Tree Spotting at Plas Farm
HOME OF SWANSEA VALLEY HOLIDAY COTTAGES

A holiday at Plas Farm makes for an ideal opportunity to get to know your trees. You can even try our Plas Farm Tree Challenge - try to spot all the trees on the list below during your holiday. So far, nobody has succeded! Since 2006, when we began recording, over 30 different species have been recorded at the farm and around the holiday cottages. Here is the latest list - please inform us if there is something to add - and remember to bring us a leaf as proof!

NATIVE BRITISH TREES AT PLAS FARM
Wales's native trees are the ones that had recolonised the country by the end of the last ice age, before Britain was cut off from the rest of Europe by the rising sea levels about 7,500 years ago. Of the British Isles's 34 native species, 23 are known to grow at Plas Farm:

1. Alder Alnus qlutinosa
2. Ash Fraxinus excelsior
3. Beech Faqus sylvatica
4. Bird Cherry Prunus padus
5. Common Oak Quercus robur
6. Crab Apple Malus sylvestris
7. Elder Sambucus Nigra
8. Field Maple Acer campestre
9. Downy or White Birch Betula pubescens
10. Hawthorn Crataequs monogyna
11. Hazel Corylus avellana
12. Holly Ilex aquifolium
13. Hornbeam Carpinus betulus
14. Pussy or Goat Willow Salix caprea
15. Rowan (Mountain Ash) Sorbus aucuparia
16. Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris
17. Sessile Oak Quercus petraea
18. Silver Birch Betula pendula
19. Small Leaved Lime Tilia cordata
20 . Wild or Gean Cherry Prunus avium
21. Wild Service Tree Sorbus torminalis
22. Wych Elm Ulmus glabra
23. Yew Pyrrhula pyrrhulaa

other native species not present at Plas Farm (yet!)....
24. Aspen Populus tremula
25. Bay Willow Salix Pentandra
26. Black Poplar Populus nigra
27. Box Buxus sempervirens
28. Crack Willow Salix fragilis
29. Juniper Juniperus communis
30. Large Leaved Lime Tilia platyphyllos
31. Midland Hawthorn Crataegus leavigata
32. Strawberry Tree Arbutus unedo
33. White Willow Salix alba
34. Whitebeam Sorbus aria

NON INDIGENOUS TREES AT PLAS FARM
Plas Farm is also home to a number of non-indigenous trees. Many of them were planted many years ago to beautify the grounds of the Plas Cilybebyll estate. You may find some of them in the parkland that surrounds the holiday cottages.

1. Common Lime Tilia x europaea
2. Copper Beech Fagus sylvatica 'Atropunicea'
3. European Larch Larix decidua
4. Evergreen or Holm Oak Quercus ilex
5. Grand or Giant Fir Abies grandis
6. Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum L.
7. Lombardy Poplar Populus nigra L. 'Italica'
8. London Plane Platanus x hispanica
9. Norway Spruce Picea abies (L.) Karst.
10. Rhododendron Rhododendron ponticum L.
11. Sweet Chestnut Castanea sativa Mill.
12. Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus L.
13. Weeping Ash Fraxinus excelsior L. 'Pendula'
14. Wild Damson Prunus domestica

NATIVE SHRUBS AT PLAS FARM
1. Blackthorn Prunus spinosa
2. Gorse Ulex europaeus
3. Wayfaring Tree Viburnam lantana