Maxwells Tree Guide

This section contains a potted guide to the trees in Battersea Park, by Committee member Tom Maxwell.
(images coming soon ...!)

14. Red Horse chestnut Aesculus carnea

The row of Red Horse Chestnuts along the riverside is one of the most familiar sites in the Park. They are to be removed in the restoration and this is probably no great loss. The tree itself is a hybrid of the familiar Common Horse chestnut and the American Red Buckeye. The former is the rootstock below the grafts. Where it first originated is not known but it first came onto the market in 1820.By and large it is a dull tree other than its flowers in the spring. It has little or no autumn colour, is short lived and prone to large, ugly cankerous growths. Curiously these are not caused by fungi but are just large abnormal growths. After a time they start to disintegrate and become powdery. The tree is well distributed in our Park and many others, but is generally regarded as a poor choice.

15. Chinese Privet Ligustrum lucidum

This tree is one of the best hardy evergreens. The photograph shows a particularly fine specimen by one of the entrances to the Wilderness reserve. It is known for its elegant shape and its attractive shiny leaf, which is curved, making it all the more attractive. It was introduced from China in 1794 by the British Ambassador’s assistant, although it is also found in Korea and Japan. The tree is not troubled by pests in this country and so always seems to have a vigorous healthy look. The oddest thing about it is the fact that wax insects used to be farmed on it and large quantities of wax taken off the leaves. This was then made into candles and also used to polish jade.

16. Common Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum

This elegant group of Horse Chestnuts are also by the entrance to the Wilderness Reserve. These are Conker trees and too familiar to dwell on. There are a great many in the park with particularly fine specimens in the sub-tropical garden and at the corner of Ladies Pond. Owls occasionally roost in the latter. Conker comes from “conqueror” and the game used to be played with hazelnuts and even snails. Chestnut comes from an old belief that they were given to horses in Turkey to cure bronchial complaints. The characteristic barley sugar twist can be seen on these specimens. The tree has an unusually small distribution in the wild, mainly Albania and northern Greece. Although planted everywhere you never see Horse Chestnut woods, probably because the wood has few uses.

17. False Acacia Robinia pseudoacacia

Also known as Black Locust, Locust tree and Acacia this tree has a confusing set of names. The leaves look like those of a true acacia hence that connection. The locust part comes from another confusion that the fruits were the “ locusts” eaten by St. John the Baptist in the desert. This is highly unlikely as the tree is native to the eastern states of North America and not found in the Middle East. The best stands are to be found in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. In Europe it only reaches forest status in the Balkans, Hungary and around the estuary of the Danube. John Tradescant the Younger, who lived locally in Lambeth, introduced it to Britain around 1600.In the past young Acacias were encouraged to produce one leader and then they were cut back each year to produce a mop-head. This could account for the look of our avenue. This was done because young and old branches break easily and larger old branches, often shed. Apart from these problems the tree is resistant to pollution and grows well in impoverished soil. This accounts for it being a common park tree. The winter silhouette shown here is typical of its fame for “fork lightning” branching. This reaches its peak in the “tortuosa” variety that looks the most frenetic of all trees. A marvellously “wired” specimen exists beside the largest cafe in Kew gardens.

18. Dawn Redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides
19. Swamp Cypress Taxodium distichumIn

The foreground of this picture near the grotto, are a group of Dawn Redwoods and in the background a group of their close relatives, the Swamp Cypresses. They can be told apart by their foliage. In the former the leaves and needles are opposite each other and in the latter they alternate. More bizarrely the Dawn Redwood, unlike virtually every other tree in existence, has its buds below the leaf and not between the leaf and the stem. This gives the stem a very odd look indeed. As if that were not enough the Swamp Cypress was introduced into Britain in 1640 and the Dawn Redwood amazingly was only discovered in 1941, and only named in 1948. Consequently we know our Swamp cypresses will eventually lose their neat conical shape and develop buttresses, but there is little idea what the Dawn Redwoods will do.The Swamp Cypresses grow out of water in swamps from Florida to Delaware and along the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. It is often seen in films covered in Spanish moss. In 1941 both the fossil and living Dawn Redwoods were found independently. A small group of trees was discovered half way up the River Yangtse in the Szechuan province of China. The foliage was being fed to cattle locally. The discovery caused a botanical sensation and due to the ease with which it can be reproduced by cutting, and the tree is now found everywhere. In the spring it is the first of the two to come into leaf and they both colour well in the autumn. The Swamp Cypress was named before other redwoods were even discovered and at the time incorrectly called a cypress. In actual fact they are both redwoods. More confusingly the timber is called cypress whereas the timber of real cypresses is called white cedar.It is all very odd. To complete this mix up the Swamp Cypress produces pneumatophores, or “knees”, rather like mangroves. These are a kind of aerial root that grow up out of the stagnant water where the tree usually lives and were believed to take in oxygen. It is now thought they do no such thing. Nobody seems to know what these structures, which look like ant hills, do. They can be seen in specimens in Bushy Park, growing up by the water’s edge in the Waterhouse Plantation. There are further examples of the Dawn Redwood and Swamp Cypress at the eastern corner of the Ladies Pond.

20. Sorbus “Joseph Rock”

The tree pictured right is quite close to the bandstand in the centre of the Park. The photograph was taken shortly after it was planted several years ago. It looks not unlike its close relation the Rowan or Mountain Ash, except for the fact the berries are yellow rather than the familiar scarlet. It has however a rather more interesting history than most trees. Its origin is uncertain.
We know that a Joseph Rock sent a batch of seeds from China to Edinburgh early in the 20th century and that it contained either a rogue seed, or that a chance hybrid occurred. The seedling with unknown parents then found its way to the RHS gardens at Wisley in Surrey, where it can still be seen on Battleston Hill. All specimens of this variety originate as grafts from the original.You could be forgiven for assuming that Mr. Rock was yet another Scottish seed adventurer. In fact he was a brilliant Viennese professor who spoke a bewildering list of languages, including Greek, Latin, Arabic, Tibetan and several Chinese dialects. He worked and died in Hawaii, having discovered one and a half thousand birds and five hundred rhododendrons. This beautiful tree is a suitable momento to him. Its leaves in the autumn go a kaleidoscope of colours before turning scarlet. The indian yellow berries seen in the photograph remain on the tree some time after the leaves fall, indicating they are particularly unpalatable to birds.

21. Weeping Elm Ulmus glabra var pendula

The tree shown here is beside the river near Chelsea Bridge gate. It is easily recognised by its weeping habit and bright green bunches of seeds in the early spring. Elms flower remarkably early and produce eye-catching clusters of lime green seeds which are often confused for leaves. The leaves come later. The tree has less contorted branched than its close relation the Camperdown weeping elm, and the leaves have a more herring bone arrangement. It was originally discovered in a nursery in Perth but is now common in parks and churchyards.
Its parent is the Scotch or Wych elm, a rather tough elm found further north than most. Elm wood is pliable and resistant to splitting. These characteristics
account for its traditional use in making coffins, wheelbarrows and riders’ switches. The later apparently gives good luck to the rider, but not the horse.

22. Monkey Puzzle Aracaria araucana

This tree is near the entrance to the Old English garden on North Carriage Drive. It is still a small young specimen but may live for a hundred years and possibly reach 100 fett high. In the wild it can double this and even have a trunk 5 feet in width. If it doea gain some height it is unlikely to keep its lower branches, which is typical of city planted trees.These Chilean pines, as they are also called, are very much Victorian ornamentals and hence most suitable for our Park. Although first introduced in 1795 they were only being commonly planted at the start of Queen Victoria’s reign. It seems inconceivable they were not grown in the Park although only living 100 years any originals would be long gone.Of their many peculiarities, such as cones the size of coconuts, a trunk like an elephants leg and branches over 50 years old, they also have edibles seeds. Chilean Indians made them into pastry and also a local firewater! The ships botanist on H.M.S. Discovery is said to have pocketed the ones he was served as a dessert and they ended up original introductions. Like so many other plants far away from home they are disease free but even so the timber is of little use, being far too knotty, although it is said to hold a nail well.

23 Red Oak Quercus rubra

This tree is found at the western end of Acacia Walk beside the hut as shown. It is a large tree with equally large leaves, which can be up to 8 inches long. Due to its size and excessively broad crown it is not found in gardens but is popular in parks because of its autumn colour. The leaves can be dull red or scarlet, then a little yellow and finishing a snuff brown. This is one of the tress which is part of the great “Fall” colour on the eastern seaboard of North America. There are 20 different Red Oaks and up to 50 hybrids. Younger trees are often redder and the tree has the peculiarity of changing colour on a single whole branch at a time early in the autumn.It is not a long lived tree. The oldest specimems at Kew and Westonbirt date from the mid nineteenth century. It first arrived in 1724 and is known to live 200 years so none of the early introductions are still with us. The wood is of little use, being too porous. In America some furniture is made but its main asset is that it burns well. Tall oaks such as this have always been accused of attracting lightning. The association of druids and English oaks is said to be linked to the same phenomenon; the lightning supposedly connecting the tre with a sky god. These trees can reach 150 feet, or even 200 feet near the Great lakes in North America. So, not one to stand below and hold your head up high in a storm!