A beginners guide to winter trees in England

As a person who recently became interested in the native trees of England, I wanted to write a few notes on how to identify some of my favourite trees during winter end/spring start.

These notes come from an enthusiast, not a botanist, so I apologise in advance if there are any mistakes. But if you are new to tree identification, perhaps these notes will help you get your foot in the door. I remember when starting with tree identification I was slightly overwhelmed with books as they covered so many trees, whereas this article focuses on just a handful. I can imagine I would have found this type of article useful at the time, so here goes!

This post outlines some tips that I’ve developed based on general reading, observing trees on walks, and a couple of field trips with the Bristol Naturalist Society (https://bristolnats.org.uk/), a fantastic group of friendly and knowledgeable naturalists.

All the photos in this post were taken by myself, mostly in Lower Woods Nature Reserve (https://www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/nature-reserves/lower-woods) on 10th March, 2024, northeast of Bristol, or otherwise in my garden the next day, also in Bristol.

Lower Woods Nature Reserve is an excellent location for spotting native trees and plants. In fact, it is one of the largest ancient woodlands in the southwest and is still coppiced and managed by traditional methods to this day.

Figure 1. Location of Lower Woods Nature reserve, located North East of Bristol

Hazel

I will start this post with a very common, yet beautiful tree that I remember making bows and arrows from as a child, Hazel.

Hazel is very common, and in my opinion this deciduous tree is one of the easier trees to identify so a good tree to try to spot as a beginner out on walks.

The first thing to note is the tree buds are oval-shaped, hairy, and alternate i.e. they aren’t in opposite pairs. I have also noticed that this alternating coincides with a zigzagging growth of smaller branches, as you can see in the left image in Figure 2. This is in stark contrast to the very straight branches that grow from the base of the plant as shown on in the right image below. I believe this may be an after-effect of coppicing the tree, a practise still carried out in Lower Woods Nature Reserve.

Figure 2. Hazel in Lower Woods Nature Reserve

Another feature I’ve noticed of the Hazel tree is the occasional diamond-shaped pattern to the bark. In the centre image in Figure 2 you may notice how the looser brown outer covering of the bark forms lines that reveal diamond shaped patches of greener underbark. This is a feature I haven’t seen mentioned in guides/websites but is something I find very characteristic of the tree. However, the branches can also be grey coloured and smooth, as shown in some of the central vertical branches in the right picture in Figure 2.

Another clue that you are looking at a Hazel tree can be the presence of catkins leftover from the previous season as shown in the left picture in figure 3. These male flowers produce pollen. Something you can prove to yourself by gently tapping the catkin, causing a cloud of pollen to be released. The female flowers are much more delicate and subtle. They can be easily overlooked as simply another leaf bud, but if you look more closely you may notice small red protrusions from the end of the bud, like eyelashes (see Figure 3 , right image). Both male and female flowers can be found on the same tree, the technical description for this is monoecious.

Figure 3. left picture: Hazel catkin (male flower that produces the pollen), right picture: female flower

Field Maple

Before becoming interested in trees I wasn’t even aware that England had a native maple tree, the Field Maple. Now I do know, it always cheers me up to see the delicate palmate (palm-shaped, 5 lobes) leaves delicately hanging off of stalks. However, in winter we don’t have the luxury of leaves for identification (unless we look at the ground for previous seasons' fallen leaves!).

In order to identify the tree in the winter, you can check for oppositely paired leaf buds which are reddish brown with white edges.

Figure 4. Field Maple in Lower Woods Nature reserve (left ) and my garden (middle and right). Notice the reddish brown leaf buds with white edging.

I’ve also noticed that the bark tends to be quite smooth and a light reddish-brown with a slightly lined texture to it.

Hawthorn

Hawthorn is a native deciduous tree/shrub that lives up to its name by being covered in spikes. The trees provide great cover and food for birds as well as routinely supporting a lot of lichens.

It may sound obvious but it is something I forget sometimes. Hawthorns have spikes, so the first thing to do is check your tree has spikes. Leaf buds can appear at the base of the thorns but not usually on the shaft of the thorns. this can be seen in the middle picture of figure 5.

Figure 5. Hawthorn. The feathery green leaves can be seen protruding from their reddish leaf bud cases during March. Notice some leaf buds protrude from the thorn bases, but never on the thorn shafts.

The second thing I check is the colour of the bark, The similar-looking Blackthorn has darker bark, hence the name. Whereas the Hawthorn has lighter brown-grey bark that can look quite rough, especially with age.

The plant can look like a tree or a bush depending on its growing conditions and whether it has been cut. I have also noticed that lichens seem to have a liking for this tree, especially older ones.

Hawthorn leaves come out quite early compared to other trees such as Hazel, Oak, Beech, etc., and so if it's early spring you may also be able to see the buds starting to sprout. As you can see from the sprouted buds in Figure 5, the leaves are quite feathery/jaggedy and protrude from reddish brown bud cases.

Blackthorn

The similarly spiky Blackthorn has a dark brown bark that is smooth, spikes also protrude from the branches but differ from Hawthorn in that the flower buds can emerge from along the shaft of the spike (see figure 6, right picture). A very big difference between Hawthorn and Blackthorn is the latter produces flowers at a similar time as the former produces leaves. Hawthorn tends to produce leaves then flowers, whereas Blackthorn produces flowers then leaves. This can be seen in Figure 6 where the flowers are in full bloom but the leaves are just starting to sprout from the buds. Compare this to the Hawthorn pictures in Figure 5, where leaves are visible but flowers are absent.

Figure 6. Blackthorn, notice in the right picture how the flower buds can be located on the thorn shaft.

Spindle

Spindle really is a magical tree, it just looks so strange (but beautiful). It is also really easy to identify. A key characteristic of the Spindle tree is its vertical brown/yellow lines on top of green bark. I’ve been told the lines on the bark are remnants of old bark after the fast growth of the branches. I’ve noticed the emerging leaves seem to come in oppositely arranged pairs nested within each other as seen in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Spindle Tree in Lower Woods Nature Reserve. Notice the characteristic vertical lines on the bark.

Figure 8 shows the trunk of quite a large Spindle that had partially snapped halfway up hence the horizontal position of the right picture in. The picture shows new growth coming off the central trunk.

Figure 8. Wippy Spindle branches growing from a damaged bent over main trunk.

Elder

The Elder tree produces elderflower, a beautiful, scent-laden umbel flower used to make all sorts of drinks and foods.

The wood tends to be brown/yellow and quite stumpy with a white pith running through the centre. The ragged leaves are often seen protruding from the scaly red buds.

Figure 9. Elder tree. Notice the ragged leaves emerging from the red scaly leaf bud cases.

I think that’s enough trees for this post. Needless to say there are many more common native trees but these are a selection of my favourite.

So next time you are out on a walk why not try testing out your new ID skills!

Best,

Robbie