, the higher leaves take on a more rounded shape as there is much less risk of being eaten out of reach of most mammals.

Hornbeam - (Carpinus betulus)
Family: Birch
Average Height: 24m
Distinctive features: Smooth bark with a very twisted structure. The leaves have distinctive red stalks.
Top uses: Pollarded to produce large amounts of good firewood, useful for charcoal. Was used to make cog teeth for water mills due to being exceptionally hard wood. Unsuitable for timber due to its twisted nature.
Interesting facts: Resistant to ring barking due to a layer of bast-like material between the bark and sapwood.

Field Maple - (Acer campestre)
Family: Maple
Average Height: 26m
Distinctive features: Leaves are opposite and have three main round-tipped lobes with two smaller lobes each side of the main. Bark is grey or light brown with fine shallow fissures.
Top uses: Due to the fine grain Maple is generally used for turning.
Interesting facts: Maple is a tough fine grained wood, making it useful for high quality carving or turning work. Often used to make musical instruments such as harps.

Sessile Oak - (Quercus petraea)
Family: Beech
Average Height: 40m
Distinctive features: Alternate lobed leaves with STALKS, acorns have NO STALKS. Bark is finely cracked and grey brown in colour.
Top uses: Bark contains tannin, a now man made chemical used to tan animal hides. Wood from oak is good for firewood and charcoal.
Interesting facts: The word "Sessile" means unstalked and refers to the acorns.

Pedunculate Oak, or English Oak - (Quercus robur)
Family: Beech
Average Height: 40m
Distinctive features: Alternate lobed leaves with NO STALKS, acorns have STALKS. young bark is smooth and shiny becoming fissured with age.
Top uses: Used in construction of ships, homes and buildings. Acorns used to be a very important winter pig feed.
Interesting facts: The word "robur" means sturdy, this variety of oak could not be felled until the advent of iron tools.

Dog Rose - (Rosa canina)
Family: Rose
Average Height: Shrub/climber
Distinctive features: Large sharp thorns on all stems, pink or white flowers, opposing leaves.
Top uses: None
Interesting facts: Most abundant of the naturally occurring roses. Can be one of the first species to colonise a new area.

Spindle - (Enonymus europaeus)
Family: Spindle
Average Height: 6m
Distinctive features: Has square stems when they are young, turns bright red in autumn and has distinctive pick fruits. Leaves are opposing, long and thin.
Top uses: Used to make spindles for wool making.
Interesting facts: The original English name for spindle has been lost and replaced with the imported name "spindle" from the Dutch.

Sycamore - (Acer pesudoplatanus)
Family: Maple
Average Height: 35m
Distinctive features: Very large leaves with three lobes, smooth grey bark turns pinkish brown with age.
Top uses: Fast growth makes it a good timber tree, producing straight wood that does not split.
Interesting facts: Sycamores provide heavy shade and in autumn shed a vast amount of leaf matter, this is generally what causes delays with trains due to "leaves on the track".

Goat Willow - (Salix caprea)
Family: Willow
Average Height: 15m
Distinctive features: Thin whispy stems that tend to hang down, leaves are alternate with very small teeth. Catkins are very distinctive with a silky texture and yellow flowers.
Top uses: Willow also contains tannin and the drug salicin which is used in medicine and led on to the invention of acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin.
Interesting facts: "Pussy Willow" is its popular name referring to the smooth texture of the catkins.

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