Saturday, January 16, 2016

Beautiful Bark


Auckland Park, in Bishop Auckland in County Durham, has a fine collection of venerable trees with beautiful bark patterns. 



Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna



Fluted trunk on an old hawthorn ....



.... with an elegant twist


Grey poplar Populus alba. The flat surfaces, between the fissures, are covered with diamond-shaped scars that look as though the bark has been hit with a pick, which is most evident on young trees like the one you can see by clicking here.



The old grey poplars have the most deeply fissured bark of any trees in the park ....



.... with splits so deep that they resemble crevasses 



Young silver birch bark peels away in thin layers (click here for a picture) but as it ages the bark splits and forms flaky plates ...... 



...... like this



Sweet chestnut Castanea sativa, with a bark pattern that resembles raised branching fibres ...



































... with deep crevices where all manner of small invertebrates can spend the winter

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful patterns. I have seen small lizards, ants and cicadas making the bark crevices their home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing so exotic here, though I often find ladybirds in bark crevices

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