Great Britain:  Back from travels    abi-@u.washington.edu    Aug 11, 2005 17:05 PDT  ENTS, I just returned from six weeks away from home – one month in Europe and two weeks climbing in the Sierras. We spent three weeks in the UK, looking at trees, giving lectures, and drinking beer. From an international perspective, the most significant trees are the Taxus and Quercus, therefore a great deal of time was spent examining these. I was interested in seeing the tallest hardwood tree in the UK, however, which was a London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia), reported at 153 feet tall. As usual, I expected it to shrink upon using the laser. I am pleased to report that there are three trees growing side-by-side that are all over 150 feet. We got 153, 156 and 158 feet for the three. This may become the tallest known Platanus in a few years as they seem to be growing rapidly. The British, Welsh, and Scottish countrysides are incredibly beautiful. Even though there is nothing we would call Natural, or Old-growth, the landscapes are ancient and seemed to have developed their own harmony. The people are consistently friendly, but you are never out of earshot of sheep, which are everywhere. The Taxus are some of the most amazing plants ever. These trees seem to be about as close to immortal as any tree I have ever seen. The things that most often kill trees – fungi, fire, insects, humans, or gravity are all a non-issue with these trees. The human element seems to be the most destructive, but these Taxus are often growing in ancient churchyards, so can escape even their destructive tendencies. Individual plants may be 2000-4000 years old, or even older in a few cases. No individual living piece of wood is that old, but the tree seems to have a never-ending supply of stems that it can send up and surround the original stems. Some of these plants were very ancient, super-gnarly individuals, but you an only tell this by looking at the trunks. Their crowns are all incredibly lush and healthy, regardless of the condition of the stem(s). I briefly considered doing some drawings of some of the more gnarly trees, but quickly abandoned the idea. From a distance, every one of these ancient trees looks exactly the same – just a healthy crown which grows to the ground and covers up the stem. It is only by moving inside the crown that the individuality emerges. We visited about two-dozen of the more famous individuals and were very impressed. I mostly believe their reported ages, but more importantly, it is hard for me to imagine some of these trees EVER dying! With Quercus, it is a different story. Diameter seems to be everything with them. It doesn’t matter if it a just a few bits of rotten wood ten feet apart with a few leaves on them, if you can wrap a tape around the bits and get 40 feet, then this is among the biggest trees in the UK. There are even charts prepared that equate age with diameter – it was very disturbing. In general I thought ages were highly exaggerated – I saw no convincing evidence of any tree over 1000 years old. That having been said, I was very impressed with the ancient oaks. There are two species, Q. robur and Q. patraea, both of which can achieve huge dimensions. In addition, we visited several forests that were filled with these ancient trees. Besides the romance, Sherwood forest has many ancient oaks, including some huge, ancient trees. We saw a total of three trees that were 40 feet around or more, two of which still had a substantial crown. All three of them, however, had no heartwood at ground level. Each one consisted of a thin shell of sapwood, one of which had collapsed the evening before we arrived. The largest of these, an oak in Kent called Majesty, will collapse into a heap of rubble any year now. I spent some time measuring this tree, which is called Britain’s largest oak. Unlike the Middleton oak, this tree is mostly a giant, hollow trunk with relatively small, epicormic branches. I estimate it having close to 3,300 cubes of wood. We toured many ancient castles, many of which had heritage trees we were interested in seeing. Croft Castle near Wales had probably the most massive healthy oak seen on the tour, which was an unnamed tree because it did not have a rotten, swollen trunk. Instead, it was a nine-foot diameter youngster, with a slow-tapering trunk and towering crown. I estimate it to have about 3,800 cubes. A bit about pubs, beer, and British food. The pubs are amazing! Most of these are ancient, stone buildings, many hundreds of years old and each one is an individual. Each one is filled with old wooden beams, an old wooden bar, and stone walls a meter thick. This is Britian at its best. The beer is consistently good to excellent (although I must say Seattle’s best is still superior). Many beers are available, although ignore these and go for the Hand Pulls, which are also called Real Ales. Many of these are only available in a particular town, although some are more widely available. I must say it is a relief after traveling to over 25 countries to finally find one that has decent beer. The best was Hawkshead Bitter, available only in the Lakes District of NW England. The pub food is variable, and about the only place to find real British food. Other restaurants are typically Indian, Italian, Middle Eastern, etc. For the past two weeks I have been in the Sierras working with some colleagues on a Sequoiadendron project – leaf physiology at 90 m. We now know of at least seven trees over 300 feet including a large, healthy tree at 311.4 feet tall. This makes it the fifth tallest species, or fourth tallest if you include only live foliage. Cheers, - BVP Re: Back from travels    abi-@u.washington.edu    Aug 12, 2005 16:25 PDT  Will There were many great conifers we saw - due to having been planted hundreds of years ago. The largest Larix decidua I have ever seen - and perhaps one of the worlds largest, is called the Parent Larch, planted in 1738. The tree was awesome! - nearly 19 feet around and filled with secondary trunks and a spiral twist that made the tree extra gnarly. As for tall trees, there is aparently about a dozen of Psedotsuga over 200 feet - the tallest I measured was 210.2 feet tall. Abies grandis is also tall. The foremerly tallest tree in the UK died back and respouted, and is now 206.3 feet. This tree was also 20 feet, 5 inches around, and judging by the taper, the tree is larger than two of the trees in my book. I am not sure if I wrote that clearly - a planted tree is amoung the top five IN THE WORLD! The climate in the UK is ideal for growing trees, as is the PNW. The UK has the advantage of having been planting trees since the 1700s, long before Lewis and Clark even visited the PNW. Overall, a great place to visit. I have so many friends there now, we only stayed in hotels for three days during a three-week visit. Sweet! Cheers, - BVP   Home