Native Trees and Shrubs for Exposed Sites

Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)These fast growing vaulting domed trees will typically only live up to 200 years. They are distributed throughout Britain, but are shade intolerant and tend to grow on calcerous soils. Ash seeds encourage birds and small mammals.

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Downy Birch (Betula pubescens)Downy Birch is a valuable tree, although short lived. It looks similar to Silver Birch, but has a darker trunk and its shoots are covered in soft white hairs. It does well in the cold and wet, rather than the Silver Birch's prefernce for dry conditions. Like the other native Birch, however, it supports over a hundred insect species and its seeds attract birds, especially redpolls.

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Silver Birch (Betula pendula)Silver Birch is a pretty and valuable fast growing tree, although only living for up to 80 years. Like Downy Birch it supports over a hundred insect species and its massive numbers of seeds attract birds, especially redpolls. It also prefers full sun, typically of a pioneer species. Its graceful silver limbs hold small leaves, which give dappled shade and yellow in the autumn.

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Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)Blackthorn is a fine hedge plant, slow growing but suckering freely and having needle like spines. Its habit makes it a fabulous refuge for small birds and mammals, who feast on its sloes, and a raft of moth and butterfly caterpillars feed on it. It is tough as old boots, and as a hedging plant lays well and forms a good stockproof - and people proof - barrier. Its prolific white flowers are an important nectar source in spring.

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Common Gorse (Ulex europaeus)Gorse is a very spiny, fast growing evergreen shrub that bears masses of intense Broom-like yellow flowers from January to June . It is happiest on dry sandy soils with a southerly aspect. Its habit makes it a great refuge for small birds and mammals, and its flowers are a good source of nectar for bees and butterflies. It is also a food plant for several moth and butterfly larvae.

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Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)The Hawthorn or Quickthorn is a fast growing tree, beautiful in flower. Its habit makes it an ideal refuge for small birds, who feast on its red fruit. It is tolerant of most conditions, and as a hedging plant lays well and forms a good stockproof - and people proof - barrier.

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Common Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)This large spreading tree looks very similar to Beech, although it's not related and has an attractive fluted and sinewy trunk. It's a useful tree, holding its leaves in winter in a hedge (although not as a tree) and tolerating surpringly deep shade. Its wood is amazingly tough, hence it being known as "Ironwood", and burns well.

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Juniper (Juniperus communis)Juniper is a small, slow growing, and short lived evergreen (up to 100 years), and is a pioneer species disliking the shade. Its habit can vary markedly; in exposed conidtions it is a low scraggy bush, but can grow to a neat column. Its dense spiky habit provides a winter roost for birds and cover for small mammals, which also feed on its berries.

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Myrobalan or Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera)Very pretty early flowering small tree, fast growing and invaluable as a windbreak.

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Common Oak (Quercus robur)The Pedunculate, Common, or English oak prefers heavier soils and will tolerate flooding, even by seawater. Its masses of acorns are very helpful feed for the pigs - and a host of small mammals. Its wood has, of course, been used for a vast array of products - ships, barrels, buildings - since time immemorial. It is the supreme native hardwood. The tree's cultural, ecological, and economic significance give it a unique place in British history.

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Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea)Sessile oaks are as long lived as Pedunculate oaks, regularly living over 500 years, but because of their less useful timber (and possibly lower acorn yields) have been planted much less

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Dog Rose (Rosa canina)Of the 14 native species of rose, the Dog Rose is the most common. It carries sweet-scented pink or white blooms and red hips in the autumn. It's a good plant for wildlife, offering a protective habitat and food supply for birds and small mammals, nectar for insects and bees, and a foodplant for several moths and butterflies.

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Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)The Rowan, or Mountain Ash, prefers cool conditions and any soil other than heavy clay and calcareous. Pretty white flowers in June and large bunches of red berries, which are eaten by birds and small mammals. Its foliage turns nicely in the autumn.

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Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)Scots Pines are immensely hardy - surviving the last Ice Age - and will grow almost anywhere. They are particularly tolerant of poor and dry soils and exposed sites, although do not like sea spray. As a conifer, it provides helpful cover for birds in the Winter; Coal Tits, Goldcrests, and Crossbills are associated with the tree in particular.

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Sea-Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides)This spiny shrub isn't really a Buckthorn, but it is a native species, originally found on the east coast - it is extremely hardy and salt tolerant. Its bright orange berries are eaten by birds.

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Whitebeam (Sorbus aria)Slow growing and short lived (up to 80 years), but a beautiful medium sized tree, particularly in the spring when its white leaves emerge. Bears small red fruit in the autumn, which the birds like. Whitebeam are particularly hardy and tolerant, and will thrive in exposed, cold, and coastal sites.

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Goat Willow (Salix caprea)The odd one out - Goat Willow (or Pussy Willow, or Sallow) doesn't necessarily need wet. In the female form it has silver catkins. We have a beautiful old tree in the village that is covered with our bees as soon as it comes into flower. Useful for the church flowers, too.

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Yew (Taxus baccata)Although the foliage is poisonous to livestock, birds and small mammals love the berries and the trees - or hedging - as a habitat. It doesn't seem to be grown much now as a specimen tree; when looking for a yew people tend to go more for the Irish variety, with its more fastigiate and tidy habit.

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Exposed Sites CollectionThese selections are a mixture of fast growing wind tolerant plants to provide protection and shelter in exposed positions. They include alder, ash, beech, birch, and scots pine.

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