Tree Love

They’re springing to life all around us at the moment, but how much do we know about Ireland’s native trees? Ireland’s favourite force of nature Éanna Ní Lamhna on the eight most common Irish trees.

1. The Oak Tree 

Latin: Quercus. Irish:  An Dair

The Oak tree is considered to be the king of the woods. We have had great oak forests in Ireland since they returned after the end of the last Ice Age, ten thousand years ago. These are common trees in our parks and hedgerows too. They can grow up to 30 metres high and can live for a very long time. Our oldest oak tree is considered to be one growing in Abbeyleix which is almost 700 years old. They are particularly rich in insect life – 286 different species of insects have been recorded on oak.

Oak trees are one of the last trees to get its leaves. It usually waits till May, although the wind pollinated catkin flowers which go on to form the acorns in autumn come out before the leaves appear. Counties Kildare and Derry are named after the Irish word for oak – an dair.

It is very easy to identify an oak tree. It is the only tree with more than one bud at the end of its twigs in spring. Its leaves have loopy edges and it has acorns in the autumn

2. The Ash Tree 

Latin: Fraxinus. Irish: Fuinnseóg

The ash tree is our most common large hedgerow tree. It can grow up to twenty-five metres high and can live up to three hundred years. St. Patrick is supposed to have driven the snakes out of Ireland with an ash stick. Since at least the time of Setanta, hurleys have been made from ash.

 It is the very last tree to come into leaf – being later than the oak in most years and waiting until mid-May. It has a smooth grey bark while young and is the only tree to have black buds on its twigs. It has compound leaves with up to thirteen leaflets on each leaf. Its seeds are known as keys. They occur in bunches and as they each have a wing they are dispersed by the wind. 

More than 41 different insect species are associated with them. However they are threatened in recent times with ash die-back disease which affects young trees most. It does seem though that some of our ash are resistant to this disease

3. The Hazel Tree

Latin: Corylus. Irish: Coll

The Hazel tree is the tree of wisdom. The salmon of knowledge in the river Boyne apparently got all his knowledge from eating the hazelnuts that fell into the river. It grows on limestone soils and is very common. It is quite a small tree and grows up to twelve metres high. If coppiced -that is cut back from time to time - it can live for over a hundred years.

It gets lovely downy catkins in March before the leaves appear. It has large oval leaves with soft hairs on the underside. The hazelnuts which ripen in September, are beloved of mice, jays, rooks and particularly squirrels, which soon have them all gathered up for their winter food supplies. 

Its branches were much in use long ago to build houses – the basketwork of the branches was called wattle. They pinned down the thatch on houses too and forked twigs were used to divine water. The town of Collon in Co Louth gets its name from the hazel tree.

4. The Elder Tree 

Latin: Sambucus. Irish: Trom

The Elder tree is one of the commonest trees in our hedgerows, yet I am sure that no-one plants it there deliberately. It is a small tree, growing up to fifteen metres high and can live for sixty or seventy years. It gets its leaves by the end of March – compound leaves with five leaflets. This is followed by glorious bunches of creamy fragrant flowers in late June. These are beloved of insects of all sorts who visit for the copious supplies of nectar. They are also beloved of those of us who gather them to make elderflower cordial or even an effervescent sparkling wine. In autumn they are covered in bunches of purple berries which are feasted on by wood pigeons among others. It is their seed filled droppings that spread the tree far and wide.

So, if it is so good for biodiversity and, indeed, winemaking (the red berries can be used to make red wine in Autumn), why does nobody plant it? It is considered to have been cursed by God because it was supposed to be the tree Judas hanged himself on – hence the rank smell of its leaves and the why its timber now lacks strength – to avoid a re-occurrence. All arrant nonsense of course.

5. Holly 

Latin: Ilex. Irish: Cuileann

Holly is a native evergreen tree with very familiar broad shiny prickly leaves. It can grow up to 20 metres high if left uncut for Christmas holly. Some, in Ireland, have reached the ripe old age of 400 years. There are both male and female trees. The female trees bear the berries, while the male trees produce pollen on special male only flowers which is carried by the wind to the female trees.

In ancient Ireland it was considered to be a very valuable tree as its hard timber was used for spears and chariot poles. Places such as Moycullen, and Kilcullen are called after it. It was traditionally brought into houses in the dead of winter as it was the only tree in leaf in the ancient deciduous forests and so it symbolised the sun and the continuation of life. We still bring in branches with red berries at Christmas although it has been given a Christian significance now.

6. Birch

Latin: Betula. Irish:  Beith geal

We have two native species of birch – the downy birch and the tall, elegant silver birch, known as the lady of the wood. It is unmistakeable with its silver bark. As well as growing in woodlands, it is commonly planted in towns and villages where it grows very well. It can reach fourteen metres in height but is a short-lived tree lasting at most eighty years.

Its diamond shaped leaves open towards the end of April. Its flowers are catkins which are carried on the twigs. The male catkins are long and swing in the breeze which carries the pollen to the female catkins – also on the same tree. The seeds are very small and are blown by the wind to re-seed and colonise elsewhere. A nice tree to plant if you have a small garden. It is considered to be the tree of late winter, with its shining bark brightening up its surroundings. Ballybay and Glenbeigh are named after this tree.

7. Hawthorn 

Latin: Crataegus. Irish: Sceach gheal

The hawthorn cannot be left out of any list of Irish trees – it being so well known on account of its popularity with the ‘little people’, the fairies. While it is the lone hawthorn by itself in the middle of a field that they favour - and woe betide anyone who dares to cut it down - most of our hedges consist of lines of hawthorn or indeed - as it is sometimes called - the whitethorn or the May bush. It is a tree in its own right and can grow up to fifteen metres high and live for a very long time indeed – well over two hundred years.

The leaves which are small and deeply cut come out in April, before the lovely white musky -smelling flowers appear in May, the May blossom. The red berries in the autumn are called haws and are appreciated by the birds if not by ourselves. Lots of insects visit the flowers which are a rich source of pollen and nectar. They are often associated with holy wells.

8. The Horse Chestnut 

Latin: Aesculus. Irish: Crann Cnó Capaill

Horse chestnuts were introduced to Ireland in the 1600s, to be planted on the great estates and it is a very common parkland tree nowadays. It is the first large tree to get its leaves in spring – its brown sticky buds bursting open in mid-March to reveal a large compound leaf with seven leaflets radiating from a central stalk. By May the tree is covered with large white flowers reminiscent of candles, which are beloved of bees and indeed other pollinating insects.

The shiny brown nuts – conkers – are formed inside green prickly fruits and are ripe just in time for conker fights when school re-opens in September. Look out for the tiny horseshoe marks on the twigs (complete with nail marks) which may have given rise to its name. Horse chestnuts can grow to twenty-five metres and live for well over 250 years if it avoids diseases such as bleeder canker and attacks from the lean miner moth.

For more information on Irish trees visit www.treecouncil.ie

Éanna Ní Lamhna’s new book Our Wild World, from the birds and the bees to our boglands and ice caps is out now (for more see page 46)

ENDS