Here are details of the trees we have planted,
with the assistance of Kirklees Countryside Unit,
as part of our two woodland projects,
Imagine a Forest and Season Stories

many thanks to Simon Pedley

this information came
from the following websites:

British Trees
The Woodland Trust
Trees for Cities
The Tree Council
Trees for Life
Shee-Eire
Trees of Our Future

Rowan
LATIN NAME: Sorbus aucuparia L.edulis
FAMILY: Rosaceae
COMMON / FOLK NAMES: Mountain Ash, Sorb Apple, Witchin, Wiggin Tree, Quicken/Quickbeam
GAELIC NAME: Caorthann
MEDICINAL PART: Bark and berries (berries must be cooked before use).
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Britain and Ireland. Also Europe, North
Africa and Asia Minor.
HABITAT: Prefers light, peaty soils with good drainage, not too dry, likes open unshaded areas with plenty of sunshine but not too hot. Likes temperate zones.
DESCRIPTION: A hardy deciduous tree which produces a large number of berries in autumn. Can be coppiced, new growth from planted twigs. Can grow up to a height of 18 metres and live to over a hundred years. Leaves alternate and pinnately compound, 13-23 cm long, leaflets 2-6.5 cm long, serrate. Terminal buds, woolly, 13 mm long, lateral buds have several scales. Fruit (6-9 mm diam.) yellow to red, in showy clusters.
FLOWERING PERIOD: May to June produces sprays of white flowers. First fruits appear in September and are ripe by October.
POLLINATION: Insects and Air
PROPAGATION: Grown from seed, dispersed by birds.
ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS: Bitter essence, Prussic Acid, Carotene, Tannic Essence, Mineral, Organic Acid, Parasorbic Acid, Pectin, Provitamin A, Sorbic Acid, Sorbitol, Sugar, Vitamin C.
USES: The rowan's wood is strong and resilient, making excellent walking sticks, and is suitable for carving. It was often used for tool handles, and spindles and spinning wheels were traditionally made of rowan wood. The hard pale brown wood of the rowan was used to make bows in the Middle Ages. It can also be used in the tanning process. The bark and berries can be used for several medicinal purposes including, nausea, diarrhoea, upset stomach, scurvy, glaucoma, urinary tract infections, and haemorrhoids. The berries from the Rowan can be processed for jams, pies, and bittersweet wines. They also make a tea. As a natural dye, the bark and berries will turn garments black.
TRADITIONAL LORE: The name aucuparia is derived from the Latin word avis for bird, and capere to catch as the fruit attracts birds so much. In folk lore, the Rowan is said to give protection and increase life-force energy, and is associated with the planet Mercury, the principle of communications.

Hazel
LATIN NAME: Corylus avellana
FAMILY: Betulaceae (birch)
COMMON / FOLK NAMES: Coll, the Poets Tree and Dripping Hazel. The fruit are variously called Filbert, Hazelnut or Cobnut depending on the relative length of the nut to its husk.
MEDICINAL PART: The physical medicinal uses of the Hazel are few, its main virtue being that of wisdom. Its nuts were often worn as talismans for a healthy life gained through that wisdom. It is said the kernels of the nut ground fine and mixed with mead or honeyed water are good for coughs that won’t clear, and when mixed with pepper in a decoction will clear a muzzy head.

PLACE OF ORIGIN: Widely distributed throughout much of Europe, from Britain and Scandinavia eastwards to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and as far south as Spain, Italy and Greece. It also occurs in America, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Iran and Central and Northern Asia.
HABITAT: normally as an understorey component in deciduous forests characterised by oaks, ash or birch. Thrives in damp places near to ponds and streams, however it will fruit better if grown were the land has good drainage. Rarely found on acid soils.

DESCRIPTION: Hazel is a deciduous tree, with the new leaves appearing in April each year, and turning a bright yellow before being shed in October. Can grow to a height of 10 metres. Typically it has a number of shoots or trunks branching out at, or just above, ground level. Hazel's ability to produce multiple stems gives it a dense, spreading appearance and has led to its extensive use for coppicing. It is a short-lived tree, reaching 50-70 years in age, but if it is coppiced, either by people or naturally through damage to its trunks, it will live much longer. The growth of successive new stems leads to the formation of a large base, or stool, which can be up to 2 metres in diameter, and in this way coppiced hazels can live for several hundred years. The bark is smooth and shiny, and is greyish-brown in colour. It peels off in strips as the tree gets older, and the trunks are often covered in mosses, liverworts and lichens, especially in the wetter parts of its range. The twigs are covered in long stiff hairs, and the buds are smooth and ovoid in shape. The leaves are roundish in shape, with a point at the end, and are about 10 cm. across. Leaf edges are doubly serrate, or double toothed, and the leaves are hairy, which gives them a rough texture.
21 species of fungi are recorded as having a mutualistic association with hazel. Of these, one species, the fiery milk mushroom or hazel milk-cap (Lactarius pyrogalus) is largely restricted to growing with hazel. Hazel is important, however, in providing the main habitat for an ascomycete fungus (Hypocreopsis rhododendri). It mainly grows on standing dead stems of hazel, but also has been found on living branches. Hazel is very important for lichens, and is the best host species in the UK for Graphidion lichens - those which grow on smooth-barked trees. Several of these lichens are rare and endangered, including one (Arthothelium macounii) which is the only host for a parasitic fungus (Arthonia cohabitans). Another lichen (Graphis alboscripta) is also almost entirely restricted to hazel, and is only known from Scotland. Hazel is also a good host for the Lobarion group of lichens - the larger, leafy lichens, which include tree lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria,).
Hazel has relatively few insect species associated with it. However, there are 5 species of moths which are specialist feeders on hazel, including a narrow-winged leaf miner (Parornix devoniella), whose larvae live under a folded down leaf edge, and a nepticulid moth (Phyllonorycter coryli,), whose larvae form 'blotch' mines in the leaves. A few beetles, especially weevils, and some flies are also known to use hazel, while there is a range of insects associated with the nuts, particularly in continental Europe.
Because of its growth as a densely-branched understorey component in forests, hazel plays a significant role in increasing the vertical structure within woodland, which is important for bird diversity. Hazel leaves are eaten by roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus), and the nuts, which are rich in fats and protein, are eaten by woodpeckers, the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) and the red squirrel. Squirrels split the shell of the nut in two halves to get the kernel inside, whereas wood mice will gnaw a hole through the shell. In England, hazel is an important tree for the dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius).
FLOWERING PERIOD: Male flowers are in the form of catkins, which are pale yellow in colour and up to 5 cm. long. They open in February, when hazel and its companion deciduous trees are all leafless, so they are one of the first obvious signs of spring in the forest. The female flowers are tiny red tufts, growing out of what look like swollen buds, and are visible on the same branches as the male catkins. Fertilised female flowers grow into nuts which are up to 2 cm. in size and occur in clusters of 1 to 4. Each nut is partially enclosed by a cup-shaped sheath of papery bracts, or modified leaves. The nuts ripen to a brown colour in September and October, with the nut itself enclosed by a tough woody shell.
POLLINATION: by wind
PROPAGATION: self-incompatible - successful pollination only occurs between different trees, as a single tree cannot pollinate itself.
ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS: the nuts are a valuable part of the antioxidant larder by providing Vitamin E, as well as essential fatty acids and B vitamins.
USES: Today it is mainly grown and coppiced for its smooth reddish-brown stems, which have a great toughness and elasticity from which well-veined veneers are produced from its larger roots. The wood was of particular use to the countryman, who used to make hampers, hoops, wattles, shepherds crooks, walking sticks, fishing rods, whip-handles and other country items such as rustic seats and baskets for gardens. After burning, the wood of the Hazel tree also makes good charcoal, from which crayons and gunpowder are made.

TRADITIONAL LORE: The Celts equated hazelnuts with concentrated wisdom and poetic inspiration. In folk lore is connected to Protection, Fertility, Luck, Lightening, Inspiration and anything associated with the element Air. The use of Hazel divining rods (dowsing rod) to detect water and mineral veins comes down from antiquity, the art of which is called “rhabdomancy”. Also of old, supple twigs of Hazel were woven into crowns and called “wishing caps”, which when worn and if you wished very hard, would make all your desires come true. Carrying a double hazelnut in a pocket was and old country charm used to prevent toothache. The Hazel’s ruling planets are the Sun and Mercury, and its associated element is Air, but it also has a great affinity with Water.

Bird Cherry
LATIN NAME: Prunus Padus
FAMILY: Rosaceae
COMMON / FOLK NAMES: European Bird Cherry, Hegg, Kuskirazi Agaci, Vogelkers
MEDICINAL PART: The bark was gathered in the Middle Ages to make an infusion used as a tonic and sedative for stomach pains and for the treatment of colds and feverish conditions.
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Natural distribution in Northern England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
HABITAT: Bird cherry likes damp soil. In limestone areas, which it prefers, it needs to grow by a stream to ensure it gets enough moisture. Where the soil is damp enough, it will grow in thickets and woodlands.
DESCRIPTION: A deciduous tree with a single trunk up to 9 m tall. Grey-brown in colour, the bark of this tree is scattered with pores. Both the timber and bark have a very specific smell. The bark peels easily. The light green leaves are 5-10 cm long and oval in shape with small, sharp teeth on the margin. They are hairless except for tufts of hairs in the axils of the large veins beneath. The leaf-stalks are 10-20 mm long, with a gland on each side at the leaf end. White flowers appear on the branches in spikes after the leaves have appeared in May/June. The fruits ripen through August, red at first changing to dark purple/black when ripe
FLOWERING PERIOD: The flowers have 5 white, irregularly toothed petals. They open in May and hang in 10-40 flowered spikes. The flowers have a sickly almond scent. The flowers develop into small, black cherries 6-8 mm across, each containing a single, hard, oval stone. They are ripe in July.
POLLINATION: flowers are both male and female and are pollinated by flies and bees
PROPOGATION: grown from seed, dispersed by flies and bees
ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS: fruit flesh contains Vitamin C, pectin, minerals and amygdalin and prunasin (break down in water to become hydrogen cyanide)
USES: bittersweet edible berries mainly used for making jam or preserves. Young leaves can be cooked and used as a vegetable. A tea can be made from the bark. A green dye can be obtained from the leaves and a dark grey to green dye can be obtained from the fruit. The wood is hard, heavy, durable, easy to work and polishes well. It is much valued by cabinet makers.
TRADITIONAL LORE: none found

Holly
LATIN NAME : Ilex aquifolium.
COMMON / FOLK NAMES : Aquifolius Bat's Wings English Holly European Holly Holy Tree Holm Chaste Hulm Hulver Bush Mountain Holly Tinne
GAELIC NAME : Cuileann
MEDICINAL PART : Leaves.
PLACES OF ORIGIN : Grows wild and cultivated in Ireland, Europe and is cultivated in the U.S.
HABITAT : Grows along hedgerows and in wild areas.
DESCRIPTION : The holly is an evergreen shrub or small tree which gains heights of 9 – 12 metres. It has smooth bark and green branches, which bear alternate dark green, shiny, leathery or waxy, spiny leaves. There is both a male and female of this tree with only the female producing the red berries.
FLOWERING PERIOD : From May to June small white flowers appear in umbellate clusters, developing on the female plants into pea-sized , red, berry-like drupes which remain through the winter.
PROPERTIES : Astringent Diuretic Expectorant Febrifuge
USES : Holly has been used for gout, stones and urinary problems, for chronic bronchitis, rheumatism and arthritis. It is a native of Britain and central and southern Europe where it once helped form the great primeval forests. In custom and legend the evergreen leaves of holly represent everlasting life and good luck. It is said that in winter the Druids of ancient times advised people to take it into their homes for then it would shelter the faeries and elves. The Romans gave gifts of holly during their festival of Saturnalia which took place at the time of the Winter Solstice and of course we still decorate our homes with holly today. In the ancient Irish/Gaelic ogham alphabet holly is called Tinne, a word which it is believed originally meant “fire”. The word “tinder” may well be derived from this. Holly wood is ivory white and close-grained and can be dyed a range of colours. It was used to make patterns and designs in furniture and in early times used to make spear shafts and chariot wheels. And apparently rabbits like holly bark too.
Caution: The berries are mildly poisonous and are dangerous to small children.

Crab Apple
LATIN NAME: Malus sylvesteris
FAMILY: Rosaceae
COMMON / FOLK NAMES: Gribble (Somerset), Scroggs (Wiltshire) Grindstone apple, Bittersgall, Wilding tree

DESCRIPTION: We have all seen apple trees growing in wild places. Many of these are discarded apple cores and the resulting new trees are called 'Wildings'. The true Crab Apple is thorny, with round, glossy, yellow/green fruits, sometimes with white spots and occasionally a red flush in the autumn, and about one inch across. The word 'Crab' refers to a tree of awkward character - producing a sour apple instead of a sweet one. The crab apple grows singly, sometimes woods will only have one tree. It is found throughout Europe and Asia Minor.

PLACE OF ORIGIN: Rare in Scotland and Ireland, but found in Ancient Woodlands throughout Wales and England. The wild crab apple tree is Britain’s only indigenous apple tree. In ancient days there were 22 varieties but there are many many more now. Late arriving in England, the fruit was brought by early European tribes colonising Southern England 7,000 years ago.

TRADITIONAL LORE: In custom and legend the apple tree was sacred and apples appear in Greek, Celtic and Norse legends. In Western myth the apple orchards of Paradise were known as the Isles of the Blessed, and in Irish legend there was a magical Silver Bough cut from an apple tree upon which hung nine apples that played incessant music which lulled people into a deep sleep. In ancient times apples were considered the food of the gods and by tradition apple trees have been wassailed over the centuries to ensure good crops. Please note, cutting down an apple tree has been said to bring bad luck. Apples of course are very good for you as they are full of vitamins and minerals, but they can also be used in love potions!

USES: The apples can be used in pickles, jams and even roasted, when served with warm wine in wintertime, or made into wine themselves. Many references are made to 'Crabs' in Shakespeare's texts. The Crab Apple was used extensively in the breeding of cultivated apple varieties, over 6,000 varieties having been bred over the ages (over two-thirds now extinct). The timber of the crab apple is uniform in texture and if dried slowly, is excellent for woodworking. At one time it was used for making set-squares and other drawing instruments. It has been cultivated since early times: a few crab apples were found in an early Bronze Age coffin. Crab apples can also be roasted and served with meat or added to winter ale or punches. In Ireland a yellow dye was extracted from the bark to colour wool.

ELDERLY
WOMEN WIN
BATTLE OVER
CRAB APPLE
TREE
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, USA (30-09-08)

Two elderly women who tied themselves to a crab apple tree to protest its removal have rescued the tree and saved themselves from eviction. Lea Perrone, 64, and Pat Henry, 65, spent several days tied to the tree at their elderly housing complex, challenging a decision by the Shrewsbury Housing Authority to cut it down to relocate a trash bin. After their protest, they received eviction notices.

On Monday, Perrone, Henry, and a third woman who was threatened with eviction for violating the complex's policy by keeping a chair on her porch, met with Housing Authority members. Their lawyer, Christopher Uhl, said the housing authority agreed not to evict the women and said the crab apple tree will stay put.

Silver Birch
LATIN NAME: Betula Pendula
FAMILY: Birch
COMMON / FOLK NAMES: White Birch, Canoe Birch, Paper Birch, Beithe, Bereza, Berke, Beth, Bouleau, Lady of the Woods
GAELIC NAME : Beith, Beth.
MEDICINAL PART: The young leaves are a diuretic. Apparently a wine fermented from the sap was credited with medicinal properties to disperse kidney and bladder stones. Also recommended as a mouthwash. Birch tar was used in ointments for eczema and other skin conditions.

PLACE OF ORIGIN: Europe and Asia Minor
HABITAT: Birches occur within other deciduous forest types, such as pine and oak woods. They like sun and moist, well drained soil but are best on drier, sandy soils.
DESCRIPTION: Readily colonises open ground, reaching a height of up to 30 metres. Typical lifespan is between 60-90 years old, although some individuals can live up to 150 years. The trees are slender, with an overall drooping, pendulous shape to its branches, and the trunks not normally exceeding a diameter of 40 cm. at breast height In young trees the bark is reddish-brown, but this changes to white as they mature, where it is interspersed with conspicuous black patches. Before their new leaves appear in spring, the twigs and buds exhibit a characteristic reddish-purple colour, which is especially apparent after rain. The new leaves emerge in April and are bright green at first, with the colour darkening to a duller green after a week or two. The colour changes to yellow or brown in autumn, with the colours becoming more intense after sharp frosts. Silver birch leaves tend to turn a brighter yellow than those of downy birch, which are usually dull or brownish. The leaves are dropped at the end of October or early November. Leaves are a double row of teeth, twigs have small white warts. Each individual tree has male and female flowers. An important function which birch trees fulfil in ecosystems is that of improving soils. They are deep-rooted, and their roots draw up nutrients into their branches and leaves, which the trees use for their growth. Some of these nutrients are returned to the surface of the soil each year when the leaves fall in the autumn, thereby becoming available for other organisms in the forest community. The roots of birch trees have mycorrhizal associations with various species of fungi. In these mutualistic or symbiotic relationships between trees and fungi, both partners in the association benefit from their interactions. One of the best known fungi associated with birch trees is the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), while two edible boletes (Leccinum scabrum, L. versipelle) and the chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) also form mycorrhizal relationships with them. The names of some other fungi reflect a similar association with birches - Russula betularum and Cortinarius betuletorum - while the polypores Lenzites betulina and Piptoporus betulinus grow on the wood of dead birches. Another polypore, the tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) also grows on dead birches, with its hard, wood-like fruiting bodies reaching a large size and persisting for many years. These polypores all help to break down the tough cellulose of the wood, and by doing so make the nutrients in it available for other organisms. Not all fungi have mutually beneficial relationships with trees, however, and the witches' broom fungus (Taphrina betulina) is parasitic on birch trees, causing an abnormally dense growth of small twigs, which radiate from a point on a branch.
A number of different flowers are associated with birch woods, including primroses (Primula vulgaris) and violets (Viola riviniana) which flower in early spring, before the trees' new leaves limit the light reaching the forest floor. Other common flowers in birch woods include bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) and wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella). Birches support a large community of insects and other invertebrates, with 334 species known to feed on them.

FLOWERING PERIOD: The trees can begin flowering when they are as young as 5 - 10 years old, and the flowers appear in the spring at the same time as the new leaves. The male flowers are drooping catkins, up to 3 cm. in length, whilst the female flowers are upright and 1.2 - 2 cm. in height.
POLLINATION: by wind
PROPOGATION: the female flowers ripen to form hanging catkins up to 3 cm. long in late summer or early autumn. The catkins contain hundreds of tiny seeds, each a two-thousandth of a gram in weight and having 2 transparent wings, which facilitate their dispersal by the wind.
ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS: sucrose, fructose, glucose, raffinose, myo-inositol and monosaccharides.
USES: Good firewood and pulpwood. Treated wood used for fence posts. Used in turnery and formerly for cotton reels and bobbins. Twigs used for making brooms - bessoms. Seeds consumed by redpolls, siskins and other small birds. Wood and bark can be distilled to give birch tar used to make leather waterproof. The bark is waterproof and used in tanning.
TRADITIONAL LORE: Birch, the tree of Venus, symbolises love and fertility and is believed to protect against evil spirits and the evil eye. The tree is also considered to be a symbol of summer ever-returning.