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ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Bird cherry (Prunus padus)
A medium sized deciduous tree with toothed, ovate leaves
turning yellow in autumn, and pendant racemes of fragrant
white flowers in late spring, followed by small, bitter black fruits.
Like wild cherry, the spring flowers provide an early source of
nectar and pollen for bees, while the cherries are eaten by birds
including the blackbird and song thrush, as well as mammals
such as the badger, wood mouse, yellow necked mouse and
dormouse
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Field maple (Acer campestre)
A medium-sized deciduous tree with a compact bushy crown.
Leaves with 5 blunt lobes, turning a rich yellow or red in the
autumn. Flowers small, green, forming typical winged maple
fruits.
Mature trees can grow to 15m and live for up to 350 years.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Hawthorn (Crataegus mongyna)
A small, rounded deciduous tree with glossy, deeply lobed
leaves and flat sprays of cream flowers, followed by dark red
berries in autumn. once pollinated by insects, they develop into
deep red fruits known as 'haws'.
Hawthorn can support more than 300 insects, the flowers
provide nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinating insects.
The haws are rich in antioxidants and are eaten by many
migrating birds such as redwings, fieldfares and thrushes, as
well as small mammals.
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ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
FREE TREES FOR RESIDENTS
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
FREE TREES FOR RESIDENTS
Whitebeam (Sorbus aria)
A medium-sized deciduous tree, up to 15m, with broadly ovate
dark green leaves, white-felted beneath, and clusters of white
flowers in spring, followed by red berries in early autumn.
The flowers are pollinated by insects and the berries favoured
by birds.
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ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)
An small deciduous tree with pinnate leaves turning yellow in
autumn, and flat clusters of white flowers in late spring,
followed by orange-red berries in early autumn.
Flowers provide pollen and nectar for bees and other pollinating
insects, while the berries are a rich source of autumn food for
birds, especially the blackbird, mistle thrush, redstart, redwing,
song thrush, fieldfare and waxwing.
Its old Celtic name is 'fid na ndruad', which means wizards'
tree.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Holly (Ilex aquifolium)
A small evergreen tree that can live for 300 years. The bark is
smooth and leaves dark green and glossy. Holly is dioecious,
meaning that male and female flowers occur on different trees.
Flowers are white with four petals, once pollinated by insects,
female flowers develop into scarlet berries, which can remain
on the tree throughout winter.
The mistle thrush is known for vigorously guarding the berries
of holly in winter to prevent other birds from eating them.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Wild cherry (Prunus avium)
Mature trees can grow to 15m and live for up to 60 years. The
shiny bark is a deep reddish-brown with prominent creamcoloured horizontal lines. The second part of its botanical name
– ‘avium’ refers to birds, who eat the cherries and disperse the
seed. Leaves fade to orange and deep crimson in autumn.
Flowers are white and cup-shaped and provide an early source
of nectar for and pollen for bees. After pollination by insects,
the flowers develop into globular, hairless deep red cherries.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Crab apple (Malus sylvestris)
One of the ancestors of the cultivated apple, it can live to up to
100 years and grow to around 10m in height. With greyish
brown, flecked bark, trees can become quite gnarled and
twisted, and the twigs often develop spines. This 'crabbed'
appearance may have influenced its common name, 'crab
apple'.
The crab apple is one of the few host trees to mistletoe. The
sweetly scented blossom is pollinated by bees and other
insects and develop into small, yellow-green apple-like
fruits. Sometimes the fruits are flushed with red or white spots
when ripe. Birds and mammals eat the fruit and disperse the
seeds.
Crab apples have long been associated with love and marriage.
It was said that if you throw the pips into the fire while saying
the name of your love, the love is true if the pips explode. Apple
wood was burned by the Celts during fertility rites and festivals,
and Shakespeare makes reference to crab apples in A
Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labour Lost.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Hazel (Coryllus avellana)
Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach
a height of 8m and live for up to 80 years. It has a smooth,
grey-brown, bark, which peels with age, and bendy, hairy
stems. Leaves turn yellow before falling in autumn.
The yellow male catkins appear before the leaves and hang in
clusters, from mid-February. Female flowers are tiny and budlike with red styles and develop into oval fruits, maturing into a
nut with a woody shell.
Hazel leaves provide food for the caterpillars of many moths,
including the large emerald, small white wave, barred umber
and nut-tree tussock. Hazel nuts are eaten by woodpeckers,
nuthatches, tits, wood pigeons, jays and a number of small
mammals. Hazel flowers provide early pollen as a food for
bees.
Hazel has a reputation as a magical tree. A hazel rod is
supposed to protect against evil spirits, as well as being used
as a wand and for water-divining. In Ireland hazel was known
as the 'Tree of Knowledge’, and in medieval times it was a
symbol of fertility.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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English yew (Taxus baccata)
Yew can reach 400 to 600 years of age and typically can grow
to 10m. The bark is reddish-brown with purple tones, and
peeling.
Yew is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers grow
on separate trees. These are visible in March and April. Unlike
many other conifers, the common yew does not actually bear
its seeds in a cone. Instead, each seed is enclosed in a red,
fleshy, berry-like structure known as an aril which is open at the
tip.
The foliage and seed coat of yew contains a cocktail of highly
toxic alkaloids and must not be eaten. However, the fruit is
safely eaten by birds such as the blackbird, mistle thrush, song
thrush and fieldfare, and small mammals such as squirrels and
dormice. The leaves are eaten by caterpillars of the satin
beauty moth. It also offers protection and nesting opportunities
for birds.
Yew trees were used as symbols of immortality.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Silver birch (Betula pendula)
A medium sized tree, forming a light canopy with elegant,
drooping branches. The white bark sheds layers like tissue
paper and becomes black and rugged at the base. As the trees
mature, the bark develops dark, diamond-shaped fissures.
Leaves are green which fade to yellow in autumn.
Male catkins are long and yellow-brown in colour, and hang in
groups of two to four at the tips of shoots, like lambs' tails.
In early Celtic mythology, the birch symbolised renewal and
purification.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Betula pubescens (Downy birch)
A medium sized tree, forming a light canopy with elegant,
drooping branches. Trees are more upright than silver birches
and the bark is more brown in colour with more obvious
horizontal grooves, lacking the papery quality of the silver birch.
Male catkins are long and yellow-brown in colour, and hang in
groups of two to four at the tips of shoots, like lambs' tails.
It grows more commonly in wet soil, such as clay.
Downy birch provides food and habitat for more than 300 insect
species - the leaves attract aphids, providing food for ladybirds
and other species further up the food chain, and are also a food
plant for the caterpillars of many moths, including the angleshades, buff tip and pebble hook-tip.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD
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Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus)
A spreading shrub, it can reach up to 4m high and can spread
from 2-5m. The leaves change to orange-yellow or red in
autumn. Creamy-white, flat-topped flowers appear in May to
July.
Bright red berries appear in autumn in hanging bunches and
are an important food source for birds, including bullfinch and
mistle thrush. The shrub canopy provides shelter for other
wildlife. The flowers are especially attractive to hoverflies.
Guelder rose grows in damp, neutral or calcareous soils.