An Introduction to Keele's Arboretum and Woodland Walks

Keele University Nature Trail – Transcript (Edited)

Dave Emley:
Hello and welcome to Keele University. I’m Dave Emley.

Peter Thomas:
And I’m Peter Thomas. Today we’re going to be walking around one of the nature trails that we’ve laid out here at Keele.

Dave:
The trail is available in this booklet, which you can download online or pick up from reception in the Chancellor’s Building. The nature trail follows the campus buildings, which take up about half of the Keele estate.

Peter:
The estate originally belonged to the Sneyd family and covers around 600 acres, or 240 hectares. The campus buildings occupy roughly 300 acres, with the remaining 300 acres made up of woodland.

Dave:
There are about ten to fifteen stops along the trail, and we’ll be following those today. You can either visit the trail in person or follow it online via the Arboretum website. However you choose to explore it, we hope you enjoy your visit.

Peter:
Most of the trees we refer to are labelled with a tag like this. It tells you the name of the tree, its identification number, and, where known, the date it was planted. That gives you an idea of how old the tree is and how large it might grow—useful if you’re thinking about planting something similar yourself.

Dave:
As we go around, we’ll also talk about how trees grow and how they live.

⸻

Stop 1 – Hybrid Oak

Dave:
We’re now at stop number one on the nature trail, beside what is probably one of the finest trees on campus. I think it’s an oak tree—is that right?

Peter:
It is an oak tree, but it’s a rather special one. This is a hybrid oak. In Britain we have two native oak species: the pedunculate oak and the sessile oak. Where their ranges overlap, they hybridise, and this is one of those hybrids.

Dave:
Is that why it’s so big?

Peter:
It’s large mainly because it’s grown in the open. Trees grown in open spaces tend to be wider than they are tall, because spreading sideways is energetically cheaper than growing upwards, where wind becomes a major factor.

Dave:
Does that wide growth affect its stability? Should we worry about branches falling, for example during heavy snowfall?

Peter:
Trees are surprisingly sensible. As branches get longer and heavier, they can detect the weight and slow or stop growth before they become likely to snap.

Dave:
So how do we know this is an oak?

Peter:
If you look at the ends of the twigs, you’ll see clusters of buds. Only two trees have clustered buds like this: oaks and cherries. The bark rules out cherry, so this must be an oak. And of course, being an oak, it produces acorns.

Dave:
And the acorns of the pedunculate oak are the ones that look like old clay pipes, with a long stalk, while sessile oak acorns are stalkless.

Peter:
Yes—although confusingly, the leaves are the other way round.

Dave:
We can also see ferns growing out of the bark here. Is that common?

Peter:
Yes. On horizontal branches, water collects in the cracks of the bark. Moss grows there first, soil builds up, and eventually ferns like polypody can establish themselves.

⸻

Beech Tree

Dave:
So how do we know this is a beech tree? It’s quite magnificent.

Peter:
Beech trees are characterised by their smooth bark and very fine buds. They’re native mainly to southern England but grow well here too. They produce dense shade, which means there’s very little ground vegetation in beech woodland.

Dave:
But the fallen leaves hide masses of seeds.

Peter:
Exactly. These seeds are a vital food source for birds like bramblings and chaffinches. On the continent, entire forests support winter flocks of up to a million bramblings feeding on beech mast.

Dave:
But seed production isn’t reliable every year, is it?

Peter:
No. Beech trees tend to have mast years every two or three years. In those years, they produce far more seeds than predators can eat. In between, they produce almost none, which causes predator numbers to fall. This increases the chance of seedlings surviving.

Dave:
Climate change is disrupting that cycle though.

Peter:
Yes. Warmer spring temperatures mean trees receive the “signal” to produce seed more often, causing them to fall out of synchrony. Instead of all trees producing seed together, they now do so at different times, giving predators a constant food supply and reducing seedling success.

⸻

Cherry Tree Walk

Dave:
Here at stop four we’re beside a cherry tree in flower.

Peter:
This is the wild cherry, one of our two native species. The other is bird cherry, which grows further north. You can tell them apart by the flowers: wild cherry flowers hang in tassels, while bird cherry flowers grow from a central stalk like a bunch of grapes.

Dave:
And the horizontal lines on the trunk?

Peter:
Those are lenticels—breathing pores that allow oxygen to reach the living tissue beneath the bark. They’re very distinctive on cherry trees.

Dave:
This is also the start of Cherry Tree Walk.

Peter:
Yes. Keele established its arboretum in 2000, and cherries became a focal point. We now have over 240 species and varieties, with the first planted here in 2001.

⸻

Hornbeam

Dave:
This is a hornbeam, outside the Hornbeam Building—which is named after the tree.

Peter:
When the building was constructed, Professor Beaver, Keele’s first Professor of Geography, altered the design to avoid damaging this tree. It’s one of the finest hornbeams in North Staffordshire.

Dave:
Hornbeam is really a southern species, isn’t it?

Peter:
Yes, native to southeast England, so this specimen is quite unusual at this size. One easy way to identify hornbeam is its bark, which looks like silver paint poured down the trunk.

Dave:
The seeds are very hard.

Peter:
So hard that only one British bird—the hawfinch—can crack them open. The wood itself is also extremely hard, which is why it was used historically for mill cogs.

⸻

Dawn Redwoods

Dave:
Outside the Geology Building we have a group of dawn redwoods.

Peter:
These were thought extinct until a living population was discovered in China in 1941. A geology professor recognised them from the fossil record.

Dave:
They’re deciduous conifers, which is unusual.

Peter:
Yes—along with larch and swamp cypress. They were introduced to Britain in 1947 and are now starting to produce cones and seed.

⸻

Stop 10 – Lucombe Oak, Turkey Oak & Sweet Chestnut

Dave:
This tree has very corky bark and a visible line around the trunk.

Peter:
This is a Lucombe oak, a hybrid between turkey oak and cork oak, first identified in 1763. It’s grafted onto an English oak rootstock, which explains the visible graft line.

Dave:
Is that a weakness?

Peter:
Potentially. The Lucombe oak grows faster than the rootstock, which can create stress, but this tree is sheltered from prevailing winds.

Dave:
Nearby we can see one of its parents, the turkey oak.

Peter:
Introduced in the 1700s, it’s now naturalised in Britain. It produces acorns that are often affected by knopper galls, which reduce seed viability.

Dave:
And finally, this magnificent sweet chestnut.

Peter:
These were planted around 1580 and are roughly 500 years old. They line the old driveway to Keele Hall and show the characteristic spiral bark that strengthens the tree against wind.

⸻

Memorial Garden & Keele Hall

Dave:
The Memorial Garden is home to part of Keele’s national cherry collection.

Peter:
It’s unique in that the cherries are grown as full trees, allowing visitors to see their true size and shape. The collection flowers over several months rather than all at once.

Dave:
We’re now at the foot of the lawn below Keele Hall, the ancestral home of the Sneyd family.

Peter:
The lakes here were reshaped in the 1800s, and the spoil was used to form embankments planted with exotic trees—status symbols of the time, including giant redwoods, cedars, and swamp cypress.