h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have you got a favorite tree?

I am competely amazed by horse chestnuts. I grew up in the mid/northern parts of Sweden, where these trees can not grow. So when I moved to Gothenburg on the swedish westcoast I fell in love with these beautiful trees. Horse chestnuts are found in many parks in Gothenburg and it is an amazing event, at least for me,in spring when the come in to bloom. Children love to collect the chestnuts in the autum, and so do I.

Beeches are also beatiful trees.

Izzybelle

Hi Izzybelle,

Yes, I like horse-chestnut trees - they are not native to Ireland, but there are quite a few around nowadays, and they look very unusual compared to most other trees. There are also some Spanish Chestnut trees close to my home (I have the great fortune to live just a few miles from an arboretum).

I don't really have a favourite, as I just like to know what is around me when I take a walk in the countryside. I guess the most spectacular tree I know is the Cedar of Lebanon. There is a spectacular example in a golf course close to my home. The Japanese Cedar and some of the Japanese Acers are also really beautiful, but of course they are very uncommon here. My favourite "common" trees, would include birch, alder and larch. I'm not so gone on ash or elder or some of the scraggy willows found in bog-land, but all trees have their story, and that's what makes them so interesting.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner - I didn't have a check on to record new conversations.

Woodpigeon

My favorite tree is Brighamia insignis campanulacea! It's this cool little tree that only grows in Hawaii, and there are only two hundred of them left in the wild. (I haven't actually seen one in the wild, but I did see one in the Climatron at the Missouri Botanical Gardens! (An excellent spot, by the way