Today’s photo shows a view looking up to the underside of a young-mature beech tree in Pearson Park, Hull. Given what was stated in the last post/blog there are more patches of open sky than might be expected; this explained by the fact that the tree is still not fully mature and that it is growing near other older trees so is therefore concentrating on growing up rather than out, to access sunlight for photosynthesis, thus the canopy is fragmented. To fully appreciate trees an effort needs to be made to look up an action that neck muscles are not normally use to. When looking up the complexity of the tree as an environment in its own right can better be appreciated, somewhat like the tiered canopies of Equatorial forests. Here, in the case of our beech tree, is the home of thousands of small and microscopic insects and aphids which, in turn, form a food source for songbirds and larger insects. The branches provide ‘sitting rooms’ for birds and squirrels while the top-most branches provide a vantage point for rooks, carrion crows and raptors. The biodiversity of a tree can be enhanced by the addition of man-made structures such as nest-boxes, bat-boxes and owl-boxes. In fact the beech is not the best example of a tree species that is home to a rich diversity, oak and sycamore being much more prolific.
The question, ‘What’s in a name’ is often an interesting line of enquiry. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is a useful help here. It seems then that the ancestors of the word beech go back to Anglo-Saxon times (Old English etymologically), even to Classical Greece. So the word is just that, and not a reference to some feature of the tree, wood or location. Interestingly, the origin of the word beech goes back much further in time than the word ‘beach’.
(to be continued).