- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^42) Environment
Tony Hall
I
am not exactly sure where
my love of trees came from,
but I do remember from
a young age seeing fallen
acorns under a huge oak tree
and being told that this tree
had produced all of these and that
each one, like the one I had picked
up , could grow into an oak tree and
be hundreds of years old.
After spending a lifetime
working with trees, they continue
to amaze me with their ability to
grow and adapt through decades,
and in many cases centuries, of
seasonal change.
Recently we’ve discovered their
mechanism for communicating
with each other below ground,which has become known as
the wood wide web. The web is
most active in areas of unworked
woodlands and forests, such
as ancient woods, where the
soil has been left undisturbed
for centuries. This has led to an
extensive underground network,
linking trees , young and old,
helping them fl ourish as one
giant super organism. They share
nutrients and even warn each other
of attacks from pests.- An oak tree in Chirk, Wales
From my childhood days, the
majestic oak has remained one of
my favourite s. After the yew, they
are the longest -lived of our native
trees, living up to – and occasionally
exceeding – a thousand years, and
supporting the highest associated
biodiversity, hosting hundreds of
species of moths, butterfl ies, other
insects, birds and mammals, as well
as ferns, fungi, lichens and mosses.
With oaks there continues
to be life after death. Ancient
oaks are brilliant as deadwood
habitat, providing a niche for some
Tall stories In praise of Britain’s great
trees, avenues and ancient woodlands
A new book celebrates
our extraordinary trees
– from centuries-old
oaks to walking yewspedunculate oak named King
Off a’s oak , after the eighth-century
Mercian king, and is said to date
back to AD710. It has the largest
girth – more than 11 metres (36 ft) –
of the ancient oaks in the park. Not
surprisingly, the centuries have
taken their toll. Two individual
sections are propped and part ly
collapsed, and a third section lies on
the ground. However, King Off a’s
oak has lots of healthy parts that
produce new growth every year.- Wyndham’s oak, Dorset
This is also called the Silton oak and
the Judge’s oak and is thought to
be between 700 and 800 years old.
Now standing in the meadow with
few other trees, it is thought to have
been a boundary tree on the edge of
the Gillingham Royal Forest , once a
royal hunting forest. - Saltram sycamore, Devon
With its many trunks, it stands in
the car park at Saltram House. Old
trees often have interesting stories
to tell, but mystery surrounds this
outstanding old sycamore (or is it
sycamores?) that greets you as you
enter the car park to the National
Trust property. There doesn’t seem
to be any written evidence as to
why it has grown this way.
I have visited it many times
and my thoughts are that it is part
of a hedgerow long ago removed
and perhaps layered. None of
the old maps make this obvious,
but its exposed roots imply that
it may once have been part of a
hedge bank. Another explanation
for these trunks, all lined up but
obviously joined as one, is that
it might just have been a fallen
tree that was left and layered
(propagated) itself, producing
multiple stems , which were then
purposely left as a feature. Without
more evidence, we will probably
never know.- Wistman’s Wood, Devon
Two intriguing woods can be
visited in southern England. The
fi rst is Wistman’s Wood , one of
three isolated ancient upland
woodlands on Dartmoor. When
I fi rst walked into this magical
woodland many years ago, I was
stopped in my tracks by the sight
of the dwarf oaks, their gnarled
and entwined branches twisting
in all directions, and below them
an understorey of granite boulders
covered with moss and lichen. The
changing dappled light produces
shadows and patterns across the
boulders, known locally as clitter,
specialist invertebrates that are rare
and end angered and can only live
on ancient decaying oak.
We have two native species: the
sessile oak ( Quercus petraea ) and
the English or pedunculate oak
( Quercus robur ). Th e leaf stalks on
the pedunculate oak are very short,
less than half a centimetre, whereas
the leaf stalks of the sessile oak are
1cm-2cm long. This is the opposite
with their fruits (acorns) : stalks on
the pedunculate oak may be as long
as 10cm, while on the sessile oak
they are about 2cm long.- Crouch oak, Surrey
Because of their longevity, oaks
were often used as markers and
boundary trees. In Addlestone,
Surrey, a tree known as the Crouch
oak is thought to be part of the old
Windsor Forest and Great Park’s
Surrey boundary; it has now
become an isolated street tree on
the outskirts of the town. - King Off a’s oak, Windsor
The oldest living tree in what
remains of the Great Park is a
▼ The Avenue of Giants at Benmore
Botanic Garden , Argyll, has some
of the oldest redwoods in Europe
PHOTOGRAPHS: RBG KEW