False Acacia

Flower: Cream-white, pea-like flowers. The flowers hang down in a loose spike and are similar in appearance to Laburnum but creamy-white and not yellow. Fruit: Brown pea-like pods, up to 4 inches long. Leaves: Deciduous. Dark green, pinnate leaves, up to 25cm in length. 3 to 9 pairs of blunt, oval leaflets. Leaflets are untoothed.

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Winter Aconite

Flower: Cup-shaped flowers, up to 3cm wide. The flowers have large, deeply cut, leafy bracts at their bases. Fruit: Follicles which contain the seeds. Leaves: A perennial with deeply cut, glossy, hairless basal leaves. Throughout the British Isles, Winter Aconite is most common in the east of England and Scotland.

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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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Arrow Bamboo

Flower: The flowers are never seen in the British Isles. Wind pollinated. Fruit: Never seen in fruit. Leaves: An evergreen perennial plant with large, long, linear, pointed, dark green, grass-like leaves. The stems are cane-like in appearance. Occasionally seen as a garden escape species growing wild in the U...

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Golden Barberry

Flower: Clusters of small golden yellow flowers. Insect pollinated. Fruit: Bluish-black berries. Its seeds ripen in August and September. Leaves: A spiny evergreen shrub whose leaves are simple, narrow and spiny-toothed. The branches are arching. The leaves are mid-green and alternate along its branches. Each leaf measures about 2cm in length. ...

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Chinese Barberry

Flower: Yellow or orange flowers, tinged with red. In clusters of up to 25 flowers. Fruit: Purplish-black, elliptical berries, up to 6mm long. In fruit from July to November. Leaves: A dense bush with glossy, dark green, spiny, obovate leaves. The leaves are pale beneath. The branches contain long spines. The Gagnepain's Barberry (Berberis gagnepainii) is a similar looking shrub b...

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Gagnepain's Barberry

Flower: Golden yellow flowers are produced in clusters of about 5 or 6 (but sometimes up to 12), borne on short shoots. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Waxy, bluish-black, oblong fruit. 1cm in length. The seeds ripen in September and October. Leaves: A thorny shrub with simple, lanceolate, toothed leaves. The thorns on the branches are 3-spined. The teeth on the leaf margins are tipped by short spines too. Chinese Barberry (Berberis julianae) is s...

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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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Atlas Cedar

Flower: Erect male flowers, up to 5cm tall. Flowers are green early in the year and later become brown. Fruit: The fruit are the cones. The female cones are light green and 1cm in size. The barrel-shaped male cones are flat-topped and grow up to 8cm long. The cones appear from October to December. Leaves: A very distinctive species with its tufts of silvery bluish-green needles. Each tuft carries between 30 and 45 needles. Not often found growing wild in the UK as it rarely self-seeds.

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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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