(Trees) (Broadleaved and Coniferous Trees)

Further Information

Uses

Trees have been used throughout history and throughout the world for foodstuffs (fruit and nuts), animal feed (nuts and foliage), timber, firewood, shelter, ornament and medicine.

The following traditional poem describes the characteristics of each species when burnt as firewood:

Beech-wood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year;
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new-cut holly laid beside;
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years 'tis stored away;
Birch and fir-wood burn too fast
Blaze too bright and do not last;
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly;
But ash-wood green and ash-wood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.

Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold;
It is by the Irish said;
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread,
Apple-wood will scent the room,
Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;
But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry
A King may warm his slippers by.

Anon.

Subtaxa

Rank	Taxon

Informal	(Broadleaved trees) (Broadleaved, Frondose or Deciduous Trees)	70	768	491	63	83
Class	PINOPSIDA (conifers)	23	148	109	11	15
Informal	(Trees with bark of high pH) (Basic Barked Trees)	5	53	36	1	6
Informal	(Trees with bark of low pH) (Acid Barked Trees)	26	290	183	32	30
Informal	(Trees with bark of middle pH) (Neutral Barked Species, Mesic Barked Species)	22	219	193	12	26

Suggested Literature

Identification Works

Blackwell, E., 2004	Some Hints on Identifying Wood in the Field
Mitchell, A., 1974	A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe
Phillips, R., 1978	Trees in Britain, Europe and North America
Rushforth, K., 1980	Mitchell Beazley pocket guide to Trees
Stokoe, W.J., 1960	The Observer's Book of Trees
British-Trees.com: http://www.british-trees.com	British-Trees.com
Woodland Trust Nature Detectives: http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk (For primary children and their teachers)	Woodland Trust Nature Detectives
Timber
Edlin, H.L., 1969	What Wood is That?
Stone, H., 1920	A guide to the identification of our more useful timbers, being a manual for the use of the students of forestry