37 thoughts on “Wordless Wednesday – Golden Hornbeam Leaves in my Woodland Walk

    • Warren woods is at the top of our lane and many years ago the route led from our village through the Hornbeams to the next village, its mainly dog walkers who visit now and most of the wood is now neglected and unmanaged, but we always enjoy the walk through there.

    • Hornbeams are very similar to Beech, the easiest way to tell them apart is that Hornbeam leaves when mature are noticeably serrated, whereas Beech leaves are smoother. At the end of that avenue of trees there are some Beech trees apparently planted when some of the Hornbeams failed.

    • Thank you, the wood is not managed anymore and there are quite a lot of self sown maples and birches and a couple of the Hornbeams came down in a storm a few years ago, but that walk through remains lovely.

    • Hi Julian, I’m not certain, they were planted by the Wrest park estate, now run by English Heritage and workers from our village walked through the Hornbeam walk to work on the estate. Wrest park is an historic grand house with 92 acres of grounds, I shall dig deeper and find out more as I’ve taken them for granted.

      • Hi Julian yes there are native English Bluebells, however in the 80’s an A road was put in cutting across the top of our lane and the route through the woods to the next village. Crossing between 10 and 3 is fine, otherwise you have to take your life in your hands. Progress!!

    • The Hornbeam walk, now surrounded by a small wood, was apparently owned by Wrest Park, (an English Heritage house in the next village). Workers from our village walked through the hornbeams to work on the Wrest Park estate. The Hornbeams are veterans but I’m not certain when they were planted.

  1. Just beautiful! The smooth tree trunks seem to be emerging from a sea of gold. I would like to plant an American hornbeam in my garden – Carpinus caroliniana. Though it is a much smaller tree than what you have there.

    • Hi Cynthia, the Hornbeam walk is a gem in the middle of a now unmanaged and quite neglected wood, which is sited at the top of the lane we live in. We walk there most days with our dog but its this time of year we love it most.

    • Thanks Donna, after posting this photo its made me realise how much I’ve taken this walk for granted and wish I knew more about its planting, a winter project I think.

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