Salix - Willow

Latin plant name Salix Common plant name Willow Plant type Tree Size (meters) <5-15 m Distinguishing features Found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They came to Ireland right after the melting of the ice age thanks to their light seeds that can be blown by the wind, along with the grasses and the beerchs. Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft usually pliant tough wood, slender branches and large fibrous often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to life, and roots readily grow from aerial parts of the plant. The leaves are typically elongated, but may also be round to oval, frequently with a serrated margin. Most species are deciduous; semievergreen willows. Willows are dioecious, with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on different plants; the catkins are produced early in the spring, often before the leaves, or as the new leaves open. Basic crafts, such as baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub, house walls, were often woven from osiers. Willow wood is also used in the manufacture of boxes, brooms, cricket bats (grown from certain strains of white willow), cradle boards, chairs and other furniture, dolls, flutes, poles, sweat lodges, toys, turnery, tool handles, veneer, wands and whistles.

Ginkgo biloba

Latin plant name Ginkgo biloba Common plant name Ginkgo Plant type Tree Size (meters) <20- 30 m Distinguishing features The ginkgo is a living fossil, as a unique species recognisably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated and introduced early in human history, and has various uses as a food and in traditional medicine. The tree has an angular crown and long, somewhat erratic branches, and is usually deep rooted and resistant to wind and snow damage. During autumn, the leaves turn a bright yellow, then fall, sometimes within a short space of time (one to 15 days). A combination of resistance to disease, insect-resistant wood and the ability to form aerial roots and sprouts makes ginkgos long-lived, with some specimens claimed to be more than 2,500 years old. Ginkgo is a relatively shade-intolerant species that (at least in cultivation) grows best in environments that are well-watered and well-drained. The leaves are unique among seed plants, being fan-shaped with veins radiating out into the leaf blade. Ginkgos are dioecious, with separate sexes, some trees being female and others being male. Male plants produce small pollen cones with sporophylls, each bearing two microsporangia spirally arranged around a central axis. Female plants do not produce cones. Two ovules are formed at the end of a stalk, and after pollination, one or both develop into seeds.

Araucaria - Monkey puzzle

Latin plant name Araucaria Common plant name Monkey puzzle Plant type Conifer evergreen tree Size (meters) < 40 m Distinguishing features Because of the species' great age it is sometimes described as a living fossil. Araucaria araucana is the national tree of Chile. The leaves are thick, tough and scale-like, triangular, 3–4 cm long, 1–3 cm broad at the base, and with sharp edges and tip. They persist for 10–15 years or more, so cover most of the tree except for the older branches. It is usually dioecious, with the male and female cones on separate trees, though occasional individuals bear cones of both sexes. The male (pollen) cones are oblong and cucumber-shaped, 4 cm long at first, expanding to 8–12 cm long by 5–6 cm broad at pollen release. The tree is wind pollinated. The female (seed) cones, which mature in autumn about 18 months after pollination, are globose.

Aucuba japonica - Spotted laurel

Latin plant name Aucuba japonica Common plant name Spotted laurel Plant type Evergreen woody shrub Size (meters) < 1,5 m Distinguishing features The leaves are opposite, broad lanceolate. Aucuba japonica are dioecious, they have separate male and female plants. The flowers are small, 4-8 mm diameter, with four purplish-brown petals. The fruit is a red berry approximately 1 cm in diameter, which is avoided by birds.

Ilex aquifolium - Common holly

Latin plant name Ilex aquifolium Common plant name Common holly Plant type Woody evergreen shrub Size (meters) 1-10 m Distinguishing features Holly is dioecious, meaning that there are male plants and female plants.  In male specimens, the flowers are yellowish and appear in axillary groups. In the female, flowers are isolated or in groups of three and are small and white or slightly pink, and consist of four petals and four sepals partially fused at the base. has bright red berries. It is a slow growing shrub.

Pterophyta - Fern

Latin plant name Pterophyta Common plant name Fern Plant type Pterophyta Size (meters) < 2 m Distinguishing features Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem (making them vascular plants). They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants. Ferns reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. There are females and males ferns.

Popular - Cottonwood

Latin plant name Populus Common plant name Poplar or Cottonwood (chopo) Plant type Decidious tree Size (meters) < 15-50 m Distinguishing features The bark on young trees is smooth, white to greenish or dark grey, often with conspicuous lenticels; on old trees it remains smooth in some species, but becomes rough and deeply fissured in others. The flowers are mostly dioecious and appear in early spring before the leaves. They are borne in long, drooping, sessile or pedunculate catkins produced from buds formed in the axils of the leaves of the previous year. Cottonwood are ofter in wetlands. They have the advantage of growing very big, very fast. Almost all poplars take root readily from cuttings or where broken branches lie on the ground. Trees with fastigiate (erect, columnar) branching are particularly popular, and are widely grown across Europe and southwest Asia. However, like willows, poplars have very vigorous and invasive root systems stretching up to 40 m from the trees; planting close to houses or ceramic water pipes may result in damaged foundations and cracked walls and pipes due to their search for moisture.