Ash

Interesting facts: Interesting facts: • Can press the nuts and get oil from them • True native • Deer, badgers, squirrels, mice and birds like to eat beech nuts Key identifying features: • Branches curve down and up again like • • The ground beneath them is often bare so it is Up to 40m a candelabra easy to see old tree’s gnarled roots • Bark smooth and grey when young but • Useful as it burns well and grows Story: rougher and darker when older quickly Key identifying features: • • Spring: • Up to 40m Wild in the wind in the – made up • It is a very adaptable wood – it can be of beech – Purply-yellow • Smooth silver-grey bark bent and is springy so can withstand • Read a section of this chapter given in the • Summer: • Spring/summer: shocks, and so is used in many sporting – Waxy teacher’s pack – Compound - leaflets grow in pairs on the goods, e.g. oars, billiard cues, hockey • Things to think about leaf stalk with a single leaflet at the end • Autumn: sticks, and also for furniture, carts and – Leaves turn rusty brown • Autumn: • How does it feel to be in the woods? handles – Beech nuts grow in small – Long contained in a key that spin like a prickly cases called masts • What can you hear/see? • Ash dieback disease – causes helicopter as they fall • Winter: • What kinds of animals live in the woods? Is widespread damage to ash trees, – Leaves fall off the tree when they are still – Narrow pointed there any evidence of them? green estimated losses are 60-90% in • Winter: Denmark, it has not reached Yorkshire – Black buds on the twigs yet – Some brown keys hang on

Birch

Interesting facts: • Small tree, very fast growing • Compared to other trees it does not live a long Interesting facts: time, they often live less than 100 years Key identifying features: • or small tree Key identifying features: • can be made from birchwood • 4-7m • Up to 26m • Seeds () are edible and rich in oil • Oil from the bark can be used as an insect • Bark white with pale grey • Bark smooth often shiny, can repellent and the sap is a natural shampoo • horizontal markings become cracked Squirrels bury these and help spread them • Spring: • Spring: • Wood is used for fencing and building – Brown with clouds of – Dangly yellow male flowers Folklore: • Forked sticks from hazel are used to find water yellow – Tiny red spiky female flowers • Summer: • In ancient times brooms made of twigs (water divining) were commonly used to drive out the spirits of • Summer: – Leaves are pale green and have – Leaves are rounded and soft with a pointy toothed edges the old year and were believed to ward off evil pointed tip • Autumn: • Broomsticks made of birch have the added Folklore: • Autumn: – Leaves turn golden yellow benefit of these protective qualities • Is the tree of wisdom and learning – Millions of small papery seeds – Hazelnuts from the catkins off in the • Winter: • Wands made of this wood symbolise white wind – Oval, smooth buds on hairy twigs magic Lime

Interesting facts: Interesting facts: • Soothing tea can be made from the • Can live for over 700 years Key identifying features: flowers, which is called tillelul Key identifying features: • The trees roots mirror its branches and stretch as far below ground as the • Up to 40m • Flowers are very fragrant when in full • Up to 30m branches do above • Dark grey or blackish bark blossom in July • Bark on older trees is thick, grey- brown and ridged • Look out for ‘knopper galls’ – gall wasps • Spring: • Are the noisiest of trees at this time – the lay their grubs in these trees • Spring: – Heart shaped leaf, tapered to a roar of bees in them can often be heard • Ships used to be made from oak, its wood point with -toothed edges – Male flowers called catkins 50 yards away is still used to make furniture – Tufts of hair on underside of leaf, • Aphids like sucking the sap of the tree – Early leaves are a brownish green make them feel furry! which makes the tree and anything • Summer: Myths: • Summer: underneath it sticky with honeydew – Leaves are dense and shady with a – lobed margin • Carrying a piece of oak with you gives you Yellow white flowers hang from • People carve beautiful things out of the , which look like leaves and • Autumn: good luck act as sails to carry ripe in wood – are green at first turning to • The largest oak tree in Britain is the Major the wind brown as they ripen Oak in Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood is • Winter: • Winter: said have hidden in a big hollow oak like – Tall trunk with upward pointing – Lots of twigs at the end of crooked that one. branches branches

Rowan Sweet Interesting facts: Interesting facts: • Is also called mountain ash Key identifying features: • Can live for over 500 years • Up to 20m • Berries are very attractive to birds and are an • Were introduced to Britain by the Romans – it is • Smooth shiny-grey bark important food source for migratory birds said that the soldiers were given a porridge made Key identifying features: • Spring: from these before going into battle • Rowan berries can be made into juice, jam and • Up to 35m – Before the leaves appear the jellies. • The nuts can be eaten roasted or can be ground young hairy twigs can be seen to • Smooth bark to make flour be tinged with purple • The flowers strong, sweet smell attracts flies and • Spring: beetles • Cakes and puddings can be made out of • Summer: – Shiny, large and spiky leaves sweetened chestnut puree – Pointed, toothed leaflets Folklore: with pointed teeth on the edges • The wood is very strong and so is grown for their – White creamy flowers in dense timber – often used as gateposts and stakes as clusters May-Jun • Thought to have protective powers • Autumn: they last a long time • Autumn: • Was once widely planted by houses as a – Leaves become golden yellow – Leaves turn dark red protection against witches – Hedgehog-like cases split open to shiny, brown- – Red berries in dense bunches stay • Boats made of this wood were said to be skinned nuts on the branches after the leaves protected from storms and from going off course have fallen • Winter: • Traditionally used to make spinning wheels – – Can see how the bark grows in • Winter: could relate to the story of Sleeping Beauty. spiral ridges around the trunk – Buds long and pointy Sycamore Holly

Interesting facts: Interesting facts: • Big and fast growing trees • Commonest native evergreen • When the seeds turn brown they spin like little • Birds eat the berries in winter when the food is helicopters to the ground and quickly take root Key identifying features: Key identifying features: scarce • Violins and floors are often made from sycamore • Up to 35m • Up to 15m • Bringing in boughs of holly to decorate houses is a wood custom which goes back to pre-Christian times • Smooth bark at first, then later • Shiny smooth leaves • In the spring/summer they are covered in aphids scaly • Margin of leaves variable – they • Male and female flowers grow on separate trees – which attract lots of blue tits the female ones smell nice • Spring: usually have sharp spines but they can be smooth – Bright yellow flowers – -shaped leaves • Smooth bark which is silvery or Folklore: dark grey • Autumn: • Widespread belief that cutting down whole holly – Leaves go golden yellow Interesting example of • Spring/summer: trees brings bad luck – Winged fruits that look like how the bark peels off – Small pink flowers May-Jun • Holly is seen as a charm against witchcraft clustered in the leaf axils bunches of keys – a good tree to take • It is often planted in hedgerows to prevent the • Winter: bark rubbings from. • Autumn/winter: passage of witches, who were known to run on – Tall knobbly trunks – Shiny red berries, often stay on the top of trees over winter – Green buds • Harry Potter’s wand is made of this wood

Pine e.g. Scots Yew

Interesting facts: Interesting facts: • Cones can be used for weather forecasting – mature cones forecast rain • Darkest leaves of all evergreen trees by closing up to protect seeds, and open Key identifying features: in dry weather • Are very poisonous • Up to 36m • Resin which seeps through and hardens on the outside of the trunk is a source of Key identifying features: • Live for a very long time, some are over 1000 years • Bare trunk antiseptic oil and is used for giving friction old – some have been at Fountains Abbey since the • Up to 25m • Bark is reddish-brown on the upper part to violin bows and ballet shoes time when the monks lived here of the trunk, lower down it’s grey or • Needles are wide, flat, soft and brown, rough and cracking into plates Folklore: finely pointed • Branches grow down to the ground and root • Needles are in pairs and are stiff and forming a new trunk and as a result of this unique pointed • Thought to have protective and healing • Bark is red or grey-brown and is properties way of growth the yew is a symbol of death and re- • Spring: smooth and flaky • Placing pine branches over the bed is birth – Male flowers have yellow pollen and thought to keep sickness away • Spring: female flowers are pine cones on the • Can be planted as hedges, made into mazes or cut tips on the shoots – Clouds of yellow pollen are • Summer: released when you tap the into interesting shapes male trees – After pollination pine cones seal up and Folklore: turn downwards. After 2 years they are • Autumn: ready to fall and release the winged seeds. – Bright red fruits on the female • Often planted over graves to protect and purify trees – sometimes called the dead ‘snotty gogs’ or ‘snottle berries’