On a sunny afternoon this week, around 20 people were led by Alister Peters, expert arborist,on a very interesting and enjoyable walk around many of the different trees in Preston Park.
In much of Brighton, sycamores and elms are the only large trees that can withstand thechalky soils and salty air. However, Preston Park is some distance from the sea and in a valley with more fertile soils, so enabling a wide variety of trees to flourish. Alister showed us how to identify a selection of them.
The walk began at the Rotunda Café, where a clump of trees includes a purple-leafed plumthat is often mistaken for a copper beech. (Both copper and common beeches are also growing in the park.) We then walked across the grass behind the café to look at elms, a red horse chestnut, common and black walnut trees, and a sweetgum that is particularly beautiful in the autumn when its leaves turn red and purple. In the area around the Tile House, we looked at hornbeams, a dawn redwood (a deciduous conifer), a larch, a Turkish hazel, and two trees that are easy to confuse – a purple maple and a purple sycamore.
Among the other trees was a sycamore whose trunk was covered with ivy. But, as Alister explained, this is not a parasitic plant and it benefits insects and birds, so it needs to be managed rather than removed. By contrast, the mistletoe attached to a silver maple opposite the Chalet Café is parasitic.
There are numerous different types of elm in the park, some of which have been bred to be resistant to the elm disease that has destroyed millions of elms in the UK over the last 50 years. Very sadly, the disease is now destroying trees in Preston Park and elsewhere in Brighton & Hove, as is ash dieback. However, one of the ‘Preston Twins’, an English elm planted in the early 17th century, has so far survived. Another survivor is the Chinese elm in the Coronation Garden. Almost totally destroyed by the great storm of 1987, it is now a largetree with an impressive witch’s broom.
The walk ended at the gilded sculpture created from the Preston Twin that succumbed to elm disease in 2019. But all around us were trees, such as an Indian bean tree, a flowering magnolia, and a fruit-laden black mulberry tree in the Walled Garden, that are flourishing – and, happily for us, will continue to do so in the future.
The next FoPP event will be a walk in the park with former CityParks manager, Alan Griffiths on Thursday, 12 September. Please sign up on Eventbrite via the FoPP website if you would like to attend and hear what Alan has to say.
