There are 60 or more trees in Britain that are native, meaning tree species, subspecies or hybrids that have established themselves without the hand of man. Yet only 35 are widespread meaning that the palette is actually quite limited, particularly when the full range of benefits from woodlands are considered, together with threats from environmental change.
Sixty may appear a large number of tree species but only about 35 are widespread and of these only three are conifers: juniper, scots pine and yew. The following list of native British trees is taken from my book The New Sylva (Bloomsbury Publishing 2014).
Common name |
Latin name |
| Field maple | Acer campestre |
| Common alder | Alnus glutinosa |
| Strawberry-tree | Arbutus unedo |
| Silver birch | Betula pendula |
| Downy birch | Betula pubescens |
| Box | Buxus sempervirens |
| Hornbeam | Carpinus betulus |
| Dogwood | Cornus sanguinea |
| Hazel | Corylus avellana |
| Midland hawthorn | Crataegus laevigata |
| Hawthorn | Crataegus monogyna |
| Spindle | Euonymus europaeus |
| Beech | Fagus sylvatica |
| Alder buckthorn | Frangula alnus |
| Common ash | Fraxinus excelsior |
| Sea buckthorn | Elaeagnus rhamnoides |
| Holly | Ilex aquifolium |
| Juniper | Juniperus communis |
| Crab apple | Malus sylvestris |
| Scots pine | Pinus sylvestris |
| Black poplar | Populus nigra subsp. Betulifolia |
| Aspen | Populus tremula |
| Wild cherry | Prunus avium |
| Bird cherry | Prunus padus |
| Blackthorn | Prunus spinosa |
| Plymouth pear | Pryrus cordata |
| Sessile oak | Quercus petraea |
| Pedunculate oak | Quercus robur |
| Purging buckthorn | Rhamnus cathartica |
| White willow | Salix alba |
| Goat willow | Salix caprea |
| Grey willow | Salix cinerea |
| Crack willow | Salix fragilis |
| Bay willow | Salix petandra |
| Purple osier | Salix purpurea |
| Almond willow | Salix triandra |
| Common osier | Salix viminalis |
| Elder | Sambucus nigra |
| English whitebeam | Sorbus anglica |
| Common whitebeam | Sorbus aria |
| Arran whitebeam | Sorbus arranensis |
| Rowan | Sorbus aucuparia |
| Bristol whitebeam | Sorbus bristoliensis |
| Devon whitebeam | Sorbus devoniensis |
| Service-tree | Sorbus domestica |
| Round-leaved whitebeam | Sorbus eminens |
| Irish whitebeam | Sorbus hibernica |
| Lancastrian whitebeam | Sorbus lancastriensis |
| Grey-leaved whitebeam | Sorbus porrigentiformis |
| Arran service-tree | Sorbus pseudofennica |
| Rock whitebeam | Sorbus rupicola |
| Somerset whitebeam | Sorbus subcuneata |
| Wild service-tree | Sorbus torminalis |
| Bloody whitebeam | Sorbus vexans |
| Wilmott’s whitebeam | Sorbus wilmottiana |
| Yew | Taxus baccata |
| Small-leaved lime | Tilia cordata |
| Large-leaved lime | Tilia platyphyllos |
| Wych elm | Ulmus glabra |
| Field elm | Ulmus minor |
The timeline used to define ‘native’ is about 8,000 years ago (6,100BC), when Doggerland—the land-bridge linking Britain to mainland Europe—disappeared when a catastrophic tsunami is thought to have swept a wave up to 10m tall as far as 25 miles inland (see Smith et al. 2014 below).
The list of what is considered a native species, or indeed a separate species or not, is under constant review by botanists. For example, while 17 trees from the Sorbus genus are listed in the table above, these are only the most widespread, as there are thought to be about 17 more present in tiny populations (e.g. a single Welsh valley). Tim Rich is one of the most active botanists working to disentangle the genus (See Rich et al. 2014 below).
Our cousins in North America find the British definition of ‘native’ intriguing, the time boundary generally adopted by them being when European settlers first arrived in the sixteenth century, just 400 years ago.
Just across the English Channel in France and there are dozens more tree species considered native including silver fir (Abies alba), European larch (Larix decidua), cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), and Norway maple (Acer platanoides), to name a few.
Some trees introduced a long time ago to Britain are now considered ‘naturalised’. There is a specific term for species present since 1500; an ‘archaeophyte’. Such species include beech (native only to south-eastern Britain), horse chestnut, sweet chestnut, sycamore and walnut.
References
T. C. G. Rich, D. Green, L. Houston, M. Lepší, S. Ludwig, and J. Pellicer (2014). British Sorbus (Rosaceae): six new species, two hybrids and a new subgenus.
New Journal Of Botany Vol. 4 , Iss. 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/2042349714Y.0000000036
D.E. Smith, S. Shi, R.A. Cullingford, A.G. Dawson, S. Dawson, C.R. Firth, I.D.L. Foster, P.T. Fretwell, B.A. Haggart, L.K. Holloway, D. Long, (2004). The Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami in the United Kingdom, Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 23, Issues 23–24, December 2004, Pages 2291-2321, ISSN 0277-3791, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.04.001.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
I’m curious about the strawberry tree, listed as native in the book but online I can only find references to it being native in southwest Ireland? It certainly only seems to be present in cultivated spaces as far as I know. The book mentions it in this list on p29 only, I’d love to know more about its history within the UK.
interesting to see that Beech is considered native to southern Britain by The Woodland Trust. Certainly many areas are recent plantings, such as those on the Chilterns, but I guess could be have been present in the post ice age expansion of species before the land bridge disappeared.
I have used a list of 34 native trees (which does not include many of the Sorbus and some of .the Salix) since i retired 3 years ago. With the idea of identifying all 34 as close to my house as possible.
This has been reasonably successful except for the bay willow.
What I would like to know if there is an order to the appearance of these native trees. Presumably pioneer trees like birch arrive before oak?
Yes, you’re correct Ken. You should think at macro and micro landscape levels. At macro levels, trees recolonised Britain in a certain order, dependent on how fast they could ‘migrate’ via seed dispersal from their refugia. At a microlevel, the treescape will have developed according the pioneering ability of certain species first, such as a birch and alder, which would start to create the soil and microclimatic conditions which would subsequently favour the climax species such as oak and ash.
And if they became established It would not surprise me if the new kids on the block, Xylella sp. were also partial to Fraxinus it not being far removed from Olive…happy days. Keep up the good work publicising the importance of trees to ours and the planets well-being. Recently noted on Twitter, ‘There is no Planet B’!
Interesting, and very comprehensive. What about Ulmus Procera? Know not many left sadly. Regards Liz (Ramsay)
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
English Elm is believed to have been introduced by the Romans (so is an archaeophyte) most probably to use as a structure to grow their vines on. Propogated mostly by cuttings this is why the elms of Britain were so vulnerable to Dutch elm disease – i.e. they were clones of the same tree so had very narrow genetic diversity.
Hello Gabriel, there is an attempt to assure us that Ash displays far wider genetic diversity than the Elm so things will not be so bad once Ash Die-back really takes hold. More is the pity the reality of an environment ravaged is not widely shared and appreciated, because that is how it is to be. I note some councils are starting to talk of the cost of felling those trees that create H&S liabilities for them and that is about the level of it…oh dear! Regards, Despondent of Norfolk!
Yes, you are right about the genetic diversity of ash and we are still learning about what this means for the species itself. In terms of the biodiversity which relies on ash for its survival I am working on a research project currently that is modelling the impact and proposing alternative native species in different habitats. Led by Oxford DPhil student Louise Hill.
The real worry is the ever-nearing emerald ash borer, although there are some promising breakthroughs in battling this pest in North America.