Old World Relatives

A visit to England gave me an opportunity to see some of the relatives of our own Georgia native plants. For example, we have oaks in Georgia and they have oaks in England. Taxonomists confirm that the plants are related by assigning them all to the genus, Quercus. Millions of years ago, they shared an ancestor. This blog is about some of the woody relatives that I noticed as we vacationed in several areas.

The very first one that I noticed was the London planetree (Platanus ×hispanica), related to our sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). However, this relative is unlike the others that I’ll discuss as it is not a true 'relative.' It is actually considered to be a hybrid between the American one and the Asian one (occidentalis × orientalis). This tree was common in parks and on streets, sometimes reaching very large sizes, offering a great deal of shade on some of the very hot days that we were in London (into the 90’s).

London planetrees provide a lot of shade in parks

My favorite relative was the English oak (Quercus robur).  It is fittingly the national tree of England and I found it used in several ornamental flourishes on signs and buildings. It is a principal part of the National Trust’s logo. I looked for it wherever we went and found many beautiful English oak trees in the Cotswolds in particular (notice the acorn on the post and in the Cotswold way decal in the top photo).

Stately oak in a pasture

Oak flourish on building

Lime or Linden trees (Tilia cordata) are relatives of American basswood (Tilia americana) and are used much more in England as a landscape tree. They were in parks in London and near homes in the countryside.

Linden or Lime tree (Tilia cordata)

European beech (Fagus sylvatica)

It was easy to spot the relative to our American beech (Fagus grandifolia) as the European beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) were heavy with fruit almost everywhere we found it. I saw it first in Avebury where the large trees grew on a hill overlooking the ancient stone circle. It was in parks and in the woodlands that we passed through on the Cotswold Way walking path.

Another plant in fruit was the European elderberry (Sambucus nigra), close kin to our black elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis).  Laissez-faire attitudes towards landscaping allowed it to pop up in a variety of places and I was always happy to see the clusters of fruit as we walked to different places.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra)

Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior)

The ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) were heavy with seed during our visit. They are related to the green (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) and white ash (Fraxinus americana) trees found in Georgia. This apparently is a common tree in England and we did see it a lot.

Sorbus aucuparia near one of the Cotswolds crossings

Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) is a relative of mountain ash (Sorbus americana) and was readily recognized by its compound leaves and bright fruits. We saw it quite a bit in the Cotswolds and occasionally in other parts. It is not related to ash at all but the compound leaves resemble those of ash.

Maples (Acer) were also very common and, based on the seeds that were present, I’d say that I saw at least 3 different species. Field maple (Acer campestre) was certainly one of them and the others may not have been native.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is good for hedges

Hedges are used throughout England and two of the plants that I saw used a lot, especially in the countryside, have American relatives: hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna and Crataegus laevigata) and blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). Both plants were forming fruits during our visit. The hawthorn I recognized readily as it looks very similar to our parsley-leaved hawthorn (C. marshallii). The blackthorn puzzled me for a bit as the large blue fruits looked similar to a blueberry. After a bit of searching, I found the right identification as well as references to it being used in country hedges.

Other plants that I saw were shrubby dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) and European cranberry tree (Viburnum opulus), both forming fruit (fruit always makes a plant more noticeable). In York, I found hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) in a large garden; it is kin to our American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana); it was also in fruit and there was no mistaking it! I’m sure there are many, many others but these were some of the ones that I enjoyed recognizing as we dashed from place to place (and thanks to my husband for his patience while I took photos of some of them).

Viburnum opulus

Carpinus betulus

I also saw many Georgia natives in use, similar to when I took a trip to France in 2015. This time I posted what I found on my Instagram feed instead; I found enough to do at least a post per day during our two weeks there. If you are looking to learn more about British trees, The Woodland Trust is a great resource.