Sunday 15 August 2010
Saturday 14 August 2010
White is the new black
At last, a chance to find a specimen from another Populus group other than the black poplars I've been trying to get to grips with over the last few days. An early evening visit to Tonbridge Sports ground at Swanmead to give Monty his walk, turned up a line of five black poplars of a kind I don't think I've seen before, but also a couple of trees of the "Abele", or white poplar, Populus alba L., in amongst a sort of collection of less usual trees/shrubs on raised rougher ground in the middle of the various pitches. These are the first ones I've seen (consciously) for quite a few years, indicating the little notice I've taken of trees in the past!
Its a beautiful tree, quite rounded in its canopy outline but with whitish trunks above the roughened and darkened lower bole, the white areas of the trunks fairly well peppered with lines of black diamonds surrounding the vertical lenticels, and with furry white hairs completely covering the shoots, buds and undersurface of the leaves of the current growth, with some white remnants of the fur on the top surfaces of the leaves as well. The underside of the new leaves is SO soft - like Monty's ears, only possibly even softer!!! The whole impression is completely un-black poplar like, and quite a surprise. The bilateral flattening of petioles is only clear on previous year's leaves, and can't be said to be at all obvious on the soft lax petioles of what I think are this year's leaves, if the growth rings can be relied upon. The tree is said by Mitchell to lean, and to have its greatest canopy width nearest the top, but neither of these features was clear in these specimens. I did see suckers, regarded as commonly formed, particularly commonly on sandy soils (Mitchell).
On this tree the leaf blades appear to be about 5 cm long and wide, rounded, with almost aspen-like teeth on the leaves well under the main canopy, the ones that I can easily reach, or sometimes more-or-less five-lobed. Small arrow-head stipules, buds not well developed yet, in August. If Mitchell is right about the dimensions, the small size of the leaves helps to confirm this tree as P. alba, as opposed to P. x canescens, the hybrid with P. tremula, the aspen.
The white poplar was introduced into England from Central and Southern Europe or Asia at an early but unknown date. The trees should have a yellow autumn colour (there is a cv. Richardii, which is generally yellow throughout year). I'll plan to return in autumn to see this colour, and again in spring to examine the catkins and find out whether this is a male or female tree - male trees are very rare according to BSBI.
The tree suckers well in some situations in Britain and Europe, and this is a potential nuisance in gardens, but an advantage in coastal areas (it is salt resistant) where it is sometimes used to help stabilise shifting dunes. The tree has also been introduced into America since 1748, where it is said to be a bit of an invasive problem due to its suckers and it has actually been banned in Connecticut. Luckily it does not seed heavily there (there are few males) and this limits its overall invasive potential.
Its said to be a tree that tends to lean, and this can be seen in these rather less beautiful specimens a little bit further over in the sports ground, which show rather less white, and seem to have grown very little this year. I still think they are P. alba, and not P. x canescens.
There is also a pyrimidal form (pyrimidalis according to Mitchell, syn Bolleana), known as Bolle's poplar syn pyrimidalis according to the Collins guide, which is a selection from wild trees in Turkmenistan, and found in some collections.
The Abele tree is dedicated to Hercules in memory of his victory over the monster Cacus (the site of the conflict was the Aventine hill, one of the 7 hills where Rome was built, said to be covered with white poplars at the time) and garlands of white poplar were traditionally used as victory wreaths.
These are the lenticals forming on a young shoot, soon to be surrounded by black diamonds of raised bark on older trunks. Visible from the ground as lines or necklaces of black diamond shapes on the light grey bark high in the tree above the black roughened boles, they are distinctive features of the tree.
The white poplar was introduced into England from Central and Southern Europe or Asia at an early but unknown date. The trees should have a yellow autumn colour (there is a cv. Richardii, which is generally yellow throughout year). I'll plan to return in autumn to see this colour, and again in spring to examine the catkins and find out whether this is a male or female tree - male trees are very rare according to BSBI.
There is also a pyrimidal form (pyrimidalis according to Mitchell, syn Bolleana), known as Bolle's poplar syn pyrimidalis according to the Collins guide, which is a selection from wild trees in Turkmenistan, and found in some collections.
The Abele tree is dedicated to Hercules in memory of his victory over the monster Cacus (the site of the conflict was the Aventine hill, one of the 7 hills where Rome was built, said to be covered with white poplars at the time) and garlands of white poplar were traditionally used as victory wreaths.
Friday 13 August 2010
Trembling aspen
As far as I know there is only one group of aspens (Populus tremula L.) in the parish - along the Green Lane Nature Trail that we and the local schoolchildren planted up about 15 years ago on College ground for the National Westminster Countryside Initiative!
The long bilaterally flattened petioles wave about in the breeze, encouraging the leaves to flop from side to side and so give the "trembling" look (and rustling sound) of the foliage characteristic of this and some other species and cultivars of poplar (or as the Americans say, cottonwoods). In light or no winds the leaves hold rigidly still, in complete and rather spooky contrast.
The patch we have seems to be suckering densely about the base of a few older trees, which we may have planted with BTCV encouragement all those years ago.
The leaves are all a good mid-green at present but should eventually be changing to their beautiful golden autumn colours, and showing well by October. The petioles and venation is a characteristic poplar yellow-green, but one point to notice is the maturity of the twigs. Already, by mid-August, the twig bark of this year's growth has hardened to a good solid-looking olive brown, actually darker than the more yellowy previous year's growth, particularly on the underside of the shoot. This is a bit of a conundrum, as how could twig bark get lighter over time? The buds are also already apparently well-formed, particularly the terminal ones, which already look as if they have entered a resting phase, although they are still a bit small (c. 6 mm. on the tip). In fact our aspen already looks ready for winter. Perhaps this possible early preparation for winter is one reason that aspen is so common in Scotland and can even grow well above the Artic Circle in Norway, where very few other decidous flowering trees occur - a very tough customer indeed.
Axillary buds laterally compressed and pointed, 3-4 mm long, greenish with brown tips, terminal bud more chunky, although still only 6 mm long, greenish and brown over scales.
Our leaves don't seem to resemble sucker leaves at all, as described by BSBI, but appear completely characteristic of the standard trees. Are our "suckers" really seedlings I wonder? Leaf blade up to 8 cm long by 7 cm wide, petiole a matching 8 cm long, larger than as in Mitchell, but OK by BSBI. 6 - 12 pairs of teeth on the rounded slightly crinkled leaf margins. Leaf tips generally drawn into somewhat acuminate points, so that the toothed margin and pointed leaf tip contrast unusually with the overall rounded leaf outline. Beautiful trees!
They aren't so common in the Southeast of England, although there is a well-known tree on the boggy soil of Hothfield Heaths near Ashford in SE Kent. A BTCV connection perhaps?
The long bilaterally flattened petioles wave about in the breeze, encouraging the leaves to flop from side to side and so give the "trembling" look (and rustling sound) of the foliage characteristic of this and some other species and cultivars of poplar (or as the Americans say, cottonwoods). In light or no winds the leaves hold rigidly still, in complete and rather spooky contrast.
The patch we have seems to be suckering densely about the base of a few older trees, which we may have planted with BTCV encouragement all those years ago.
The leaves are all a good mid-green at present but should eventually be changing to their beautiful golden autumn colours, and showing well by October. The petioles and venation is a characteristic poplar yellow-green, but one point to notice is the maturity of the twigs. Already, by mid-August, the twig bark of this year's growth has hardened to a good solid-looking olive brown, actually darker than the more yellowy previous year's growth, particularly on the underside of the shoot. This is a bit of a conundrum, as how could twig bark get lighter over time? The buds are also already apparently well-formed, particularly the terminal ones, which already look as if they have entered a resting phase, although they are still a bit small (c. 6 mm. on the tip). In fact our aspen already looks ready for winter. Perhaps this possible early preparation for winter is one reason that aspen is so common in Scotland and can even grow well above the Artic Circle in Norway, where very few other decidous flowering trees occur - a very tough customer indeed.
Axillary buds laterally compressed and pointed, 3-4 mm long, greenish with brown tips, terminal bud more chunky, although still only 6 mm long, greenish and brown over scales.
Our leaves don't seem to resemble sucker leaves at all, as described by BSBI, but appear completely characteristic of the standard trees. Are our "suckers" really seedlings I wonder? Leaf blade up to 8 cm long by 7 cm wide, petiole a matching 8 cm long, larger than as in Mitchell, but OK by BSBI. 6 - 12 pairs of teeth on the rounded slightly crinkled leaf margins. Leaf tips generally drawn into somewhat acuminate points, so that the toothed margin and pointed leaf tip contrast unusually with the overall rounded leaf outline. Beautiful trees!
They aren't so common in the Southeast of England, although there is a well-known tree on the boggy soil of Hothfield Heaths near Ashford in SE Kent. A BTCV connection perhaps?
Thursday 12 August 2010
Getting to grips with the "Lombardy" poplars
Not all the windbreaks around Hadlow are planted with the same form of tall "Lombardy" poplar. In one of the winbreaks by Great Square field on the College farm, the poplar has very large leaves, about 13 cm from leaf base to tip, and about the same across at the base. The petiole is up to 7 cm long, and the overall dimensions of the leaf dwarf the published dimensions of both 'Italica' and 'Plantierensis'.
The leaf shapes are shown below:
You can see the overall almost triangular shapes, the flat bases and the slightly acuminate tips. On the upperside view at the base of the blade you can see hints of the glands at the top of the petiole (reddish?) and if you expand the photos by clicking on them, and look at the margins you can see the toothed serrations on the "transparent" margin, rather like breaking waves on a shore. Download the pictures for a more detailed look at these finer points. The bilaterally flattened petioles that encourage the leaves to tremble (not as much as an aspen though) are also fairly clear, lying over on one side or the other. From the ground the leaves are obviously large, and show somewhat matt greyish from below, certainly in comparison to the other supposed 'Italica' windbreaks in the immediate area, which generally have leaves only about one fifth the area of one of these!
Its difficult to be sure, but this may not be one of the classic fastigiate poplars (the windbreak has only recently been pollarded and is in its first couple of years of regrowth, and I just can't remember the original shape of the trees. If so, it may be 'Robusta' a more rounded spire shaped form of the "black poplar hybrid" trees, very commonly planted in windbreaks nowadays according to the Collins guide. There are a number of others to choose from, but this is stated to be a hybrid between P. nigra 'Plantierensis' and P. deltoides 'Cordata', so a touch of the American in its ancestry, which as in many of these black poplar hybrid crosses is actually quite dominant! This particular cultivar, if 'Robusta' is what this tree actually is, arose in France in 1895, indicating a cross with only 10 year old trees of 'Plantierensis', quite a significant act of faith perhaps ! There are however quite a few other common cultivars in this hybrid US x European group, sometimes known generically as P x euramericana, to choose from, all of which grow very rapidly as all hybrid stock should - from applied genetic theory, just right for growing matchsticks or creating windbreaks!
The shoots are stout (fully 6 mm diameter) olive yellowish green on this year's growth , held quite upright, with whitish lenticals about 2 mm long and 1 mm wide, right to the growth tip, which is still going strong. The younger half of the shoot is quite furrowed or rather ribbed with long buttresses to the leaf petioles. There are clear longish narrow buds about 9 mm long at present, with some droplets of brownish exuded liquor, and some brownish colour to the scales.
The leaves are mid-green, glossier above, at the moment, with light green flattened petioles. Rotating the twig shows how these flutter from one side to the other! There is generally a pair of minor basal veins, sometimes almost ruler straight just above the base of the leaf, not clearly upcurved (and branching primarily below) towards the tip as the main vein branches are. The veins show paler against the mid-green background of the lamina and they are the same colour as the petioles. Any pubescence is now (mid-August) well gone, together with the stipules, of which there is little sign except for the paired minor brown scarring, to one side and the other of the axillary bud, right down to the half-expanded young leaves where they are apparently represented by small green triangular structures. Each petiole carries a "triple buttress" ribbing, even quite low down the shoot.
A solitary light brown thrips nymph was noted patrolling close to the petiole-lamina junction on the upperside of the lamina. Various small differently shaped holes (possible capsid?) and feeding specks were also seen.
The leaf shapes are shown below:
 |
| upperside of "typical" leaf |
 |
| Underside of a different "typical leaf" |
You can see the overall almost triangular shapes, the flat bases and the slightly acuminate tips. On the upperside view at the base of the blade you can see hints of the glands at the top of the petiole (reddish?) and if you expand the photos by clicking on them, and look at the margins you can see the toothed serrations on the "transparent" margin, rather like breaking waves on a shore. Download the pictures for a more detailed look at these finer points. The bilaterally flattened petioles that encourage the leaves to tremble (not as much as an aspen though) are also fairly clear, lying over on one side or the other. From the ground the leaves are obviously large, and show somewhat matt greyish from below, certainly in comparison to the other supposed 'Italica' windbreaks in the immediate area, which generally have leaves only about one fifth the area of one of these!
Its difficult to be sure, but this may not be one of the classic fastigiate poplars (the windbreak has only recently been pollarded and is in its first couple of years of regrowth, and I just can't remember the original shape of the trees. If so, it may be 'Robusta' a more rounded spire shaped form of the "black poplar hybrid" trees, very commonly planted in windbreaks nowadays according to the Collins guide. There are a number of others to choose from, but this is stated to be a hybrid between P. nigra 'Plantierensis' and P. deltoides 'Cordata', so a touch of the American in its ancestry, which as in many of these black poplar hybrid crosses is actually quite dominant! This particular cultivar, if 'Robusta' is what this tree actually is, arose in France in 1895, indicating a cross with only 10 year old trees of 'Plantierensis', quite a significant act of faith perhaps ! There are however quite a few other common cultivars in this hybrid US x European group, sometimes known generically as P x euramericana, to choose from, all of which grow very rapidly as all hybrid stock should - from applied genetic theory, just right for growing matchsticks or creating windbreaks!
The shoots are stout (fully 6 mm diameter) olive yellowish green on this year's growth , held quite upright, with whitish lenticals about 2 mm long and 1 mm wide, right to the growth tip, which is still going strong. The younger half of the shoot is quite furrowed or rather ribbed with long buttresses to the leaf petioles. There are clear longish narrow buds about 9 mm long at present, with some droplets of brownish exuded liquor, and some brownish colour to the scales.
The leaves are mid-green, glossier above, at the moment, with light green flattened petioles. Rotating the twig shows how these flutter from one side to the other! There is generally a pair of minor basal veins, sometimes almost ruler straight just above the base of the leaf, not clearly upcurved (and branching primarily below) towards the tip as the main vein branches are. The veins show paler against the mid-green background of the lamina and they are the same colour as the petioles. Any pubescence is now (mid-August) well gone, together with the stipules, of which there is little sign except for the paired minor brown scarring, to one side and the other of the axillary bud, right down to the half-expanded young leaves where they are apparently represented by small green triangular structures. Each petiole carries a "triple buttress" ribbing, even quite low down the shoot.
A solitary light brown thrips nymph was noted patrolling close to the petiole-lamina junction on the upperside of the lamina. Various small differently shaped holes (possible capsid?) and feeding specks were also seen.
Wednesday 11 August 2010
From France, Lombardy or Afghanistan?
The Lombardy poplar in Kent is once again, like most of the trees I look at, not half as simple as it looks!
Identification of poplars at this time of year is not ideal - its best attempted in late spring when foliage and flowers are at their best. However Populus nigra 'Italica' or var Italica (Muenchh) is generally thought to be easily recognizable because of its fastigiate shape. Many people will know that the area to the Southeast of Hadlow stretching across the Low Weald known as the mid-Kent fruit belt, and once heavily planted with top-fruit such as apples, pears, cherries and gardens of hops, is just packed with lines of windbreaks stretching to the horizon full of various cultivars of these "lombardy poplars", and many will call the tree planted 'Italica'! The same is true, with a range of local variations, of most of the Kent fruit areas, such as the North Kent fruit belt along the North Downs.
However its perhaps not quite as straightforward as that. We may need to be aware of the somewhat broader (how fastigiate is fastigiate?) male hybrid clone originating from a cross of 'Italica' with the native black atlantic poplar, P.nigra betulifolia. This hybrid is called Plantier's poplar ('Plantierensis'), which Stace says is as common as 'Italica', and Collins also considers frequent. These hybrids originated in Plantieres nursery near Metz in France in 1884, and are said to do better in the more Northern parts of Europe where "Lombardy" poplars are generally seen. Several websites say that it is actually commoner in NW Europe than Italica, and is often misnamed 'Italica' in error, but I don't know if this statement applies specifically to the UK or Kent - the NBN website has many more records on its interactive maps for 'Italica' than either 'Plantierensis'. The main difference in 'Plantierensis' is its somewhat hairy (pubescent) young shoots (especially noted on the petioles) in spring which it gets from its native cousin- - I'll just have to go back in late spring 2011 to check! Collins also has it as a more densely clothed canopy, a more burred trunk and smelling slightly more strongly of balsam than the light touch of 'Italica' in the summer (I have a cold so can't test this at the moment) and as several clones, even sometimes female.
There is also the so-called giant (apparently again a bit broader) female clone (watch out for all those fluffy seeds!) 'Gigantea' or 'Foemina', which is said to have a blunter top and perhaps be a little bit rarer in the West of Europe - but still "frequent"in the UK according to Mitchell (although like 'Plantierensis' also regarded by Mitchell as frequent there are limited records according to the NBN maps). Derek Whitehead from Merrist Wood College saw this female form as a street tree in Funze, the capital of Kirghizistan, then still a Soviet republic when he visited the USSR in the early 80s, covering parts of the city in its silky white seeds. It will be interesting to try to see next year which of these possibilities, 'Italica', 'Plantierensis' or even 'Gigantea', was the most favoured planting of the crafty and rufty-tufty fruit farmers of the mid-Kent fruit belt!
Nowadays of course its a bit difficult to be sure about any blunter tops or broader profiles and this has all become somewhat academic in quite a few areas, because so many of the old windbreaks have been "summarily" pollarded at about 2 - 3 m from the ground anyway - although this has saved them in some form for posterity! Trees can't be exactly preserved in aspic or frozen in time, but have to be dynamically managed for any long-term continuity of landscape to be gained, and the pollards quickly regain their generally fastigiate appearance.
The origin of the genuine 'Italica' itself is not entirely clear. Almost all authors have it associated with the Po Valley and other areas of Lombardy in North Italy in the 17th and early 18th century where it is presumed to have originated as a sport, generally assumed to be from an italian form of Populus nigra. There is however some suggestion of a more complex origin of the fastigiate 'Italica' type in N Italy actually deriving from an Afghanistani or other Central Asian source (Collins) possibly introduced via "silk road" trade, but it is also possible that this is a confusion with a possibly different fastigiate form of P. nigra originating, and perhaps still used as a street tree there and in many other parts of the world (BSBI). 'Afghanica' is said to be planted around the Mediterranean and to be distinguished by a whitish trunk, and differently shaped leaves.
Wherever 'Italica' originally came from, it certainly became well established in Lombardy by the 1700s and 'Italica' is then thought to have been introduced into Britain in about 1758. Planted in many a nobleman's estate as a reminder of the Great Tour perhaps, and then eventually demoted to a park tree and now as either the original 'Italica' or its hybrid 'Plantierensis', as a fast growing wind-break for the benefit of the Garden of England - and sometimes the detriment of its field drains - and maybe a hidden source of a scourge of pears and top-worked apples they were intended to protect - but those are perhaps other stories for another day......!
In the meantime maybe we just simply accept the graceful spires of the Lombardy poplar so often found in regimented rows marking out the boundaries across the countryside, whether it is 'Plantierensis' or the original 'Italica', and whether it owes its original genetic character as a fastigiate tree to Italy or Afghanistan, as a vital part of the rich and characteristic rural heritage of this area of the Low Weald, an indication of the extent of the fabled Garden of England at its peak, even if now the windbreaks mainly guard arable fields, pastures, and even allotments! The landscape character of specific areas of the Low Weald would be changed irrevocably without them, and these characteristic windbreak trees should not be allowed to be ploughed out, or lost by neglect. At the moment regular pollarding keeps them going in their essential form, maintains their role in supporting biodiversity, and provides a sustainable source of firewood for local people, and thus renewable income to those farmers who retain them.
No poplar-lettuce galls were seen in a cursory overview of the foliage of these trees, but there was really quite a lot of trunk and butt decay in the windbreak as a whole - very good for biodiversity..
However its perhaps not quite as straightforward as that. We may need to be aware of the somewhat broader (how fastigiate is fastigiate?) male hybrid clone originating from a cross of 'Italica' with the native black atlantic poplar, P.nigra betulifolia. This hybrid is called Plantier's poplar ('Plantierensis'), which Stace says is as common as 'Italica', and Collins also considers frequent. These hybrids originated in Plantieres nursery near Metz in France in 1884, and are said to do better in the more Northern parts of Europe where "Lombardy" poplars are generally seen. Several websites say that it is actually commoner in NW Europe than Italica, and is often misnamed 'Italica' in error, but I don't know if this statement applies specifically to the UK or Kent - the NBN website has many more records on its interactive maps for 'Italica' than either 'Plantierensis'. The main difference in 'Plantierensis' is its somewhat hairy (pubescent) young shoots (especially noted on the petioles) in spring which it gets from its native cousin- - I'll just have to go back in late spring 2011 to check! Collins also has it as a more densely clothed canopy, a more burred trunk and smelling slightly more strongly of balsam than the light touch of 'Italica' in the summer (I have a cold so can't test this at the moment) and as several clones, even sometimes female.
There is also the so-called giant (apparently again a bit broader) female clone (watch out for all those fluffy seeds!) 'Gigantea' or 'Foemina', which is said to have a blunter top and perhaps be a little bit rarer in the West of Europe - but still "frequent"in the UK according to Mitchell (although like 'Plantierensis' also regarded by Mitchell as frequent there are limited records according to the NBN maps). Derek Whitehead from Merrist Wood College saw this female form as a street tree in Funze, the capital of Kirghizistan, then still a Soviet republic when he visited the USSR in the early 80s, covering parts of the city in its silky white seeds. It will be interesting to try to see next year which of these possibilities, 'Italica', 'Plantierensis' or even 'Gigantea', was the most favoured planting of the crafty and rufty-tufty fruit farmers of the mid-Kent fruit belt!
Nowadays of course its a bit difficult to be sure about any blunter tops or broader profiles and this has all become somewhat academic in quite a few areas, because so many of the old windbreaks have been "summarily" pollarded at about 2 - 3 m from the ground anyway - although this has saved them in some form for posterity! Trees can't be exactly preserved in aspic or frozen in time, but have to be dynamically managed for any long-term continuity of landscape to be gained, and the pollards quickly regain their generally fastigiate appearance.
The origin of the genuine 'Italica' itself is not entirely clear. Almost all authors have it associated with the Po Valley and other areas of Lombardy in North Italy in the 17th and early 18th century where it is presumed to have originated as a sport, generally assumed to be from an italian form of Populus nigra. There is however some suggestion of a more complex origin of the fastigiate 'Italica' type in N Italy actually deriving from an Afghanistani or other Central Asian source (Collins) possibly introduced via "silk road" trade, but it is also possible that this is a confusion with a possibly different fastigiate form of P. nigra originating, and perhaps still used as a street tree there and in many other parts of the world (BSBI). 'Afghanica' is said to be planted around the Mediterranean and to be distinguished by a whitish trunk, and differently shaped leaves.
Wherever 'Italica' originally came from, it certainly became well established in Lombardy by the 1700s and 'Italica' is then thought to have been introduced into Britain in about 1758. Planted in many a nobleman's estate as a reminder of the Great Tour perhaps, and then eventually demoted to a park tree and now as either the original 'Italica' or its hybrid 'Plantierensis', as a fast growing wind-break for the benefit of the Garden of England - and sometimes the detriment of its field drains - and maybe a hidden source of a scourge of pears and top-worked apples they were intended to protect - but those are perhaps other stories for another day......!
In the meantime maybe we just simply accept the graceful spires of the Lombardy poplar so often found in regimented rows marking out the boundaries across the countryside, whether it is 'Plantierensis' or the original 'Italica', and whether it owes its original genetic character as a fastigiate tree to Italy or Afghanistan, as a vital part of the rich and characteristic rural heritage of this area of the Low Weald, an indication of the extent of the fabled Garden of England at its peak, even if now the windbreaks mainly guard arable fields, pastures, and even allotments! The landscape character of specific areas of the Low Weald would be changed irrevocably without them, and these characteristic windbreak trees should not be allowed to be ploughed out, or lost by neglect. At the moment regular pollarding keeps them going in their essential form, maintains their role in supporting biodiversity, and provides a sustainable source of firewood for local people, and thus renewable income to those farmers who retain them.
No poplar-lettuce galls were seen in a cursory overview of the foliage of these trees, but there was really quite a lot of trunk and butt decay in the windbreak as a whole - very good for biodiversity..
Sunday 8 August 2010
Is the drought taking victims?
Several trees in the village are looking decidedly poorly at this time of year, and although there may be many contributary factors, drought may well be a major cause. Several of the smaller street trees in Tonbridge and Hadlow are apparently dying on their feet. Here are a couple of examples from the area, a small birch in Hadlow, another in Tonbridge. The symptoms are superficially very different
Saturday 7 August 2010
By now I have had several looks at a specimen of a purple beech planted in Hadlow as a roadside tree, and marvelled at the results of either planting a double headed tree, or possible vandalism post-planting taking out the leader. In this case the tree looks fine from across the road (if you like purple beeches, that is) although perhaps a bit less tall and more broad domed than might be usual for these trees (I'm guessing):
Wow !!
There are places where you can get three fingers into the crack, and it is difficult to see quite how deep it is. It appears to surface on both sides, and I am fascinated by the length of time the tree has survived to date, with these apparent weaknesses.
and on the North side there is an old branch stub apparently piercing one of the two main stems as well (next two pictures, closer view on right) - it all does look quite a mess!
The old cut off branch end you can see in the close-up has red dust below, and an apparent crack above, where the upright leader has apparently not quite closed around the old branch projecting towards camera. I suspect the tree is either Highways or Moat Hosing responsibility, and no immediate action by me is really required. Inspection may indicate further action is needed, or perhaps that it may be better to leave things to nature!
Its when you get a bit closer that you start to see the double-header and the sort of spiral line scored down the trunk indicating a possible split with conjoined bark - generally held to be a serious danger sign (next picture)!
Wow !!
There are places where you can get three fingers into the crack, and it is difficult to see quite how deep it is. It appears to surface on both sides, and I am fascinated by the length of time the tree has survived to date, with these apparent weaknesses.
and on the North side there is an old branch stub apparently piercing one of the two main stems as well (next two pictures, closer view on right) - it all does look quite a mess!
The old cut off branch end you can see in the close-up has red dust below, and an apparent crack above, where the upright leader has apparently not quite closed around the old branch projecting towards camera. I suspect the tree is either Highways or Moat Hosing responsibility, and no immediate action by me is really required. Inspection may indicate further action is needed, or perhaps that it may be better to leave things to nature!
I wonder whether the tree will eventually split completely into two - or possibly even three !
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