There are several different kinds of Oak in Lordship Rec. This one on the Lake island is an English oak. Oak trees are really important as they provide habitat for masses of different things – over 300 different species, more than any other native tree. They can live to a great old age, apparently only producing acorns when they at least 40 years old, and taking over 500 years to ‘die’. Because of their slow decay they are incredibly important as habitat for many many insects such as bugs, beetles, flies and butterfly caterpillars which in turn provide food for lots of different birds. Cracks, crevices, holes and loose bark can provide a home for birds and bats and the fallen acorns are food for birds such as Jays (though in Lordship Rec the squirrels probably nab them all!)

Medlars produce small golf-ball sized orangey fruits. The trees are well known in countries like Turkey, where they are called ‘Musmula’. They grow into small rather graceful little trees, with a shape rather like a posh ladies' ballooning ball gown! The leaves turn lovely shades of yellow, orange and red in Autumn.

These are very unusual rare trees. They produce small little balls of dull yellowy green fruit turning greeny brown and patterned with little dots. They have pretty, almost 'starry' shaped leaves that turn beautiful colours of mango orange in Autumn. The birds and squirrels are likely to nab them quickly!

Nearly all these trees are suffering from several problems, mostnotably a disease called canker. This can be seen in the cracked and in places 'weeping' bark. Horse Chestnut trees usually produce the classic 'conker' fruit in the Autumn and upright white 'candles' of flowers in the springtime. The flowers are very useful for pollinators such as honey bees. And amazingly, the flowers 'tell' the bees if they have already been visited by another bee who has taken their nectar, by changing the colour of part of the flower.

There are both black and white Mulberry trees in Lordship Rec – some of them are looking rather the worse for wear, but we hope to bring them back to good health with some care and attention over the next few years. Mulberry trees were first brought here by the Romans but were planted in great numbers hundreds of years ago by King James 1 who tried to rival the French by kick starting the silk trade here in the UK as the Mulberry leaf is the preferred food of the silk worm caterpillar. It grows into a huge, long lived tree and the ‘black’ Mulberry produces deep red raspberry coloured (and looking rather like a raspberry) fruits in early summer.

As this mature tree shows – it cracks! A huge section of the tree has broken off – but this is good in many ways! Dead wood is a fantastic habitat for all sorts of fungi and bugs (such as the Stag beetle – one kind of which takes 7 YEARS living on dead wood before it emerges as a grown up!) that are the basis of much of the food chain. Many of the most endangered species in Europe are those that are dependent on dead wood – we need more of it left to rot! Willow trees produce catkin-like flowers very early in the Spring, and so are an important source of food for pollinating insects when little else is available.