The plants and trees of Fota

This Bank Holiday weekend marked a much-anticipated return visit to Fota Arboretum in East Cork.

Fota Island was originally the home of the Smith-Barry family and in the ownership of that family since 1177. After the death of the last of the Smith-Barrys in 1975, the Island was sold to University College Cork. Over time, parts of the island has been put to a variety of uses including the unique Fota Wildlife Park. Although financial constraints required parts of the estate to be sold off for a golf course and hotel development, much of Fota remains in public ownership.

Fota House, former seat of the Smith-Barrys and their impressive gardens and arboretum is open to the public and is well worth a visit.

The Irish Heritage Trust took over responsibility for Fota House, Arboretum and Gardens in 2007 and there has been some noticeable improvements in signage and accessibility in that time. The Office of Public Works manage the gardens and arboretum.

Many sources describe the word Fota as coming from the Irish term 'Fód te' meaning warm soil and as such, the gardens are a great spot to relax and enjoy one of the greatest collection of rare and tender trees and shrubs growing outdoors in Ireland and Britain.

Japanese Cedar - a billowing thundercloud

The Smith-Barrys can be credited with the laying-out of the gardens and arboretum. Even up to the last of the Smith-Barrys, a Mrs. Bell, cataloguing and conserving the plant collections were important.

Japanese Cedar

One of the most impressive trees in the collection is a magnificent Japanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica 'Spiralis') planted in around 1880. The national tree of Japan, this variety has particularly interesting foliage where many of the needles twist themselves around the stems giving a spiral appearance. From a distance, the tree resembles a billowing thundercloud and is about 20 metres high.

There are a few small Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) trees in the arboretum.

Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana)

Now is also a good time to visit. The Camellia and Magnolia are already in flower and Primroses abound in the wooded areas.

Magnolia 'Big Dude'

Camellia japonica 'Lavinia Maggi'

There is a magnificent Drimys winteri 'Glauca' currently in flower. Native to rain forests of Chile and Argentina, the bark of the plant known as "Winter's Bark" was a well known cure for scurvy.

Drimys winteri 'Glauca'

Drimys winteri 'Glauca'

Also at this time of the year, the azaleas which are dotted around the house are a riot of pinks, reds and purples.

For those who love plants Fota is a must visit. Understandably, the animals in the nearby wildlife park are a huge draw but, and at the risk of spoiling this oasis of calm, the gardens and arboretum deserve to be more visited in their own right.

Fota Garden and Arboretum are open year round and entry is free. There is however a €3 charge for parking. The island can also be accessed by train from Cork's Kent railway station. Charges apply for visiting Fota House and Fota Wildlife Park.

The Fota House Plant and Garden Fair takes place on Sunday 22nd April 2012 in association with Marymount Hospice New Building Fund. For more details, see www.fotahouse.com

In search of monkey puzzles

A. araucana, Spanaway, WA.

It's National Tree Week and earlier in the week I posted something on Araucaria araucana, the Monkey Puzzle Tree and asked for readers to let me know of any interesting examples in their area.

The thing about the Monkey Puzzle is that it is so unique and unmistakable for any other tree species that it tends to stick out in peoples' mind where they see one. As one writer put it: because of their uniqueness, they seem more common than they actually are.

They are also enough of a botanical curiosity that they are often an indication of some historic botanical connection that can be unearthed. They make for some good stories!

Melanie Brisbane was in touch from Spanaway in Washington State in the US to send a photo of her A. araucana covered in snow. The tree is quite cold-tolerant, although the roots can be damaged by severe and extended cold snaps.

Mary Higgins from Waterford mentioned the Monkey Puzzle at Doneraile Park in North Cork. The gardens at Doneraile Court and the plant collecting activities of Mary St. Leger are worthy of a post of their own. The tree is apparently still there but I don't have an image to hand. A trip North is on the cards, I think!
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Update 12/03/2012: Having travelled to Doneraile this weekend in search of A. araucana, I can safely say that if there was one in the park, it's gone now! More details in due course.
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TriploidTree commented on the specimen tree located at Tramore Road in Cork City (between Musgraves and CMP). CMP is gone from that location but at least one Monkey Puzzle is still present on the site.

Monkey Puzzle at Tramore Road, Cork

The size of the tree indicates that it has been located on the site for much longer than the current occupiers. A quick check of some old maps confirms the site was a plant nursery in the middle of the 19th Century and the tree was positioned at the entrance to the establishment. Surely a great way to impress prospective customers, by exhibiting one of the botanical curiosities of the age at the front gate.

c.1840 map of the Tramore Road Nursery site showing approximate position of the Monkey Puzzle tree (red dot)

OpenPlaques brought my attention to a tree at the bottom of Malone Road in Belfast which must surely be associated with the nearby Botanical Gardens? A quick search hasn't shown up anything there at the moment. Can any Belfast readers shed some light on the matter?
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Update 12/03/2012: Prof. John Pilcher from Queens University, Belfast contacted me recently to tell me that, as far as he knew, there was no Monkey Puzzle in the Gardens now. "Some of the old Belfast postcards seem to show one near the Malone road gate (near the Kelvin statue)" says John. "There are some specimens of [the related species] Araucaria heterophylla, one in the Tropical ravine and I think two in the Palm House".
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Finally, one other specimen of note is the fine example to be found at what is now Mahon Point in Cork City. This tree is all that remains of the once impressive Lakelands Demesne built by none other than William Crawford. As we've already learned, he was a keen plantsman and developed spectacular gardens on the site now occupied by suburban housing, a shopping centre and a dual carriageway. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I'll write more on Lakelands and Crawford's botanical exploits at a later date, but for National Tree Week it's good to know that this unique tree can act as a reminder of Crawford's Lakeland gardens.

A. araucana at Mahon Point, Cork

A Puzzling Tree

Monkey Puzzle at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford

The Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana) is a familiar yet exotic sight in many large gardens and parks across Ireland and Britain.

Native to South America,it's the national tree of Chile where it is commonly known as Pehuén.

Despite some commentators despising the things (even going so far as to encourage owners to chop them down!), I quite like them.They've got a bizarre, reptilian quality about them which makes them, at the very least, impossible to mistake for any other species.

It's an evergreen, growing relatively slowly and reaching more than 40 metres in places at maturity. The tree can reach a spectacular age - up to 1,300 years old.

The flowers are dioecious, which means they are either male or female. If you want to produce viable seed to propagate the tree, you'll need two trees - one male and one female. The seeds themselves are pretty large and apparently tasty enough to eat.

The leaves are thick, scale-like and triangular with sharp edges. The leaves are so sharp that there has been calls to remove a number of the trees where they are grown close to schools. Madness of course!

There is some concern for the tree in its native South America where logging, human-set fires and land clearance since Europeans arrived have reduced its range. Its tasty seed and sought after timber means it is at a real risk of being over-collected.

Monkey Puzzle at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford

The tree first reached Britain in 1795, when Archibald Menzies, a botanist and surgeon with the British Navy brought five saplings home. Menzies had been served the seeds as a desert at a dinner party hosted by the governer of Chile. Sir Joseph Banks at Kew planted two of the saplings in his own garden and three at Kew.

The common name of the plant apparently derives from the 1850's when the proud owner of an early British example of the tree was showing off his prized possession when one of them remarked: "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that". The name has stuck.

There are plenty of Monkey Puzzle trees dotted around the country. Where's your favourite? Send locations (and pics!) and I'll post the best. You can email [email protected]

This post is part of a series to mark National Tree Week 2012.

National Tree Week 2012

This Sunday sees the start of National Tree Week in Ireland - a week-long series of events celebrating the impact of trees on our lives and on our environment.

>> Here at Communicate Science, we'll have a series of tree-themed posts to mark the occasion. Stay tuned! <<

National Tree Week runs from 4th-10th March and the theme for 2012 is 'Trees- Our Past, Our Present, Our Future'.

National Tree Week will kick off this Sunday with a series of events in Ardee, Co. Louth at which President Michael D. Higgins  will participate in a tree planting ceremony at 12 noon.

There are loads of events throughout the country - check out the website for full details.

Highlights include:

Clare - A guided tree walk in the Burren where there is famously "not enough wood to hang a man".

Cork - A guided walk at the Gearagh Nature Reserve near Macroom - the finest surviving example of ancient, post-glacial wooded floodplain on the River Lee.

Cork - A guided tour of the spectacular Fota Arboretum by Head Gardener David O'Regan.

Dublin - 'In Celebration of Trees' - An exhibition of Bonsai at the National Botanic Gardens.

Dublin - The inaugural National Tree Week lecture takes place at the National Botanic Gardens. "The Once and Future Forest" will be delivered by Dr. John Feehan.

Wexford - A forest walk at JFK Arboretum featuring a description of forest species, forest management, timber uses, wildlife and a demonstration of how to plant and fell trees.

Full details of times, dates, cost (where applicable), etc. can be found on the NTW website.

Remarkable Trees

National TreeWeek came to an end in Ireland last weekend and to celebrate, some pictures of trees from the main campus of University College Cork:

The first is a very special tree - the largest of its types in Ireland. This Chinese Privet (Ligustrum lucidum) is 9 metres high and 3.19 m in girth and is classified by the Tree Council of Ireland as an "exceptional specimen tree".

The species is the largest growing of its genus, reaching up to 25 m in height.

The next is an impressive specimen of weeping willow (Salix babylonica). The species is native to China and gets its species name, apparently, from a misunderstanding by Linnaeus, who catalouged it, and thought it was a tree mentioned in the Bible: "By the rivers of Babylon... hung our harps upon the willows".

The last image is a pair of magnificant Giant Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) located at the entrance to the Boole Library. The species is the only living species in the genus and can live for up to 1800 years or more. The species contains the tallest trees on earth, reaching up to 115 metres in height.

You can see an interactive map of some of the important tree specimens on the UCC campus here.

National Tree Week 2011

National Tree Week is running this week (from March 6-12) and once again there are a range of activities to get involved in.

The week is organised by the Tree Council of Ireland and this year, the theme is Celebrating Forests. This is in keeping with the United Nations designating 2011 as International Year of Forests.

Talks, tree-plantings, walks and fun events are organised throughout the country and you can see a full list of events here.

In particular, the Tree Council are runing a National Tree Week Photo Competition for photos taken at Tree Week Events.

Christmas Science 10: Making Christmas Trees Last Longer

In the run up to Christmas, Communicate Science offers you 20 Christmas Science Facts. We'll post one every day until the 25th December.

Making Christmas Trees last Longer
Following on from yesterday's look at Christmas Trees, the news from Canada is that scientists have discovered a way to double the lifespan of Christmas trees in homes and prevent needles from dropping too early.

The work, by scientists at Universite Laval, Quebec in collaboration with Nova Scotia Agricultural College was published recently in the scientific journal Trees.

Working on balsam fir, the scientists confirmed that the plant hormone ethylene is responsible for needle loss by placing the tree branches in containers of water inside a growth chamber. After ten days, the branches began to produce ethylene and after a further three days, the needles began to drop.

It took 40 days before the branches were completely bare.

To test that the needle loss was in fact due to the ethylene, the researchers used two chemical compounds that interfere with this hormone: 1-MCP and AVG. After exposing the branches to one of these two products, the needle retention period rose to 73 and 87 days, respectively.

"By Day 40, the branches that had been treated were still green, tender, and fresh-looking, while the untreated branches had lost virtually all their needles," explained Steeve Pépin, co-author of the study and professor at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences at Université Laval.

"Since 1-MCP is a gas, it would be feasible to release it into the trucks used to ship the trees," suggests Pépin. This would be particularly useful for the export market.

Consumers also stand to benefit from this discovery since it would be possible to dissolve AVG in the water added to the tree stand, which would prolong the tree's lifespan indoors. "What is really encouraging is that we managed to double the needle retention period of the branches," notes Steeve Pépin. "However, we still have to prove that we can transpose these findings to the entire tree," he concluded.

Christmas Science 9: Irish Grown Christmas Trees

In the run up to Christmas, Communicate Science offers you 20 Christmas Science Facts. We'll post one every day until the 25th December.

Irish Grown Christmas Trees
A wide variety of tree species are cultivated worldwide as Christmas Trees.

For example, in the US, Douglas Fir, Scots Pine and Fraser Fir are all popular. In the UK, Nordmann Fir and Norway Spruce sell well.

According to the Irish Christmas Tree Growers Association (ICTG), Ireland's mild winters and cool summers, together with high levels of rainfall and free draining soils are ideal for growing a variety of popular Christmas tree types.

In Ireland, Noble Fir (Abies Procera) is the most popular tree due to its distinctive blue/green shading and its ability to retain its needles.

On average, it takes from 7-10 years for a tree to grow to the minimum height required for harvesting and it is estimated that less than 700,000 Nordmann and Noble Fir were planted each year since 2004.

The association estimates that there is a domestic market for around 500,000 trees and an existing export market of over 350,000 trees.

'Sudden Oak Death' is here

Sudden Oak Death (Credit: sarcozona)

Department of Agriculture scientists have identified Phytophthora ramorum in Irish trees for the first time.

The organism was isolated from Japanese Larch trees in the Tipperary/Waterford area.

Just this month, the detrimental effects of sudden oak death has already been dealt with on this blog.

A statement from the Dept. of Agriculture said that they were investigating "a small number of cases" found when a special survey of Japanese Larch was ordered after the pathogen was found on the same trees in Britain late last year.

"In addition to the findings in a small number of larch trees, beech trees which were growing in proximity to the infected larch trees were also found to be infected as were two noble fir trees" according to the survey.


The Department of Agriculture say that Japanese larch "represents some 3% of the total forest tree population in Ireland.

"The bulk of the wood from infected trees can be used in the normal way provided the necessary hygiene measures are taken at felling and in sawmills."

The Department went on to say that they were taking "all necessary measures" to find out the extent of the infection and to control its spread.

Number of the Week: 15,000

The number of trees distributed by Coillte to be planted by community groups across the country during National Tree Week, which happens this week. Ireland remains one of the least wooded countries in Europe, with just 10% of our land covered in tress compared to a European average of 40%. Despite this, over 20 million visits are made every year to Irish forests.