Woods were once used as a crop and their products were used in day-to-day life. Look for multi-trunked trees that seem to grow from a thick and gnarly old base. These may well have been coppiced at some time. This is the process of harvesting the straight poles that sprout from a cut stump. Some of these would be used for building poles or for making hurdles or fences, while others would be burnt to produce charcoal for smithies and home fires. Today, coppicing still goes on in some woods.
Take it further
* Other clues to the age and use of a woodland or hedgerow can be found by looking for tell-tale traces of how man has managed them.
* Old woods tend to have uneven and curved boundaries while new ones are usually straighter.
* Plants are another great way to tell if a woodland is ancient. Look for:
Bluebell
Wood anemone
Pignut
Wild garlic
Wood sorrel
Dog’s mercury
Cow wheat
Primrose
Wild daffodil
Early dog violet
Starting to identify trees can be a little daunting. Some of them are easier to tell apart. For example, conifers have cones and needles and they keep their leaves all year round. Deciduous trees have big flat leaves that turn brown, yellow and red and fall off in the winter. But learning about trees in more depth can be difficult. To help, make your own tree log. This is an excellent way to collect as much information as possible about the trees in your area, and you can start at pretty much any time of the year.
The first characteristic to look for in your tree is the shape of the leaves. Each species has its own very distinctive leaf pattern. Most are instantly recognizable from this quality alone, although there are a few that you may find a little tricky, such as hornbeam and elm, and a few of the exotic species introduced from other countries, but you will soon get the hang of the main native species.
Start by collecting a selection of leaves, either from the ground or directly from the tree itself. Once you have these leaves back at home there are several ways you can incorporate them into your log – start with the ideas opposite and more are given on the following pages. You can then move onto exploring the bark (see pages 16–17), seeing how old it is (pages 18–19) and drawing its profile (pages 20–21).
To make your tree log, use a scrap book or collect some loose pages or some clear plastic pockets. You can keep adding to your file as you find more information and evidence.
YOU WILL NEED
> leaves
> sticky tape
> watercolour paint
> paintbrush
> paper
> shoe-cleaning brush
> shoe polish
> blotting paper
1 Use your leaf like a stencil. Place it on paper and fix the stem with sticky tape.
2 Carefully paint over the leaf, just going over its edges. Let it dry.
3 Slowly lift the leaf and, hey presto!, you are left with a perfect outline of your leaf.
4 You can also use a stiff brush to apply some dark shoe polish to one side of your leaf. Dead leaves that have fallen from a tree work best for this approach as they are stronger and more rigid.
5 When it is well covered, turn the leaf over and press it firmly onto a plain sheet of paper to leave an imprint. Press some blotting or kitchen paper over this to sop up any oily residues.
If you have been sifting around in the bottom of a pond or ditch, you may occasionally stumble across a stunningly beautiful phenomenon – that of a leaf that has had all the soft parts nibbled away to leave a net-like web of veins. These veins are all that is left of the leaf’s plumbing. The tubes and pipes are what the sap of the plant flows through, carrying essential chemicals around the plant’s body.
There is a rather simple and fun way of recreating this effect to order. Not only are they a beautiful thing to have in your tree log but they can also be mass produced, painted and used in many creative ways, such as on a collage picture and to decorate cards.
Nick’s trick
* Pressing leaves is the same as pressing flowers. You can either use a professional flower press – a stacked sandwich of alternating cardboard and blotting paper between two boards with bolts in each corner – or you can use a heavy book or two to weight down the layers.
* The most important thing is to place your leaf between some absorbent material like blotting paper or kitchen towel. Sheets of plastic will also stop any plant sap from oozing out and ruining your book cover or pages.
* Change the blotting paper every other day and after a week or so your leaves will be preserved. I like to store mine in individual plastic envelopes with a label on the outside of each one saying what it is and where the trees were growing.
YOU WILL NEED
> leaves
> washing soda
> a pan of water
> a soft paint brush
1 Fill your pan with water and add about 2 dessert spoons