1. Tapering leaf maple (common name)
What3Words: ///coach.free.stir
Tag No: 3060
Botanical Name: Acer acuminatum
Year first gained champion status: 2023
Champion for height, girth, or both: G
Year Planted: 1950s
Planted by: W. Nelmes Sr
Brief description: Acer acuminatum is a small tree with dark grey bark, typically growing to about 10 metres. Its leaves are 10cm across and on scarlet petioles. They are usually three-lobed, sharply toothed, and with long, pointed tips. Small (5mm across), greenish flowers appear in April/May. The fruit is a samara 2 to 3cm long, often reddish when young.
2. Norway maple ‘ Goldsworth Purple’
///cover.stage.tests
3053
Acer platanoides ‘Goldsworth Purple’
2023, H(wales) + G, Unknown, Unknown
Acer platanoides ‘Goldsworth Purple’ is a hardy, deciduous, tree with broad crown and dense foliage, similar to ‘Crimson King’ but with lighter red-purple leaves that are wrinkled when young. Greenish-yellow flowers appear in early spring.
3. Georgia oak
///doors.wooden.storms
3041
Quercus georgiana, 2023, G Wales, 1990, Unknown
Quercus georgiana is a small tree, often shrubby in the wild, growing to 8–15 meters (26–49 feet) tall. It is classified in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae.
4. Durango emory oak
///shock.trap.villa
2987
Quercus durifolia, 2023, H + G(wales), 1990, Unknown
Quercus durifolia is a small tree, normally up to 9 metres tall. It has grey-green, lanceolate leaves that are white and woolly underneath and 3 to 6cm long. The acorns are 1cm long, half enclosed in a cup covered with light grey hairs.
5. Fastigiate hornbeam
///dragon.scarcely.author
2895
Carpinus betulus ‘Columnaris’, 2023, H(Wales) + G, 1950s, W. Nelmes Sr
Carpinus betulus ‘Columnaris’ is a variety of the Common or European hornbeam. It is a smaller tree than the species, characterised by its compact, columnar shape. It is noted for its dense dark green summer foliage that clusters at the branch tips. The leaves turn yellow in autumn.
6. Wilfrid Fox whitebeam
///bunk.grass.menu
2930
Aria x griffitharia ‘Wilfrid Fox’, 2023, H(wales) + G, Unknown, Unknown
Aria x griffitharia ‘Wilfrid Fox’ is a hybrid of the common whitebeam and Himalayan whitebeam. It is a medium sized tree, growing to around 14 metres tall, and with a round head when mature. Its leaves are elliptic, 15 to 20cm long, toothed and shallow lobed, leathery, dark glossy green above and greyish white underneath. The fruits are 2cm across, initially green, ripening to amber with grey dots.
7. Curled holly
///little.marked.planet
3888
Ilex aquifolium ‘Crispa’, 2023, G, 1950s, W. Nelmes Sr
Ilex aquifolium ‘Crispa’ is a cultivar of the common holly, Ilex aquifolium. It is a small tree with purple-grey bark and twisted, thick leathery leaves. These have few or no spines except for a sharp point at the tip. This is a male clone and produces no fruit.
8. Highclere holly
///begin.salad.taxi
3890
Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Nigrescens’, 2023, G, Unknown, Unknown
Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Nigrescens’, Highclere holly, is a cross between I. aquifolium and I. perado. It grows to around 10 metres tall and has broad glossy leaves with no spines or with a small number of sharp teeth. As a male holly it produces no fruits.
9. White ash
///slows.rubble.start
2683
Fraxinus americana ‘Autumn Purple’, 2023, H + G, 1993, Unknown
Fraxinus americana ‘Autumn Purple’ is a cultivar of the White ash, Fraxinus americana, selected for its reddish-purple autumn colour. It typically grows 15 to 20 metres tall, with a broadly conical shape. Its bark is grey and on mature trees has diamond-shaped ridges. The leaves are dark green in summer, and pinnate with seven oblong-lanceolate leaflets (occasionally five or nine), each leaflet 5 to 10cm long. Inconspicuous green flowers appear in spring. This tree has no fruits as it is a male clone.
10. Hybrid thorn
///fats.vine.legal
2708
Crataegus azarolus x tanacetifolia, 2023, H + G, 1991, Unknown
It was planted as Crataegus tanacetifolia. Its leaves are not typical of C. tanacetifolia in that they are not grey-green and downy. However the fruit is consistent with C. tanacetifolia being yellowish, around 23cm in diameter, tasting of apple and usually containing five pips.
11. Weeping pink thorn
///knots.roses.saints
2754
Crataegus monogyna ‘Pendula Rosea’, 2023, H + G, 1992, M. Frazer
Crataegus monogyna ‘Pendula Rosea’ is a cultivar of the Common hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, with a weeping shape. It has pink flowers in late spring.
12. Meyer’s Hawthorn
///teach.mint.chef
2760
Crataegus meyeri, 2023, H + G(wales), 1991, M. Frazer
Crataegus meyeri grows to around 4 x 4 metres. When first open its flowers have an aromatic scent, but later develop an unpleasant, rotten odour which attracts midges, the main means of fertilization. The fruits are about 15mm in diameter, ripening to red in September. Inside each fruit are up to five fairly large seeds which stick together to give the effect of a single seed.
13. Chinese horse chestnut
///spicy.broken.useful
2774
Aesculus chinensis, 2023, G, Unknown, Unknown
Aesculus chinensis, commonly called Chinese horse chestnut or Chinese buckeye, is a rounded deciduous tree that typically grows to 30-40′ tall. It is native to forests, thickets, slopes, ravines and roadsides in northern China.
14. Apricot lady mountain ash
///relax.wiring.cabin
2658
Sorbus ‘Apricot Lady’, 2023, H+G, Unknown, Unknown
Sorbus ‘Apricot Lady’ was raised at Hillier Nurseries, a seedling of the Mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia.
