Memorial trees & plaques

Beech

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Fagus sylvatica

Appearance: Beech trees can grow to over 40 metres in height. Their leaves are oval with a pointed tip and wavy edges, turning gold or copper in autumn.

Lifespan: Up to 300 years naturally, or up to 1,000 years when coppiced.

Wildlife: The seeds of Beech trees – known as mast – are only generated once every two to six years and are very popular food for badgers, deer and squirrels. They also represent an important habitat for many types of butterfly, while the foliage is a popular food for moth caterpillars.

Did you know? Sliced thinly, beech wood was once used for writing on as pages in early books. It was known as ‘boc’ by the Anglo-Saxons, which is where we get the word ‘book’ from.

Wild Cherry

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Prunus avium
Appearance: The wild cherry tree can grow up to 30 metres tall. Its oval leaves are 6-15cm long and fade to beautiful crimson and orange colours in autumn. It has white, cup-shaped flowers that hang in clusters of up to six.

Lifespan: Up to 60 years.

Wildlife: The wild cherry is loved by gardeners and creatures alike, its berries being particularly popular with blackbirds and thrushes, as well as mammals like badgers, dormice and wood mice. The appropriately named cherry bark and cherry fruit are just two of the many moth caterpillars to be found making their home in its foliage.

Did you know? The wild cherry has a close association with the cuckoo, and it used to be said that a cuckoo could not stop singing until it had had three good meals of cherries. Meanwhile, the resin of the wild cherry tree was once dissolved in wine and used to treat kidney stones and gallstones.

Lime

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Tilia cordata

Appearance: This magnificent tree grows in height to about 12-17 metres and has a spread of 4-8 metres. A clone of the classic small-leaved lime, it has small, heart-shaped leaves that are dark green on the surface, light green underneath and turn a golden yellow in autumn. It produces cream-coloured flowers in July.

Lifespan: Over 70 years.

Wildlife: Aphids are attracted to our lime trees, providing a valuable source of food for many different bird species, as well as ladybirds and hoverflies. Bees enjoy the tree’s pollen and nectar, while moth caterpillars enjoy feeding on the leaves.

Did you know? The small-leaved lime is seen as an indicator of ancient woodland.

Crab Apple

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Malus sylvestris

Appearance: Crab apple trees can grow to a height of about ten metres. Their branches and twigs can become gnarled and twisted, while the leaves are oval in shape, about 6cm long and have rounded teeth.

Lifespan: Up to 100 years.

Wildlife: The crab apple’s fruit is savoured by birds like thrushes, crows and blackbirds along with mammals such as voles, mice, foxes and badgers. Moth caterpillars making their home there include the eyed hawk-moth and the green pug.

Did you know? Known by the Celts as the ‘Tree of Love’, the crab apple is an ancestor of modern cultivated apple trees, but many trees thought to be genuine crab apples may actually be descended from discarded cores of cultivated apples. A 1979 survey in Durham found only one percent of 3,000 hedgerow crab apple trees surveyed were authentic native species.

Rowan

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Sorbus aucuparia

Appearance: Rowan trees grow to up to 15 metres in height. Their leaves contain 5-8 pairs of serrated ‘leaflets’, while in autumn they produce bright red berries that are dispersed by migrating birds.

Lifespan: Up to 200 years.

Wildlife: Apart from the birds attracted to its berries – which include the mistle thrush, the song thrush, blackbirds and fieldfare – the rowan tree is also popular with bees and other pollinators for its pollen and nectar and with moth caterpillars such as the apple fruit moth and the autumn green carpet.

Did you know? Although it is also known as mountain ash, and has similar leaves to the ash tree, they are in fact separate species. The rowan tree has strong and flexible wood that has been used for making longbows and tool handles.

Hazel

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Corylus avellana

Appearance: Hazel trees can grow to 12 metres in height, although usually they’ll be smaller as a result of coppicing. They have a smooth, grey-brown bark which tends to peel with age. The leaves are oval to round, soft to the touch and turn yellow in autumn.

Lifespan: Up to 80 years, but this can be several hundred years when coppiced.

Wildlife: When coppiced, hazel trees provide shelter for ground nesting birds, including yellowhammers, willow warblers and nightjars. The yellow catkins are good for early bee pollen, while the nuts are a popular source of food for dormice. The leaves are food for more than 70 types of butterfly and moth caterpillars.

Did you know? The hazel tree was equated with wisdom and inspiration by the Celts, while its pliant wood has made it a popular choice for walking sticks, staffs and shepherds’ crooks.

Whitebeam

Type: Deciduous (sheds its leaves annually)

Scientific name: Sorbus aria

Appearance: A domed, compact tree that grows to about 15 metres in height. It has smooth, grey twigs and bark, with oval leaves that have an irregularly serrated edge. When they first start to unfold, the whitebeam’s leaves resemble magnolia flowers before turning a rich russet colour in the autumn.

Lifespan: 70-80 years.

Wildlife: The leaves, flowers and berries of the whitebeam attract moth caterpillars, pollinators and birds respectively, while the birds also enjoy feasting on the moths.

Did you know? Whitebeam timber is fine-grained, hard and white. Traditional uses included wood turning and fine joinery, including chairs, beams, cogs and wheels in machinery.

Welsh slate plaques

Carved from beautiful Welsh slate, our delicate memorial plaques are placed at the feet of trees and in our wildflower meadows. They carry an inscription provided by you, and provide a gentle, unobtrusive marker within the landscape.