FEBRUARY NATURE NOTES

By Neil Pinder
There are around 30 native tree species in Rushcliffe and on farmland Ash and Oak predominate. These, along with Elms, were planted or grew up along the enclosure hedges that are now around 200 years old. Elms still exist in the hedgerows and grow into tall bushes before being stricken with Dutch Elm disease once more, only for suckering re-growth to return.
Hedgerow elms are mainly English Elm whilst Wych Elm is more a woodland species and is common in Old Wood at Bunny, the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s reserve on the A60, where mature Wild Cherries grow too. Hornbeam is not common but can be found along wooded margins near Gotham and Widmerpool for example, whilst mature specimens of Beech are a lovely feature on the Belvoir escarpment at Barkestone Wood (just across the county boundary). Willows and Sallows dominate in the wetter areas along with Alder and Aspen around Holme Pierrepont.
Native lime trees are not common and one must cross borough boundaries into Ashfield to find good numbers of mature Small and Large-leaved Lime. Scots Pine, though native to the UK has not grown naturally here since the establishment of warm conditions after the retreat of the last great ice advance.
The Yew is peculiar in being an evergreen that bears berries rather than cones. Ancient specimens exist in some churchyards. There are far better botanists than me out there and I for one would love to see our native trees mapped and recorded. Such a map would, I think show Wild Service Tree and Native Black Poplar to be the scarcest. Perhaps someone would take up the challenge.