Identifying deciduous trees and shrubs can be easy - provided it is spring, summer or autumn and the trees are in leaf. However in winter, their ID can be a more challenging affair. But there are ways of recognising them and often the best features to look for are the buds, the bark and the general size and shape of the tree or shrub.
A stroll through the woodland and down the public footpath will reveal many of our common tree and shrub species and in this first blog of the series I will introduce some of the larger trees that you may see when out and about at Langford.
Perhaps one of the most well known and loved trees we have is the pedunculate oak, or Quercus robur to give it it's scientific name. Older specimens can grown to be very large trees up to 40m, with broad trunks and large spreading crowns. The buds are small, brown coloured and clustered at the tips of the branches and the bark is very rough and deeply fissured. Look also for clusters of dead leaves still attached to the tree at this time of year.
Another well known tree is the ash, or Fraxinus excelsior. Another large tree that grows up to 37m, with older specimens having large, broad trunks. The bark of the ash is mostly smooth, especially in younger trees, but develops some roughness with age. The buds are very easy to recognize, as they are large, obvious on the twigs and black in colour. Look also for bunches of unfallen ash keys up in the tree.
Similar to the ash, the sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, also has smooth bark getting slightly rougher with age, however the buds of the sycamore are bright green. It too is a large tree, growing up to 35m. This is perhaps the commonest tree you will see in our woodland.
The largest trees to be seen at Langford are the hybrid black poplars, or Populus nigra var. dotted about the woodland. These are not our native wild black poplar (which is now quite a rare tree), but are a hybrid variety between our native black poplar and another poplar species. They have deeply fissured bark and are characterised by their massive size of up to 40m and huge crowns.
Look along the public footpath by the silt lagoons and you should see some large crack willows, or Salix fragilis. These are some of the biggest willow trees at Langford and the species can grow up to 25m. The branches are large and wide-angled, with rough, fissured bark and the buds are orange in colour and rather flattened along the length of the twig.
Look out for part 2 next week, where I will intorduce some of our common smaller trees and shrubs....