All beautiful, all green

Aisling Blackburn

The rustic beige and browns of dead or dull bramble and fern are easily outshone by the glossy leaves of ivy and holly in winter. And it’s no wonder why evergreens are still traditionally brought into the house to enliven the dark days.

Today, apart from ivy and holly, our few native evergreens are largely overlooked and are scarce and difficult to find. People still speak wistfully about berries or the lack of thereof and how “the birds got them early this year”. Holly berries are beautiful and beloved by birds, and humans, but the shiny spiny leaves are equally lovely, as are ivy berries.

Of course, why there are no berries on your holly tree could point to the fact that a male tree does not, and the female does carry the berry. There are many cultivated forms of holly, variegated, yellow berried and so on that respond well to pruning and are used in topiary to good effect. Regarding pruning, it is a good idea to cut hedges on a 3-year rotation to protect many species including the holly blue butterfly that feed on ivy and holly.

Scots pine

The next native evergreen that we might consider is the Scots pine. Not every species of Scots pine is native, some have been naturalised or planted and there is much debate among botanists if any are native and why the original species that arrived 9000 years ago after the last ice age, died out – or if it did, completely. A tall grower, up to 117 feet - as recorded at Headfort house Co. Meath in 1933. Its pinkish trunks rising elegantly, devoid of branches to a large, flattened canopy, in older specimens. The tree is useful for wood turning and furniture due to its heavily knotted and resinous timber, but it has exceptional value for biodiversity. Birds such as crossbills, goldcrests and siskins, and mammals such as the red squirrel and pine marten, find use for the Scots Pine, as well as a mix of flies and weevils which provide a food source for the above species and many more besides.

Yew

‘Sineam fedo' (from the ogham alphabet) or yew, refers to one of the oldest growing trees of these islands, Taxus baccata. One tree, known as the Fortingall yew, grows in a graveyard in Perthshire Scotland, and is estimated to be 5,000 years old (forestry and land Scotland 2022) and just like the Holly, the female plant bears the berries. All parts save the outer flesh of the berries and innermost kernel are highly toxic to humans and animals alike, however birds enjoy the fruits and pass the seed out without harm.

There is a tree locally in Florencecourt that is known as the Irish yew, Taxus baccata f. fastigiata, formerly T. Hibernica. It has an upright habit with spirally arranged leaves. It was found amongst wild juniper shrubs near Cuilcagh mountain and two were taken home by George Willis in 1740. He planted one and gave the other to his landlord, Vicount Mount Florence (Trees of Ireland 1993). This plant is famously the mother of all Irish yews (she happens to be a female tree). So if you are wondering about the birds and the bees and pollination and how? Well, this tree is propagated vegatively. To find yew in the wild is a rare thing, however a one-of-a-kind natural yew forest is to be found in Kerry in Killarney National Park.

Strawberry

There seem to be a few reasons that warrant a trip to Kerry, and not only to see the mountains or the yew forest and the equally famous Killarney fern (rare evergreen fern, also coincidentally found in County Fermanagh) but also to see the strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo in its natural habitat.

Go where the mountain bugle wakes

The echoes of Killarney’s lakes,

And Glena’s waving crags incline

O’er sainted Mucruss’ Abbey shrine

The arbute opes its pensile bells

All beautiful itself it tells

The strawberry tree is another native evergreen, the fruit hints at its common name but they are not juicy like its namesake. It can be found in parts of southern Europe the middle east, northern Africa and Ireland but not in the UK. I recall it from my hometown in Bray growing to 15m, fruiting and flowering simultaneously with white bells and red fruits close to the promenade. Then in the National Botanic Gardens a hybrid between A. unedo and A X andrachnoides, a magnificent specimen with a striking red bark that would stop you in your tracks! Wild specimens can also be found in other parts of Kerry and west Cork, as well as on the rocky shores of Lough Gill in Sligo but not in abundance sadly. A member of the Ericaceae family, it is, like many erica species, tolerant of lime but needs shelter sun and a free draining soil.

Even though we have very few evergreens in Ireland, it is hard to confine them all in such a short article, and if truth be told I have barely scratched the surface, and so therefore - to be continued…..