Eastville Park is a beautiful space: large grassy areas, winding paths, majestic trees, a scenic lake, and even a hidden graveyard. It’s where we Nordic walk most often and we run regular classes on Wednesdays and Fridays. So it was the perfect setting for a Nordic walking tree talk by local tree expert Gundula Azeez.
Most of us appreciate the trees around us, but do you know how to tell which are indigenous to this country and which have been introduced from abroad and what our two native woodland canopy trees are? Gundula’s ‘rule of thumb’ is that only the small leaved trees are native. Those with big leaves, like the sycamore and horse chestnut have been imported albeit many centuries ago in some cases! The Woodland Trust have a list of our native trees if you are keen to learn more.
We guessed that the mighty oak was one of our native canopy trees, but none of us were right on the second – the lime (linden) tree. Both are resplendent in Eastville Park and we learned about their characteristics, how to identify them, and a little about Britain’s two wildwood provinces.
Gundula runs free tree walks around Royate Hill Nature Reserve. The next is Saturday 17th June – Summer scents: lime, elder, and dog rose. Email RoyateHillNR@gmail.com for more information and to join their newsletter list.
