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.

[view all information]

Common Alder

Flower: Yellow and pendulous (male catkins). Green and oval (female catkins). Male and female catkins present on same tree, and grouped in clusters of 3-8 on each stalk. Fruit: In winter the catkins turn into hard, dark, cone-like fruit which eventually release the seeds. Leaves: Deciduous. Round, dark green, leathery, smooth, serrated edges.

[view all information]

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'.

[view all information]

Green Alkanet

Flower: Bright blue, 8-10mm, 5 petals. Fruit: 4 nutlets per flower, each having a ridged surface. Leaves: Hairy, broad, alternate leaves with deep veins and pointed tips. Leaves are smaller and without stalks towards the top.

[view all information]

Wood Anemone

Flower: White, often tinged with pink, 5-10 sepals (the white petals are actually sepals). Fruit: One-sided winged nuts called achenes, containing the seeds. Wind pollinated. Leaves: Simple, deeply cut leaves with a red stem.

[view all information]

Wild Angelica

Flower: White, often tinged with pink, umbels up to 15cm across. Fruit: Flattened, round, oval papery wings. Dispersed by the wind. Leaves: Alternate, long-stemmed. Triangular 3-pinnate leaves. Leaflets are sharp-tipped and have serrated margins. Not hairy.

[view all information]

Crab Apple

Flower: Pinkish white in small clusters, 5 petals. Fruit: Fruit is long stalked, small and round, no larger than 2 inches in diameter but usually much smaller. Colour is very variable. Leaves: Deciduous. Stalked, oval with serrated edges.

[view all information]

Variegated Yellow Archangel

Flower: Butter yellow, in whorls up the stem. Fruit: Clusters of bell-shaped nutlets. Leaves: Dark green, long-stalked and heart-shaped. Mottled with conspicuous silvery blotches.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

Wood Avens

Flower: Yellow, 5 petals on long stalk. Fruit: Hooked fruit forming a bur-like head, bronze-tipped. Leaves: The lower leaves are pinnate with the terminal leaflet being much the largest. Stem leaves are smaller and trefoil.

[view all information]

Himalayan Balsam

Flower: Pink-purple to white. Fruit: The seed pods explode spectacularly and unexpectedly upon reaching maturity. Each pod contains many seeds and individual seeds can be projected as far as 5 meters away. This plant is notorious for bei... Leaves: Green elliptical leaves with serrated margins. Up to 8cm in length. The toothed edges are red in colour.

[view all information]

Touch-me-not Balsam

Flower: Yellow, speckled red. 5 petals with broad lower lip and small upper hood. Fruit: Pendant capsules that burst open and scatter their seeds when touched. Leaves: Alternate, stalked and oval. Toothed margins.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

Bearsbreech

Flower: Tall spike of white flowers with purple veins. Fruit: An ovoid capsule which contains 2-4 black seeds. Leaves: Glossy green leaves, growing up to 60cm in length. The leaves are also pinnate with deep lobes, pointed but not spiny. A similar species called Spiny Bearsbreech (Acanthus spinosus) exists but is more...

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

Giant Bellflower

Flower: Pale blue, bell-shaped. Individual flowers up to 5cm in size. Flowers are borne on a long stalked leafy spike, lower flowers opening first. Fruit: A hairy and pendant, nodding capsule. Leaves: Narrow and triangular. The lower leaves have a winged stalk.

[view all information]

Nettle-leaved Bellflower

Flower: Mid-blue, bell-shaped. Individual flowers up to 3.5cm in size. 1-3 flowers appear together on a stalked spike, the top ones opening first. Fruit: A dry, hairy nodding capsule that splits open upon ripening. Leaves: Rough, irregularly toothed, pointed leaves which are paler beneath. The plant earns its name from the leaves, as they resemble, or at least look similar to the leaves of Nettles.

[view all information]

Betony

Flower: Dense red to purple flower spike. Fruit: After the flowers have died off, each flower leaves behind four 3-sided, smooth, brown nutlets at the bottom of the calyx. Leaves: Bluntly toothed, oval, stalked leaves, mostly in basal rosettes. Some paired leaves along the stem.

[view all information]

Bilberry

Flower: One or two reddish-pink bell-shaped flowers on short stalks at leaf bases. Fruit: Small, round, dark blue, flat-topped berries. No larger than 1cm in diameter. Leaves: Small, light green and short-stalked oval to elliptical leaves with netted veins. Leaf margins are finely serrated.

[view all information]

Hedge Bindweed

Flower: Usually pure white but occasionally pink with 5 white stripes, up to 6cm, trumpet-shaped. Sepals often purple tinged and only half-covered by two large bracts. Often hybridizes with Hedge Bindweed mak... Fruit: A capsule which contains 1 to 4 seeds, rarely more than 1cm long. Leaves: Long stalked, arrow-shaped leaves and sharp-tipped, not hairy. The bases of the leaves have angled lobes.

[view all information]

Large Bindweed

Flower: White but occasionally pale pink with 5 white stripes, up to 9cm, trumpet-shaped. Bracts completely covering the sepals unlike Hedge Bindweed, however Large Bindweed often hybridizes with Hedge Bindwe... Fruit: Light brown capsules, usually containing 2 seeds. Leaves: Arrow-shaped with a sharp tip, alternate and long-stalked. The bases of the leaves have V-shaped angular lobes.

[view all information]