Tree Trail

Holm oaks are trickier to spot than other typical lobed leaved Oaks due to their dark green, glossy, Holly-like leaves. Although they’re often referred to as Holm Oaks their botanical name Quercus Ilex means Holly Oak (Holm being an ancient name for Holly) and they are evergreen just like Holly. A tell-tale sign that you’re under a Holm oak during Autumn are the small Acorns you find around the base and yet the tree is still in full leaf unlike the deciduous English and Turkey oaks whose leaves turn brown and drop every Autumn.

Look out for the unusual flowers in summer!

This Ash tree is unusual because it has simple leaves rather than compound leaves like most Ash trees have.

These have amazing cones, they almost look like sleigh bells

Weeping willows do well by water and their seeds are usually dispersed by water, that’s why we often see them on banks or by water.

We have two different types of Yew in the park but how do we tell the difference?
The English Yew grows with its branches and needles drooping in all directions whilst Irish on the other hand grows with its branches and needles reaching upwards like a flame and is much neater in appearance.
Although both are evergreen and classed as coniferous trees, (coniferous meaning cone bearing and usually has needles) both English & Irish Yew bare no cones and instead have a fleshy red fruit called an aril, the fruit encompasses a single seed.

We have two different types of Yew in the park but how do we tell the difference?
The English Yew grows with its branches and needles drooping in all directions whilst Irish on the other hand grows with its branches and needles reaching upwards like a flame and is much neater in appearance.
Although both are evergreen and classed as coniferous trees, (coniferous meaning cone bearing and usually has needles) both English & Irish Yew bare no cones and instead have a fleshy red fruit called an aril, the fruit encompasses a single seed.

Although its name suggests it would naturally fruit cucumbers it doesn’t. The unripe fruits from this tree, before ripening and turning red, do however resemble cucumbers therefore giving the tree its name.
The tree is a Magnolia with its botanical name being magnolia acuminata, it is native to Canada and widespread in the United States.
The Cucumbertree (one word) is a deciduous tree meaning it loses its leaves every Autumn. It also produces yellowish green flowers late spring to early summer.

This is one of the oldest trees the park – older than the park – imported during the creation.

This tree probably came from planting a large log called a ‘truncheon’. When this method is used, ‘truncheon’ rapidly produced a mass of new shoots, but the log rots back – which gives young trees an ancient appearance. Its leaves appear late and are heart-shaped. The fruit, which is ripe in late summer, is delicious but liable to cover the eater’s hands and clothes in blood-red stains!

This avenue of Lime trees was not in the original plans for the park. It was planted by local school children in 1953 to commemorate the Queen’s coronation. They are following a footpath that had existed since the early 1930s, and today, we still call it the Coronation walk.

This is another one of our oldest trees in the park!

The Purple Cherry Plum is a native from the Balkans to Iran. It is smothered in white to very pale pink flowers in the spring and cloaked in striking purple foliage throughout the summer. If you look carefully, you will see that the leaves are downy on the underside of the veins.

Identifying Ash trees in winter is probably one of the easiest to remember: Ash trees have beautiful black/ grey buds in Winter just as ash from a fire. Ash have Compound Pinnate leaves which means the leaves are split into further “leaves” called leaflets, on other species of tree they can be broken down further to bi-pinnate and even tri-pinnate leaves.

This is a beautiful and huge example of a beech tree.
Beech trees have what is known in botanical terms as a simple leaf and it is just that, simple, compared to other leaves.
The leaves have a fine down on the perimeter of them and are oval shaped.
The trunk of a beech is grey and smooth unlike some other trees in the park that you may describe the bark as Rough or Rugged like that of the Oak or Scaly, Camouflage or flakey like that of the Sycamore or London Plane. Beech trees are perhaps easier to identify in Winter when they have their buds on show. They have slender long brown buds that almost look like shortened versions of toothpicks.

This rather small tree is native to Southern Europe and the South of Ireland. Its grey-red trunk and twisted limbs support a dense, rounded canopy of vivid green leaves. The leaves themselves are small and usually edged with fine ‘teeth’. Fruits of the Strawberry Tree are edible, but as its Latin name suggests – unedo means ‘I have only once’) they are not very tasty!

Can you spot the Monkey puzzle tree on the island?

This is a beautiful specimen of a pine tree, it has huge female cones and you may be able to spot the smaller male cones too. Conifers are monoecious, this means that there are male and female cones on the same tree. Have a look at the long slender needles if you look very closely you will see that they have 3 edges. Pines usually have clusters of 2-5 needles, and this helps when trying to identify them. Spruce and fir usually only have single needles.

This tree is a native of Cyprus and Greece. In appearance, it is similar to the Strawberry tree, however, it is easy to tell the difference between the two by looking at the bark: the Hybrid Strawberry tree is in beautiful and vibrant ruby red tones, peeling away to reveal subtle pinks and creams.