Trees
Trees and shrubs — identification, uses, and where each one belongs.
Trees Cheatsheet
Quick reference for choosing, identifying, and using trees and shrubs.
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№ 001Acacia: The Thorn Trees That Hold the Drylands
Nitrogen-fixing dryland keystones, the ant partnerships and chemical defences, and the reverse-phenology tree that fertilises crops beneath it.
№ 007Apples and Pears: The Pome Fruits
Pollination groups, rootstock choice, disease-resistant varieties, and why the tree you buy is always a clone on borrowed roots.
№ 009Ash: The Tree We Are Losing
Light canopy, superb timber, and the fastest-moving tree disease in Europe — plus why the survivors matter more than anything else in the woodland.
№ 012Bamboo: The Grass That Builds Buildings
The fastest-growing plant on earth, the difference between running and clumping species, and why it flowers once a century and then dies.
№ 013Banana and Plantain: The Giant Herb That Feeds Millions
Not a tree, seedless, and propagated entirely by suckers — plus the monoculture disease problem that has now destroyed the crop twice.
№ 017Beech: The Tree That Casts the Deepest Shade
Dense canopy, shallow roots, and a bare forest floor — why beech dominates where it can and why it is the first to fail in drought.
№ 023Black Locust: Rot-Proof Timber, Nitrogen, and a Bad Reputation
A nitrogen-fixing tree with fence posts that outlast concrete — and one of the most aggressively invasive trees in Europe.
№ 024Blackthorn: Flowers Before Leaves, and a Thorn That Turns Septic
The hedge-layer's backbone — suckering, vicious, first to flower, and the source of sloes.
№ 028Cacao and Coffee: The Understorey Cash Crops
Two shade-adapted crops that built agroforestry economies — why sun-grown systems yield more and cost more, and what shade actually buys.
№ 033Cedars: The Real Ones, and Everything Else Called Cedar
Four true Cedrus species with level plated branches — plus the long list of unrelated trees that borrowed the name.
№ 038Citrus: Evergreen Fruit and a Very Small Family Tree
Almost every citrus derives from three wild ancestors — plus rootstock choice, greening disease, and growing them where winters bite.
№ 045Conifers: The Evergreen Backbone
The genera worth knowing, what conifer litter does to soil, and the difference between a conifer plantation and a conifer forest.
№ 049Crab Apple: The Pollinator Every Orchard Needs
A wild apple that flowers long and pollinates almost everything, plus the pectin that sets every other jelly.
№ 053Cypresses and Thujas: Scale Leaves, Rot-Proof Wood, and Leylandii
The scale-leaved conifers — western red cedar shingles, coastal shelter, and the fastest hedge in Britain and the disputes it causes.
№ 060Douglas Fir: Not a Fir, and the Best Softwood There Is
Three-pointed bracts on the cones, deep roots that resist windthrow, and the timber that built the Pacific Northwest.
№ 069Elm: The Ghost in the Hedgerow
A tree that lost its canopy to a beetle-borne fungus but never quite died — surviving suckers, resistant cultivars, and the butterfly that depends on it.
№ 094Hickory and Pecan: The Hardest Wood and the Best Nut
Carya — shock-resistant timber for axe handles, the smoke in barbecue, and a taproot that makes them almost untransplantable.
№ 096Holly: Prickles Only Where It Can Be Reached
An evergreen understorey tree that changes its own leaf shape in response to browsing, and feeds birds when nothing else is left.
№ 097Hornbeam: The Hardest Wood in the Wood
Beech's tougher understudy — tolerates wet clay, holds its winter leaves in a hedge, and wears out the tools that cut it.
№ 098Horse Chestnut: Conkers, Leaf Miner, and a Tree in Decline
Not a chestnut and not edible — a Balkan endangered species that became the standard European park tree, now hit by two diseases at once.
№ 107Juniper: Gin, Dryland Cover, and a Species in Trouble
The most widely distributed conifer on earth, the cone that everyone calls a berry, and why British juniper is failing to regenerate.
№ 111Larch: The Conifer That Drops Its Needles
A deciduous conifer with litter that improves soil rather than acidifying it, durable timber, and a Phytophthora epidemic behind it.
№ 116Lime and Linden: The Nectar Tree
Tilia — the most productive nectar tree in temperate forest, the coppice stool that outlives everything, and why the honey is worth planting for.
№ 118Magnolias: Flowers Older Than Bees
Beetle-pollinated flowers with tough tepals, evolved before bees existed — plus the fleshy roots that make them hard to move.
№ 120Maples: Sap, Shade, and Autumn Colour
The Acer genus from sugar maple to sycamore — tapping for syrup, why some are invasive elsewhere, and where each fits in a planting.
№ 127Monkey Puzzle: A Living Fossil With an Edible Crop
Araucaria — armoured leaves that outlasted the dinosaurs, a staple nut crop in Chile, and an endangered tree planted in suburban gardens.
№ 129Mulberry: Silk, Stained Pavements, and a Fruit You Cannot Buy
Black, white and red mulberries — the tree that carried the silk industry, and a fruit too fragile to ever reach a shop.
№ 147Olive: The Tree That Refuses to Die
Millennia-old trees, alternate bearing, and the bacterium killing ancient groves — plus why olives need processing before anyone can eat them.
№ 154Pawpaw and Persimmon: North America's Forgotten Fruit
A tropical-tasting custard fruit dispersed by extinct megafauna, and an astringent persimmon that only ripens after frost.
№ 163Plane Trees: Peeling Bark and the City Tree That Survived
London plane — a hybrid that shrugs off pollution by shedding its bark, plus the American sycamore and the anthracnose that follows it.
№ 167Poplar and Aspen: Fast, Clonal, and Underrated
The fastest temperate hardwoods — short-rotation biomass, phytoremediation, and the aspen clone that is one of the largest organisms on earth.
№ 173Quince and Medlar: Fruit That Must Be Cooked or Rotted
Two old orchard trees nobody plants any more — one perfumes a whole room, the other has to be bletted before you can eat it.
№ 179Redbud and Sassafras: Flowers on Bare Wood, Leaves in Three Shapes
A nitrogen-fixing legume that flowers straight out of its trunk, and an aromatic tree with three different leaf shapes on one branch.
№ 180Redwoods: The Tallest and the Largest
Coast redwood, giant sequoia, and dawn redwood — fog harvesting, fire-proof bark, and the conifer that resprouts.
№ 189Rowan and Whitebeam: Small Trees, Heavy Berries
Sorbus at altitude and on thin soil — feeding thrushes through autumn, and a genus quietly full of rare apomictic species.
№ 192Scots Pine: The Widest-Ranging Pine on Earth
Orange upper bark, paired needles, and a native pinewood reduced to fragments — plus why it regenerates on bare mineral soil and nowhere else.
№ 193Sea Buckthorn: Nitrogen, Salt, and Sand
A nitrogen-fixing pioneer that stabilises dunes, tolerates salt spray, and carries one of the highest vitamin C loads of any temperate fruit.
№ 199Serviceberry: Four Seasons and an Early Fruit
Amelanchier — the first blossom of the year, fruit before any other, and a small tree that does more than almost anything its size.
№ 203Silver Fir: Upright Cones and the Shade-Tolerant Conifer
True firs — cones that disintegrate on the tree, needles that leave a smooth scar, and the only major conifer that regenerates in deep shade.
№ 216Spindle and Dogwood: The Understorey Shrubs Nobody Names
Two hedgerow shrubs with spectacular autumn colour, winter stems worth cutting for, and a role in ancient woodland indication.
№ 217Spruces: The Plantation Tree Everyone Argues About
Norway and Sitka — fast, shallow-rooted, wind-thrown, and responsible for both the timber supply and the worst of plantation forestry's reputation.
№ 220Stone Fruit: Plums, Cherries, Peaches, Apricots
The Prunus crops — why they are pruned in summer only, how they fruit on young wood, and the frost timing that decides the crop.
№ 236Tree Diseases: The Pathogens Behind the Dieback
Fungi, bacteria, oomycetes and the named epidemics reshaping temperate forests, plus how to diagnose, contain, and design against them.
№ 238Tropical Fruit Trees: Mango, Avocado, Jackfruit, Papaya
The heavy hitters of tropical food forests — flowering triggers, the avocado's odd sex life, and why jackfruit may be the most underrated crop there is.
№ 239Tulip Tree: The Tallest Hardwood in the East
Liriodendron — a magnolia relative with square-cut leaves, orange-marked flowers, and the straightest timber in North America.
№ 254Wild Cherry: Timber, Blossom, and Suckers
Gean and bird cherry — high-value hardwood, a spectacular spring flowering, and a root system that colonises.
№ 260Yew: The Tree That Outlives the Churchyard
Thousands of years old, toxic in every part but the aril, and the only major conifer that resprouts from old wood.
№ 020Berry Bushes: Currants, Gooseberries, Honeyberry, Aronia
Cool-temperate workhorses for the cold corner where blueberries refuse. Currants, gooseberries, jostaberry, honeyberry, aronia. Pruning, yields, blister rust.
№ 025Blueberry and Acid Shrubs: Building a pH 4.5 Garden
Vaccinium and friends want soil most plants would die in. How to build that soil, choose the right cultivars, and keep a stand productive for thirty years.
№ 068Elderberry: The Hedge Shrub That Pays Rent
Sambucus nigra and S. canadensis. A keystone berry shrub for birds, cordial, and tincture. Roots from a winter stick. Just don't eat it raw.
№ 090Hawthorn: The Hedge that Outlives the Hedger
Crataegus monogyna and 280 cousins. The thorned backbone of the British mixed hedge, a 500-year tree, and a heart medicine in one shrub.
№ 091Hazel: The Coppice Workhorse
Corylus avellana. A nut tree that doubles as a stake factory. Cut it every seven years and it pays in poles, pollen, and filberts.
№ 123Mediterranean Shrubs: The Dry-Garden Backbone
Rosemary, lavender, sage, cistus, oleander. Aromatic woody plants built for sun, stone, and almost no water once they take.
№ 140Nitrogen-Fixing Shrubs: The Frankia Partnership
Sea buckthorn, goumi, Siberian pea, and their kin. Shrubs that host Frankia bacteria and pull 70 to 180 kg of nitrogen per hectare out of thin air.
№ 178Raspberry and Bramble: The Rubus Genus at Work
Raspberries, blackberries, and their wild cousins. Cane biology, pruning by type, and bramble as a restoration species for raw ground.
№ 201Shrubs and Bushes: The Forgotten Middle Layer
Multi-stemmed, waist-to-chest-high, and chronically under-planted. Shrubs do the work trees and herbs cannot, and most growers skip them entirely.
№ 256Wildlife Shrubs: Feeding the Hedge Through Winter
Guelder rose, dogwood, holly, blackthorn, wayfaring tree. The five shrubs that turn a fence line into a working hedgerow for birds, bees, and nesting cover.
№ 139Nitrogen-Fixing Food Trees: Carob, Honey Locust, Mesquite
Trees that feed the soil and feed you. Carob, honey locust, mesquite, and a handful of others deliver food, fodder, and free nitrogen.
№ 144Nut Pines: Stone Pine, Korean Pine, Pinyon
Long-lived cold-hardy pines that drop high-calorie nuts, build soil, and produce excellent timber. Plant for your grandchildren and feed yourself in the meantime.
№ 003Alder: The Nitrogen-Fixing Wet-Site Pioneer
How alder partners with Frankia bacteria to fix nitrogen, hold stream banks, and turn waterlogged ground into fertile soil for the trees that come next.
№ 036Chestnut: The Tree That Fed Civilisations
How chestnuts fed mountain Europe for millennia, why the American chestnut nearly vanished, and how to fit chestnuts into a working food forest.
№ 072Eucalyptus: Controversial Giant, Essential Keystone
Why eucalyptus is not one tree but over 700 species, irreplaceable in Australia and disruptive when planted as monocultures elsewhere.
№ 073Fig Species: Tropical Keystones That Feed Everything
Why 750-plus species of Ficus are the most important tree genus in the tropics, fruiting year-round and feeding more wildlife than almost any other plant.
№ 153Paulownia: The Fastest Growing Hardwood on Earth
Paulownia grows faster than any hardwood on earth. That power makes it valuable on degraded land and dangerous in the wrong place.
№ 202Silver Birch: Light Canopy, Deep Roots
How silver birch colonises bare ground, connects with over a hundred fungal species, and nurses slower trees toward maturity.
№ 245Walnut: High-Value Timber and Food
Walnut pairs premium timber with calorie-dense nuts. Design around juglone allelopathy and you get one of the most profitable trees in temperate agroforestry.
№ 257Willow: The Pioneer That Grows from a Stick
Willows root from bare cuttings, stabilise riverbanks, coppice endlessly, and serve as living infrastructure across temperate landscapes.
№ 014Baobab: The Tree of Life
The ancient baobab stores thousands of litres of water, feeds people and pollinators, and anchors African savannas for two thousand years.
№ 119Mangroves: Coastal Guardians
Salt-tolerant trees that build coastline, store carbon at five times the rate of upland forest, and feed three quarters of tropical fisheries.
№ 134Native Oaks: Backbone of Temperate Forests
Why native oaks support more biodiversity than almost any other tree genus, and how to grow them for restoration and food production.
№ 128Moringa Oleifera: The Miracle Tree
Everything you need to know about growing and using Moringa oleifera, the fast tropical tree with edible leaves and seed-based water purification.