Whitebeam

The whitebeam is a common tree around the Barbrook Plantation, especially down towards the stream.  It is at its most impressive when showing its young pale grey leaves and also later in the year when covered in red berries.  These do not last long when there are blackbirds and other berry eating birds around.

Barbrook Plantation has one special tree as far as I am concerned.  This is an alder growing not too far from the white gate entrance but the amazing thing is that it has a whitebeam branch growing straight out of it.  At first I thought this was simply 2 trees growing around each other but the alder trunk is complete and the whitebeam forms just one branch.

In a domestic situation you would assume that this branch has been grafted onto the alder but how would nature do this by itself?  Perhaps someone will explain it to me in due course!

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