Five favourite trees
James Piercy, communications and engagement officer, works with our scientists to share their work and research with different audiences, including engaging school groups with plant and microbial science. He is also passionate about nature and in this blog, hot on the heels of the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year 2024, he shares the trees that he loves most in Norwich.
“I’ve always been fascinated by trees. As a child they were there to climb, as a teen to sit under writing moody poetry, and as an adult these giants of the plant kingdom impress with their huge diversity, and beauty. Individual trees can become friends, and I am fortunate to live near a site of large biodiversity, which is home to my five favourite trees.
“Earlham Road Cemetery, Norwich[1], was officially opened on 6 March 1856 and covers 34 acres. The cemetery is home to foxes and muntjac deer, as well as hundreds of squirrels and many species of birds and insects. It is also rich in plant life with more than 150 species of flowers and 80 tree species recorded.[2]
“There is a very large beech tree by the Dereham Road entrance to the cemetery. A rough calculation of its age[3] suggests it was present before the cemetery was opened. This is a magnificent tree but doesn’t even make my top five!”
Please see photos of each tree in the photo gallery below.
- Weeping beech – Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’
The 200-year-old beech is surpassed by a real beauty, a short walk away. The ends of the branches of a weeping beech almost touch the ground creating a private space in summer and a haunting skeletal frame in winter. It stands as an elder statesman dwarfing the other plants around it. I even recorded my own time lapse of this tree, so you can see it throughout the year.
- Californian red oak – Quercus agrifolia
As the weather cools and days become shorter in autumn, many trees will lose their leaves. The first stage of this is a reduction in photosynthesis. The leaves lose their green chlorophyll and reveal the colours of carotenoids and anthocyanins underneath. As the name suggests, this otherwise small, unassuming tree has a glorious colour through autumn, with the bright red leaves brightening up dull mornings on the way to work.
- Giant sequoia – Sequoiadendron giganteum
Another family of trees native to California are the sequoia. The largest are the giant sequoia which can grow to over 80 metres tall, and have a very long life span; they are estimated to be the third longest-living tree species. The oldest known specimen grew in Converse Basin Grove, Giant Sequoia National Monument in America, and was estimated to be 3,266 years old![4]
Many of these trees were imported to the UK in Victorian times so my specimen in Norwich is probably less than a hundred years old. I like it, not just because of its colour or that it grew from a very small cone, but also because I like to imagine that in the year 3000, when my descendants decode this blog from a fossilised cloud server, they will visit the tree and think of me…
It is believed that there are now more examples of giant sequoias in the UK than in California, where they are considered endangered. A recent study examined 5,000 of them in the UK, and found that they can be an important carbon sink.[5]
- Maidenhair tree – Ginkgo biloba
The maidenhair is not a physically impressive tree. This one is a small rather weedy specimen, with short twiggy branches. However, it joins my list because the ginkgo is an interesting plant. It is a gymnosperm; these are plants which produce seeds but not flowers. They developed very early in the evolution of plants.
The ginkgo is related to other gymnosperms like conifers and cycads, but whilst there are lots of different sorts of those trees the ginkgo is one of a kind – the only species of the order Ginkgoales.
Ginkgos are either ‘male’ or ‘female’, and the female ones produce a foul-smelling fruit. These trees have been known to change their gender in stressful environments.
- Paper bark maple – Acer griseum
This is another tree with an amazing colour. The iridescent copper-coloured bark peels away from the trunk in sheets. Whilst not a big specimen, it is fascinating to look at and so different from the other plants around it. It almost looks like it is from another planet. This is a very tactile tree, almost asking to be touched, but take care if you do as the bark will cover you in dust!
“These are my five favourite trees at the moment. There may well be a new one the next time I walk in the woods. I’d love to see pictures of your favourite trees, so please post a picture on social media and tag @JohnInnesCentre.”
[1] A_Short_History_of_Earlham_Cemetery.pdf
[2] https://www.friendsofearlhamcemetery.co.uk/pages/wildlife-2/plants/
[3] How to Tell the Age of a Tree: 3 Ways to Know How Old It Is
[4] Sequoia Research – Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
[5] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230603
