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

A Tree-Spotter's Guide to Bark: Part 3

Few trees reveal the way in which patterns in bark are formed as clearly as the white poplar Populus alba. It's upper branches are clad in smooth pale grey bark, but mid-way down the tree it develops a series of splits, as though the tree has been attacked with a pick, where the bark begins to split under the strain of the swelling circumference of wood underneath. Here and there (towards the right of this photo, for example) you can see places where the splits begin to join up, to form fisssues until...

... near the base of a tree of medium age - perhaps 40 years old - the bole of the tree is covered in fissured bark, with those pick-marks barely visible on raised patches of smoother bark. As the trees age and approach the end of their lives....

...the fissures become deeper and the wonderfully textured character of the bark becomes apparent.

The bark of a mature sweet chestnut Castanea sativa bears this very distinctive pattern of branching and rejoining ridges. In many old trees the whole trunk appears to be twisted, so the pattern spirals up the trunk. 

Auckland Park in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, is home to several magnificient old sweet chestnuts with elephantine boles .....

... including this one which sits on a pediment of roots that seem to melt into the soil.

For more information in tree identification click here

A Tree-spotter's Guide to Buds: part 2

White poplar Populus alba winter buds are covered in a dense felt of fine white hairs that, from a distance, make the twig look as though it's been dipped in white emulsion. The white hairs cover the underside of the leaves too, which flash green and white when they flutter in the breeze in spring and yellow and white when they change colour in autumn.

Alder Alnus glutinosa buds have this beautiful violet-purple sheen that intensies in spring, as the buds begin to swell

Common lime Tilia x europaea buds, which are rounded and have few bud scales, develop a deep crimson hue when they're exposed to sunlight, but on their shaded underside (right hand twig above) they remain green. The purple pigment is produced in response to bright sunlight.

Sweet chestnut Castanea sativa buds are also tinged red but the twigs are chestnut brown. Notice how the buds below the terminal bud sit on a little shelf.

... and this is rowan Sorbus aucuparia, possibly the least attractive buds amongst native species, whose hairy, pointed buds lack shiny scales.

For part 3 see http://cabinetofcuriosities-greenfingers.blogspot.com/2009/12/tree-spotters-guide-to-buds-part-3.html

For part 1 see http://cabinetofcuriosities-greenfingers.blogspot.com/2009/11/tree-spotters-guide-to-buds-part-1.html

For more posts on tree ID click here