With Ireland having the lowest woodland cover in Europe, a new publication by the Tree Council is timely, writes Eileen Battersby.
Competitive creatures, humans. We like superlatives; we need to identity, quantify, justify, anything, everything - biggest, tallest, widest, oldest, rarest and so on. Why apply such labels to objects as wonderful as trees? Surely the individual beauty of nature's divine legacy, the tree, and the positive impact it has on its immediate landscape more than justifies its existence.
Why subject a tree to the vulgarity of the measuring tape? Natural beauty aside, there are very good reasons for such an activity, as Thomas Pakenham argues, measuring and recording outstanding trees helps identify the climates, regions and soils best suited for the planting and cultivation of particular species. Drawing attention to specific trees not only heightens awareness of them and encourages people to seek out such specimens, it also makes us more sensitive to trees in general as a cultural resource prominent in art, folklore and mythology. Large-scale and private tree planting is on the increase in Ireland, and this development is long overdue in a country which has the lowest woodland cover in Europe.
There is also the debate of native versus naturalised which has resulted in some purists setting out, wrongly, to eradicate the beech and replace it with alder, willows and native scrub. Yet for all the respect due to the native trees, part of the genius of the tree is its diversity. More than 860 species and varieties of tree, including a range of exotic specimen trees from Asia and South America, have been planted and grown successfully in Ireland.
All of this is explained in a valuable information booklet, Champion Trees: a county by county selection of Ireland's Great Trees, published by the Tree Council of Ireland and featuring hours of dedicated field work carried out by tree experts such as Aubrey Fennell who worked on the initial survey and expanded and carried out the current survey in 2004.
The idea for this booklet came from The Tree Register of Ireland Project which was initiated by the Tree Council of Ireland and the Irish Tree Society in 1999 as a way of compiling a national database of Irish trees. To date, some 7,500 selected trees have been recorded and measured.
This booklet, overseen by Dr Matthew Jebb, taxonomist at the National Botanic Gardens, offers a selection of 1,200 of the trees listed on the entire register which may be viewed at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin. This selection is an all-island one, with every county in Ireland represented.
As expected, some counties simply have more trees, not only thanks to favourable climate, soil and good shelter, but also as part of the legacy of intensive planting carried out in the grounds of great estates of the past, particularly in Leinster. Wicklow could be considered the champion county, with some 1,063 trees measured, followed by Co Down with 747 measured trees, Dublin (499), Co Cork (419), Co Wexford (327), Co Offaly (322) - down to Mayo and Sligo with only 29 each.
Many of the trees in the register stand on private property and are not accessible to the public, yet sufficient numbers do stand in open park land or in the grounds of places such as Mount Usher, Birr Castle, the National Botanic Gardens or how about the Sewage Plant, at Beleek, Ballina, Co Mayo, which is home to an impressive Fagus sylvatica (beech) measuring 5.67m x 22.3m - to encourage anyone with a copy of this booklet to undertake expeditions to visit some remarkable trees.
IT IS INTERESTING to consider that among Ireland's current champion trees are many survivors of an earlier survey such as one undertaken between 1907-1913. Almost a century divides the two photographs of the Sweet Chestnut or John Wesley Tree, near Ashford, Co Wicklow, which was photographed in 1903 and again in 2000, reminding us that trees, like man, grow, develop, mature, age and eventually decline, albeit in a far greater time span.
Taxus baccata (yew) is the oldest tree in Ireland. A girth measurement of 5m equates with an age in excess of 400 years. Of the four examples of yew recorded, all measured in excess of 6m: one at Bunclody, Co Wexford, with a giant girth of 6.78m, is estimated to be Ireland's oldest tree, aged in excess of 800 years.
The tallest tree in Ireland is Pseudotsuga menziesli (Douglas Fir), growing in Powerscourt Gardens, Co Wicklow, which measures 5m x 56m, while the greatest-girthed tree is a Cupressus macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress) at Ringdufferin House, Co Down, confirming the fact that many North American natives do better in Ireland than at home. It is heartening to see the all too often dismissed sycamore being acknowledged: Acer pseudoplatanus, in the grounds of Gormanston College, Co Meath, is not only an Irish girth champion, it is a superb tree.
It is true that often champion trees may not always prove the most beautiful specimen. But many are - above all, these trees invariably have immense presence, have all been witnesses to long chapters of human history and certainly have stories to tell.
Champion Trees is published by the Tree Council of Ireland. Tel: 01-2849211; www.treecouncil.ie