A Windy Day

Radio 4 this morning spoke of 60 mile an hour gusts of wind, and urged Britain to beware falling tree branches.

But I can't clain that this was the reason for starting a blog on the subject of local trees - and stuff.

I am facinated by the richness and variety of Nunhead's trees. This is one way, I guess, of documenting that interest. Like many blogs, this begins as an experiment, but one that has been gestating, half-formed for a while.

Why start today? Well, if anything is going to be done, you have to start some time. So why not now. And at least its a Sunday, so I've got some time to fiddle.

Why this subject? Well, why not?

What I write should explain better than any further discussion why I want to write it.

The tree I begin with is a young Oak, growing in a rubbish bin.

That sounds a little basic, and the tree sounds unloved, so I ought to explain that it was planted there, and it has been happily (if slowly) growing there for several years.

And yet for all that I know a little of the history of this tree, another problem becomes immediately apparent. What form of Quercus is it?

I know pretty much nothing about trees. A quick search tells me there are lots of different types of oak (English oak, holm oak, etc). The Wikipedia article speaks of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus alone - and also says there are oaks that don't fall within Quercus.

So how would I know what a given tree in Nunhead is?

Well, I could always hope that Wiki entry is wrong, but I doubt it. Alternatively, I could delve deeply in to questions of taxonomy and classification. However, I suspect that is a little beyond me at present, although I hope this blog will help me to learn a lot more about trees.

So I'm going to refer pretty randomly to trees by their common name, sometimes chipping in with the Latin and sometimes not. And I'll get stuff wrong, I know. But someone once told me that is the point of a blog. It's in part an exercise in learning as you go along.

So anyway, welcome to The trees around Nunhead, for however long it lasts and whatever we discover.

It goes without saying that if you know anything more about my modest little beginner of an oak tree, then please comment or drop me a line.