False Acacia

Flower: Cream-white, pea-like flowers. Fruit: Brown pea-like pods, up to 4 inches long. Leaves: Deciduous. Dark green, pinnate leaves. 3 to 9 pairs of blunt, oval leaflets.

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Italian Alder

Flower: The male and female flowers appear on separate trees. The yellowish-brown male catkins are pendulous and borne in clusters of 3 to 6 and are up to 10cm long. The male catkins appear before the leaves ... Fruit: The female flowers become woody and turn into the cone-like fruit. The fruit are overwintering. The cones are larger than most other Alder cone species, up to 2.5cm long. Leaves: A deciduous tree with dark green, alternate, glossy, heart-shaped leaves and finely serrated margins. Cordata (see Botanical Name) means 'heart-shaped'.

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Common Ash

Flower: Petalless with tufts of purple-to-black stamens which turn green later. Fruit: Numerous hanging winged seeds which form clusters. The fruits of this tree are often called 'keys'. Leaves: Deciduous. Britain's only native tree with opposite, pinnate leaves. Leaflets are dark green and toothed.

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Mountain Ash

Flower: White with cream-coloured anthers. Fruit: Tight clusters of red berries. Leaves: Deciduous. Similar to Common Ash leaves. Pinnate with toothed leaflets.

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Aspen

Flower: Male and female catkins are green, and are borne on different trees. Both male and female catkins look alike, however later on the male catkins become dangly and the females remain firm. Fruit: Long hanging conical capsules develop on the catkins. Leaves: Deciduous. The stalked leaves of the Aspen are heart-shaped with wavy edges and have whitish undersides. Their shape causes them to shiver and tremble in the wind, giving the tree a distinctive quiver...

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Darwin's Barberry

Flower: Small orange bell-shaped, hanging in clusters. Fruit: Small dark purple to black berries which ripen in summer. Leaves: Small and oval. The edges are spiny.

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Thunberg's Barberry

Flower: Tiny pale yellow, insignificant flowers. Fruit: Orange-red ovoid berries with long stalks, each containing a single seed. Leaves: Deciduous shrub with green leaves that turn red in autumn. After the leaves have fallen off during the winter months, the spiny stems are revealed.

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Common Beech

Flower: Male and female yellowish-green catkins grow together on the same tree. Male catkins dangle loosely from stalks at the end of twigs. Female catkins exist in pairs and are surrounded by a cup, later tu... Fruit: The nuts are called 'beech mast' and are brown 3-sided nuts with a tough bristly husk on the outside. Leaves: Deciduous. Pointed leaf buds. Oval, up to 9cm long and pale green and silky when young, turning dark green later in the year. Hairless. Leaves turn yellow or orange in autumn.

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Copper Beech

Flower: Male and female yellowish-green catkins grow together on the same tree. Male catkins dangle loosely from stalks at the end of twigs. Female catkins exist in pairs and are surrounded by a cup, later tu... Fruit: The brown nuts are called 'beech mast' and are 3-sided with a tough outer casing that is bristly on the outside. Leaves: Deciduous. Pointed leaf buds. Oval and hairless, up to 9cm long, pale to deep purple.

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Fern-leaf Beech

Flower: Inconspicuous. Fruit: The nuts or 'beech mast' as they are known, are brown, 3-sided and have a tough bristly husk on their outer casing. Leaves: Deciduous. The leaves are more linear than the Common Beech and with large, prominent and deeply serrated margins. The leaves are fern-like in appearance after which the tree is named.

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Paper-bark Birch

Flower: Inconspicuous male and female catkins which are borne on the same tree, usually present in clusters of 3. Fruit: Small nutlets appear in clusters. Leaves: Deciduous. Ovate with pointed tips, stalked and with serrated edges. Turns yellow in autumn. Up to 4cm long.

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Silver Birch

Flower: Male yellow catkins hang loose, female catkins much shorter and erect. Often hybridizes with Downy Birch making identification somewhat difficult at times. Fruit: The female catkins develop hundreds of winged seeds as their fruit. Leaves: Deciduous. Stalked and triangular in shape with doubly serrated margins. Leaves turn yellow in autumn. Downy Birch leaves have got serrated margins only, not doubly serrated as with Silver Birch.

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Meadow Buttercup

Flower: 5 glossy yellow petals on furrowed stalks, up to 2.5cm wide and with spreading sepals. Fruit: A cluster of achenes, no larger than half a centimetre across. Leaves: The palmate leaves are variable but have 3 to 7 deeply cut lobes. The end lobe is unstalked.

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Bird Cherry

Flower: Flowers very different than Wild Cherry. Cream-white, 5 petals, up to 1.5cm. Fruit: Very dark red cherries appear on some trees during autumn in the UK. Leaves: Deciduous tree. The oval and hairless, pointed leaves have serrated margins. Bird Cherry can be distinguished from Wild Cherry by the fine, sharp serrations on its leaf margins and the 2 nectar glands...

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Wild Cherry

Flower: White, sometimes tinged green, 5 petals and red anthers. Flowers are bunched together. Fruit: Numerous small red cherries on long stalks, turning black later. Leaves: Deciduous. Oval, pointed, dark green leaves with serrated, or sometimes double serrated leaf margins. The leaf stalks are long and individual leaves can grow up to 12cm long. The leaves in autumn turn...

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Sweet Chestnut

Flower: Pale yellow catkins, up to 30cm long. Trees with all males catkins, or males with females at the base. Fruit: A shiny brown nut encased inside a green, prickly shell. The fruits are called 'Sweet Chestnuts'. Leaves: Deciduous tree. Alternate leaves which are long, lanceolate and pointed with saw-like teeth. Leaf veins are prominent. The leaves are up to 25cm long which is probably the largest leaf of any wild tre...

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Sweet Cicely

Flower: White umbels reaching 6cm wide and no bracts. Individual flowers have 5 petals. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Long, green, shiny, cylindrical and ribbed. The fruits are erect and about 2cm long. Leaves: Similar looking to Cow Parsley but are softer to the touch. They are 2-4 pinnate with small flecks on close inspection.

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Shrubby Cinquefoil

Flower: Normally 5 bright yellow petals but occasionally orange, white, pink or red. Flowers are saucer-shaped and similar to buttercups. Fruit: The fruit persists throughout winter and is a dry brown nutlet. Leaves: Small pinnate leaves, alternate and hand-shaped with 5 leaflets. Leaflets are linear.

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Common Comfrey

Flower: Clusters of pink-purple or yellowish cream flowers, up to 2cm wide. Flowers can also be magenta, red or white. Fruit: A cluster of 4 shiny nutlets, later turning a dark brown or black. Leaves: Similar-looking to Foxglove leaves. Large, slender, undivided leaves with a rough texture.

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Wild Daffodil

Flower: Yellow with a darker trumpet-like central corona, growing up to 4cm wide. Fruit: A capsule which splits open to reveal numerous black seeds. Leaves: All of the leaves emerge from the bulb which is situated beneath the surface of the ground. They are greyish-green, long and linear.

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Common Dandelion

Flower: Leafless flower stalks contain a milky sap. Yellow flowers, often reddish underneath, up to 6cm wide. Fruit: The fruit is a pappus. A spherical head of white seeds, often known as a 'clock'. The seeds are called 'achenes'. Leaves: Variable in shape and having basal leaves only. They have deep lobed, long leaves, up to 30cm. The word 'dandelion' comes from the French for 'Lion's tooth'. This is referring to the shape of the le...

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Crested Dog's-tail

Flower: One-sided stalked green spikelet, shortly awned. Fruit: Seeds, up to 4mm long. Leaves: Stiff green, wiry grass blades, long and narrow.

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Common Dogwood

Flower: A flat-topped head of creamy-white flowers. 4 petals. Insect pollinated. Fruit: The flowers develop into small black berries, sometimes called 'dogberries'. Each dogberry is up to 8mm in diameter and contains a single seed. Leaves: Deciduous shrub. Its opposite leaves are slightly paler underneath. Up to 8cm in length. Oval leaves but with pointed tips. Each leaf has between 3 and 5 veins.

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Bermuda Grass

Flower: 3-6 spikes up to 5cm long, arranged in a fan shape. Unawned spikelets are one-flowered and purplish. Fruit: A brown seed-like caryopsis. Leaves: Simple, linear, elongated leaf blades, short and flattened. Jointed stems.

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Ground Elder

Flower: Dense white umbels without bracts, up to 6cm across. Fruit: A flattened egg-shaped, small, dark brown fruit with long curved styles. 2-parted with narrow ridges, up to 4mm long. Leaves: Alternate, long-stalked, compound leaves. Usually 9 leaflets on the lower leaves but this can vary and just 3 leaflets on the upper leaves. The leaflets are elliptical to ovate with serrated margins. ...

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