Question: How many native conifers are there in Britain (conifer = seed plants bearing cones rather than flowers)?
Answer: a grand total of three (yes just 3!).
The three natives are the Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris), Common Yew (Taxus baccata) and the more diminutive Juniper (Juniperus communis).
Native in this sense means of well established in the UK by the time the land bridge between Britain and continental Europe disappeared due to sea-level rise around 5000 years ago).
Clearly Britain, with its temperate Atlantic climate, is more suited to broad leaved deciduous trees and is not a natural home to conifers. So much so that some folk can be very sniffy about conifers in Britain, but not Dr M! Conifers can be very beautiful plants and there are hundreds of species to be found planted and flourishing in Britain, mainly in gardens, parks and Arboreta.
For example on the campus of University of Reading in addition to the three native species, we have around 40 species of conifer including at least one example of every major conifer group including impressive Cedars, Swamp Cypresses and Giant Sequoia.
The featured image shows the conifer circle in the University of Reading’s Harris Garden. More posts on individual conifers to follow.
September 27, 2013
