Trees Gallery - Fruits and nuts
Maple samaras
2021Acer griseum
Acer griseum double samaras (winged seeds), from my garden in Thornton le Dale. Classic acer family "helicopters", that spin their way down to the ground, allowing them to float further away from the tree.
Beechnuts
2021Fagus sylvatica
Beechnuts have a spiky exterior husk that pops open when ripe, revealing two small nuts, each oddly shaped with 3 pointed sides. Inside the outer husk, the seeds have a fibrous inner shell.
Hazel nuts
2021Corylus
Hazel nuts are roughly spherical to oval, about ⅝–1"long and ⅜ - ⅝" diameter, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a smooth shell. The kernel of the seed is edible and used raw or roasted or ground into a paste.
Conkers
2021Aesculus hippocastanum
Horse chestnuts, better known as conkers, are encased in spiny nutshells. They are toxic for people, and for livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep. Deer seem able to digest them.
Alder catkins
2023Alnus glutinosa
The small cone-like female catkins in their green state before turning woody and persisting on the branch over winter.
Alder catkins
2022Alnus glutinosa
The small cone-like female catkins persist on the tree, turning woody and hanging on over winter, often alongside the new growth of long male catkins and fresh female catkins.
Styles' white Pine
2022Pinus stylesii
A large pine cone, probably from pinus stylesii, but possibly from pinus reflexa. The two species were growing next to each other in the Yorkshire Arboretum, with the cones on the ground in March 2022.
Styles' white Pine - open
2022Pinus stylesii
A large pine cone, probably from pinus stylesii, but possibly from pinus reflexa. The two species were growing next to each other in the Yorkshire Arboretum, with the cones on the ground in March 2022.
Sycamore wings
2023Acer pseudoplatanus
A bunch of sycamore samaras, well known as "helicopters" for the way that they spin gently towards the ground. Large numbers form on the trees, probably the reason the sycamore has invaded Britain across its length and breadth
Oak marble galls
2023Quercus robur
Not a fruit or nut, though they look like they are. This is a group of oak marble galls, one of a number of galls that grow on oak trees. Created by a small wasp, andricus kollari. Spotted in a young planting areas of Dalby Forest, on Pexton Moor.
Knopper galls
Aug 2023Quercus petraea
Another oak gall, andricus quercuscalicis, created on the developing acorns of the pedunculate oak, and the Turkey oak. Caused by a small wasp, whose larvae then feed inside the gall. They cause little damage to the tree. The second generation then develop in the catkins of the Turkey oak.
Ash keys
February 2023Fraxinus excelsior
Ash fruits, known as keys, hang down in bunches. The keys turn brown in autumn and stay on the tree all winter. Each fruit is technically called a samara - a dry fruit which has flattened wings attached to help in its wind dispersion.
Ivy berries
February 2023Hedera helix
Berries grow in clusters and gradually turn black. They hold up to 5 seeds in a berry, which are dispersed by the birds that feed on them.
Pine cone
2022Pinus sylvestris
Scots pine cones, open and shut, with some of the very fine, feathery winged seeds released from the tongues of the cone. These were collected rom a majestic Scots pine specimen by the lake at Scampston Hall
Sitka Spruce
March 2023Picea sitchensis
Sitka Spruce cones with their black seeds at the end of slender, long pale wings. Found in a stand of spruce in the arboretum at RHS Harlow Carr.
Hondo spruce
March 2023Picea jezoensis hondoensis
Hondo Spruce cones from the Hondo Spruce at RHS Harlow Carr
Norway spruce
Aug 2023Picea abies
A developing spruce cone, probably of the Norway spruce. Spruce cones hang down, fir cones stand up.
Monterey Cyprus
March 2023Hesperocyparis macrocarpa
A cluster of Globous cypress cones from a rather sad-looking Monterey cypress tree in Peasholm Glen, Scarborough.
Caucasian wingnuts
March 2023Pterocarya fraxinifolia
Individual wingnuts picked off the ground in Peasholm Glen, Scarborough. On the tree they would be seen in ribbons up to 50 cm long.
Black Italian Poplar catkins
March 2023Populus x canadensis ‘Serotina’
I am fairly sure these are catkins from the Black Italian Poplar, the Champion Tree version growing in Peasholm Glen, Scarborough.
Caucasian wingnut
Aug 2023Pterocarya fraxinifolia
Long strings of wingnuts abound in August, waxy and green at this time of year. These are from a tree in the parkland at Scampston Hall.
Haws
Aug 2023Crataegus monogyna
The commonly seen berries of the hawthorn, known as haws, appear in clusters following the masses of white flowers that burst out in May (the other name of the hawthorn).
Yew arils
Aug 2023Taxus baccata
Although yew is a conifer, it doesn't have cones. Instead it bears its seeds in red, fleshy, berry-like structures known as arils. It is the seed which is highly toxic, not the aril.
Hornbeam bracts
Oct 2023Carpinus betula
Hornbeam develops clustered pairs of three-lobed bracts which hang from the branches, starting green then turning yellow to brown in autumn.