What's your favourite tree?

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I could have SWORN I started this thread last month when I came back from Savernake Forest, but maybe that was when I was having server issues.

Anyway, what is your favourite tree? Species in general, or perhaps specific trees that you have known.

Post pictures if you like.

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to love Oaks more than any other trees, even the tasty Sugar Maple and the gorgeous Weeping Willow.

But now I'm coming round to Beeches, though I've developped a weird obsession with the Hornbeam and their odd pagoda-like flowers:

http://www.ashland-city.k12.oh.us/ahs/classes/hort/2002/sep18/hornbeam.jpg

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Blimey. How big is the actual tree?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Looks about life-size on my browser, but yes, erm, that image is rather large. Sorry.

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Redwoods and Sequoias are lovely, too, but it's a bit of an obvious choice, due to their record-holding stature.

(Some might say that the Oak is obvious, I prefer to think of it more as "traditional".)

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

stringy barks, ghost gums

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I too am a fan of beeches. There's one growing out of my house.

― Matt (Matt), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Ghost Gums? What an intriguing name! I had never heard of them, so I googled, and they are pretty!

http://www.australianlandscapes.com/The_Photographers/Maiva/Maiva_s_Page/White_Trees/WHITE_TREES_KAKADU__NT.jpg

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The one I saw in the botanical gardens in Calcutta. I want to say banyan, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong and can't be bothered looking it up. Anyway, this type of tree branches out as normal, but then its branches spear straight down to the ground, and form extra roots - this particular example is something like 400 yards in circumference, with hundreds of root-branches, straight and thin mostly, looking from any distance like some German expressionist vision of a forest. The main trunk became rotten and was cut away something like 80 years ago, so it doesn't even have that obvious centre now.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.devic.co.uk/images/Minchenden.jpg

my favourite tree - the Minchenden Oak. A very old specimen of Quercus robur in Southgate. The school my Mum and sister went to (now long gone) took its name from this tree and my Mum would often sing the school song to me, which went:

The Oak lives long
Long live the Oak!
Scribes wrote it fair in the Domesday Book^*
And its fame still lives
For to us it gives
The good name of Minchenden
Proud be it spoke!

^* This is, incidentally, nonsense. It was a 557 years old at 13th January 2004, making it a seedling in 1447.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

thnx kate! i like morton bay figs too!

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, that sounds indeed like a Banyan tree, Martin. They're quite odd-looking with their flying buttress roots! (I tried to find a photo of one to post, but all the images are massive.)

x-post, what a lovely oak!

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ah i said stringy bark but i meant scribbly

check this

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that bark? Wow, how odd looking! It really does look like some squirrel has been doodling on it.

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:00 (twenty-one years ago)

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:00 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.essences.com/vibration/aug01/monkeypuzzlesm-arttoday.jpg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, it's a Eucalyptus, and it's beetles that's been at it! Mystery solved!

Is that a monkey puzzle tree, JtN?

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:03 (twenty-one years ago)

flame trees are great

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha, your flame trees have nothing on Vermont Autumn foliage:

http://www.greenmountaininn.com/photos/Autumn/fallbike.JPG

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Or ker-azy copper beeches:

http://www.field-studies-council.org/images/leisurelearning/flowers/copper-beech.jpg

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:08 (twenty-one years ago)

oo-er its turned into a battle of the members!

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Tree-fight! Weh-hoo! Can we have tree-forts and everything?

(I would like to state that the only tree I don't like is, the Ash. I think it's the Ash. The one with the stinky yellow flowers that smell like dirty pants. There are two of them in the garden and the stink drives me nuts!)

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Acer Bonsai
http://www.tao-yin.com/philosophie/img/bonsai.jpg

I also like a good, rustly beech hedge.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

what's more the seeds (called keys) are produced in such copious quantities that if you have the misfortune of having an ash (Fraxinus excelsior) in the garden next door to you, as my Mum does, then you will have yr own garden filled with little ash saplings in no time and they're v difficult to get rid of.

That said, the ash tree in my primary school playground was cool. It was hollow in the middle so you could hide stuff in it. "The tree had lost its middle", just like the one in "Wendell Gee".

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

aint nature wunnerful? i have fond memeories of conkers..whats that tree?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Horse Chestnut gaz

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

That bonsai is more twee than tree.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Chestnuts! Oh yes, they are lovely! They have these beautiful flowers that look like candles, in white or pink. And there's all kinds, Sweet, Spanish, Horse... I heart Chestnuts/Conker Trees!

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You should talk to Dawn. She knows this stuff. To me a nice tree is a nice tree.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Chestnuts! Oh yes, they are lovely! They have these beautiful flowers that look like candles, in white or pink.

Those candles are allergybastards.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm going to be traditional then and say the Oak, I have mushroom tripping memories of sitting under a giant old oak tree.

I like a lot of different pine and spruce trees, like the one they call the monkey puzzle tree. they're kinda fascinating to look at.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, there seems to be a decided anti-evergreen, anti-conifer bias on this thread. The only ones brought up were the Redwood/Sequoia and the Monkey Puzzle! Is there no other Pine love? Not even Juniper or Yew?

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.rmarshsj.f2s.com/images/beech.jpg
I like beeches that look odd.

I dislike:
http://www.educagri.fr/hedges/eng/glossary/illust/palissade.jpg

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Horse chestnuts are sort of vulgar, they just seem to shout out 'hey everyone, check out the sex organs'. They're the Britney of the tree world.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:42 (twenty-one years ago)

re conifers: cedars are nice coz they spread and provide a lot of shade. And there's one on the flag of Lebanon and (by extension) on the sign outside Ristorante du Liban (sp?), one of my fave Oxford restaurants.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Awww, I like beech hedges, I think they're lovely. But is it just me, or does anyone think that pollarding just looks cruel? I don't know, it reminds me of dogs with their ears or tails clipped or something.

Ah, I am glad of the cedar love, yes.

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

some of my favourites:

the faux de Verzy in a small forset near Rheims in France, I'll try and find a picture of them when I've done some work, but they're mutated beech trees (iirc) only found in this one place.

the oak in my old school which had a low, upwardly curving trunk that you could run up and then jump off down a hill so that it felt as if you were flying byrt really were never more than a couple of feet off the ground.

Olive trees are cool.

― chris (chris), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

faux de verzy:

http://verzy.verzenay.online.fr/Imafaux/Pb070018.jpg

― chris (chris), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't like pollarded limes. they look so knobbly and ugly.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Those are some crazy twisty trees! They look like they'd be fun to climb!

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post, there's a row of viciously pollarded trees in Clerkenwell that we passed the other day. They still haven't sprouted any leaves at all. I think they might be dead. :-(

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I think there may be guards waiting to jump out of you did, but some of them have twisted so much that they look like a big green yurt with huge spaces enclosed under the branches/leaves

x-pos they just pollarded all the trees out the back of our house, so what was a gorgeous swathe of green wafting in the breeze is now a row of 8 ugly stumpy things :o(

― chris (chris), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

MarkH are you crazy? See how lovely pollarded limes can look.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~villages/bullingtonchurch3.JPG

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the shock of turning down a street that's been pollarded when it hadn't been the last time you saw it. But I don't actually like the look of it when trees are pollarded and still bare, if you see what mean. It's like seeing a friend with a new haircut (good or bad) - makes you go "Oh!"

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 25 June 2004 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the trees in the West End of Glasgow that are right outside tenement buildings, and the occupants have chopped off the brances to let light come into their windows and so the trees have grown up and up and up and have no branches at all until you get to roof height (tenements have 4 tall storeys so that's pretty high).

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

MarkH are you crazy?

when they lose their leaves they look horrible.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I like them. All gnarly and interesting.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

In Montana we had special lodgepole pines, thus named because they grow straight and tall. The cones of Montana lodgepoles only release their seeds when hot - nature's way of reforesting after a fire. There are beautiful stands of it that mark where forest fires have been. Lodgepole is great for firewood. One of the dense logs will burn in the woodstove all night. That's how we kept our house warm. My mother would always say that wood heats you three times - when you harvest it, when you chop it and when you burn it.

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

http://osiris.urbanna.net/retouching/bitterroot.jpg

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

oops, big.

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

faux de verzy chris these look so great

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

the place is really cool, if a little crawling with people. We found it by glancing throughthe green guide for where Vic's parents' caravan is and it looked cool, the whole forest it's in is great. There's another just down the rioad with hermit's caves too.

― chris (chris), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I love oak. I also love twisty olive and yew trees. And when it's just starting to flower, magnolia can almost make me love surburbia, although perhaps it's not technically a tree?
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/kkflowers/images/magnolia_buds1_march.jpg

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The Magnolia is a tree! (I'm pretty sure it's not a shrub or a bush.) Such lovely flowers, yes. Is a Magnolia the same as a Frangipanny, or however it's spelled?

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh good, it can be on this thread then :)
(What is the def of a 'tree' anyway?)

I don't THINK it's the same as frangipani but maybe they are just different versions.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

A magnolia in bloom is one of the most beautiful things on earth.

I have a gorgeous little Japanese maple in my back garden. It's delicate and lacy and the changing colours are magnificent.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

http://totalescape.com/GIFS/backroads/hwy3/dogwood_i.jpg

Dogwood.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Ugly name, pretty tree!

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the name dogwood! But then again, I like dogs. Would it be better if it were called "puppywood" or something?

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:43 (twenty-one years ago)

No, it's the wood bit... well, it's the combination I guess. It makes me think of canine erections :(

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Pussywillow is a prettier name but they're not as comely to behold as the dogwood.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks for being the first person all day who has brought up the subject of doggy boners.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I blame YOU.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

*shrug*

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Pussywillow just sounds filthy. Though I do like their fuzzy little catkins, I think those are very pretty. Now stop with the filth and back to the trees! HORNbeam. I just like the name, heh heh.

― He wants to be me (kate), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.villageoftowerlakes.com/village/forestry/Ginko_2.jpg

ginko!

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 25 June 2004 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/highlights/blooming_calendar/redbud_tree.jpg

redbud!

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 25 June 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nomadology.com/kabbalah.jpg

― "Esther", Friday, 25 June 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

The mountain hemlock. A pic wouldn't do it justice. You must go to the high Cascades and see for yourself.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 25 June 2004 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Trees ate wonderful and very useful. I like love most trees except Hemlock although it's a strong wood. I love evergreens.
Tamarack, Poplar Oak, Cherry & Cedar are more of my favorites.

― Gale (gale2g2004@gosympatico.ca), Sunday, 27 June 2004 04:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I like poplars, maples, red oaks (mostly for the leaves, though), and junipers. And I'm duty-bound as a Texan to like pecan trees, even though I think they're... okay. Just okay.

― Many Coloured Halo (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 27 June 2004 05:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Douglas firs. To me they represent cool mountain forests with some calm picturesque lakes scattered about, filled with boy scouts paddling canoes. Look! Over there! You can see the Brady bunch picnicing and Yogi Bear eyeing the prize.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 27 June 2004 05:40 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the most miraculous things is being in an almost featureless desert plain, then ascending a mountain road and being almost instantly transported to an environment dominated by towering Douglases.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 27 June 2004 05:42 (twenty-one years ago)

What are those kind of blue-ish connifers? I can't remember their names. Blue Spruce? Is that the name? I like the sound of saying it.

If Douglas Firs are the tall, majestic trees I'm thinking of, they are, indeed lovely.

― He wants to be me (kate), Monday, 28 June 2004 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Sequoia

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I like totara, black beech (and Nothofagus in general), kaikatea. Northern rata. Nikau, Cordyline spp, kohekohe, kowhai, pahutea. Tawa, kamahi, hinau, miro, matai, Dracophyllum spp. I can't pick one. Also to acknowledge liquidamber and flowering cherry.

― isadora (isadora), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 07:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Copper Beech

Cottonwood--prairie or fremont, best tree in the west. Especially prairie cottonwood, providing shade in the near desert.

― Hunter (Hunter), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

What, no love here for the Birch?
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_birch/cover_birch.jpg

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.andysnow.com/newvirtualtour/images/sbfigtree.JPG

― TheRealJMod (TheRealJMod), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Of course my Canadian-ness also means I'm a sucker for Maple, Douglas Fir, Pine...

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Penelope.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

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