Ilex aquifolium; 'Holly'

Holly is an evergreen tree growing about 10-25 meters; holly can grow as a bush or into a vertical tree with one trunk. The leaves have 5 Sharp spines alternatively pointing up and down; these waxy evergreen leaves can last for a number of years.

The holly flowers bloom in May and June these flowers are pollinated by numerous bees and is a stable source of their food in these months. These then turn into red berries during the winter months which feed many birds, rodents and larger herbivores.

Holly is shade resistant and can grow underneath larger plants which were most plants can’t survive. This meaning that holly often grows in woodland and is associated with beech and oak trees.

Holly is a pioneer species which holds soil together and creating soil conditions that other plant species can colonise on. Holly prefers well drained neutral to slight acidic soil but can grow in most soils conditions except excess moisture.

This holly was found in Platt Fields park, not underneath but next to a number of beech trees, in very wet almost water logged conditions. 

Hedera helix; 'Ivy'

English ivy is an evergreen perennial climbing vine, which attaches itself to walls of the bark of trees it does this by aerial rootlets which have matted pads that attach it to surfaces. These aerial rootlets are specialised roots which suck moisture out of the plants climber.

Ivy can grow up to 30 meters high but also can grow on horizontal surfaces and is happy to cover the floor as well as growing upwards.

Ivy can be known as a pest which often invades woodlands and can smother the woodland floor, trees and canopy. In extreme cases can kill plants by out competing light of its tree host.

The leaves of the young ivy are palmately lobed with often 5 lobed parts, and then the older leaves are unlobed and normally higher of the ground.

Ivy can’t grow in the extremes of wet and dry conditions or extremely acid soils, apart from these conditions ivy is able to grow in most areas.

This Ivy was found in All saints park and was growing around the base of a London plain, it was starting to grow up the base.

Cornus alba;' Dogwood'

Dogwood grows to about 2.5 meters tall, being a upright shrub which grows into a large colony of stems of suckering deciduous shrub.

In winter the stems turn a striking red colour (during the growing season the stems are green)

The dog wood is tolerant to many growing conditions and can grow in wet or dry, alkali or acid soils happily.

 The dog wood optimum light conditions are full sun to partial sun and doesn’t grow well in dark areas.

Leaf shape ovate to elliptic about 10 cm long and about 4 cm wide.

Sorbus aucuparia ; ‘Rowan/Mountain Ash’

Mountain ash is unrelated to the true ash tree.

The mountain ash is an average sized tree ranging from 8 to 10 meters. Pinnate leaves each the leaflets are around 3 to 7 cm long with serrated edges there are regularly collection 13 to 15 leaflets per leaf.

Mountain ash gets in name from being able to grow in high altitudes from up to 2000 meters above sea level and able to colonize on very little soil in the cracks of rocks and even on other tree

The importance of the Mountain ash in cities is that it is a large food source birds and this in turned spreads the mountain ashes seeds in droppings.  These berries can also be consumed by humans but are bitter and often made into jam and preserves.

The mountain ash is very hardy and can survive from very alkali to very acid soils and varying light conditioned.

This plant prefers well drained soils so grows in sandy and loamy soils but also able to grow in heavy clay soils.

Platanus x Hispanica; the 'London Plane'

The London plane is thought to of been a hybrid between western plane and eastern plane, people are unsure if this hybridization was natural or came from the shores of Spain.

The London plane as been found to be very resilient to city living and due to this accounts to 50% of all planted trees in London. All trees ‘breath’ through there bark the London planes bark collects the pollutants and leaving the trunk clean and pollutant tree.

The London plane also able to be resistant to drought, can cope with regular pruning and capable to withstand in compact soils, these are all common problems in urban planting and inner city living.

The tree can grow up to 20-35 meters with palmately lobed leaves with the leaf blades at around 10-20 cm long. The fruit of the trees is a small dense cluster of achnese which get dispersed using wind over the winter.

The tree can grow up to 20-35 meters with palmately lobed leaves with the leaf blades at around 10-20 cm long. The fruit of the trees is a small dense cluster of achnese which get dispersed using wind over the winter.

This tree was found in All Saints Park and was in a very small tree bed for a tree of this size and was alsoe engulfed by

Quercus robur; English Oak

At a height of around 36 meters and also width of another 36 meters the Oak has a very large canopy with branches which often span horizontally from the think tree trunk.

Oak flourishes in well drained deep soil, but can still grow in set and range of pHs. The oak is Abundant in most conditions except marshy, very light or chalky soils.  

The leaves are pinnately lobed with a width length of around 3 to 5 cm and a length ranging from 7 to 16 cm

Fagus sylvatica; 'Beech'

Beech trees are large imposing trees which are often associated with being the climax of a woodland as trees cant compete with its height which can grow to 40 meters, due to this there was no plant life underneath the beech trees at all 

Beech trees optimum conditions consist of well drained slightly acidic soils, but can tolerate natural to slightly alkali soils.

The grey bark of the beech tree is very thin and can often see the scars of graffiti scratched into the tree, due to its thin dark were is a fungal infection which penetrates the thin bark in bad cases causes the beech to die

The leaves are toothed with a diameter an average of 5 cm long and 4-10 cm broad. Thin olive-brown twigs, with sharp winter buds these open in relation to temperature and sun light, this normally happens around spring.

This tree was found in Platt Fields Park, the Beeches there are some of the tallest tree in the park dominating  the area.

Aesculus hippocastanum; ‘Horse chestnut'

This horse chest nuts tree was found in Platt Fields Park. Due to its size of around 20 meters, there was very little growing underneath the trees canopy as little light falls on the ground.

Its favorable conditions are damp well drained soils, which is where this horse chest nut was found. Its surrounding soil was very damp with patches of standing water. The horse chest nut is adaptable to different pH but doesn't tolerate dry soils very well.

The large leaves are divided into five or seven leaflets, spreading like fingers from the palm of the hand and have their margins finely toothed. All over the small branches may be found the curious marks in the shape of minute horse-shoe.

Palmate leaves a mixture of 5 to 7 leaves each leaflet is around 13 to 30 cm the whole leaf can be up to 60 cm’s across.

White flowers grow in spring in erect panicles with about 20-50 flowers on each about 1 to 5 conkers grow on each panicle.