Mar 29, 2020
Plant of the Day
Sunday 29 March 2020
The landscape of Wimpole Hall, Cambridge, has a history of dramatic avenues. Here is a more recently replanted one of the UK native Carpinus betulus (hornbeam). This deciduous tree has pale grey bark with vertical markings, the mature trees can reach up to 30m and live for more than 300 years. In the low spring sunshine the older landscape feature of ‘ridge and furrow’ (lynchet) topography was apparent. This was a result of ploughing with non-reversible ploughs on the same strip of land each year. It is visible on land that was ploughed in the Middle Ages, and has not been ploughed since then, here it has been grazing land.
Jill Raggett
