Three logos

Click on a number to go to the description for that post

Intro.   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17  

Post 1

Pause and look around at the trees and the undergrowth. Most of Old Redding Nature Reserve is covered by secondary woodland that has developed in the last 100 years in what was previously open grassland. The dominant trees are oak and beech, both of which are good at colonizing open ground. Even if you cannot see the leaves, it is easy to tell mature oak from beech (see images below). The bark of a mature oak tree is rough and fissured, like the hide of a crocodile, while unless they are injured the bark on mature beech trees remains flat and smooth. The smaller trees under the mature oaks and beeches are hazel and hawthorn ‐ both species that are able to grow in the dim light of a mature woodland.

Oak bark Beech bark
Oak bark Beech bark

To next post, post 2

Link to Harrow Nature Conservation Forum home page