Ash - Fraxinus

Latin plant name Fraxinus Common plant name Ash (fresno) Plant type Tree Size (meters) <10-45 m Distinguishing features Both names, Latin and English, have the same meaning, spear. The leaves are opposite (rarely in whorls of three), and mostly pinnately compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys or helicopter seeds, are a type of fruit known as a samara. Ash is a hardwood. Extensively used for making bows, tool handles, baseball bats, hurleys and other uses demanding high strength and resilience. There is a severe pest attacking the ashes all over Europe. Chalara dieback of ash is a serious disease of ash trees caused by a fungus called Chalara fraxinea (C. fraxinea). The disease causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and usually leads to tree death.

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. In subsequent growth years, many new shoots will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. (The noun "coppice" means a growth of small trees or a forest coming from shoots or suckers.)

Typically a coppiced woodland is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put. Birch can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three- or four-year cycle, whereas oak can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.

We can coppice different types of trees:

• Oak (usually used for fences)
• Sweet chestnut (usually used for fences)
• Hazel (used for furniture)
• Ash
• Sycamore
• Willow (used for fuel and weaving)
• Lime (used for decoration)

Sometimes they do the coppicing taking part of the root, where the tree curves and gets into the groudn. There we can find the most flexible part of the tree, as it is where all the water is found.

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.

Alnus - Alder

Latin plant name Alnus Common plant name Alder (alisos) Plant type Tree Size (meters) <20-40 m Distinguishing features With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, These trees differ from the birches (Betula, the other genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones. Alder leaves and sometimes catkins are used as food by numerous butterflies and moths. Alder bark contains the anti-inflammatory salicin, which is metabolized into salicylic acid in the body. As a hardwood, alder is used in making furniture and cabinets and other woodworking products.

Acer - Maple

Latin plant name Acer Common plant name Maple Plant type Tree Size (meters) <10-45 m Distinguishing features The word Acer derives from a Latin word meaning "sharp" (compare "acerbic"), referring to the characteristic points on maple leaves. Most species are deciduous, but a few in southern Asia and the Mediterranean region are evergreen. Most are shade-tolerant Maples are distinguished by opposite leaf arrangement. The leaves in most species are palmate veined and lobed. A maple leaf is on the coat of arms of Canada, and is on the Canadian flag. The maple is a common symbol of strength and endurance and has been chosen as the national tree of many countries including Canada. Maples are planted as ornamental trees Some of the larger maple species have valuable timber. Maple is considered a tonewood, or a wood that carries sound waves well, and is used in numerous musical instruments

Tilia cordata - Lime tree

Latin plant name Tila cordata Common plant name Lime tree Plant type Tree Size (meters) 20- 38 m Distinguishing features It is a deciduous tree growing to 20-38 m tall, with a trunk up to 1-2 m diameter. The leaves are alternately arranged, rounded to triangular-ovate, 3-8 cm long and broad, mostly hairless. The small yellow-green hermaphrodite flowers are produced in clusters of five to eleven in early summer and have a rich, heavy scent; the trees are much visited by bees. The fruit is a dry nut-like drupe 6–7 mm long and 4 mm broad, downy at first becoming smooth at maturity. It has a single seed. Buds are alternating boxing globes. A valuable monofloral honey is produced by bees using the trees. The young leaves can be eaten as a salad vegetable. The white, finely-grained wood is a classic choice for refined woodcarvings. It is native to France. They can be shapped.

Buxus sempervirens - Boxwood

Latin plant name Buxus sempervirens Common plant name Boxwood Plant type Woody evergreen shrub Size (meters) < 35 m Distinguishing features Arranged in opposite pairs along the stems, the leaves are green to yellow-green. Slow growth of box renders the wood ("boxwood") very hard (possibly the hardest in Europe) and heavy, and free of grain produced by growth rings, making it ideal for cabinet-making, the crafting of clarinets, engraving, marquetry, woodturning, tool handles, mallet heads and as a substitute for ivory. It was used for the propellers in I World War. The biggest boxwood trees (35m) are found in Ireland because they were not cut down during the war.

Taxus baccata - Yew tree

Latin plant name Taxus baccata Common plant name Yew tree Plant type Conifer tree  Size (meters) 10 - 20 m Distinguishing features The trunk can be up to 2 metres (exceptionally 4 m) diameter. The bark is thin, scaly brown, coming off in small flakes aligned with the stem. The leaves are lanceolate, flat, dark green, 1–4 centimetres long and 2–3 millimetres broad, arranged spirally on the stem, but with the leaf bases twisted to align the leaves in two flat rows either side of the stem, It is relatively slow growing, and can be very long-lived, with the maximum recorded trunk diameter of 4 metres probably only being reached in about 2,000 years. It is considered by several authors that the oldest yew tree in Spain is located in Bermiego,Asturias. It is known as 'Teixu l'Iglesia' in the Asturian language. It is 15 metres tall with a trunk perimeter of 6 metres and a crown diameter of 10 metres. It was planted around 1160. It was declared Natural Monument on April 27, 1995 by the Asturian Government and is protected by the Plan of Natural Resources. Most parts of the tree are toxic, except the bright red aril surrounding the seed, enabling ingestion and dispersal by birds. The major toxin is the alkaloid taxane. The foliage remains toxic even when wilted or dried. Horses have the lowest tolerance, with a lethal dose of 200–400 mg/kg body weight, but cattle, pigs, and other livestock are only slightly less vulnerable. Symptoms include staggering gait, muscle tremors, convulsions, collapse, difficulty breathing, coldness and eventually heart failure. However, death occurs so rapidly that many times the symptoms are missed. Fatal poisoning in humans is very rare, only occurring after eating a lot of yew foliage. The lethal dose is reported to be between 50 and 100 grams.The wood is also poisonous. There aren't weeds beneath the yew trees because the roots are also poisonous. In the ancient Celtic world, the yew tree (*eburos) had extraordinary importance; a passage by Caesar narrates that Catuvolcus, chief of the Eburones poisoned himself with yew rather than submit to Rome (Gallic Wars 6: 31).  The yew is often found in churchyards in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France. In Ireland it is called the death tree. Yew is the wood of choice for longbow making; the bows are constructed so that the heartwood of yew is on the inside of the bow while the sapwood is on the outside. This takes advantage of the natural properties of yew wood since the heartwood resists compression while the sapwood resists stretching. In latin the termination 'xus' gives the indication of its use in medicine. Taxol is a medicine use to treat cancer and it is extracter from the yew tree.

Betula - Birch

Latin plant name Betula Common plant name Birch (abedul) Plant type Decidious tree Size (meters) <10m Distinguishing features They are typically rather short-lived pioneer species widespread in the Northern Hemisphere particularly in northern temperate and boreal climates. Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs, mostly of temperate climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets. The fruit is a small samara, although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from the alders in that the female catkins are not woody and disintegrate at maturity, falling apart to release the seeds, unlike the woody, cone-like female alder catkins. Birches often form even-aged stands on light, well-drained, particularly acidic soils. They are regarded as pioneer species, rapidly colonising open ground.