I first became interested in London’s trees as a birdwatching teenager. I would regularly spend hours scouring local parks or looking at street-trees and endeavoured to learn all the native species I could find, not always successfully.
I initially found tree identification hard going due to the fact there were so many other trees I’d come across which didn’t feature in my little book of native species. London appeared to be something of an arboretum, full of exotic as well as native species. Where to start!
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I bought every tree book I could lay my hands on and studied hard. These were books that contained trees from all over the world, many of which I’d later find growing in the capital. And so my arboreal education had begun.
Since then I’ve travelled extensively, looking at trees in foreign climes as well as here at home, all the while building up my knowledge of these fascinating entities.
Latterly, I’ve tried to popularise the wealth of tree species found in London with the #TreesOfLondon hashtag on Twitter and with my Trees of London Instagram account where I’ve amassed thousands of photos of the trees of the big smoke. Feel free to take a look!
