Climate change and Kew gardens

Half of Kew tree species at risk of death owing to climate crisis, study finds

 

Very concerning. I'm a tree warden (volunteer role) in a borough a few miles from Kew, and I know that our local tree team are already factoring this when they replace trees on our streets and in our parks. Some native species like hawthorns are now too likely to be fail, to be considered for planting.

 

Gosh that’s a bit scary. Hawthorns? Who would imagine that?

Mind you, I just looked out of my window this morning and noticed that a mature, but by no means elderly, sycamore tree on the edge of a nearly field, is turning a very dead-looking brown.

P.S. Love Tiger. Is s/he a rescue by any chance? Our local animal sanctuary is full of redundant greyhounds.

 

More on the same story…

Kew Gardens says it could lose half its trees due to climate change

 

Like most Councils mine buys its trees from Barcham's, who are very knowledgeable but also probably err on the side of caution when asked for species advice, not wanting customers to come back complaining because their trees have failed. Plus street trees in particular have a tough life of course, they are watered for the first couple of years but are often growing in a restricted space, getting brushed by passers by, etc.

Yes Tiger is a retired racer - my third in succession. Given the chance they make very good pets .

 

I took my dog for a woodland walk yesterday and was staggered to see so many dead tree leaves already on the ground. My quince tree is almost denuded so I fear I may lose it in the next year or two. The heatwave early in the year just as trees were coming into leaf has had a considerable effect them.

 

I wonder how trees survive in southern Europe, is climate change really making such a big difference to the UK .

I do think pests and diseases are worse these days, which also causes dead branches and lots of early leaf fall.

 

This report disregards the impact of having the proximity to Heathrow, its warming effect, the incessant production of nitreous oxide and sulphur dioxide from both aircraft and terrestial vehicles, displacing the essential carbon dioxide for their survival.
It has to be recognised that the Gardens, founded in 1759, will contain specimens that will be reaching their natural decline in any case. Only time will tell whether more 'exotic' trees could survive for longer.

 

London air is heavily polluted with small particulate matter, and as you say Kew Gardens is close to Heathrow airport, which is bound to affect it. People living in Kew and Richmond have to put up with noisy aeroplanes going past their gardens constantly, it seems to be the main fly in the ointment of this beautiful part of London.

I read somewhere that London Plane trees are one of the few trees that can tolerate the extreme pollution in London air, which is why they were chosen, a long time ago.

I read somewhere that roses were actually less affected by fungal diseases like blackspot and mildew during the Industrial Revolution due to Sulphur in the air.

London is a known major Urban Heat Island, due to all the concrete and being so built up, which constantly increases. Hawthorn is plentiful in the North of England, but maybe it just doesn't like to be several degrees warmer?

 

Almost certainly, at the moment the erratic weather doesn't give things a chance to recover from a stressful period.
Last winter was very wet and I've lost three shrubs so far this year.
The mild damp autumns encourage plants to grow rather than go dormant they are then prone to damage by a sudden cold snap. The past two years I've had no frost until December and then a sudden cold snap has brought everything to a crashing halt.
I recently visited two nurseries both in frost pockets one in west Devon told me he'd had -7°C last December; the other up near the Severn hadn't had any frost last December and thought I'd confused it with December 2022.

 

One of my albizza trees appears to have died this year, it grew away in the spring as normal but the bark is coming off.
My laburnum is slowly dying but probably due to my pruning some years ago letting in some kind of die back disease.

Trees do die it's part of the circle of life.

I look around and and young oaks are dying, but others are flourishing.
I often wonder, of the large mature trees we see, how many that were planted died young due to various problems and we just see the survivors.

 

The trouble is plants need reasonable consistency until they mature enough to cope with fluctuating conditions. I don't know how long it takes for a tree to be able to cope with a drought period but I would guess it's a decade or more.

In my area we lost a lot of trees during the summer of 22 and this year the sycamore seem to be massively suffering by die back. In a perfectly functioning ecosystem, perhaps those losses don't matter but we aren't seeing any new trees (apart from silver birch) growing up because they don't get time to establish or the massive muntjac population, destroys them first.

 

Its natural selection in progress. If every acorn that fell was able to grow to a mature tree, then we would be thwarted!
The greatest threat to woodland regeneration is the excessive populations of (invasive) species; be it gray squirrels, muntjac deer, non indigeonous plants and trees, perhaps planted in good faith and without regard to their ability to complement the natural order, and disregard to sound management.
Many hundreds of thousands of trees are being planted, often without any prospect of real establishment and aftercare, by wellmeaning but misguided folk who think they are making a difference.

 

We spoke to a gardener who was planting trees/shrubs for a new build estate. He told the company that they would not survive as they were the wrong type for that soil and area. Totally ignored and told to just plant them. A year later all plants suffering and most dead. He had a lot of comeback from the home owners as they had seen him planting the plants. Not a fair system when someone with knowledge tries to do the right thing and is thrown over a barrel. As @infradig says many good hearted people get involved with planting trees but the follow up isn't done. Not really their fault as they haven't been informed that they need to look after newly planted plants for a while. Along a new road they plant relatively good size trees but again no care is given in the first year and so most die.
While out today with a friend we travelled many miles and saw so many trees already in autumn colours....or were they all dying?