Following thousands of additions in recent years, over 70,000
tree species are confirmed to exist worldwide, which is quite amazing!
Sadly, global warming currently threatens around 18,000.
We produce the carbon dioxide that trees breathe. In return, they
give us the oxygen that we breathe. Nature is amazing!
Ivy, which commonly grows on trees, was often featured on premises
to indicate that they made or
sold beer.
450 million years ago in the Ordovican Era, before trees evolved, the Earth's landscape appears to have been inhabited by giant fungi forests (mushrooms), some 29 feet tall and fossils have been found worldwide. In Saudi Arabia in 2008, one of them — a 'protocaxite' — was the first mycelium, discovered in 1843. ((See World of Warcraft 'Zangarmarsh' for likely appearance.))
A form of 'arboreal nepotism' has been observed in Norwegian pines. Billions of gossamer-fine hyphae, created by fungi around their roots, allow 'mother' trees to nourish saplings. They can recognise their own species (or close relations) through the tips of their roots, and tend to feed more to these trees! (Daily Mail, 1 September 2020)
Symbolises 'Care', 'Generosity', 'Strength in Battle'.
Associated with the Goddess of Spinning, as makes good dye.
Celtics associated it with death, and many feared the tree because
it bleeds when cut.
Used to make measuring rods for corpses and coffins.
Venice was built with this tree for the piling and some of them are
1200 years old.
Historically, alder trees were used to make gunpowder and shields.
Nodules that form on the roots of Black Alder contain apple-sized bacterial growths, which absorb nitrogen from the air and give the tree this important element.
In Egremont in the Lake District, there is an annual
Crab Fair,
which began in 1267 by the Lord of Egremont when he gave away crab
apples from his orchard to locals.
Aspen
'Ascent', 'Protection', 'Overcoming Fear'.
It is believed that Aspen sticks can kill vampires and werewolves.
The Aspen trees in Sweden are the main sustainable source for the
world's boxed matches.
Red Indians used Aspen leaves to treat burns, swollen joints and
headache, as well as bark for stomach and urinary infections.
Ash
'Sacrifice', 'Higher Awareness'.
Beech
'Prosperity', 'Protection and Nurture', 'Knowledge', 'Sustenance',
'Preservation'.
Associated with femininity.
The scientific name, Fagus, was the Celtic god of Beeches.
Perfect for smoking herrings, and the nuts may be a good coffee
substitute.
Recently discovered by National Geographic researchers, the
southernmost tree in
the world, located in Cape Horn, Chile, is a Magellan's Beech
(Nothofagus betuloides).
Sir Joseph Banks collected a specimen of the tree from the
Tierra del Fuego Archipelago in South America in 1769, during
Captain James Cook's first voyage.
It was thought to be extinct so far south, until its recent re-discovery.
It is safer to shelter under a Common Beech instead of an oak, as storm lightning usually strikes high point of single trees. As this species hardly ever stands alone, it is extremely safe.
Birch
'Growth' and 'Renewal' (Celts), 'Meekness', 'Protection',
'Inception', 'New Beginnings'.
Cedar
The Cederberg region in South Africa — the only place in the world where
Rooibos is grown — comes from Widdringtonia cedarbergensis, the former
scientific name for the Clanwilliam cedar, a rare species endemic to the region.
However, this tree actually belongs to the cypress family.
The word 'Cedar' means an aromatic wood.
Northern White Cedar (of the Cypress family) is regarded as a symbol of 'Immortality' (Mediterranean).
Freshly-sawn pieces of Red Cedar (Virginian Juniper) wood are used as a moth deterrent, as they avoid the scent.
Cypress
In Ancient Greece, the Mediterranean Cypress was a symbol of 'Mourning'. They are often found in Mediterranean cemeteries.
Contrarily, Christians regard this evergreen as a 'Tree of Life'.
Cherry
Gum of the Wild Cherry, exuded from the trunk to seal any wounds, can be boiled with water to produce a mastic cherry gum for cough relief.
Chestnut
'Luxury'.
Horse Chestnuts are thought to have originated from the Ottoman Empire,
and were ground up and fed to horses as a stimulant, making their coats
shine, and as a cough remedy.
The magnificent ancient carved beams of Westminster Hall's roof are
made of chestnut (commissioned by King Richard II).
Since the 1980s, Horse Chestnut leaves have often fallen off early, as they have been attacked by the larvae of the leaf-miner moth.
Cork
'Freedom' and 'Honour' (Ancient Greece).
Cypress
'Death', 'Despair', 'Mourning'.
In contrast, it is a Turkish symbol of 'Life' and 'Immortality'.
When Assyrian youth Cyparissus accidentally killed his pet stag, the
Gods took pity and turned him into this tree.
In Scandinavian and Germanic mythology, it created the first woman.
An ancient Elm tree (known as l'Ormeteau-Ferre) was chosen at Gisors
in Normandy, on the Epte River as a meeting point between the French King
and the Norman Duke, at the area called the Vexin — the Vikings had arrived
in the 9th century to siege Paris, and by the 10th century had created
Normandy under Rolt, the Dane, to settle there. King Philip Augustus had
the tree cut down as negotiations for territory between Henry II were at an
end (Kings John and Henry had controlled the Norman Barons).
Fir
'Time'.
Evergreens symbolised eternal life in Ancient Egypt and China.
The Druids thought they represented 'Truth' as they were strong and straight.
Scandinavian legend of a boy lost on Christmas Eve and found under a Fir tree
created the Christmas Tree tradition, as the ice on them shone in the sunlight
to find the boy. Christmas Trees then came to Germany and to Britain in the 19th century.
Douglas Firs have exceedingly thick bark due to evolution to fight frequent forest fires.
Ginkgo (Maidenhair)
'Bearer of Hope'.
Only surviving member of ancient tree groups before conifers.
Used in medicine since very early human history.
Carbon impressions of the leaves have been found in fossilised
rocks from the Permian Period (290–248 million years ago). Some of the
best fossils are from the Jurassic Strata of North Yorkshire.
The tree's scientific name, Ginkgo biloba, means
'Bi-lobed Silver Apricot' (the seeds look like silver apricots) after translation from Chinese and Latin
('Ginkgo' comes from the Chinese 'Yinxing').
The kernel is roasted by the Chinese and Japanese, eaten like pistachios.
The soft outer shells smell like sweaty feet.
Six Maidenhair trees in Hiroshima, Japan are still alive today
after being atomic-bombed in 1945.
Hawthorn
Some Christians believe that a crown of Hawthorn branches were stabbed
into Jesus Christ's head on his Crucifixion.
A Hawthorn in Bristol has been turned into a 'Wishing Tree' during the
COVID-19 pandemic, on which ribbons have been placed in memory of those who
have died from the virus.
Traditionally associated with Fairies, and sometimes Witches. It is said
that if you sleep under a Hawthorn, you may be whisked away by Fairies.
Hazel
'Reconciliation'.
Iron Age man believed Hazels offered wisdom and inspiration.
Branches were used to protect against evil spirits and still for water-divining.
In Irish, Norse and Roman mythology, it is known as the "Tree of Knowledge".
Holly
'Foresight', 'Truth', 'Fertility'.
Associated with fire.
It is considered unlucky to cut down this tree.
Romans sent boughs of holly to friends during Saturnalia winter festivals.
Druids wore in the hair to ward off evil spirits.
According to some old tales, Hollies scare off evil spirits and witches.
Hornbeam
'Strength', 'Optimism', both 'Meekness' and 'Confidence'!
Hornbeam wood is the strongest of all trees in Europe.
It is also known as Ironwood due to its hardness.
'Horn' in the name is referring to the rugged and horny texture, although
it could be that this name is from the Old English word 'horn', meaning 'hard'
(due to the tree's strength).
'Beam' is an Anglo-Saxon word for 'tree'.
Its drooping fruits are known as 'samaras'.
Hornbeam wood was used for wheels, screws, and butchers' chopping boards.
Drinks containing hornbeam extracts are believed to energise.
The leaves can be used to treat wounds.
Used as a remedy to treat weariness and exhaustion.
Laburnum
The very hard timber of the Common Laburnum was used in the past to make Crossbow Arrows.
Larch
'Audacity', 'Boldness', 'Connection with the Earth'.
Eurasian Shamanists regarded it as the 'world tree'.
Many Viking ships were made of Siberian Larch, as well as many of
Russia's oldest buildings.
The Shigir Idol, the oldest known wooden sculpture in the world, is
made of Larch.
The resin of European Larch remains in liquid form, unlike pines', which solidifies when it is dry. Once known as Venetian Turpentine and employed to treat rheumatic and other medical complaints. The pitch that could be made from the resin was used for the water-proofing of beer barrels.
Laurel
Mountain Nymph Daphne was pursued in Arcadia by the god Apollo — she
pleaded with Mother Earth for help and was turned into a Laurel.
Lime
'Conjugal Love', 'Romance', 'Tree of Lovers', 'Truth', 'Fairness',
'Justice', 'Liberty'.
Sacred tree in Slavic mythology, thought to protect against lightning
strikes and bad luck.
Germanic judicial cases were tried underneath Lime trees, due to
some of their symbolisms.
Lime fibres were used for Bronze Age clothing.
Germanic tribes made lime-wood shields.
The inner bark of the Small-Leaved Lime has been used as a material for braiding and binding for centuries. The 5300-year-old Austrian mummy 'Otzi' wore shoes and a cloak that had been worked from this tree.
The flowering of the Large-Leaved Lime is a sign that midsummer is beginning, as a calendar.
Magnolia
Since Magnolia emarginata, the Northern Haiti Magnolia, was first
discovered in 1925, it went missing for 97 years and the species was
considered to be 'possibly extinct'. However, a conservation team
re-discovered the species in 2022 in Haiti, where today it is
believed that only 1% of original forests remain.
Maple
'Reserve', 'Strength', 'Endurance'.
Prized by the Romans for carving.
Named by the Anglo-Saxons.
A black-spotted fungal infection is often seen on the leaves of native maple trees, but does no damage to the tree itself.
Mistletoe
'Romance', 'Fertility'.
It is a Christmas tradition to kiss under these branches.
Some believe that this tree came from the moon.
The Celtic Druids of the 1st century administered it to humans
and other animals to improve fertility.
Monkey Puzzle
'Conundrums', 'Adventure'.
In a graveyard, it prevents the devil from joining a burial.
Originally known as Chilean Pine, the tree was named Monkey Puzzle
in the 19th century after Charles Auston saw a young tree in 1850 and
commented 'it would puzzle a monkey to climb that'.
The trees can withstand intense heat, such as from lava and bushfires.
Mulberry
'Wisdom', 'Appreciation for the Earth'.
Buddhist books were made from its bark, and dry wood is used for smoking meats.
The White Mulberry is often found in French villages as an additional source of income from its valuable silk.
Oak
'Strength', 'Endurance', 'Stability', 'Luck'.
First appeared 65 million years ago.
It is the tree species most likely to be struck by lightning.
Associated with Norse and Finnish Thunder Gods, Thor and Jumala, as well
as the Roman Jupiter and Greek Zeus.
Sacred to the Druids.
Bronze Age henges (ceremonial oak rings) found in Norfolk have been dated
2049 BC.
The Royal Navy's 'Walls of Old England' were oak-constructed ships, and
HMS Victory consumed 5000 oaks in her build.
Henry III gave the Monks of Worcester 100 Oak Trees for the roof of the
new cathedral that covered the tomb of his father, King John.
The English Oak is the most common tree in Britain, and more than half
of the world's Oaks are located here.
On 2/8/1100, King William II (Rufus) was accidentally killed by an arrow
deflected from an Oak whilst stag-hunting in the New Forest, Hampshire. Today,
the Rufus Stone stands on the site of that tree.
It is traditional for English Kings to be buried in an English Oak coffin
encased in a lead coffin, used by the Romans to preserve the body.
An Oak tree from the Royal estate at Sandringham was chosen to build the
coffin for King George VI.
After the skeletal remains of King Richard III were discovered in September 2012,
he was re-buried on 26 March 2015, at Leicester Cathedral, in a coffin made of English Oak, made by one of his ancestors who was a Canadian wood carver.
On the grounds of Windsor Castle, there is an ancient Oak estimated to be over
900 years old, which started to grow during Henry I's reign and is much loved by
the Royal Family.
The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire was the meeting place of
Robin Hood and his Merry Band, according to folklore.
A Shire Oak (or Skyrack) near Headingley, Leeds marked the boundary of the
Norse Wapentake.
The Gog and Magog Oaks near Glastonbury, Somerset were named after two giants
from Celtic mythology.
Big Belly Oak in Savernake Forest is 1000 years old. There is a belief that
the devil will appear to anyone who dances naked round it at midnight.
Herne's Oak in Windsor Great Park was involved in a feud between King Richard II
and his keeper, and is mentioned in Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor".
According to some sources, the English Oak originated from Cornwall or Devon.
The bark of the Cork Oak contains air channels running inwards containing loose powder. Cork for bottling is only cut length-wise to the surface.
Pear
The red-brown wood is extremely heavy, hard and durable & can be polished to a beautiful finish for furniture. Often, it is dyed black and used as a substitute for ebony.
Pine
Scots (Baltic) Pine is one of the most important timber species and its wood is used for Scandinavian furniture, window frames, door and interiors.
European Black Pine forms huge quantities of pollen and this enables it to blow powder into the female flowers. During this period, it is a big danger for hay fever sufferers.
Roman troops were fed on pine nuts whilst on the march in England. The nut seed coats have been found on former military campsites in refuse remains.
Plane
'Genius'.
The London Plane represents half of London's trees, and is believed to be a
mix of the Oriental Plane and American Sycamore.
Around 486 BC, King Xerxes of Persia was distracted by the beauty of a Plane
tree on his way to conquer Greece. His distraction caused him to fail his conquest,
allowing the Athenian Empire to prosper.
Poplar
'Beauty' (Ukraine), 'Emotion', 'Sorrow'.
It clones itself on long root systems.
The Neanderthals used Poplars to relieve toothache — fossils of jaws and loose
teeth have been found packed with material from the tree. They also twisted the fibres to make strings.
Greek heroes wore poplar garlands in battle.
The Greek Sungod Helios' son, Phaethon, died by a lightning bolt, and Zeus turned
the tearful female mourners into a cluster of Poplars.
Hercules tied its leaves into a victory wreath after defeating the giant, Cacus.
There are over 8000 Black Poplars in Great Britain, a large number of which are
located in the Lea Valley.
The Black Poplar has been known since the Early Middle Ages.
Since Napoleonic times, Black Poplars have been frequently grown along roadways in Germany, as he had ordered when controlling parts of that country.
In legend, the underside of White Poplar leaves represented the sweat of Hercules as he crowned himself with a wreath from this tree when he brought Cerberus, the Hound of Hades, out of the Underworld.
Rowan
'Prudence', 'Visual Delight', 'Following your Heart'.
Grown in churchyards and houses to protect from evil and witches.
Sequoia
Giant Sequoia is the largest living organism on Earth. 200,000 seeds make up 1kg.
Spruce
The name Spruce is believed to originate from Polish 'z Prus' (from Prussia)
— Polish merchants sourced most spruce wood from Prussia.
Sycamore
'Curiosity', 'Divinity', 'Eternity', 'Strength'.
Its sap can make beer and the nectar from its flowers is excellent for honey.
This species retains its leaves well into the winter, and the flaky bark provides
a winter home for many insects.
Walnut
'Intellect', 'Self-Worth', 'Stratagem'.
The nut resembles the human brain, and is said to be good for it.
Husks can be used to create rich dyes.
Some tinted sun cream products contain walnut leaf extract.
Willow
'Mourning', 'Grief', 'Sadness', 'Sorrow', 'The Subconscious World'.
Witches' brooms were made from its twigs.
They grew on Napoleon's grave at Saint Helena in 1892.
Branches were used for Palm Sunday as palms were not grown in Britain.
The thin twigs of the White Willow are good for weaving, like those of the Osier.
Yew
'Sorrow', 'Immortality', 'Perspective', 'Omen of Doom'.
Planted on plague graves for purification and protection.
The Romans believed it grew in Hell.
Norse and Celtic people thought it prevented bewitching and death.
Christians believed its poison protected the dead.
Branches are carried on Palm Sunday and at funerals.
The trees were used to make the famous English Longbows of the successful
battles of Crecy (26/8/1346), Poitiers (19/9/1356) and Azincourt/Agincourt (25/10/1415).
English and Welsh archers could fire 12 arrows a minute, far faster than the Genoese
(French) crossbow mercenaries.
At Twyford Churchyard, there is a Yew tree over a thousand years old.
According to folklore, an ancient Yew in Great Pepsells Field at Furneux Pelham
(North Hertfordshire) grew a few feet from an ancient Roman road, and by the
18th century the trunk had split and steps had been set inside for a stile, to
allow people to walk through the tree. At this time, the tree is believed to
have been around 1500 years old. In the 1830s, while removing the stump and
roots to create more arable land, farm labourers discovered golden objects within
the roots, which some claimed were from a dragon's lair — at Brent Pelham Church
lies the tomb of "O. Piers Shonks", whose Latin inscription refers to the slaying of a dragon!
Other Genera/Species
The bark of the Yanchama tree in the Amazon rainforest of Colombia is used by the Ticuna, the largest indigenous tribe, to make head dresses for their ritualistic dance ceremonies. It is a malleable material that could be virtually turned into cloth and shaped to the head like a mythical creature.
