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image: Oak - 800 Years Old - Sherwood Forest
Medieval woods
If you live in British Isles or have visited, you may think you have a general idea of what kind of foliage you would have seen above your head in medieval England. Some of the trees you notice in the present day include red oaks, pine, larch, holm oaks, redwoods, spruce, cedar, Turkey oaks, cypress, fir and horse chestnut. You would have found none of these in the medieval English countryside, as none of these species had yet been introduced from continental Europe and from even farther abroad.
What you would see in Medieval England were trees introduced during the Bronze Age and the Roman conquests, in addition to some native species. You would find elm, willow, walnut, aspen, sweet chestnut, beech, hornbeam, whitebeam, poplars, rowan, silver birch, field maple, beech, alder, ash, hazel, and perhaps most surprisingly, lime trees. There were almost no evergreens. The only species you might see would be juniper, scotch pine, yew, and evergreen holly—if you choose to classify the large variety of holly as a tree.
- Ann Scott -
