Alders

Alder (Alnus glutinosa)

Alnus glutinosa thrives in moist soils, and grows under favourable circumstances to a height of 20–30 m, exceptionally up to 37 m, though often less.

It is important as coppice-wood on marshy ground. The wood is soft, white when first cut and turning to pale red; the knots are beautifully mottled. The wood is very durable under water, and it is therefore used for piles. It is also the traditional wood burnt to produce smoked fish and other smoked foods, though in some areas other woods are more often used now. Furniture is sometimes made from the wood, as were clogs, and it supplies excellent charcoal for gunpowder.

The bark is astringent; it is used for tanning and dyeing.

Ash

Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)

Ash is a hard (a hardwood), dense (710 kg/m³ for Fraxinus excelsior), tough and very strong but elastic, extensively used for making bows, tool handles, quality wooden cricket bats, baseball bats, hurleys and other uses demanding high strength and resilience. Ash is not used extensively outdoors due to the heartwood having a low durability to ground contact.

It also makes excellent firewood.



Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Beech

European Beech, Common Beech

The wood of the European Beech is used in the manufacture of numerous objects and implements. Its fine and short grain makes it an easy wood to work with, easy to soak, dye (except its heartwood), varnish and glue. Steaming makes the wood even easier to machine. It has an excellent finish and is resistant to compression and splitting. Milling is sometimes difficult due to cracking and it is stiff when flexed. The density of the wood is 720 kg per cubic meter. It is particularly well suited for minor carpentry, particularly furniture. From chairs to parquetry (flooring) and staircases, the European Beech can do almost anything other than heavy structural support, so long as it is not left outdoors. Its hardness make it ideal for making wooden mallets and workbench tops. The wood of the European Beech rots easily if it is not protected by a tar based on a distillate of its own bark (as used in railway sleepers). It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this.

Common beech is also considered one of the best fire woods for fireplaces. Beech wood is an excellent firewood, easily split and burning for many hours with bright but calm flames.

The fruit of the beech, also called "Beechnuts" and "mast", are found in the small burrs that drop from tree in autumn. They are small, triangular, and edible, with a bitter, astringent taste.





Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Birches

Birches
Silver Birch (Betula pendula)
Downy Birch (Betula pubescens)

Birch is used as firewood due to its high calorific value per unit weight and unit volume. It burns well, without popping, even when frozen and freshly hewn. The bark will burn very well even when wet because of the oils it contains. With care, it can be split into very thin sheets that will ignite from even the smallest of sparks

Extracts of birch are used for flavoring or leather oil, and in cosmetics such as soap or shampoo. Birch tar or Russian Oil extracted from birch bark is thermoplastic and waterproof; it was used as a glue on, for example, arrows, and also for medicinal purposes

Ground birch bark, fermented in sea water, is used for seasoning the woolen, hemp or linen sails and hemp rope of traditional Norwegian boats.




Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Box

Box (Buxus sempervirens; southern England only)

Owing to its fine grain it is a good wood for fine wood carving, although this is limited by the small sizes available.



Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn

Wild Cherry (Prunus avium)

Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years. The stones have been found in deposits at bronze age settlements throughout Europe, including in Britain.

The hard, reddish-brown wood (cherry wood) is valued as a hardwood for woodturning, and making cabinets and musical instruments.

A green dye can also be prepared from the plant.

Prunus avium .

Bird Cherry (Prunus padus)

It was used medicinally during the Middle Ages, and the bark, placed at the door, was supposed to ward off plague.







. Bark . Coppice . Dye . Fine-grain . Firewood . Flavoring . Fodder . Fruit . Hardwood . Hedgerows . Indoor use only . Marshy or moist soil . Medicinal . Moisture resistance . Paper . Piles . Seeds and Nuts . Softwood . Special Uses .
Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Elms

Carpentry: Elm wood was valued for its interlocking grain, and consequent resistance to splitting, with significant uses in wagon wheel hubs, chair seats and coffins. The often long, straight, trunks were favoured as a source of timber for keels in ship construction.

The density of the wood varies due to differences between species, but averages around 560 kg per cubic metre.

Elm is used primarily for its wood, which has great strength, durability, a tight-twisted grain and is resistant to rotting (when permanently wet). Uses include: boat building (keels, rudders and trawler boards) furniture, wheel hubs, wooden water pipes, floorboards, coffins and in decorative turning. In fact before metal was widely available many medieval English towns, including Bristol, Reading, Exeter, Southampton, Hull and Liverpool used hollowed trunks as water pipes. Some of these old water mains still survive and are occasionally dug up during building works. The foliage was also used for feeding and bedding domestic livestock. Elm was also used as piers in the construction of the original London Bridge. However this resistance to decay in water does not extend to ground contact.

Elms also have a long history of cultivation for fodder, with the leafy branches cut for livestock.

Elm bark, cut into strips and boiled, sustained much of the rural population of Norway during the great famine of 1812. The seeds are particularly nutritious, comprising 45% crude protein, and less than 7% fibre by dry mass.




Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Hazels

Hazels
Common Hazel (Corylus avellana)

Hazel wood was crucially important in the past. The wood is very flexible and can be twisted and even knotted. Uses include thatching spars, net stakes, water divining sticks, hurdles, furniture, firewood. The hazel nuts were also a prized food source, so much so that cultivated forms of hazel were bred for their nuts or 'cobs'. Now, however, grey squirrels strip the trees before the nuts can be harvested.

Hazelnuts

Common Hazel is cultivated for its nuts in commercial orchards in Europe, Turkey, Iran and Caucasus. The name "hazelnut" applies to the nuts of any of the species of the genus Corylus. This hazelnut, the kernel of the seed, is edible and used raw or roasted, or ground into a paste. The seed has a thin, dark brown skin which has a bitter flavour and is sometimes removed before cooking.

Hazelnut has a significant place among the types of dried nut in terms of nutrition and health because of the special composition of fats (primarily oleic acid), protein, carbohydrates, vitamins (vitamin E), minerals, dietary fibres, phytosterol (beta-cytosterol) and antioxidant phenolics such as flavan-3-ols. The nutritional and sensory properties of hazelnut make it a unique and ideal material for food products. Hazelnuts are a good source of energy with their 60.5% fat content.





Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Hollies

Hollies
European Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

In many western cultures, holly is a traditional Christmas decoration, used especially in wreaths. The wood is heavy, hard and whitish; one traditional use is for chess pieces, with holly for the white pieces, and ebony for the black. Other uses include turnery, inlay work and as firewood. Looms in the 1800s used holly for the spinning rod. Because holly is dense and can be sanded very smooth, the rod was less likely than other woods to snag threads being used to make cloth.

Between the thirteenth and eighteenth century, before the introduction of turnips, holly was cultivated for use as winter fodder for cattle and sheep. Less spiny varieties of holly were preferred, and in practice the leaves growing near the top of the tree have far fewer spines making them more suitable for fodder.





Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Hornbeams

European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus; southern Great Britain only)

The common English name of "hornbeam" derives from the hardness of the wood (likened to horn) and the Old English beam, a tree (cognate with German "baum").

Hornbeams yield a very hard timber, giving rise to the name ironwood. Dried heartwood billets are nearly white and are suitable for decorative use. For general carpentry, hornbeam is rarely used, partly due to the difficulty of working it. Its hardness has however lent it to use for carving boards, tool handles, handplane soles, coach wheels, piano actions and other situations where a very tough, hard wood is required, perhaps most interestingly as gear pegs in simple machines, including traditional windmills. It is sometimes coppiced to provide hardwood poles. It is also used in parquet flooring.






Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Junipers

Junipers
Common Juniper (Juniperus communis)

Juniper berries are a spice used in a wide variety of culinary dishes and best known for the primary flavoring in gin (and responsible for gin's name, which is a shortening of the Dutch word for juniper, genever). Juniper berries are also used as the primary flavor in the liquor Jenever and sahti-style of beers. Juniper berry sauce is often a popular flavoring choice for quail, pheasant, veal, rabbit, venison and other meat dishes.

(Its astringent blue-black seed cones, commonly known as "Juniper berries", are too bitter to eat raw and are usually sold dried and used to flavour meats, sauces, and stuffings. They are generally crushed before use to release their flavour. The cones are used to flavour gin. In fact, the word 'gin' is derived from the French word for juniper berry, genièvre, which is the name for gin in France. The Slovak national alcoholic beverage Borovička is also flavoured with juniper berry extract.

Since juniper berries have a strong taste, they should be used sparingly. They are generally used to enhance meat with a strong flavour, such as game, including game birds, or tongue.)

Juniper berries are steam distilled to produce an essential oil that may vary from colorless to yellow or pale green. Some of its chemical components are alpha pinene, cadinene, camphene and terpineol.






Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Linden

Lindens (Limes)
Small-leaved Linden/Lime (Tilia cordata; southern Great Britain only)
Large-leaved Linden/Lime (Tilia platyphyllos; southern Great Britain only)

Although Tilia cordata is listed as the preferred medicinal species, T. platyphyllos is also used medicinally and somewhat interchangeably. The dried flowers are mildly sweet and sticky, and the fruit is somewhat sweet and mucilaginous. Linden tea has a pleasing taste, due to the aromatic volatile oil found in the flowers. The flowers, leaves, wood, and charcoal (obtained from the wood) are used for medicinal purposes. Active ingredients in the linden flowers include flavonoids (which act as antioxidants), volatile oils, and mucilaginous constituents (which soothe and reduce inflammation). The plant also contains tannins that can act as an astringent.

Linden flowers are used in colds, cough, fever, infections, inflammation, high blood pressure, headache (particularly migraine), as a diuretic (increases urine production), antispasmodic (reduces smooth muscle spasm along the digestive tract), and sedative. The flowers were added to baths to quell hysteria, and steeped as a tea to relieve anxiety-related indigestion, irregular heartbeat, and vomiting. The leaves are used to promote sweating to reduce fevers. The wood is used for liver and gallbladder disorders and cellulitis (inflammation of the skin and surrounding soft tissue). That wood burned to charcoal is ingested to treat intestinal disorders and used topically to treat edema or infection, such as cellulitis or ulcers of the lower leg.



Maples

Maples
Field Maple (Acer campestre; southern Great Britain only)

Field Maple is widely grown as an ornamental tree in parks and large gardens. The wood is white, hard and strong, and used for furniture, flooring, wood turning and musical instruments, though the small size of the tree and its relatively slow growth make it an unimportant wood.





Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Oaks

Oaks
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur)[English Oak]

It is a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading crown of rugged branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.

Quercus robur' is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work. The wood is characterised by its distinct (often wide) dark and light brown growth rings. The timber is around 720 kg per cubic meter in density.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Marble_gall

Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea)

The wood is important, used for construction purposes (particularly timber framing), shipbuilding, and for making oak barrels for wine.









Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Pines

Pines
Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)

Scots Pine is an important tree in forestry. The wood is used for pulp and sawn timber products. A seedling stand can be created by planting, sowing or natural regeneration.

In Finland and the Scandinavian countries, Scots Pine were used for making tar in the pre-industrial age. There are still some active tar producers, but mostly the industry has ceased to exist. It have also been used as a source of rosin and turpentine.

The wood is pale brown to red-brown, and used for general construction work. It has a dry density of around 470 kg/m3 (varying with growth conditions).











Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Poplars

Poplars
Poplar is widely used for the manufacture of paper.

Poplar wood has exceptional flexibility. Poplar wood, particularly when seasoned, makes a good hearth for a bow drill.

Due to its high tannic acid content, the bark has been used in Europe for tanning leather


Aspen (Populus tremula)
Black Poplar (Populus nigra; southern Great Britain only)






Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Rowans and Whitebeams

Rowans and Whitebeams

The wood is dense and used for carving and turning and for tool handles and walking sticks. Rowan berries are a traditional source of tannins for mordanting vegetable dyes.

The fruit of European Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) can be made into a slightly bitter jelly which in Britain is traditionally eaten as an accompaniment to game, and into jams and other preserves, on their own, or with other fruits. Rowan berries are usually too astringent to be palatable when raw. Collecting them after first frost reduces the bitter taste.

The density of the rowan wood makes it very usable for walking sticks.

European Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)
Common Whitebeam (Sorbus aria) and several related apomictic microspecies.









Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

Service Tree

Service Tree (Sorbus domestica; recently discovered growing wild on a cliff in south Wales)
The fruit is a component of a cider-like drink which is still made in parts of Europe. Picked straight off the tree, it is highly astringent and gritty; however, when left to blet (over-ripen) it sweetens and becomes pleasant to eat.

Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis)
It is relatively rare and in Britain is now usually confined to pockets of ancient woodland, although it can also be found growing in hedgerows. It can often be found associated with oak and ash woods, preferring clay and lime based soils.

The fruit, sometimes called "chequers", are edible and taste similar to dates, although they are now rarely collected for food. They are usually too astringent to eat until they are over-ripe and bletted. They were traditionally known as a herbal remedy for colic; the tree's Latin name, torminalis means 'good for colic'. Before the introduction of hops, the fruit were used to flavour beer.











Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .

shrubs

Native large shrubs
These larger shrubs occasionally reach tree size:

Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula)

Galen, a Greek physician of the 2nd century A.D., knew of Alder Buckthorn, although he did not distinguish clearly in his writings between it and other closely related species. All of these plants though, were credited with the power to protect against witchcraft, demons, poisons, and headaches.

The bark (and to a lesser extent the fruit) has been used as a laxative, due to its 3 - 7% anthraquinone content. Bark for medicinal use is dried and stored for a year before use, as fresh bark is violently purgative; even dried bark can be dangerous if taken in excess.

Purging Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)
The bark and fruit were used as a purgative in the past, though their potentially dangerous violent action and side effects means they are now rarely used.

Elder (Sambucus nigra)
The dark blue/purple berries can be eaten when fully ripe but are mildly poisonous in their unripe state. . All green parts of the plant are poisonous, containing cyanogenic glycosides (Vedel & Lange 1960). The berries are edible after cooking and can be used to make jam, jelly, chutney and Pontack sauce. Also when cooked they go well with blackberries and with apples in pies. Both flowers and berries can be made into elderberry wine.

This plant is traditionally used as a medicinal plant by many native peoples and herbalists alike. The flowers can be used to make an herbal tea as a remedy for inflammation caused by colds and fever.

The strong-smelling foliage was used in the past, tied to a horse's mane, to keep flies away while riding. The stem can be used to make a whistle, after the pith has been removed.

Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)

The plant is thus often grown in organic gardening and permaculture to prevent harm to orchard crops, while benefitting from the fact that even frugivorous birds will hunt pest insects during the breeding season, as their young require much protein to grow.

The straight woody shoots produced by the plant which can be used as prods, skewers or arrows. The prehistoric archer known as Ötzi the Iceman, discovered on the border between Italy and Austria in 1991 was carrying arrows made from dogwood.



Alders . Alder buckthorn . Ash . Beech . Birches . Box . Cherries, Plums, Blackthorn . Dogwood . Elder . Elms . Hazels . Hollies . Hornbeams . Junipers . Limes . Maples . Oaks . Pines . Poplars . Purging buckthorn . Rowans and Whitebeams . Service tree . Native shrubs . Willows . Yews .