Trees of Britain

Featured article

The Silver Birch - a robust and gracious British native tree

The silver birch is a slender elegant medium-sized British native tree. Famed for its white bark and its catkin blossoms and an attractive sight in its natural habitats, the tree is an increasingly popular choice as a decorative addition to new urban developments, as it grows very quickly and copes with a wide range of conditions.

Read full article

Yew - a useful and venerable tree

In the UK, there are only three native conifers: the Juniper, the Scots Pine and the Yew. Yews can live for thousands of years and are associated with churchyards and other sacred places.

Read full article
The London plane - a natural survivor in the city

Providing trees in a built up city landscape is a noble mission - but sometimes a challenge. In many British cities, the species of choice has been the London plane - an impressive deciduous tree with hand-shaped leaves, and bark that flakes off.

Read full article
The Fortingall Yew - Britain's oldest tree

The UK's oldest tree is considered to be the Fortingall Yew in the churchyard of the village of Fortingall in Perthshire. It is thought to be 2,000 to 3,000 years old, or even possibly much older.

Read full article
Hazel - a native nut from a useful tree

Hazel is a small native tree of British woodlands, grasslands and gardens. It is well known for its long, yellow catkins (known as 'lamb's-tails') that appear in spring, and its green nuts that ripen to brown in late summer.

Read full article
Scots pine - our only native pine tree

The Scots pine is one of only three native conifers in Britain, and our only native pine. Found all over the UK, this long-lived and majestic tree is important to wildlife. It has earnt its name for being particularly abundant in the Caledonian pine forest in the Scottish Highlands and the lynch-pin of that habitat.

Read full article
The Horse Chestnut - famed for its shape and its seeds

The horse chestnut tree was first introduced to the UK from Turkey in the late 16th century, and was widely planted as a distinctive shape in landscape gardens. Although not often found in woodland, it remains a familiar feature in parks, gardens and on village commons.

Read full article
The Bramley Apple - British to its core

The Bramley is a well-known and very popular British apple cultivar, usually used as a cooking apple. A peculiarity of the variety is that when cooked it becomes golden and fluffy. Its origin goes back to 1809.

Read full article
Blackthorn and Hawthorn - bringers of British blossom time

Blackthorn and Hawthorn, also known as May, are prolific British tree and hedgerow bushes that burst into blossom as a sign of spring turning to summer. Blackthorn comes first and is predominantly a cream colour, and then Hawthorn, with a pretty white/pale-pink blossom.

Read full article
Holly - brightening the winter woods

The Common Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is one of Britain's few native evergreen trees. Commonly associated with Christmas, it has distinctive leaves and attrractive bright red berries.

Read full article
The Hardy Tree - a grave first work by the Victorian novelist

Inside the churchyard of St. Pancras Old Church in London - considered to be one of England's oldest sites for Christian worship and burial - lies an ash tree. It is a unique specimen, encircled with hundreds of overlapping gravestones placed there in concentric circles by Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy.

Read full article
The Bowthorpe Oak

This ancient oak tree in Lincolnshire has such an impressive girth, people have been hosting parties within the hollow trunk for centuries. It could well have been standing in the days of Robin Hood.

Read full article
The mulberry tree in Britain

The black mulberry is not native to Britain. However, it was widely planted in Britain due to a campaign by King James I, who wanted a "home-grown" silk industry. Unfortunately, the black mulberry is the wrong tree for this!

Read full article
The Beauly Elm

The Beauly Elm, believed to be Europe's oldest wych elm tree, has recently died after almost 800 years guarding the entrance to Beauly Priory in Scotland.

Read full article
The Elder tree - protected by a female spirit

The Elder (Sambucus nigra) is a small tree or shrub found in hedgerows and woods throughout Britain. It is a very common sight and well known for its flowers and berries. It also holds an ancient place in British mythology.

Read full article
The mighty English oak

The English Oak is probably England's best-loved tree - associated with the landscape and the country's history, and found in our oldest buildings and historic ships.

Read full article