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Conifers

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This years queen

How Jays plant oak trees
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What we believe

NATIVE PLANT SPECIES PROVIDE
THE MOST FOOD FOR OUR WILDLIFE

When plants and animals have lived for hundreds or thousands of generations in the same region, an ecosystem develops in which animals adapt to eat those particular plants, which in turn develop strategies of damage limitation. Similarly, other animals such as birds and bats eat the primary consumers, which are predominantly insects and their larvae and the system accumulates in layers and loops.
Most exotic plants, which have originated outside the local system, have physical structures and chemistries that the locals find hard to exploit - that is, eat. That's why British trees often look so much better developed in a foreign land with a similar climate but a different fauna. Our natural preference for healthiness can make this appear desirable. However, it follows that if the local animals can't eat the trees, then the birds, bats and beasts that eat them go hungry too. There are quite a few honourable exceptions such as the exploitation of buddleia by butterflies but the generalisation is valid. That's why we like native tree species best - not for any reason of xenophobia - but because we prefer to see the whole system benefit.
Because Britain became an island again before all the trees with potential could return from continental Europe after the retreat of the ice sheets, the list of native trees and shrubs is comparatively short.

 

 

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