Native or Naturalised Trees
Native trees are thought to have been growing in Britain for about twelve thousand years, whereas naturalised trees are those which have established themselves more recently. The sweet chestnut, for example, is not native but has naturalised from Europe over the last thousand years!
Britain's Native Trees
Britain has over fifty native trees, many of which are familiar to us in our everyday lives; from the distinctive dark green, prickly leaves of the festive holly, to the nuts in the supermarket from the hazel trees, to the majestic oak that's steeped in myths, symbolism, history and culture. Even with the more unusual or rarer native trees that may be difficult to identify or relate to in some way visually, who hasn't heard of the dangerous yew tree associated with graveyards up and down the country.
There's much to benefit from our native trees (and many naturalised trees), not least they provide shelter and food for our many creatures great and small, and many feed us too or can be made use of in other ways.
The poisonous yew tree, for example - one of only three coniferous species (trees that bear cones and needle-like leaves) - is highly toxic but used by scientists to make a number of drugs for cancer treatments.
We'll be adding more about our different native trees over the coming months, including a post about yew trees and their wonderful pollen display!
Tap-Tap...Drawing Trees
But it's back to the drawing board for Claire, and back to drawing trees - the sweet chestnut!
A number of trees provide shelter and food for the wildlife that features in our bee book; the sweet chestnut tree is one such tree, home to the woodpecker in our story, so more coming on that in the coming weeks...
And now, a few seconds of the tranquility to be found beneath a local native hazelnut tree from the garden....ahhhh....
For behind-the-scenes updates on creating our bee book, beautiful images of the nature found in and around the garden, information about encouraging and experiencing the wildlife that's often just beyond the doorstep, as well as the occasional relaxing video -
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