You favourite tree

In light of tree-gate at Hadrians wall, what is your favourite tree type? Do you have a single favourite tree?

Me, I live a nice Scots Pine or Birch forest in the autumn.

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http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com/2012/07/book-review-caledonia-scotlands-heart.html

what is your favourite tree type?

All of them. I remember as a child just lying on the ground and looking up at the sky through the trees. I still love doing this today. I’ve even been known to hug the odd tree now and then, or, if other folks are around, just a thankful pat on their trunk.

This wonderful sprawling oak, tucked away in a corner of Wollaton Park, Nottingham

Got to be oak. We have quite a few old examples next to us, including a decent sized one in the hedge around our paddock. Old, gnarly, imposing, reassuring. An oak tree is home to 500 species apparently.

Pines don’t have the same effect on me* and pine forests seem a bit barren compared to broadleaf woodland.

*I still like them, it’s just they live in a different kind of landscape to the one that appeals most to me.

Yep , up the road from the Major Oak – close to 1000years old. It’s had several attempts at being burned down. No one will cut that massive trunk

It’s seen better days but it’s been part of my life since a kid.  And it’s world famous, there’s a reference to it in the Sequoia National park – California.(The general Sherman is impressive. As are the Redwoods too. Incredible.)

I love trees generally. They make the countryside.

I know Pines are not always looked at  favourably for all manner of reasons but they define adventure to me.

This wonderful sprawling oak

Now that is a tree :)

My favourite tree was on Mardon Down overlooking Mortenhampstead and Dartmoor. Blew over a couple of years back… Thankfully just nature taking it’s course not related to morons and chainsaws

Mine is definitely the sycamore that was in the garden of the farmhouse i grew up in. We had a tree swing over the stream and it looked beautiful in summer

Glad to say it’s still there

The Rowan

Our nextdoor neighbour. It’s much bigger and more imposing for real than it looks in the picture. Dozens more of similar size and age within a couple of 100m of the house too.

Yeah. Love Birch trees too. Cheers Matt, I’ll get that book.

Silver birch. I take photos of them and try to turn them into arty pics. Still not got one done I’m really happy with but they are just nice trees, everywhere, but nice all the same

I love the smell of the Silver Birch at a certain point in the spring.

Loads of them round a loch local to us which I ride past quite often.

Massive Oaks are my favourite though. The tales they could tell if they could talk.

I have one that my daughter (10yrs old at the time) grew from an orange pip in class.  Planted it in the garden and this orange tree grew to about 8ft tall over 7-8 years but didnt flower or anything.  Assumed it was too cold for oranges in Fife and i cut it down to ground level.  It coppiced and is again 7-8 feet tall and it actually blossomed this year.

Anyway, ate a pear from it last night!

Lots of great trees near me in Windsor great park, but love the tree on the green in Holyport. Such nice proportions.

All trees are special. However If I had to choose one, it would be an English oak.
I love a proper orchard and the smell of a pine tree.

My mum has just had a Scots pine tree removed from her front garden. It was 50 years old. I cried all the way home when she said it was going (the tree surgeon said it shouldn’t be in her garden but in a forest). It could have been capped and some lower branches safely removed. She’s not planning to replace the tree with anything, not even a tiny crab apple (my suggestion), Aaarrgghhh.

The Sycamore that stands on its own on the Moor Bottom Bridleway at the point where you chuck your bike over the fence and head down through the switchbacks in Reddisher woods to finish at the pub

Was just speaking to someone about this the other day.

Got to be Scots Pine for me.

This is a little Ash tree in a field near where I used to work. Must have passed it 1000s of times. I cycled past a couple of birthdays ago when I wasn’t enjoying life that much and went to meet it. It’s a lovely tree and it made me feel good.

I just love to be around trees full stop! It’s one of the main things I don’t like about living in a city even though there are quite a lot around near me in parks. Much prefer native trees to homogenous pine forests but just being out and about around trees is one of my Happy Places. When I was going through a very rough time a few years ago I went to CBT sessions at a local Manor House that was opened as a community hub and that had a few trees around it, just looking at them through the window was enough to calm me down, every session was followed by a gentle walk along them while I processed my thoughts.

Bloody love trees. That’s why I’m typing this now surrounded by them at Brechfa after a ride!

Oaks are gnarly :)

I like a beech or a really really really tall pine

favourite individual tree though is this badger. A sycamore in my garden must 200+ years old, gnarly as hell and I get to be it’s custodian for a bit. (Unless I wang it the wood burner! Joke!)

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Can we have a small group of trees? Used to look at this little blob of woodland perched on an ancient barrow from the window of my old house.

I like a Sorbus cashmiriana for the garden. I grew up near Birnam so the Birnam Oak is pretty special. Near where I live now there’s an avenue of redwoods that are pretty impressive.

This is currently my kind of tree, though i love oaks and various others, covered in mosses and shaped to sit on And why havent they picked it up with a helicopter and superglued it back in place yet? Its not like its the weekend yet

Loving these.

I need to go take a picture of a cool tree this weekend.

Perhaps I need to change the thread title – photos of trees.

This one at the top of Martinsell Hill in Wiltshire.

These ones along the B818 at Carron Valley:

A contorted Monterey Cypress in Birdham church yard.

Mine probably was the now felled sycamore. That section of the wall from Walltown quarry to Housteads is simply stunning and I’ve walked it several times. There was just something wonderful about it, ethereal in certain weather conditions. Woe is me

I also really like old yew trees. There’s a really nice one in Yorkshire Sculpture park with some musical steps under it. It’s great for kids (big and small)

This Beech at Dudmaston was my favourite, but it came down in a storm 2 years ago.

(my pic)

That then promoted this Beech on Clent to first spot (not my pix).

But then that came down in a storm earlier this year

I want a new favourite tree, but scared to find it!

I want a new favourite tree, but scared to find it!

Please stay away from some of the Granny Scots Pines of the Cairngorms and Black Woods of Rannoch, some of my favourite tree haunts… 😃

Tricky one. If you are going for the “impressive scale” aspect, I’d want to add blue atlas cedar to the big ones already picked out above. Fun climbing frame.

Overlooked and really nice mature trees just for their form I think are elm and hornbeam.

Wildcard for one I always love to see is spindle.

If the OP can pick “forest” as their favourite tree, I can have more than one species!! 😉

I’ve a lot of time for the douglas fir. You want a really big and impressive and reliable tree that’s both handsome but also practical? Dougie’s got you. But you want a completely nonconformist grew-this-shape-for-a-bet tree? Dougie can do that too. Go up 20 feet then go at right angles instead for no reason? Sure. Grow outwards instead of upward and be the girthiest tree in the forest? Why not. Grow up a bit, do a u-ey, grow back under the ground then grow up out of the ground again somewhere else like a snake? Oh you are a wag douglas fir.

Cedar of Lebanon is a great tree too. All cedars are really but those branch shapes are wonderful.

I just love trees in general, this one is mine, bought around thirty-odd years ago as a stick from a nursery in Newbury as a present for my mum, cost £19!

It’s an Acer Palmatum ‘Osakazuki’

This group of beech on the bank around Avebury Henge, their interlinking roots are just spectacular.

The 100+ rare Scottish apple varieties we have planted some of which will shortly be making their way to Craigievar castle.

I’m quite fond of these fellas atop Roundway Down/ Oliver’s Castle, Wilts.

This has obviously sparked a debate, which is good. It’s making us all appreciate them a bit more

Someone has just posted an absolutely belting photo of my favourite tree on the local Facebook group

An honourable mention to the legendary ‘Nearly There’ Trees when you’re on the big drive to Cornwall

Truly iconic

Nice trees. Are any protected by law, generally or specifically?