Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Rowan: Three Romantic English Trees
It's tree talk time again, time to identify a few more trees which Carbon Army 3 will be planting over these next weeks for our intensive tree planting campaign.
We'll look at Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Rowan this week, their names sounding of poetry and novels, and though they do sound quite similar, but are they?
To start with Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, a deciduous, much branched shrub, quite smallish, growing only up to 5 metres, and famed for its sloe berries used to make jam and sloe gin.
It is found in lowland woodland margins, scrub and hedgerows, banks and bogs, on a wide range of soils. The green leaves are alternate and elliptic, the stems are dark to blackish, dense and thick with thorns in amongst the stalks, twisting and branching out in all directions. The white flowers give way to the fruit, similar to small plums that become the blue-black 'sloes' which are ripe in autumn.
The low-growing thorny bush makes an excellent protected site for shy nesting birds such as the nightingale, the leaves feed the caterpillars of brown and black hairstreak butterflies.
The Hawthorn is from the rose family, Rosaceae, growing as either a shrub or a tree, with white flowers and many thorns. It is broad and low, getting only 5–14 metres tall with trunk or stems of hard wood, ash-gray bark and thorny branches. The small, shiny leaves are dark green on top, lighter underneath, and have three irregularly toothed lobes, the white flowers have round petals and the fruit are large bright red berries, resembling a rosy miniature apple.
Hawthorns provide food and shelter for many species of birds and mammals, and the sweet smelling flowers are important for many nectar-feeding insects.
Like the Hawthorn, the Rowan tree is from the rose family, also deciduous, and generally a small and slender tree, reaching about 10-20 metres. However, Rowan have no thorns and grow in higher, more mountainous areas, the greyish-brown bark is smooth, and the leaves are made up of matched pairs of leaflets on either side of a stem with a leaflet at the top, the flowers again white, and berries bright red, growing in clumps.
Rowan is a good host tree for lichens, and the foliage is preferred by many different browsing animals, especially red deer and mountain hares feed on the plant, and many birds feed on the berries.
So there are three more magnificent trees to go out and spot on your walks through the countryside, something to take your mind off the chill in the air!
More very soon --Elaine
It's tree talk time again, time to identify a few more trees which Carbon Army 3 will be planting over these next weeks for our intensive tree planting campaign.
We'll look at Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Rowan this week, their names sounding of poetry and novels, and though they do sound quite similar, but are they?
To start with Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, a deciduous, much branched shrub, quite smallish, growing only up to 5 metres, and famed for its sloe berries used to make jam and sloe gin.
It is found in lowland woodland margins, scrub and hedgerows, banks and bogs, on a wide range of soils. The green leaves are alternate and elliptic, the stems are dark to blackish, dense and thick with thorns in amongst the stalks, twisting and branching out in all directions. The white flowers give way to the fruit, similar to small plums that become the blue-black 'sloes' which are ripe in autumn.
The low-growing thorny bush makes an excellent protected site for shy nesting birds such as the nightingale, the leaves feed the caterpillars of brown and black hairstreak butterflies.
The Hawthorn is from the rose family, Rosaceae, growing as either a shrub or a tree, with white flowers and many thorns. It is broad and low, getting only 5–14 metres tall with trunk or stems of hard wood, ash-gray bark and thorny branches. The small, shiny leaves are dark green on top, lighter underneath, and have three irregularly toothed lobes, the white flowers have round petals and the fruit are large bright red berries, resembling a rosy miniature apple.
Hawthorns provide food and shelter for many species of birds and mammals, and the sweet smelling flowers are important for many nectar-feeding insects.
Like the Hawthorn, the Rowan tree is from the rose family, also deciduous, and generally a small and slender tree, reaching about 10-20 metres. However, Rowan have no thorns and grow in higher, more mountainous areas, the greyish-brown bark is smooth, and the leaves are made up of matched pairs of leaflets on either side of a stem with a leaflet at the top, the flowers again white, and berries bright red, growing in clumps.
Rowan is a good host tree for lichens, and the foliage is preferred by many different browsing animals, especially red deer and mountain hares feed on the plant, and many birds feed on the berries.
So there are three more magnificent trees to go out and spot on your walks through the countryside, something to take your mind off the chill in the air!
More very soon --Elaine
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