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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Balkan Anemone

Flower: The flower has many blue narrow petals. Balkan Anemone is much like Blue Anemone (Anemone apennina) but the petals are narrower and hairless underneath. Flowers measure 3 or 4cm in diameter. Sometimes... Fruit: The fruit is a winged nutlet called an achene. An achene is a type of dry, one-seeded fruit. Leaves: The leaves are palmate and dark green. They are 3-lobed and each lobed is toothed around the margins. A compact perennial flower. Garden escape species.

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Asarabacca

Flower: Pale yellowish-green bell-shaped flowers. No petals. 3 maroon sepals. The flowers are usually hidden beneath the leaves. 12 stamens. Pollinated by flies. Fruit: A 6-parted capsule. Leaves: The leathery, dark green leaves are glossy and kidney-shaped. The leaves measure about 3 inches (7.5cm) across. Evergreen perennial. Asarabacca has a preference for growing in Beech woodland.

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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.

Video: Mountain Ash filmed in Adlington, Lancashire on the 9th July 2022.

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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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Balm of Gilead

Flower: Pale yellowish-green catkins which appear before the leaves in spring, up to 16cm long. Wind pollinated. Fruit: The seeds are the fruit. They ripen in May. Leaves: The leaf buds are very sticky and resinous. The smooth and hairless leaves are heart-shaped with a pointed tip and finely serrated margins.

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Small Balsam

Flower: Pale yellow flowers. The 2 lowermost petals are partly fused together, forming a lip. The upper petals form a helmet. 5 stamens. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: A pod-like fruit capsule. Leaves: An annual plant of shady places. The leaves are alternate along the branches. The leaves are oval, dense-toothed and pointed. The upper leaves are the largest. Erect stems.

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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.

Video: Common Beech filmed in Anderton, Lancashire on the 18th June 2022.

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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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Creeping Bellflower

Flower: The inflorescence is a one-sided flower spike of pale blue, drooping, bell-shaped, or tubular flowers. White flowers are rare. The one-sided flower spike makes it readily distinguishable from other sp... Fruit: The fruit is a brown, nodding capsule. The capsule has 5 pores at the base where the seeds can escape in order to disperse themselves. The seeds ripen from August to October. Leaves: The basal leaves are narrowly triangular in shape with a heart-shaped base and jagged teeth along the margins. The leaves measure up to 12cm (5 inches) long. The stem leaves are short-stalked and lanc...

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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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Bird-in-a-bush

Flower: The inflorescence is a loose purple flower spike. The flowers are tubular with an almost straight spur and lobed bracts. The two innermost petals are slightly conjoined. 2 sepals. 6 stamens. Flowers a... Fruit: A 2.5cm long capsule. In fruit in May to June. Leaves: A perennial with greyish, alternate, stalked leaves. The leaves are 3 to 4-ternate. The leaves are fern-like in appearance. Deciduous, in leaf from March to July.

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Hairy-fruited Broom

Flower: Yellow, pea-like flowers. The flowers are slightly smaller and paler than those of the similar looking Common Broom (Cytisus scoparius). Fruit: Fruit pods, covered in white hairs. Common Broom does not have a covering of white hairs. Leaves: Small leaves with 1 to 3 leaflets. Each leaflet is up to 1cm in length. The stems are 10-ridged.

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Goldilocks Buttercup

Flower: Glossy leaves, up to 25mm across. Purple-tipped sepals. Many yellow stamens. Fruit: Clusters of very hairy achenes. Leaves: The long-stalked, alternate basal leaves are kidney-shaped and deeply lobed. Very short-stalked stem leaves. Perennial.

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