Plants

Identification Alternating leaves, which are usually long and slender. Buds are often fuzzy. Catkins look like enlarged buds, standing upright, and away from the tree. Seeds are light and float like dandelion heads. Botany Enjoys wet soil and river banks. It is common for willow trees to hybridise, so identification

Identification A small tree with thorns, white flowers, and pink anthers. Annual fruit, haws, are red berries. Flowers share a smelly chemical, trimethylamine, with that of decaying flesh. Botany Hawthorns will grow hundreds of years but, seeds take two winters to germinate. Leaves are edible. Part of the plant to

Identification Large tree with distinctive lobed leaves. Also, commonly appears in hedgerows. Acorns caps may have long (Q. robur) or short stem (Q. petraea). Botany The fruit, acorns, appear in mast years, occurring every 3-10 years. Oaks will grow for more than a thousand years, and support hundreds of other

Identification Based entirely on appearance, stinging nettles should be part of the mint family. Square stem, leaves in opposite pairs, sometimes-purple tinged. If you look closely at stinging nettles, you’ll also see they look a bit hairy. These hairs are tiny hypodermic needles filled with histamine, and formic acid.

Caution: berries are toxic! Identification Short tree with waxy, irregularly shaped leaves. Leaves often have thorns. In winter, some trees have red or white berries. Garden cultivars may have yellow stripes on the leaves. Botany Spikes on the leaves are a response to predation. Leaves higher on the tree often

Identification Its smooth bark is grey-brown and its leaves are complex – or pinnate in scientific terms. The leaf itself comprises 11-19 toothed, oblong leaflets, paired but with a terminating leaflet. The leaflets have no stalk of their own. Rowan trees flower in May and have bright red berries come autumn.