Bistort

(Persicaria bistorta - Polygonaceae family or Polygonum bistorta)

According to Richard Mabey, bistorts have loads of common names that relate to Easter time because they were used to make a dish called Ledger Pudding at that time of year: Easter Giant; Easter Ledges; and Passion Dock. (One of the meanings of 'ledger' is the stone used to cover a grave.) They are in the same family as curled dock and sorrel.

IDENTIFICATION
bistort
Bistorts grow in patches in damp meadows and near water, but can also grow in lightly shaded woodland as well. The pink or white flowers come from June to August. They are shaped like bottlebrushes, lilacs or buddleia and the flower stems are hairless and don't branch. The triangular leaves have their own stalk or encircle the long flower stem when they are young. The are folded lengthways before they open and they decrease in size, going up the stem towards the flower. The root, or rhizome is twisted which is where the name 'bistort' comes from (twice twisted).

DIMENSIONS
height: 70cm
spread: 100cm
flower spike length: 6cm
flower spike width: 10-15mm
flower width: 1.5-4mm
stem length: 50cm
leaf length: 5-15cm

USES
Eating The long twisty roots are starchy and edible after soaking and cooking. You can also grind up the dried roots to make flour. The leaves are edible after boiling and young leaves are edible raw. See Ledger Pudding. They're a good source of vitamins A and C. They also contain oxalic acid.
Medicinal Collect the roots in the Spring and dry them. It's extremely astringent and will help with bleeding, diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera. Eat it to help with catarrh, cystitis, irritable bowel syndrome, peptic ulcers, ulcerative colitis and excessive menstruation. Gargle a decoction for spongy gums, mouth ulcers and sore throats.
Tannin The roots are 20% tannin.

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Bracken

(Pteridium aquilinum - Hypolepidaceae family)

This is a deciduous fern I associate with shady woodlands, but which can grow anywhere (except Antarctica). They can cover large areas, using spores and rhizomes to spread - they don't flower or produce seeds. After rain, they have a distinctive yeasty smell.

IDENTIFICATION
The curled shoots of bracken, known as 'fiddleheads', grow directly from the rhizome in the spring. Young fronds are covered in downy hair and little brown scales. Bracken doesn't have a stem system but leaves that sub-divide. Mature fronds, are divided into triangular pinnae and then almost rectangular pinnules. There are brown spore cases on the undersides. The pictured frond would be one of several found on a stem.

Fiddleheads	Bracken Frond

The black scaly rhizomes have thin black roots growing into the soil. Rhizomes normally grow at a depth of between 10 and 30cm, but have been found 1m down. At the point where the fronds grow from the rhizome, there are yellowy hair-like nectaries which are attractive to ants.

DIMENSIONS
height: 100-300cm
max frond length: 100cm
max pinnae length: 30cm
max pinnule length: 5cm
max stem width: 1cm
max root/rhizome width: 25cm

USES
Eating Only eat if you're desperate because they sound a little dodgy - some sources say the spores, leaves and stems are carcinogenic and that all parts break down thiamine (vitamin B1). Unfurling shoots (or fiddleheads) can be eaten raw or cooked. Raw shoots taste slightly of almonds and are extremely morish. You can also boil the shoots for 30 mins before eating; or blanche, soak for two hours and then cook. You can boil or roast the rhizomes. Also you can dry the rhizomes, bake, peel off the outer skin and crush to form a really starchy flour.
Fertilizer Bracken ash is rich in potash, espcially in the late spring. It's also good added to compost heaps.
Mulch Protect plants from frost etc.
Medicinal Rhizome tea is meant to help with stomach cramps, chest pains, internal bleeding, diarrhoea, colds and worms. This is because the rhizomes are anthelmintic (expel parasitic worms), antiseptic, diuretic (makes you wee more) and antiemetic (helps against nausea and vomiting). A poultice from the rhizome will help with sores, burns and sore breasts (from blocked milk ducts).
Glue Use the rhizome powder to make glue.
Soap Use a rhizome decoction to make liquid soap or mix bracken ashes with vegetable oil to make soap.
Dye Make a brown or green dye from the leaves and yellow dye from the rhizomes.
Tanning Use the rhizome.
Tinder Dried out rhizomes are good for this.
Weaving Not great quality. Bash up the long rhizomes to remove the bark and use fibres for basket weaving.
Glass Bracken ash can be used in glass making.
Packing Keep fruit fresh.
Insect repellent The leaves repel insects.
Mulch Just put the cut fern over soil. It will also enrich a compost heap.
Potash Burn to make potash - useful for soap and glass manufacture.
Acid rain indicator It's sensitive to acid rain.

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Bramble (blackberries)

(Rubus fruticosus - Rosaceae family)

No English childhood is complete without blackberry picking in autumn and humans have been eating them for two and half thousand years! If you haven't had the pleasure, you're in for a treat, but watch out for the prickles.

IDENTIFICATION
Because they're not fussy about their soil, brambles grow all over the place, but you'll find more fruit on bushes in sunny locations. In the spring, they produce long new tendrils, or canes, which grow shallow roots where they touch the ground. They colonize areas quickly, creating large, haphazard thickets with many berries ending up growing tantalisingly out of reach. Berries will be more accessible if the canes are trained along sticks.

Leaves have three or five leaflets, the middle one being the largest. Both stems and leaves are prickly. White or pink, five-petalled, flowers appear in the spring. Hard green fruits turning red then finally, black, arrive around August. Each blackberry is a cluster of tiny, hairless, juicy beads (or drupelets) that should pull away from the plant easily when ripe.

Bramble flowers

Blackberries

One great thing about brambles is that you'll get more than one harvest off a bush because fruits ripen at different times depending on the age of the stalk from which they develop. However, take care when picking after mid-September because some fruit may be infected with dodgy moulds by then.

DIMENSIONS
max thicket height: 300cm
flower width: 2.5cm
fruit width: 1-2cm
fruit length: 1-3cm
cane length: 30-300cm
leaf length: 6-8cm
leaf width: 4-6cm

USES
Eating Eat the berries in autumn and make tea out of the young leaves. 200g of fruit will give you your entire RDA of vitamin C! They also contain pectins. Berries can be eaten raw or cooked. There are many ways to preserve the berries and leaves for later use. Plant shoots can be eaten raw and even the roots can be eaten if they're boiled for long enough.
Medicinal Use the bramble shoot tea to relieve mouth ailments, cancer sores, and bleeding gums. Dried, powdered berries can be re-hydrated to relieve diarrhoea. The roots are very astringent and will help with dysentery, diarrhoea, haemorrhoids and cystitis.
Rope Apparently you can make rope by weaving the stems together - but first remove the thorns!
Dye Use the berries, roots and leaves to make dye. The root makes orange dye.
Ink Crush a handful of berries through a strainer and collect the juice. Add a couple of drops of vinegar to preserve the colour and a good pinch of salt to stop it going off. Store it in an airtight jar and, ideally, in a fridge.

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Bramble (raspberries)

(Rubus idaeus - Rosaceae family)

Yum, yum, yum. With no hard parts to speak of, raspberries are even tastier than their close relative, blackberries. I've never found wild raspberries, but apparently they do exist. According to Eco Flora they're more common in the Northern UK.

Both raspberries and blackberries are an important source of food for insects and other animals.

IDENTIFICATION
Raspberries
Wild raspberries grow in forest clearings. Like blackberries, they can grow in dodgy soil and will colonize areas quickly. They do, however, need plenty of water and sun to yield a good crop. Cultivated raspberries can grow from straight, woody canes, but wild raspberries spread by sending out shoots through the soil. The canes are thorny, but the thorns are thinner and more flexible than bramble thorns.

The previous year's canes will produce white, five-petalled flowers in the spring. Fertilized flowers develop into green fruits, which mature to deep pink by the summer. Unlike the "ever"-bearing cultivated varieties, wild raspberries only fruit in the summer.

Each berry is a cluster of tiny, juicy beads (or drupelets), which should pull away from the plant easily when ripe. Unlike blackberries, the fruit part pulls away from the receptacle, which looks like a little white cone. This means that the picked fruit is hollow. Also, they are slightly hairy, whereas blackberries are smooth.

The serrated leaves have three, five or seven leaflets, the middle one being the largest. The undersides of raspberry leaves are silver-white, whereas blackberry leaf undersides are green.

DIMENSIONS
max thicket height: 200cm
flower width: 1cm
fruit width: 1.5-2.5cm
fruit length: 3-5cm
cane length: 30-300cm
leaf length: 6-8cm
leaf width: 4-6cm

USES
Eating Eat the berries raw or cooked and make tea with the leaves. There are many ways to preserve the berries and leaves for later use. The fruits contain citric acid, vitamin C and pectin. You can also peel and eat the tender, Spring shoots - raw or steamed. Even the roots can be eaten if they're boiled for long enough.
In a high tech environment you can extract xylitol, a natural sweetener, from raspberries. The processes are: acid hydrolysis; filtration; adsorption; evaporation; dilution; and hydrogenation. That and alternative processes too complex for me to understand, are explained here!
Medicinal Raspberry leaf tea can help with diarrhoea (large doses), congestion and period pains. For pregnant women, it will also stimulate and strengthen the uterine muscles (the leaves contain fragarine) but don't drink it during the first six months of pregnancy as it could provoke a miscarriage. Gargling a brew from the leaves or roots helps with tonsillitis (because of their astringent properties) and for the same reason you can treat sores, conjunctivitis, wounds, burns and ulcers with a raspberry leaf or root poultice. Eating loads of fruit will help with constipation.
Paper Strip off the leaves and steam the stems until they are falling apart into fibres. Cook them for two hours with lye and then beat them into paper with a mallet. You'll get some light brown paper.
Dye Make a purple or blue dye from the berries.

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Bulrush (Cat's tail)

(Typha latifolia - Typhaceae family)

This grows in water up to 15cm deep or damp earth and has the distinctive sausage-shaped heads - these are its flowers. I remember watching one of my brothers unsuccessfully trying to pick these from the edge of a lake. They are, however, not always so inaccessible! Bulrushes can indicate that water is stagnant and they have many associated insect species.

IDENTIFICATION
In the spring new leaves grow out of the rhizome that has been dormant over winter. The leaves are wide, flat and narrow, containing many air-filled parallel veins. The plant then sends up the young flower heads. By the time the flowers are ripe, they are almost as tall as the reeds and once the seeds are formed, they are even taller.

The flowering head is called a 'spadix' - it's actually loads of very small flowers packed closely together. The sausage-shaped female flowers are at the bottom with the thinner, male flowers projecting upwards to form a spike. The female flowers start off green, maturing to brown. If you stroke the spadix to harvest the pollen, you help pollinate the plant. When the fertilized seeds in the female part are ready to disperse, white fluff gradually appears outside the female part until it's just a mass of seeds, like candy floss. The seed heads remain longer than the leaves, which turn brown and die back in autumn.

Bulrush head	Bulrush gone to seed

DIMENSIONS
height: 200cm
leaf width: 1-3cm
spadix length, female part: 20-35cm
spadix width, female part: 3cm
spadix length, male part: 10-25cm
spadix width, male part: 1cm

USES
Eating All parts are edible. The roots are edible raw or cooked. Boil them or shred and boil to make a sweet syrup. Roots can also be dried and ground up into a powder (80% carbohydrate, 7% protein). This can be combined with other flours for cooking. Harvest the roots from autumn to spring. Shoots (up to 50cm) are also edible raw or cooked. Apparently they taste like cucumber. For a mature stem, just use the base and remove the outer part. The immature flower spike can be eaten raw or cooked and apparently tastes like sweet corn. The tiny seeds can be roasted and taste nutty. Seeds can also be ground into flour. The pollen is full of protein. Harvest it by holding the spadix over a wide bowl and gently tapping the stem.
Medicinal The dried pollen sounds pretty amazing, helping with: kidney stones; haemorrhages; period pain; abnormal uterine bleeding; post-partum pain; abscesses; and cancer of the lymphatic system. But don't use if you are pregnant because it stimulates blood flow in pelvis and uterus. The flowers are used to help with things like cystitis and vaginitis. A leaf poultice (from leaves steeped in oil) will help with sores. The roots can also be made into a poultice for many skin conditions such as boils and burns - pound them until they are like jelly and place on the skin.
Thatch Autumn stems and leaves are good for this.
Paper Use the stems and leaves. Soak them for 24 hours and then cook for two hours with soda ash. Bash into a pulp to make greenish paper.
Weaving Used to make mats, chairs and hats.
Rayon A good cloth for a humid environment. However, the process looks pretty high tech.
Lighting Make a rush light from the stem as follows: peel off the outer stem except for a narrow strip, around 1cm wide (this will strengthen the light). Soak it in oil and use like a candle.
Tinder The female flower is great for this and the pollen is highly inflammable.
Sewage treatment The effluent from septic tanks can be channelled through a bulrush bed to assist aerobic decomposition. Common reeds are used at an earlier stage.
Compost Good addition to the compost heap.
Stuffing Use the fluffy seeds.
Nappy lining Use the fluffy seeds.

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Chicory

(Cichorium intybus- Asteraceae family)

I don't think I've ever seen one of these plants - but I'll be on the look out now. The name "chicory" comes from an Arabic word that sounds like "chicouryeh" and it's meant to be one of the bitter herbs eaten by Children of Israel during Passover before leaving Egypt. Like many wild plants, there are a certain number of associated stories, and chicory tops the list for having the most bizarre. My favourite is that you must pick it on 25th July using a gold knife and without speaking, otherwise you will die!

IDENTIFICATION
Chicory flowers in late summer - beautiful bright blue flowers that look a bit odd growing at intervals on a slightly hairy stem. They have between 15 and 20 petals, each one with tiny serrations a the tip - like many of the flowers in the daisy family. These flowers are slightly unusual in that they only open from early morning to midday.

Chicory Flower	Chicory Plant
Chicory Leaf

The leaves all grow at the base of the plant, and look just like dandelion leaves. The taproot, looking like a skinny carrot, is light yellow on the outside and white on the inside. Some sources say the root contains a milky white sap and others say it doesn't. I'll have to confirm this when I've found some real ones!

DIMENSIONS
height: 50-150cm
leaf width: 3-6cm
leaf length: 10-30cm
flower width: 2.5-4cm

USES
Eating Eating too much chicory over a long period of time could damage the retina. Eat the leaves raw or cooked - they are a good winter salad (called chicons). The leaves can be covered with earth or a bucket to make them less bitter. Unfortunately, this reduces the nutritional content. They contain vitamins A, B1, B2, Niacin, B6 and C. They also have some Calcium and Iron.
The flowers can be eaten but they are a bit bitter.
The roots can be eaten roast or boiled - the younger the sweeter. They contain quite a lot of inulin - a sweet starch that isn't actually digested (handy if you're a diabetic after something that tastes sweet). Inulin also enhances calcium absorption. Roasted root is used in fake coffee.
Medicinal Chicory is great for the liver and digestive tract. The leaves will stimulate appetite, encourage the production of bile, purify the blood, promote urination, reduce blood sugar levels, and help with constipation. Harvest the leaves in summer and use fresh or dried. Use the stem juice to cure warts. The roots help with jaundice, liver enlargement, gout and rheumatism and you can use fresh or dried root. The ideal time of year to harvest the root is autumn. There is some evidence that chicory roots will make men temporarily infertile.
Alcohol The inulin in the roots makes for an easy conversion to alcohol.
Dye Make a blue dye from the leaves by boiling them.
Compost Good addition to the compost heap because it speeds up bacterial activity.

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Dandelion

(Taraxacum officinale - Asteraceae family)

Apparently the name means lion's teeth, which must mean those poor lions have a serious plaque problem because dandelion petals are bright yellow. Dandelion leaves cunningly secrete a gas which inhibits the development of plants growing nearby, which may account for their success as an invasive wild flower.

IDENTIFICATION
They have very deep tap roots, like small parsnips. These are best pulled out after it's been raining. The leaves are usually growing horizontally, close to the ground, from the top of the root, to create a rosette of leaves pointing outwards. All parts of the plant produce a thick white sap which stains the skin black. This, apparently, is a relative of latex!

The flower stems are hollow and grow vertically from the centre of the circle of leaves. Green buds, one per stem, open to reveal bright yellow-orange flowers. Triangular green bracts under the flower heads close up the flower at night by swivelling vertical. Each morning they fold back downwards, revealing the composite flower heads once again. After a few days, the petals wither. The next time the bracts fold downwards, the flower heads have become what's commonly called dandelion clocks - balls of fluffy white seeds waiting to become airborne. The seeds are lodged in a small white knob, about the size of a pencil rubber, which is what you see once the seeds have been blown away.

dandelion flower

dandelion seeds

DIMENSIONS
flower stem length: 5-30cm
flower width: 2-5cm
clock width: 4-8cm
leaf length: 5-20cm

USES
Eating All edible. Eat the young leaves raw or cooked, ideally using the youngest leaves you can find. If you cover dandelion plants you will blanche the leaves, making them less bitter. However, they will then contain fewer vitamins and minerals. The leaves should contain significant amounts of calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin A, B1, B2 and C. If you want to preserve leaves, harvest them in the spring from plants that are in bloom.
You can even eat the flowers raw or cooked, but they're equally bitter. Fry them, preserve them in vinegar, like capers or drink flower tea. The roots taste like turnip
Coffee substitute Roots of two year old plants can be dried and roasted.
Compost Use the flowers to get your compost heap going.
Medicinal Dandelion makes you wee and is also a laxative. It will help with urinary problems, oedema (too much lymph fluid, particularly around the feet and ankles), joint problems like gout and skin complaints such as acne and eczema. It also helps with liver disease, jaundice and gallstones. Dandelion is antibacterial. Use the white sap to remove corns, warts and verrucae. Dandelion also contains an antioxidant, Luteolin and may help prevent cancer and coronary heart disease. However, another chemical found in dandelions, Caffeic acid, may be carcinogenic!
Latex You can get this from the roots, apparently, and make it into low quality rubber.
Insect repellent The latex will repel insects.
Dye Get a brown dye from the roots.

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Dock (Curled or Yellow)

(Rumex crispus - Polygonaceae family)

This is a common plant which has distinctive leaves. It's in the same family as bistort and sorrel: they both have leaf stems that are partially wrapped around the main stem. Dock supports a lot of wildlife, especially certain caterpillars.

IDENTIFICATION
Curled dock - leaves and flowersLike many members of the dock genus, we tend to notice curled dock once it has grown tall. The stems are loaded with long, pointed leaves which turn a distinctive rusty colour later in the year. The younger plant is less obvious: a dense rosette growing close to the ground, becoming clump-shaped. Then the main stem emerges, grows tall and may even branch. Older leaves at the base of the plant are larger that the ones near the tips. The edges of each leaf undulate up and down, but the leaf surface is flat next to the main leaf vein. It is this frilliness that distinguishes curled dock from its more common relatives.
In summer and autumn you will find flowers or seeds growing along the stem extremeties. The green flowers are like tiny balls resting against tiny green leaves; dense clusters of seeds growing close to the stem. The mature seeds are dark brown/red.
The tap roots are large and yellow.

DIMENSIONS
height: 50-100cm
leaf length: 15-30cm
leaf width: 5-10cm
seed diameter: 1-2mm

USES
Eating Like spinach, curled dock contains oxalic acid and the young leaves can be eated raw or boiled (but change the water during cooking). The leaves can even be dried for later use. Cooking reduces the oxalic acid content. Avoid the bitter leaves from mature plants. They contain vitamin A, C, iron and protein but eating too much oxalic acid will reduce your body's upatake of other nutrients, such as calcium. It can also worsen rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity.
You can peel and eat the stems and even the seeds are edible, raw or cooked: Grind the seeds into flour; or roast and use as a coffee substitute.
Medicinal The roots help with constipation, prevents scurvy and also acts as a tonic. Some people use it to help fight cancer. Mash up the root and use it as a poultice or salve for skin complaints such as scabies and ringworm - a substance called rumicin doing the trick. And as a dried powder, the root will help with sores, ulcers and wounds. Harvest and dry the roots in the spring.
Dye You can get yellow, green, brown and dark grey dyes from the roots and they don't need a mordant.
Compost Dock plants speed up compost action.

Bibliography for this section.
Website of particular use: Missouriplants.com
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Good King Henry

(Chenopodium bonus-henricus - Amaranthaceae family)

This is also called Mercury Goosefoot, English Mercury, Lincolnshire Spinach or Poor Man's Asparagus. It does look a bit like spinach that's gone to seed.

IDENTIFICATION
good king henryThe leaves are shaped like wide-based triangles, or arrows, and they grow off a thick stem, which has a flowering spike. The leaves look like spinach, with a similar colour and texture. The flowering tip has several tiny branches with a cluster of stem-less, petal-less flowers growing along each. You would notice the clusters of spherical seedpods rather than the tiny green flowers.

DIMENSIONS
height: 40-80cm
leaf length: 5-10cm
flowering tip length: 10-30cm
flower diameter: 3-5mm
seed diameter: 2-3mm

USES
Eating They contain oxalic acid (okay in spinach, poisonous in rhubarb leaves and sorrel) so you may want to cook this first. If you do want to eat the raw young leaves, do so as soon as you've picked them as they wilt quickly. Older leaves and the flowering tips should certainly be cooked. More nutritious than cabbage or spinach, they contain quite a lot of iron, calcium, vitamin B1 and vitamin C.
If you are able to identify the first shoots, you can pick them from under the ground and use like asparagus. If you cover Good King Henry plants you will blanche the leaves, making the shoots longer and more succulent. However, they will then contain fewer vitamins and minerals.
You can even eat the seeds, but soak them overnight to remove the saponins, which are a soapy component. Some people dry and grind the leaves to make seed.
Medicinal Laxative and anthelmintic (expel parasitic worms). You can make a gentle laxative, suitable for children, from the seeds. A poultice from the leaves helps clean and heal really bad boils and abscesses.
Cosmetic Softens the skin.
Dye All parts of the plant will give orange or green dyes.
Mulch Use the old foliage.
Shagreen Where you need a rough, grippy leather, (e.g. for tool handles) push the seeds into the untreated animal skin, cover with a cloth and then trample. Once the skin is dry, the seeds will fall out leaving little indentations.

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Parsnip (Wild Parsnip)

(Pastinaca sativa - Umbelliferae family)

Wild parsnips like waste ground and grassy places and can thrive in dodgy soil. They are great for wildlife such as hover flies and predatory wasps. Parsnips are in the carrot, or umbellifer, family and have a distinctive flower shape, called an 'umbel'.

IDENTIFICATION
Parsnip plant
Parsnip leaf
I was alarmed to discover that wild parsnip can be confused with poisonous hemlock. But they are easy to distinguish, in the autumn, when the plants are in flower: hemlock, white; parsnip, greeny-yellow. The flowers appear in clusters on the ends of long stalks and the stalks are joined at the base.

Other distinguishing features are the leaves, seeds and stems. Both have leaflets growing in pairs from side branches. But parsnip leaflets have large, uneven, clumsy-looking lobes. The leaf edge is serrated. Hemlock leaflets are altogether more jagged and regular and they do not have the smaller serrations.

Hemlock seeds are small (around 3mm), spherical with loads of wavy ridges on them. Parsnip seeds are like little winged eggs and are larger.

In addition, hemlock has purple blotches on the smooth, green stems, whereas parsnip has roughly hairy, green stems (which are grooved and can become hollow). Look out for the parsnip sap because it can make your skin extra sensitive to sunlight so that you get a rash or dermatitis.

The tap roots of wild parsnip can be cultivated to become the huge fat, yellow-white pasnips sold by grocers. Hemlock roots are also white, but smaller.

DIMENSIONS
height: 50-120cm
width: c. 25cm
seed length: 4-6mm
max root length: 30cm
max leaflet length: 10cm

USES
Eating They are rich in potassium (600mg per 100g). Dig up and eat the roots (baked, roasted or boiled) after there has been frost because they'll taste sweeter. Roots contain protein, starch, vitamin C and pectin. They also have a woody core - so look out! The spring leaves and shoots can be cooked like spinach. The seed tastes a little like dill.
Medicinal Xanthotoxin in the root helps with psoriasis (patchy red skin condition) and vitiligo (patchy white skin condition) but it's this same substance that can cause photosensitivity and dermatitis. A poultice made from the roots can help swollen joints and sores.
Insecticide and repellent Soak the chopped leaves and roots overnight. Strain and use the fluid to repel aphids and spider mite.

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Reed (Common)

(Phragmites australis - Poaceae family)

This common plant is found in or near water. It's quick growing and can spread five metres a year.

IDENTIFICATION
Common ReedLeaves grow at intervals up the tall, hollow stems, which are eventually topped with dark purple flower clusters. The leaves are long and pointed and move easily in the wind. The flower clusters are sub-divided into tiny spikes of one to six flowers, each with male and female parts. Once the seeds have formed, the leaves begin to pull away from the stems to rot. The stems can remain throughout the winter, still holding the beige seed heads.

DIMENSIONS
height: 2-6m
max rootstock length: 10m
leaf length: 20-50cm
leaf width: 2-3cm
flower cluster length: 20-50 cm
flower spike length: 10-15mm

USES
Eating Most parts of the plant seem to be edible.
Roots: preferably young, raw or cooked (about 5% sugar); or dried, ground and eaten like porridge.
Shoots: raw or cooked.
Stems: tap off sugary sap; or boil to extract sugar.
Seeds: raw or cooked (hard to obtain); or dried and ground into a flour.
Medicinal Cooked or raw leaves can help with cholera and bronchitis and leaf ash helps stop bleeding and heals infected sores. Flower tea will help with cholera and food poisoning. The stem helps with stomach complaints, nausea and fever. The root helps with diarrhoea, vomiting, food poisoning, fever, chesty coughs and cystitis (because it contains pentosans). Juice or dry autumnal roots.
Fuel Good for tinder - use the stems and leaves.
Thatching Use the stems - they can last for 100 years!
Building Combine the leaves with mud for a stronger plaster.
Insulation Use the leaves and stems.
Fencing / Baskets / Mats Use the stems or leaves.
String / Rope Use the fibre from the retted stems and leaves, which are around 50% cellulose.
Paper Use the fibre from the retted stems and leaves, which are around 50% cellulose. The paper is khaki.
Biomass Ideal because fast growing - use for alcoholic fuel, solid fuel, fertilizer or fibre.
Sewage treatment The effluent from septic tanks can be channelled through a bed of common reeds to kick start aerobic decomposition. Bulrushes can be used later on.
Green manure Use the freshly cut shoots.
Pens Use the narrowest stems.
Dye Make a light green dye from the flowers.

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Rose (Wild Rose, Prickly Rose)

(Rosa acicularis – Rosaceae family)

This is the wild plant from which the fancy garden hybrids are derived. It's found in lightly shaded woodlands or open fields and it's often used as a hedgerow plant. It's more commonly found climbing or trailing over other plants, in the south of the UK.

Wild rose thrives near garlic, but not near box. The birds love them as a source of winter food and there are many associated insect species.

What's written here mostly applies to other wild roses such as rosa canina (dog rose), rosa arvensis (filedrose), rosa tormentosa (harsh downy rose) and rosa rubiginosa (sweet briar). It's interesting to note that the massive rose family also includes crabapples, rowan and hawthorn. If you look at the flowers, you'll see why!

IDENTIFICATIONWild Rose hipWild Rose budWild Rose flower and leaves
The thorny stems are bare over winter, but in the spring, green leaf buds appear, followed in summer by the flowers. The oval, serrated leaves are prickly on the reverse, along the main vein. Three to seven leaflets grow from side stems – all in pairs except for the end one. The base of the side stem is fringed with two rogue leaflet flaps, called 'stipules'.

The flower has five white or pink petals, each with two rounded lobes, arranged around the bright yellow stigma and stamen. Fertilised flowers develop into red rose hips which are spherical, ovoid or even pear shaped. When opening the hips, beware of the fine hairs surrounding the seeds as they are extremely irritating – a kind of free itching powder used by naughty children! Just use the narrow layer of outer flesh.

DIMENSIONS
leaf length: 4cm
max stem length: 300cm
flower diameter: 3-5cm
hip diameter: 10-15mm
hip length: 15-30mm

USES
Eating Make jam out of the petals. Pick and eat the fruit (very rich in Vitamins A and C and surprisingly high in essential fatty acids) after a frost, for a better flavour. You can eat them raw or cooked. They are lovely and sweet and have an almost artichoke flavour. Don't eat the seeds or the irritating hairs. Make rose hip syrup, or dry and make a tea. You can dry and grind rose hips to use in baking. Also eat the spring shoots and flower petals. Both can be eaten raw, but don't eat the bitter white flower base. You can make tea from fresh or dried leaves.
Medicinal A root decoction can help with coughs and sore throats. A root, bark or leaf infusion will sooth sore eyes. It is possible that rose hips help fight cancer and can even reduce its incidence. Finally, rose blossom tea will help with diarrhoea.
Dye You can get an orange dye from the fruit.

Bibliography for this section.
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Sorrel

SORREL
(Rumex acetosa - Polygonaceae family)

Sorrel is in the same family as bistort and curled dock and it supports a lot of wildlife. Some call it “spinach dock”, “ambada” and “gongoora”.

IDENTIFICATION
Sorrel: stem and leaves
Sorrel flowersThis is a meadow plant with deep roots and long pointy leaves (two to six times the leaf width), not unlike spinach or dock. In spring, sorrel grows in clumps with the leaves on long stems. As flower spikes appear in summer, the leaves growing from the tall stem are stalkless - the leaf bases curl around the stems. Picking off the red or green flowers will prolong leaf growth. The tiny flowers are tightly clustered along the flower spikes and the seeds are shiny and brown.

DIMENSIONS
height: 50-150cm
leaf length: 7-15cm
leaf width: 3-5cm
flower diameter: 3mm
max flower spike length: 40cm

USES
Eating Like spinach, sorrel contains oxalic acid and the young leaves can be eaten raw or boiled. Some compare the flavour to kiwi fruit. The leaves can even be dried for later use. Cooking reduces the oxalic acid content. Avoid the bitter leaves from mature plants. Leaves contain vitamin A, C, iron and protein but eating too much oxalic acid will reduce your body's uptake of other nutrients, such as calcium. It can also worsen rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity.
You can eat the flowers and seeds raw or cooked.
Grind dried roots into a powder.
Medicinal The leaves make a cooling drink that will help with fever, prevent scurvy and encourage urination and defaecation. A leaf poultice can also help with skin problems, like acne. Eating the root powder will help expel parasites and root paste will help set dislocated bones.
Dye You can get dark green, brown and dark grey dyes from the roots and they don't need a mordant. A grey-blue dye comes from the leaves and stems.
Stain remover Sorrel juice removes stains.

Bibliography for this section.
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Stinging Nettle

(Urtica dioica - Urticaceae family)

The antidote for nettle stings is the juice from dock leaf leaves - and docks always seem to grow near stinging nettles. Just roll and squeeze the leaf to release the soothing green juice. Failing that, the nettle's own juice will act as an antidote - provided you can get hold of it without pricking yourself further!
Nettles have about 30 associated insect species, so are pretty good for wildlife.

IDENTIFICATION
Stinging NettleThese quick-growing plants tend to grow in soil rich in phosphorus and nitrogen - so indicate good soil fertility. The distinctive serrated leaves and stems are covered in brittle, hollow hairs that are full of sting: histamine (skin irritant); acetylcholine (burns the skin); and serotonin (encourages the other two chemicals). Each plant has spreading rhizome roots and a thick main stem with perhaps a few leafy side stems. The flowers dangle downwards in clusters from the leaf bases. They don't look much like flowers; more like bumpy green catkins that look hardly any different once they've changed to seeds.

DIMENSIONS
height: 80-180cm
leaf length: 3-15cm
max flower cluster length: 10cm
seeds: 1-1.5mm

USES
Eating Cook fresh or dried young leaves for about 15 mins to kill the sting. They are a good source of iron and vitamins A and C, and they contain protein, calcium, potassium, silicon, manganese and sulphur. Eat spring shoots and roots when the shoots are about 20cm long. Drink dried leaf tea as a tonic and nettle beer from the young shoots. Make nettle syrup with the young leaves.
A nettle juice or salted decoction will act as a rennet substitute.
Companion plant Plants growing near nettles have more essential oils and are more resistant to insects. Nettles are good breeding grounds for lacewings and ladybirds which will feed on aphids.
Medicinal Old leaves are laxative. For other complaints, pick and dry young leaves as it comes into flower. Nettle tea is meant to help with hay fever, asthma, arthritis, rheumatism, eczema, poor breast milk supply, anaemia, internal bleeding, heavy periods and haemorrhoids. The leaves lower your blood-sugar level and slightly lower blood pressure. For rheumatism, you can also rub on fresh leaves, deliberately stinging yourself. This stimulates the blood supply in the area, removes toxins and eases the rheumatic joint. Use the root to help with enlarged prostate glands.
Shampoo Because it's quite astringent, a nettle decoction will help with dandruff.
String and cloth As anyone who has ever read Hans Christian Andersen's The Flying Swans will know, nettles can be made into threads. They are 17% fibre and old plants are best. First ret and then use the extracted fibres.
Paper Use the plant fibres to make paper.
Sugar and alcohol You can make sugar and alcohol from extracted nettle fibres - the fibre is almost 87% cellulose.
Compost activator Use the whole plant.
Liquid feed Soak the leaves for one to three weeks to make a great liquid feed.
Insect repellent Soak the leaves for one to three weeks to make an insect repellent.
Oil The seeds contain oil suitable for lamps.
Waterproofer Rub nettle juice or a salted decoction into leaky wooden tubs.
Dye Make a decoction from the leaves and stems to produce a permanent green dye. You can get a yellow dye from the root if you boil it with alum.

Bibliography for this section.
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White Mustard

(Sinapis alba - Cruciferae family)

This fast growing plant is cultivated, but also grows wild. It's called "white mustard" after the seeds, not the flowers, to distinguish them from those of the black mustard plant.

IDENTIFICATION
White Mustard: flowers, seedpods and leavesA cluster of androgynous flower buds is found at the top of the plant and the lowest flowers open first. Each yellow flower has four rounded petals and four pointy sepals. Once these are self-fertilised, hairy seedpods are formed. Each pod contains around six spherical seeds and you harvest these before they are fully ripe and bursting from the pod. The seeds range in colour from pale beige to light brown.

The leaves have a short stem and many deeply rounded lobes and the stems are slightly hairy.

DIMENSIONS
height: 60-100cm
width: 30cm
seed diameter: 1-2.5mm
leaf length: 5-12cm
flower width: c. 2cm

USES
Eating May be poisonous once the seeds have formed. Eat the leaves and flowers raw or cooked. Eat sprouted seeds too. Grind the seeds and make mustard powder, which is re-hydrated with cold water to make mustard - the condiment. Using hot water, or vinegar or adding salt produces a milder, but more bitter mustard. The seeds are rich in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium and vitamins A, B1, B2 and Niacin. Use mustard in pickles to prevent mould or bacterial growth.
Medicinal The seeds, when eaten, induce defecation or vomiting. In smaller doses, they increase sweating and are both antibacterial and anti fungal - helpful with feverishness and colds. Drink mustard seed tea (1 cup water and 1 teaspoon ground seed, three times a day) or add the powder to bathwater.
A poultice made using 100g mustard seed powder mixed with warm water helps with arthritic joints, sciatica, neuralgia and chilblains. Protect the skin with an intermediate layer of thin cloth and only leave it on for a minute or so. Poultices work because they cause the blood vessels to expand and increase circulation in the area of the poultice.
Mustard oil mixed with pure alcohol helps with gout, lumbago and rheumatism. Since the oil is absorbed through the skin and goes out through the lungs, it can help with chesty complaints like tuberculosis and pleurisy.
Be careful with the powder and oil because they can induce watery blisters.
The leaves help with severe indigestion because they are antispasmodic.
Oil Mustard seed oil is used as a lubricant and for lighting.
Green manure It's fast growing, so ideal for this.

Bibliography for this section.
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Alder (Black or Common)

(Alnus glutinosa - Betulaceae family)

This sounds like a great tree for dodgy or damp soil. It actually enriches the soil by fixing nitrogen, so is a good pioneer species. It grows about half a metre a year - pretty quick.

IDENTIFICATION: cones, leaves and bark
Alder conesAlder leafWhat clinched it for me as someone trying to reliably identify this tree, were the tiny brown cones (not true cones). They stay on or under the tree long after the seeds have blown away and can be found for most of the year. It's similar to Grey Alder, but is taller and has more rugged bark. The male catkins appear in spring (on the same plant as the female flower) and drop off once they've done their bit. The smooth green cones gradually open and ripen, turning dark brown.

The leaves are roughly oval with subtle irregular serrations around the edge and they come after the catkins. They are a bit like beech leaves, but more rounded. When they first appear, they are slightly sticky. The bark is cut through with wiggly vertical creases that run into each other creating little smooth islands. Tiny horizontal, white lines fleck the surface of these raised plateaux. The wood looks white when first cut, but gradually turns pale red.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 25m
tree width: 10m
male catkins: 2-6cm
female 'cones': 1-3cm
leaf stalk: 1-3cm
leaf: 5-8cm

USES
Coppicing Ideal tree spacing is 3m - around 450 per acre. Coppice every 10-20 years.
Charcoal
Building below water, eg sluice gates, because it hardens in water. Lots of Venice is built on Alder posts.
Carpentry Alder used to be big in the clog-making industry
Dye You can get red or black from the bark, yellow from the young shoots, pink from the fresh wood and green from the catkins.
Tanning and dyeing use the bark
Smoking food to preserve it

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Alder (Grey)

(Alnus incana- Betulaceae family family)

The grey alder has shallow roots, and can produce root suckers. It's fast growing and can grow on poor soil, making it a good pioneer species and much beloved of municipal park planners. Like Black Alder, it can fix nitrogen, thereby enriching the soil in which it grows.

It's pretty new to the British Isles, and was apparently only introduced in the 1870s.

IDENTIFICATION: cones, leaves and bark

It really looks like the Black Alder, but it's smaller with smooth grey bark, rather than being fissured. Like the Black Alder, it has both male and female flowers on the same plant and the male catkin is more noticeable than the female catkin. The catkin becomes conical as it matures. These tend to cling onto the trees, making them easily identifiable in winter.

The leaves come after the catkins. They also grey beneath and they end in a point - unlike those of the Black Alder leaves.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 15-20m
lifespan: 60-100 years
male catkins: 5-10cm
female cones: 1.5cm long and 1cm wide
seeds: 1-2 mm long
leaf: 5-11cm long and 4-8cm wide

USES
Carpentry Light, soft and elastic it's useful for bowls and some furniture
Tanning and dyeing use the bark and fruits as they're 20% tannin

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Ash

(Fraxinus excelsior - Oleaceae family)

I must credit this extremely useful web page, along with sites listed on my trees homepage: http://www.the-tree.org.uk/BritishTrees/MrsGrieve/mgash.htm

Ash trees are in the olive family, with Privet being the only other UK species. They're always trying to grow in my back garden (in London), which leads me to believe they're pretty resilient, but apparently they need their light and water if they are to survive beyond the seedling stage. The ones I pull up always have extremely deep roots and they grow quickly. With 68 associated insect species, they're quite good at attracting wildlife.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and seeds
Ash Leaves: Ash Keys
The black buds (other ash trees have brown ones) open into greenish or purplish flowers around April. Male and female flowers can appear on the same tree and they can even change sex! An all-male tree one year can be all-female the next.

The small flowers aren't that noticeable, but the female ones are longer than the male ones and neither has petals. The bumpy surface of the male flowers reminds me of mulberry fruits. The clusters of female flowers are more open, like a whole load of purple stigma that remind me of fuchsia seeds. Each little flower and stem can only be 0.5 cm long. These develop into clusters of bright green, oval 'ash keys' around June, turning brown as they ripen. Sometimes they stay on trees over winter, helping you spot them more easily. Trees produce seeds in alternate years once they are about 30 years old.

The other distinctive feature of ash trees is the feathery clusters of leaves, which come in May, kind of late in tree terms. You'll see 9-13 lance-shaped, slightly serrated pairs of leaves with an odd one at the tip. The leaves fall before those of other deciduous trees if it gets too frosty.

The bark is light grey or greeny-grey in young trees, and not particularly distinctive.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 40m
max tree width: 20m
lifespan: 200-300 years
buds: 1cm long
flowers: 0.3-0.8cm long
seeds: 2.5-5cm long
leaf: each leaf 6-12cm long, cluster about 30cm long

USES
Eating Pickle the immature seeds in salt and vinegar. Apparently they taste a bit like capers. You can also get oil by crushing the seeds.
Coppicing Ideal tree spacing is 3m - around 450 per acre. Coppice every 10-25 years.
Burning it burns quite well even when green because it has a low water content (30-35%). Has a nice smell.
Ash The wood ash is particularly good for your compost heap.
Carpentry This pale wood is strong and elastic. It's good for little things like handles, oars, spear, bows, rails, ladders and wheel rims, but also good for furniture and veneers.
Dye green dye from the leaves
Tannin from the bark
Medicinal The leaves are a laxative and the dried seeds are useful for relieving flatulence! To make leaf tea steep about an ounce of leaves in a pint of water and drink it frequently. You can gather the summer leaves, dry and store them for later.

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Aspen

(Populus tremula - Salicaceae family)

This fast-growing pioneer species is in the willow family. It loves damp soil and has really deep roots - so don't have within 12m of buildings or drains. They are associated with 90 insect species and their sparse canopy allows other plants to grow in their shade.

In summer, Aspen leaves tremble noisily in the breeze - hence the second part of the Latin name. The 'populus' bit means they used to be the tree of the people. Perhaps everyone had one in their back garden.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and flowers

The leaves are almost round with fairly big serrations around the edge. Young leaves are slightly hairy on top, unlike those of the grey poplar (which are hairy underneath). The leaf stalks are flat and about the same length as the leaf. Stalks join the leaves at right angles, which contributes to the tree's propensity to rustle.

You get separate male and female trees, which flower around February, before the leaves arrive. The male trees produce dangly, grey catkins. Once these have shed their seed, they turn orange and drop off. The female trees have green catkins, each capable of producing a pair of hairy seed capsules around June time.

Cunningly, this tree can also reproduce by sending out small suckers from the roots. You can end up with a huge colony spreading by 1 metre each year. The colony is called a 'clone' and acts like a single organism - e.g. coming into leaf at the same time. One clone in Utah (of the American Aspen, Populus tremuloides) is 43 hectares big and contains 47,000 trees! Quite an amazing plant, it even has the ability to photosynthesise through its trunk, not just though the leaves.

The main differences between aspen and black poplar are: aspen stalks are very long (longer than the leaf length) whereas poplar leaf stalks are just quite long; aspen leaves (from the branches) are more rounded; and black poplar has no suckers.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 25m
max tree width: 10m
lifespan: 150 years, but the tree suckers can live for thousands
catkins: 11cm
leaf: 3-8cm across

USES
Eating boil, roast and grind the inner bark and use as flour
Animal food the leaves are rather yummy for livestock and beavers rely on its bark as a winter food
Charcoal The best kind of charcoal for gunpowder. Mix potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal in the ratio of 15:3:2
Carpentry The light-coloured wood is quite soft and good for clogs, arrows, matches, lightweight boxes, veneer and plywood
Turnery (making stuff on a lathe)
Tanning leather
Medicinal the bark contains salicin, which changes to aspirin on digestion

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Beech

(Fagus sylvatica - Fagaceae family)

Beech trees are shallow rooted and quite slow growing - although in good conditions they can grow a metre a year. Like oak trees, they're climax species, taking over woodlands once they've been pioneered by the likes of birch and alder. They're not really indigenous to the UK, arriving here around 4,000BC. This explains why only 64 insect species are associated with them. They're kind of late starters in that they only produce fruit once they're between 30 and 80 years old, and then only every three or four years!

IDENTIFICATION: bark, leaves and seeds
Beech leaf and young nutBeech nut openingThe bark is often described as smooth and grey, but sometimes it can be rutted. The tough, waxy leaves are oval in shape. When you look at them from the side they're kind of wavy. In autumn they turn a gorgeous copper colour and since they take ages to rot, you should find loads of them around tree bases at any time of year, along with some old beech nut (mast) husks. The leaves arrive around April and the little flowers about a month later. You get a further flush of new leaves in the middle of summer. These two leaf growth spurts pretty much coincide with the two main growth spurts for the tree each year.

The tiny catkin flowers are either male or female, but both can be found on the same tree. The seed cases are hairy on the outside with four lobes. These open to reveal two three-sided nuts in October or thereabouts.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 45m
tree width: 25m
trunk max diameter: 3m
lifespan: mature at 120years and can live for 300 years
leaf: 5-10cm long, 3-7 cm wide, 6-7 veins on each side of leaf
nuts: 15-20mm long, 7-10mm wide at base

USES
Eating Eat the young leaves and beech nuts - roasted or raw. The raw young leaves have a sour initial taste which quickly fades. Don't eat shedloads though, as they can be toxic in large quantities. The seeds can also be ground up to make flour or roasted and used as a coffee substitute. If the flour is soaked the poisonous tannins are leached out.
Oil Crush and filter the nuts to get edible oil - the seed residue is poisonous.
Burning
Charcoal
Building Large trees are great for building, but not external structures or heavy structural support.
Carpentry Furniture, mallets and workbenches (it's dead hard)
Stuffing for mattresses from the leaves
Acetic acid and tar Acetic acid, or vinegar, is very useful for preserving food. The tar is both stimulating and antiseptic. To get them you'll have to work out how to dry distil the wood and branches!

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Birch (Downy or White)

(Betula Pubescens - Betulaceae family)

The Downy Birch is a pioneer species with deep-roots, capable of obtaining nutrients where other trees would fail. When the leaves drop they fertilise the ground making it good enough for other trees. Other so-called climax species, such as oak and beech, will then out-compete the birch. Like the Silver Birch, it is extremely insect-friendly: In Scotland, 334 invertebrate species can feed on it.

IDENTIFICATION: bark, leaves and seeds
Downy Birch seedsDowny Birch leafIt looks very similar to the Silver Birch, but it prefers damper locations, looks more upright and grows more slowly.

The bark is greyish white with horizontal grooves rather than being such a vivid white. The pale bark will stay white all the way to the base of the tree, rather than becoming black. The male and female flowers come from the same tree. They arrive around April-May, slightly before the leaves. Downy Birch leaf shoots are smooth and covered in tiny hairs whereas Silver Birch shoots are hairless and warty. The leaves are alternate, looking more oval than those of the Silver Birch. The male catkins droop while the female ones are upright. By June, the green catkins have become yellow and dangly. As they dry out, tiny brown seeds are dispersed by the wind.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 20m
lifespan: 70 years
flowers: 3 cm male catkins, 1.2-2cm female catkins
leaf: 2-4cm long, 3cm wide

This tree has so many USES a separate section is needed!

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Birch (Silver)

(Betula Pendula - Betulaceae family)

The silver birch has a distinctive white trunk, a slender crown of arched branches and drooping branchlets. It grows rapidly for the first 20 years, and is mature at 40 years. Native to the British Isles, it's an excellent pioneer species and is extremely insect friendly: 229 insect species can call it 'home'!

IDENTIFICATION: bark, leaves and seeds
Silver Birch leafSilver Birch amentsSilver Birch trunkI used to have a silver birch in my back garden. I remember sitting in it listening to the branches swishing in the wind and peeling off fine shreds of white bark. The bark came off in quite satisfying horizontal strips. Consequently, I'm very fond of this tree. The silver-white trunk must be the most obvious clue for identifying this tree. In older trees it gets black and rugged, especially at the base and there are black fissures where branches have fallen off.

It's pretty similar to the Downy Birch, but it has whiter bark and more black fissures. The silver birch also tends to prefer dryer locations. The male and female flowers come from the same tree. They arrive around April-May, slightly before the serrated, diamond-shaped leaves. By June, the green catkins have become yellow and dangly. As they dry out, tiny brown seeds are dispersed by the wind.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 30m
tree width: 10m
lifespan: 60-80 years
flowers: 3-5cm catkins
leaf: 3-6cm long

This tree has so many USES a separate section is needed!

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Crab Apple

(Malus sylvestris - Rosaceae family)

These are in the same family as regular apple trees, but they produce fruit that's generally smaller and tastes bitter. I recently used crab apples to help thicken my rowan berry jelly; they are often used in jam making.

IDENTIFICATION
Crab Apple blossomcrab applesThe leaves are simple and oval-shaped. The loose clusters of blossom have five white, pink or red petals. Insects must pollinate the flowers for fruit to form in the autumn and the apples can be red, yellow or orange.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 10m
flower diameter: 3-4cm
fruit diameter: 1-5cm
leaf length: 3-10cm

USES
Eating The fruit can be eaten but it tastes sour and unpleasant. If you pick after the weather has turned frosty, it tastes better. Make into jelly or juice. Don't eat the seeds because they contain hydrogen cyanide.
Oil You can get oil from the seeds.
Pectin It can help other fruits set because it's high in pectin. Apparently pectin will also protect you against radiation.
Tea Make tea from the leaves.
Medicinal The fruit is a laxative. A fruit poultice helps bring down swellings and heal cuts. The bark helps you kip.
Dye Get dye from the bark.
Fuel Burns well.

Field Maple

(Acer campestre - Aceraceae family)

This tree is great for attracting wildlife and can often be found with ash, hazel and oak trees. Once its shallow root system is established, the field maple grows quickly. It then slows down, taking 50 years to mature. It has a rounded shape and the trunk can get quite fat - about 1m. This makes it especially good for coppicing. Pleasingly, it is a native of Cumbria and Durham.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves, seeds and bark
Field Maple leafField Maple seedsDistinguish this tree from the sycamore, which has similar leaves, using two clues: sycamore leaf stems are green rather than red; and their helicopters (pairs of seeds) are at an angle, rather than in a straight line.

Arriving April-May, the leaves grow in pairs and have 5, but sometimes 3, rounded lobes. A little later, small erect clusters of yellow-green flowers arrive. These flowers can be male or female, and both sexes are found on the same plant.

Come June, the pairs of seeds begin to form. They are bright green and stained crimson. By October they are ripe. The bark is light grey-brown and smooth with irregular orange fissures when young. These become cracked squares when older. The cut wood is white, hard and strong.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 25m
tree width: 10m
lifespan: 50-100 years
flowers: 4-6cm across
seeds: 1cm x 3cm, including wing
leaf: 5-12cm long

USES
Eating Boil, roast and grind the inner bark and use as flour
Coppicing
Burning
Charcoal
Turnery (making stuff on a lathe) and craft work, e.g. musical instruments
Sugar production Cut a 'V' shape in the bark and catch the sap in a hanging pot. The best time to do this is early spring, on a warm day following a frost.
Medicinal The slightly astringent bark can be made into a decoction to bathe sore eyes
Crop storage Wrap leaves around apples and root vegetables

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Hawthorn

(Crataegus monogyna - Rosaceae family)

This is an excellent (and quite common) hedgerow plant that supports loads of wildlife (around 150 associated insect species). Apparently it's unlucky to cut down or prune a hawthorn other than when it's flowering. Hawthorn is also called 'Whitethorn', 'Ladies' Meat' and 'Bread and Cheese'. If left to grow, hawthorns will reach medium tree size. But because of their robustness and thorny branches, they are often pruned and used to demarcate boundaries.

IDENTIFICATION
Hawthorn flowers
Hawthorn berriesI'd say the easiest year-round identifying feature of hawthorns is the flimsy, deeply lobed leaves. The rather stinky clusters of flowers (around 5-10 flowers per cluster) produced in June are also quite noticeable. Each flower has five white or pinky-white petals, a single central style and loads of stamens. The fishy smell is to attract the right kind of insects for pollination. The hard, almost spherical, red berries (haws) ripen in Autumn and each one contains five seeds.

DIMENSIONS
max lifespan: 400 years
width: 6m
height: 2-10m
thorn length: 1-3cm
leaf width: c. 3cm
leaf length: 2-5cm
flower width: 2cm
berry diameter: 1cm

USES
Eating The young leaves can be eaten raw and taste quite nutty. You can also dry out the leaves and make tea. Collect the berries in autumn and make jam. You can also dry out the berries, grind them up and use them as flour (mixed with a regular flour). Roasted seeds can be used as a coffee substitute. The flowers can be eaten raw, cooked or dried.
Medicinal The berries help with angina, hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure and other heart conditions because they increase the blood flow. They encourage vasodilation - blood vessels get wider and blood pressure is reduced. This can have a calming or sedative effect. So old people with dodgy tickers would find it helpful! You can also use blossom tea for this. Hawthorn berries also contains flavonoids, which are antioxidant. If you combine hawthorn with Ginkgo biloba it could help with a poor memory by encouraging blood flow in the brain. Put boiling water on two teaspoons of dried berries and leave for 20 minutes. A tea made from dried berries infused in boiling water (30g in 1 litre of water) will help with diarrhoea. The bark is astringent and can help with malaria and other fevers.
Carpentry It's difficult to work but is good for handles and small boxes.
Burning Burns well to give an excellent heat.

Hornbeam

(Carpinus betulus - Betulaceae family)

Until now, I've never been able to spot Hornbeams. I think I've been mixing them up with Beech trees - probably not helped by the fact that they often grow near beech trees. They have very shallow roots, grow at a medium speed and can produce a very dense shade. They only have 28 associated insect species.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and seeds
hornbeam leaves and seeds
In doing the research for this tree I've come across contradictory information to do with the timing of the flowers and leaves (which comes first?), the height of the tree and whether the leaves look like beech leaves or birch leaves. Some pictures show triangular-shaped trees with multiple branches pointing neatly upwards; others show more sprawling specimens - but this is largely due to where they are growing.

However, I believe the main features that will help you identify Hornbeams are the leaves and seeds. At a glance, the leaves look like beech leaves. A closer look reveals they are much more corrugated and have pointier tips. Also, they are serrated, whereas the edges of beech leaves are smooth. In addition, Hornbeam leaves are much more flimsy, ripping without much effort.

The seeds and their involucre (seed cases) are pretty distinctive, but trees only start producing them when they are 10-20 years old. Three long, dangling, rounded and brown wings protect each tiny nut. Several seeds are linked together, hanging down in a chain.

The bark is smooth and greeny-grey, sometimes looking like bundles of muscle.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 30m
tree width: 20m
lifespan: 150 years
catkins: 5cm
leaf buds: 1cm
leaf: 4-9cm long
involucre: 3-4cm
nut: 7-8mm

USES
Coppicing. You can pollard instead, to protect shoots from grazing animals.
Burning Older wood makes a hot, slow burning fire.
Charcoal
Carpentry Rowan is an extremely close-grained, hard wood which is good for things like cog wheels, chopping blocks and mallets.
Dye Yellow dye from the bark
Medicinal Use the leaves in an external compress to stop bleeding and heal wounds.

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Juniper

(Juniperus communis - Cupressaceae family)

This slow-growing, prickly evergreen is usually more of a shrub than a tree and it's more common in colder locations. There are around 19 invertebrates which live exclusively on juniper.

IDENTIFICATION
Juniper
They can grow as gnarled shrubs or beautifully symmetrical trees. The needles are pretty distinctive because they grow in groups of three around the branches and twigs.

You may be familiar with the spherical near-black berries as a cooking ingredient, but they actually start out a pale green colour. Amazingly, it takes up to three years for the green flowers to ripen and become dark berries. That means there's a good chance of finding berries on a (female) plant at any time of year - and even a mixture of ripe and unripe ones. Each berry contains 3 or 6 seeds. If you look carefully you'll see how each seed is made up of 3 scales that have fused together. The berries are sometimes referred to as "cones", I guess because juniper is a conifer. The cones from male plants are smaller and yellow in colour. They drop off after they've shed their pollen in the spring. The simplest way to pick juniper berries is to put a sheet under the plant and shake or hit the tree.

DIMENSIONS
max lifespan: 200 years
max height: 10m, but usually much shorter
berry diameter: 4-12mm
male cone length: 2-3mm
needle length: 1-2cm

USES
Eating Eat the berries in Autumn, raw or cooked. Dry them for later use, as a tea, or more usually as flavouring. Roast the seeds to make a coffee substitute. Don't eat too many berries otherwise they'll do in your kidneys and pregnant women should avoid them (as they can cause an abortion). You can also make a tea from the boiled leaves and stems.
They are the traditional flavouring for gin - about 1kg of berries for 400 litres of gin.
Medicinal A few berries can help with cystitis (by encouraging urination still further), digestive problems, chronic arthritis, gout and rheumatic problems. Make an infusion of 15 berries in 250ml of boiling water to help with diarrhoea and flatulence.
You can make juniper oil by drying the berries very slowly and crushing out the oil - store well to prevent evaporation. The oil can be applied externally, on open wounds, to deter flies. Juniper oil also helps eliminate toxins from under the skin because it makes you sweat more. The oil causes vasodilation, so it will seem to warm you.
Shampoo Because it's pretty antiseptic, a juniper branch decoction makes a good anti-dandruff shampoo.
Insect repellent Use fresh or dried branches.
Burning Good for tinder.

Oak (Pedunculate, Common or English)

(Quercus robur - Fagaceae family)

This is probably the most common type of oak in the UK. It's s a climax species, i.e. woodlands tend to evolve towards being dominated by them. The common oak is associated with 65 species of bryophytes (mosses and ferns), 300 types of lichen, 30 birds, 8 species of acarina (mites and ticks), 222 species of insect and 38 parasites. This is because it's been around for about 300,000 years. And something else: "Druid" means "oak man". So there you go.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and seeds

Easily confused with the Sessile or Durmast Oak, Pedunculate or Common Oak leaves do not have a stalk and but their acorns do. The Sessile Oak is the other way around. One way to remember the difference is to understand that a "peduncle" is another name for "stem", and the acorns are on a stem. I'm not sure how helpful that is!

The leaves come around March, and the flowers, May. The leaves have three to seven round lobes on each side. Because so many species can eat oak trees, they sometimes produce a second flush of leaves around July. Male and female flowers can both appear on the same plant. Male flowers are long tasselled catkins. The tiny female flowers appear on little spikes protruding where the leaf joins the twig. If fertilised, they grow into the distinctive acorns in autumn. About one third of the seed sits in the rugged acorn cup and one to four acorns grow on each peduncle. When ripe, the seed pulls easily out of the cup. Oak trees only start producing good crops of acorns when they're about 40 years old.

Spotting an oak tree is easy because some of the leaves and acorn cups are always left beneath the tree, or even on the branches in winter.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 40m
max tree width: 30m
lifespan: 1,000 years, but normally 500
flowers: male 4cm long
seeds: 4cm long with 3-7cm stem
leaf: 12cm long, 8cm wide

USES are on a separate page.

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Oak (Sessile or Durmast)

(Quercus petraea - Fagaceae family)

This is a climax species: the appearance of mature oaks means a very mature woodland. Time-wise, these trees are in a different league. The seedlings grow really slowly, but then speed up slightly for then next couple of hundred years(!). Many insect species have evolved to have a relationship with oaks (284 associated species). If you look at the leaf mould below a tree, the bark, leaves and branches you'll quickly see what I mean. Try comparing this with the relatively sterility of a pine or beech forest.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and seeds

Easily confused with the Pedunculate or Common Oak, Sessile Oak leaves have a stalk and whilst their acorns are stalk less. The Common Oak is the other way around. One way to remember the difference is to understand that "sessile" means "unable to move about" - as is the case with the acorns. Having said that, the species do tend to interbreed, so we have our work cut out!

Oak trees come into leaf around March and the flowers appear around May. Because so many insects feed on oak trees, they sometimes have a second flush of leaves around July. Male and female flowers can both appear on the same plant. Male flowers are long tasselled catkins. The tiny female flowers grow where the leaf joins the twig. If fertilised, they change into the distinctive acorns in autumn.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 40m
max tree width: 30m
lifespan: 1,000 years
flowers: male 4cm long
seeds: 3cm long
max leaf length: 12cm with 2cm stem

USES are on a separate page.

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Poplar (Black)

(Populus nigra agg.- Salicaceae family)

A little like aspen (and of the same genus) these have a really deep root system and should not be planted within 12m of buildings or drains. They grow quickly, reaching maturity after about 100 years.

Native poplars are quite rare in the UK because they like growing in pretty wet conditions and most potential habitats are well drained. In addition, both male and female trees are required, the soil must be damp (for about three months) for the fertilised seeds to be able to germinate and the young seeds must grow unchallenged by other seedlings. Furthermore, poplar hybrids are often planted instead of the native black poplar. There are very few young poplars, and the established ones are mostly found in the South East. Fortunately, there are loads of projects to try and increase their distribution.

IDENTIFICATION
Black Poplar leaves and fruitsMature trees have a distinctive shape because the lower branches curve downwards before sweeping upwards at the tip. The dark grey/brown trunk has loads of lumps on it and deep fissures. The cut wood looks white and is quite fire resistant.

Separate male and female trees each have their own catkins. The male flowers have red anthers and the female ones have green stigmas. Next come the leaf buds, which have a strong smell, like balsam. The leaves are diamond or triangular in shape and are dark green on both sides. They have tiny rounded serrations. The seeds look like a fluff.

The main differences between black poplar and aspen are: aspen stalks are very long (longer than the leaf length) whereas poplar leaf stalks are just quite long; aspen leaves (from the branches) are more rounded; and black poplar has no suckers.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 30-40m
max trunk width: 2m
lifespan: 250 years
catkin length: 3-5cm
leaf length: 5-11cm

USES
Eating You can eat the inner bark like flour once it's been dried and ground.
Medicinal The sticky buds (used fresh or dried) are credited with helping with many ailments: chesty coughs; stomach disorders; kidney disorders; and fevers. For coughs, add the buds to hot water and inhale. For other problems, they need to be eaten, but they taste bitter. The buds are antiseptic, soothing, healing, to increase sweating and to increase urination. They are also rich in vitamin C. Applied externally a bud poultice helps with colds, sinusitis, arthritis, rheumatism, muscular pain and dry skin.
The bark (taken from minor branches and dried) also contains painkilling substances and is anti-inflammatory and diuretic. Internally it helps with arthritis, rheumatism, muscular pain, gout, urinary disorders, digestive and liver disorders. A bark poultice helps with chilblains, haemorrhoids, infected cuts and sprains.
Coppicing Only coppice young trees.
Pollarding Use the pollarded trunks for light building.
Soft wood Used in plywood and pallets. Not strong but easy to work.
Cork Poplar bark is used as a substitute.
Paper Because it's soft, it's suitable for pulping.
Rooting hormone Soak the chopped up shoots in cold water for a day to make a rooting hormone.
Wind barrier Because it's fast growing, poplar is a popular choice.

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Rowan or Mountain Ash

(Sorbus aucuparia - Rosaceae family)
This pioneer species is a good one for insects (28 associated species) and the bright clusters of berries are extremely popular with the birds. They're kind of spindly, small trees.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and seeds

The leaves arrive around April and are a bit like Ash leaves (hence the confusing alternative name, 'Mountain Ash') but Rowan leaves are smaller and much more serrated. There are 11-15 leaflets growing in pairs, with a single one growing at the leaf tip.

White flowers with five petals come after the leaves, around May. Each flower has male and female parts. A tree in bloom is easy to spot because the flowers come in disc-shaped, dense clusters, some as big as pie dishes. They remind me of the flowers on elder bushes, but without the stink. The flowers become the distinctive red or orange berries in August which can stay on the tree for months.

Trees have to be about 15 years old before they start fruiting, but then they fruit every year.

DIMENSIONS
max tree height: 15m
max tree width: 8m
lifespan: 100 years
flowers: 5-10mm across
berries: 10mm across
leaf: 20cm
leaflet: 7cm

USES
Eating Cook the red or orange berries and make jelly with them. Make fake coffee from the roasted berries. Might be good to avoid eating the raw fruit as the seeds could contain hydrogen cyanide - very poisonous in large quantities.
Coppicing
Burning
Carpentry The dense, pale brown wood is good for turnery and carving. Useful for bows, tool handles, mallet heads, druid staffs(!) bowls, plates, hoops for barrels, cogs and furniture.
Dye Get a black dye from young branches. It is full of tannin.
Medicinal The fresh berry juice (which is full of vitamins A and C) is a laxative and will relieve sore throats and inflamed tonsils. Infusions made from the berries aid haemorrhoids and frequent urination. The jelly helps diarrhoea. The bark is astringent and helps with loose bowels and vaginal irritations.

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Scots Pine

(Pinus sylvestris - Pinaceae family)

There are loads of different types of pine tree, but this is the most common in the Northern UK and our only true native cone-bearing tree. It's fast growing, evergreen, and as an established native it is associated with 50 insect and 200 symbiotic fungi species.

IDENTIFICATION
Scots Pine cones and female flowerScots Pine male flowerScots pine can have straight, almost bare trunks or be broad with many main branches. Young trees tend to have a conical shape whereas mature ones are more flat-topped. They have reddish-brown, flaky bark (more noticeable at the top of the tree) and waxy, green needles as leaves. Pairs of needles, joined at the base, grow densely around the branches, giving a bottlebrush effect. Needles stay on the tree for two or three years.

Around May, both male and female flowers appear on the same trees: the pollen-producing males (bright yellow, conical) at the base of new shoots; the tiny pink females at the tips of exposed branches. After pollination, the female flowers turn downwards. They are green and resinous in the first year becoming brown and dry in the second. Tiny seeds are released when the cones open around April. Trees don't produce cones every year.

DIMENSIONS
lifespan: 250-300 yrs
max height: 40m
width: c. 10m
leaf/needle length: 4-7cm
male flower length: c.7 cm
female flower length: c.1 cm
cone length: 3-7cm

USES
Eating The inner bark can be dried and ground up and used as flour. You can also eat the young shoots raw or cooked.
Medicinal Turpentine from the pine resin and pine needles will help with chesty coughs, gut parasites, rheumatism and problems with the kidney and bladder. You can dry spring needles and use them later. Needles added to bath water will help with fatigue, sleeplessness, chest complaints and some skin irritations. For respiratory problems, you can also inhale the essential oil obtained from the needles. Some people are very sensitive to the oil though, so take care.
Timber It's easy to work and great for building large structures and furniture.
Fuel The roots are resinous and burn well. Wood from the branches also good, but is a little smoky.
Rope Use the fibre from the inner bark.
Paper Use the fibre from the wood.
Wind barrier Because it grows quite fast (about 1m a year for young trees) and isn't too fussy, a row or cluster of pines provides some protection against wind.
Germination suppressor Wet pine needles contain terpene which will stop some plants, such as wheat, germinating. (That's why there's so few other trees below pine trees.)
Oil Make essential oil from the needles, but only use externally as a medicine or perfume.
Resin Trees that grow in warmer situations can be tapped for resin.
Turpentine Distil this volatile solvent from the resin.
Rosin The residue from removing turpentine from resin. Useful for making wax and varnish.
Pitch Dry distil the wood to obtain pitch which is useful for waterproofing and preserving wood. I have heard of this being done naturally to pine trees intended for use as timber. A few years before they're needed, de-cap the trees. Their natural defence against rot will be to soak themselves with pitch. However, this process makes the wood very messy to work with.
Dye Make a green or brown dye from the needles and a red-yellow dye from the cones.

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Sweet Chestnut

(Castanea sativa - Fagaceae family)

The Romans introduced sweet chestnuts and I think they are vastly under-planted. Mature samples can be found growing along paths or roads or randomly, in the middle of woods. They are more common in the Southern UK, but could benefit from a drier, hotter climate. If you can get past the prickles, the seeds are absolutely delicious. It amazes me how many are wasted each autumn, perhaps because people simply don't know they're edible.

IDENTIFICATION
leaves, seed husks and old flowerSweet Chestnut nutsThe leaves and prickly seed husks are the most distinctive features of sweet chestnut and you can find them below the trees pretty much all year round. The big leaves are elongated and oval with large serrations. The green-yellow seed husks can be distinguished from horse chestnut (conker) husks by their thinner, more numerous and more flexible prickles. The seeds also look different: conkers are more spherical whereas sweet chestnuts are smaller, and taper to a hairy point. There are one to five glossy, brown seeds in each husk.

When the trees flower in the summer, you can see many long yellow-white catkins pointing upwards and outwards from newly grown twigs. Male and female flowers appear on the same upright catkins - the males at the tips, females at the bases. The stem-less flowers grow quite sparsely, straight from the stalk of the catkin. The fertilised female flowers swell into the prickly fruits that open when they are ripe.

The bark is quite deeply fissured and tends to spiral around the trunk.

DIMENSIONS
height: 20-35m
max trunk width: 2m
leaf length: 16-28cm
leaf width: 5-9cm
flower stalk length: 10-20cm
seed husk diameter: 3-7cm
seed length: 2-6cm

USES
Eating Eat the seeds raw or preferably cooked - they taste a little like sweet potato. Slit them before roasting or boiling. You can dry the seed and use as flour. Roast the seeds to make a coffee substitute. Apparently you can extract the sugar, but I haven't yet found how. I'm guessing you use the fact that sugar's water soluble as a starting point.
Medicinal Leaves and bark are high in tannin. Harvest them in summer and use fresh or dried. A leaf or bark infusion will help with things like whooping cough and sore throats. A leaf poultice helps with rheumatism and stiff joints.
Starch Use the seed flour to whiten and stiffen linen.
Wood The growing wood is good for carpentry, handles and posts. It is hard, strong, light and resists rot. Older wood cracks more easily and can be brittle.
Coppicing Ideal tree spacing is 3.5m - around 356 per acre. Coppice every 15-20 years.Good for fencing.
Fuel Burns well.
Baskets Use the growing stems.
Starch Use the seed flour to whiten and stiffen linen.
Tannin Use the bark, wood and husks.
Shampoo Use the leaves and seed skins to make a hairwash.

Walnut

(Juglans regia - Juglandaceae family)

One upshot of global warming could be that we'd get more of these fantastic trees growing in the UK. At the moment they grow well in places like Italy and Bosnia and apparently you can get them in Cornwall. The amount of nuts they produce depends on how well-watered and well-sunned they are.

IDENTIFICATION
Walnut leaves and fruitWalnut: female flowerWalnut: male catkinWalnut trees have male and female flowers on the same tree and these come before the leaves. The male catkins grow singly on year old twigs and are green/yellow. They have short stalks. The female flowers appear on new growth. There are two to five flowers per cluster, each with fleshy red or white styles protruding.

Walnut trees only start producing fruit after 6-15 years. These have an outer husk, which pulls off easily to reveal the familiar shelled walnut. This outer husk is thick and green at first, turning thin and brown when ripe. The roughly spherical nut is obviously partitioned into two halves and the seed inside is likewise divided. They are extremely lumpy, like miniscule brains. The best way to collect the nuts is by hitting the branches with a long stick to stimulate new growth for the next year.

The leaves are a bit like ash leaves, because they're divided into five to nine leaflets. However, walnut tree leaves smell of shoe polish. The leaves are quite thick, matt and slightly serrated.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 20m
tree spread: 20m
max trunk width: 1.5m
lifespan: 200 yrs
male catkin length: 6-13cm
male catkin diameter: 2cm
fruit diameter: 4-5cm
leaf length: c.10cm
leaf cluster length: 30cm

USES

Eating Eat the raw or cooked seeds. They have a mild flavour, but the thin brown seed skin can be bitter. They have 650 calories per 100grams and contain fat, protein, phosphorus and vitamins B and D. Pickle the whole immature nut in vinegar or preserve the shelled nut in syrup. You can mash walnuts and use as a flavouring, or extract the tasty oil (but use it quickly as it tends to go off). About one seventh of the oil is omega 3. The soft green seed husk contains quite a lot of vitamin C. You can dry and store the husks for later.
Sugar Tap the spring sap to make sugar.
Tea Make tea from the leaves.
Poison The leaves and outer husks are poisonous to most fish and animals.
Medicinal The leaves clean the blood and help with constipation, coughs, asthma, diarrhoea, dyspepsia and skin complaints. The soft green seed husk is a painkiller and it helps with diarrhoea and anaemia. Expel parasitic worms by drinking an infusion made from the bark and root or from the seed husk.
As for the seeds themselves, they help prevent the formation of kidney and gallstones, or any other mineral lumps found in the body. They're associated with the treatment of cancer as well as helping with lower back pain, cystitis, coughs, asthma, constipation and anaemia. Furthermore, they're supposed to stop blood vessels becoming hard or inflamed and even to reduce the risk, and delay onset of, Alzheimer's disease.
Externally, a walnut paste will help with dry skin, eczema and other skin complaints.
Hard wood Used for furniture making because it looks beautiful and is hard and durable. The rounded growths from the side of trees, burls, can be used to make bowls or a valuable veneer.
Wood polish Rub walnuts onto the wood and wipe off with a clean cloth.
Dye Yellow dye from the seed husks and leaves - you can use this to stain wood. Obtain a brown dye from the fresh or dried leaves and mature husks. It doesn't need a mordant and turns black if you use an iron pot. It's also great for dying hair. You can get a golden dye from the catkins.
Tannin The soft green seed husk contains lots of tannin.
Soap You can make walnut soap and toothpaste.
Herbicide Juglone in the leaves and roots will inhibit the growth of other plants. Put leaves on the ground you wish to keep weed free and water the leaves.
Insect repellent Crush the leaves.

Willow (White)

(Salix alba - Salicaceae family)

White willow is associated with Downy Birch and Alder because it too likes moist, but not waterlogged, soil. It's fast growing and the roots can go quite deep - so avoid planting near drains and foundations. It has 200 associated insect species, which is brilliant.

IDENTIFICATION: leaves and stems

The fine white hairs on the leaf undersides make them look white, hence the name. They are long, thin and finely serrated and the long flexible stems are yellow.

Trees are either male or female. Flowers appear around April and are upright furry catkins. These develop into pods, which release fluffy seeds at the end of summer.

DIMENSIONS
tree height: 20-30m
tree width: 11m
lifespan: 70 years
catkins: 5cm long
seed capsules: 2.5-5cm
leaf: 5-10cm long, 1-1.5cm wide

USES
Eating Eat the inner bark raw or cooked. Grind it and use as flour. Leaves and young shoots can also be eaten raw or cooked but don't taste that great. They are rich in vitamin C. Animals love them.
Coppicing Shoots are good for basket weaving and older branches for poles. Ideal tree spacing is 2m - around 900 per acre. Coppice every 2-3 years. You can get as much as 8 tonnes of dry wood per acre each year.
Pollard instead of coppicing to protect the shoots from grazing animals.
Burning But it burns rapidly (like most fast-growing trees)
Charcoal
Carpentry Salix alba 'Caerulea', Cricket bat willow, is good for that purpose, because the wood is tough, light and slow to splinter. White willow is also good for poles, tools and handles.
String Make a rough string for tying up plants with the bark
Paper Cut stems in spring or summer. Remove the leaves and steam them until the fibres can be stripped. Cook them for 2 hours with lye and then wallop them with a mallet or blend. You end up with red-brown paper.
Medicinal You can get salicin from the bark, which breaks down to salicylic acid which works like aspirin. It's good for indigestion, rheumatism, arthritis, fever, neuralgia and headache. Because it works like a tonic, it aids recovery from illnesses like worms, dysentery and diarrhoea. You can harvest bark in spring or autumn and dry it for later use. Alternatively, ou can just chew freshly pulled off bark. Willow leaf tea, made from fresh or dried leaves, is calming and soporific (sleep inducing).

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