There are more than 7,000 trees in Alexandra Park and our resident expert, Stephen Middleton from The Friends of Alexandra Park, is introducing us to some of this favourites.
The Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica) is our November Tree of the Month. Beautiful yellows and browns appear as the season progresses making this the iconic British tree for its autumn colour. The tree also gives lovely light green spring colour and with the leaves having a downy edge which they gradually lose.
Our trees of the month are by the mini roundabout close to the BBC Tower.
Although the adult trees are deciduous, young trees and trees clipped as hedges keep their leaves throughout the winter.
A particularly famous beech hedge is the Meikleour one near Perth in Scotland which is a spectacular 500metres long and 30metres high and was planted nearly 300 years ago. It is celebrated as the world’s tallest hedge.
Beech trees can normally reach up to 40metres tall as a native woodland trees and have a typical lifespan of up to 300 years.
A prominent feature of the beech is the smooth bark. Most trees have bark that gets rougher with age, but the beech usually maintains its smooth bark. It has often had initials carved on it and they can stay visible for decades.
The poet, A. Marvell mentions this in a verse from his poem “Garden”.
No white nor red was ever seen
So am’rous as this lovely green.
Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,
Cut in these trees their mistress’ name:
Little, alas, they know or heed
How far these beauties hers exceed!
Fair trees! wheres’e’er your barks I wound,
No name shall but your own be found.
Beech trees are well adapted as young seedlings to grow in the shade and will gradually outcompete other trees and flowers on the forest floor due to the almost complete lack of light under their dense canopy of leaves.
Want to spot a beech tree in winter? The smooth bark plus sharp pointed buds will mark them out. In the spring the flowers develop on the tree with the beech nuts following later. The trees will often produce very few beech nuts for some years before having a bumper crop known as a mast year.
Our tree of the month is native to southern Britain and western and central Europe. It has many uses including in the chair building industry in the Chilterns as its wood is tough, but can be easily bent when steam is applied. If used outside, e.g. as railway sleepers, it must be treated to protect it against insect attack.
The Scottish herring industry often uses beechwood chippings for the smoking process.
There are several more beech trees in the park and they can stand out prominently with their autumn colour.
