Southern beech?

[Matthew Arnold]

Found the first will deffo check out tomoz.

 

Having trouble locating the second wood. Who is Lawrence? The boss?

 

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Lawrence is the boss of the West dorset team. The boss of both North and West teams is based at our office in Blandford. If you get 5 minutes check out the North Dorset Trailway. There are a few pubs along the route. And now back to the tree....

[janey]

N obliqua?

[armchairarborist]

i'd say thats a hornbeam going on the bark, almost muscular branches and stem and shape of the leaves:thumbup1:

[Graham]

Buds aren't pointy enough for hornbeam. Definitely Nothofagus IMO

[Arborowen]

My thoughts exactly, 1am forum poster huh :-D

 

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[Arborowen]

Could be spot on there, although I think with the recent heat and the location of this tree my specimine is suffering from a range of issues including scorching of leaves via reflected heady from tarmac.

 

Good descriptive link http://apps.kew.org/trees/?page_id=87

 

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Edited August 5, 2011 by Arborowen

[daltontrees]

My first thought was Hornbeam. Several of the photos show the sudden narrowing and elongation of the leaf tip, although in some they are a bit shrivelled. You just don't get that in any of the Nothofagus but it is characteristic C betulus. The buds are a bit squat for C betulus but not out of the question for a tree that is surrounded in tarmac, frazzled and has set buds in such dry and hot conditions. The spacing of the leaves suggests low vigour too.

[Arborowen]

My thoughts exactly until I read this.

 

"The leaves of the roble beech are unusual for a number of reasons. Each leaf has 7-11 pairs of veins that are sufficiently raised to give it a wavy appearance. In addition, these veins reach the edge of the leaf between the teeth of the serrations and not, as is usual, at the tip of them. Finally, the way the leaves are arranged on the shoots in an alternate, overlapping fashion, gives the tree a distinctive herringbone look, a featured shared by only one other southern beech, the Atlantic beech (Nothofagus antarctica)."

 

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[daltontrees]

Good point about the veins going to the tips, but they seem to do that on C betulus too. Collins guide says N obliqua soon has harshly curling plates on bark but C betulus has smooth grey bark with dull silver or orange snake marks.

The tight twigginess of one of the photos is definitely reminiscent of N antarctica but I was recently down at Kew at Castle Howard where they have masses of Southern Beeches I was amazed at how different the other species like obliqua and nervosa look from that. I wish I had paid more attention to the buds....

I'm still for Cb. The bark is persuasive and there's no denying those leaf tips.