why is ash called excelsior?

why fagus for beech?

who is the pseudo tree?

There was one guy who managed to answer a number of these, and who offered up Latin names. It was Colin Richards, he had recently studied for his Certificate in Arboriculture and had studied the Latin names and their meanings. Those tree monkeys are full of surprises.  After about fifteen minutes Professor Bob accused us all of being ‘pedlars of lignin’ and told us to take a coffee break.

Perhaps the caffine worked. He came back a little calmer and asked us how we expected to understand the trees we would be tending if we didn’t know their names. Their names would give us the first indication of their culture, their character, their form and sometimes their history. He got me then. It made sense.But after class in the canteen the general consesus was that there was no point learning the latin names as the common name was important and knowing the latin name wouldn’t make you a Forester. I disagreed and thought that his argument for Latin names added up, as a young sapling in the Forestry world I was told not to bother with it by these wise old Foresters who assured me that I’d never have to worry about it after the exam.

Being a tad stubborn I began on my Latin lessons-

Fraxinus excelsior- the Ash tree. Fraxinus being the latin name for ash, perhaps from the Greek phrasso, meaning fence. Excelsior indicating the tree height, a tall slender tree.

Fagus sylvatica- the Beech. Fagus is derived from phago, to eat- the seeds being edible. Sylvatica- inhabiting the woods.

Corylus avellana-the Hazel. Corylus meaning a hood or a helmet- think of the calyx covering the nut. Avellana named after the town of Avella, famous then for its Hazel nuts.

But Professor Bob’s class only truly made sense three years later on a College trip to the Czech Republic. Our hosts for that trip were employee’s of the state Forestry company, their English was not very good, our Czech was even worse, but we could all speak Latin- the true common language of trees.

Banish all this negativity and confusion by getting back to that feeling that got you out with the spade and the sapling in the first place.

Then when asked ‘What are they for?’.

Reply ‘They are forever.’

Then it gets easy.