GREAT OAK TREES AND OTHERS by
J.
O.
WRIGHT
I notice the description of the Oak near Ellough in Transactions Vol. XII pt. 3, p. 207 " girth 20 ft. 10J ins. " which A. Aston claims must be almost the largest oak in Suffolk. At New Beils Farm, Haughley, is an oak estimated by several forestry experts as 1,000 years old with the following measurements : Girth 35 ft. 3 ins. (at 4 ft. since owing to the bases of branches this is the narrowest point. At 5 ft. the girth would be at least 50 ft.). Branch spread 111 ft. Height approximately 73 ft. Sorry Mr. Aston, the Ellough oak is relatively a sapling ! Incidentally the January, 1963, issue of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society lists the biggest known trees in Britain of about 100 species. Height
Girth
Quercus pedunculata
128' 70' 40'
14'10" 3 2 ' 3" 3 9 ' 9"
M a r c h m o u n t , Berwick Sparkford, Somerset Bowthorp, Lines. (pollarded)
1954 1961 1955
Q. sessiliflora
120' 90'
21' 29'
Nettlecombe, Somerset Shobdon, Hereford
1959 1959
Powis Castle, M o n m o u t h
1961
hybrid
90'
1" 1"
3 3 ' 6"
Place
Date Observed
Species
The only other trees to reach a girth of 30 ft. are : Cedrus Libani
3 4 ' 9" (at 2 ' ) Cheshunt, Herls.
1954
?
3 4 ' 1"
Ulcombe, K e n t
1948
?
3 9 ' 6"
Canford, Dorset
1953
Hex aquifolium
49'
3 1 ' 9"
Doncaster
1955
Tilia vulgaris
90'
37'10"
C o b h a m Hall, K e n t
1953
Ulmus procera
?
3 1 ' 0"
East Bergholt, Suffolk (one 130' x 1 1 ' 7" at Chisvvick Hse., L o n d o n )
1942
Taxus
Baccata
Castanea
sativa
66'
253
GREAT TREES
Other trees of which the largest in Britain occur in Suffolk are : Pinus nigra caramanica
137'
12' 8"
Ickworth (one at Bury Hill, Surrey, has 14' girth but is only 102' high)
1955
Tsuga canadensis
114'
8 ' 2"
Hardwicke (one 8 7 ' x 1 2 ' 9" at Studley Royal Yorks, 1958)
1954
58'
1 1 ' 7"
Worlingham (one 1 0 2 ' x 7 ' 5" at W o b u r n , 1956)
1956
76'
2 1 ' 9"
Worlingham Hall (one 126' x 1 1 ' 7" in Devon, 1957)
1956
Betula
verrucosa
Quercus lucombeana
I hope to identify the species of the Haughley oak during the summer.
THE FIBROUS-ROOTED by
JANET C .
OXALIS-CORNICULATAE N.
WILLIS
I have sent the result of my enquiry about the distribution of O. corymbosa in Suffolk to Dr. D. P. Young and find that it rampages all around Ipswich, Woodbridge, Saxmundham and Dunwich. I cannot assume, however, that it does not occur elsewhere simply on the grounds that I have had no reports of it. I now want to air another trouble. With the Corniculatae it is not bulbils but botanists who make trouble ; people may consider these plants tiresome weeds if, in rooting them out, they leave broken bits of stem lying about