A holiday at Plas Farm makes for an ideal opportunity to get to know your trees in Wales. 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, 27 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. Black Poplar Populus nigra
6. Common Oak Quercus robur
7. Crab Apple Malus sylvestris
8. Crack Willow Salix fragilis
9. Elder Sambucus Nigra
10. Field Maple Acer campestre
11. Downy or White Birch Betula pubescens
12. Hawthorn Crataequs monogyna
13. Hazel Corylus avellana
14. Holly Ilex aquifolium
15. Hornbeam Carpinus betulus
16. Pussy or Goat Willow Salix caprea
17. Rowan (Mountain Ash) Sorbus aucuparia
18. Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris
19. Sessile Oak Quercus petraea
20. Silver Birch Betula pendula
21. Small Leaved Lime Tilia cordata
22. Whitebeam Sorbus aria
23. White Willow Salix alba
24. Wild or Gean Cherry Prunus avium
25. Wild Service Tree Sorbus torminalis
26. Wych Elm Ulmus glabra
27. Yew Pyrrhula pyrrhulaa
other native species not present at Plas Farm (yet!)….
28. Aspen Populus tremula
29. Bay Willow Salix Pentandra
30. Box Buxus sempervirens
31. Juniper Juniperus communis
32. Large Leaved Lime Tilia platyphyllos
33. Midland Hawthorn Crataegus leavigata
34. Strawberry Tree Arbutus unedo
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
<h2>Learn More About Trees in Wales</h2>
There are some great resources on the internet for tree enthusiasts including The Royal Forestry Society who have an A-Z of trees common to the United Kingdom and Wild About Britain, The-tree whose site includes information, stories and myths about trees, UK Safari and Wild About Britain both of whose sites are for anyone with an interest in the wildlife of Wales and Britain.
