Other names: English, Danish, French etc., according to country of origin.
Distribution: Belonging to the same family as the Oaks, the Beeches occur over a great part of the world including Japan, New Zealand, South Australia, Tasmania, Tierra del Fuego, North America, Norway, Spain, Asia Minor, and Europe.
Tree description: Though not glossy, like that of the birch, the smooth, olive-gray bark of the Beech gives it a charm even in the winter months. The lower boughs are often still decked with the crisp, dead leaves of the previous year. Its roots spread far and close together to gain a firm footing. Above them towers the smooth trunk, often seen with a girth of from 15 to 20 feet, and reaching as many feet in height without a branch. From the main branches sweep outward the more knotted branchlets and twigs, bending slightly downwards, and giving the tree a rounded outline. The Beech requires a thoroughly drained soil, and flourishes on high ground, whether calcareous or sandy. Its gray stems can often be seen throwing out their spreading roots. In Aprilthe pointed, dull-brown buds assume a more glossy hue. They swell almost visibly from day to day. Then on one particular tree, year after year, often on one particular branch, the first leaves burst forth. As they grow in size the leaves deepen in tint, each fringed with a row of delicate silky hairs that protect it from undue moisture or the snap of a late frost. The closely matted roots and the dense shade below its canopy, render the Beech generally fatal to grass, and injurious to evergreens growing beneath it. This gives the Beech a marked power of holding the ground against other species, which has earned the tree a reputation of symbolizing selfish ambition.
Wood description: The heartwood is pale pink-brown. Commonly steamed on the continent which turns the timber to a reddish-brown tone. A straight grain and fine even texture.
Working properties: The light brown, hard, and moderately heavy timber of the Beech is close and even in texture, with a fine silky grain. Being easily worked and fairly strong and durable, the wood is in demand for a wide variety of purposes. Beech can have a moderate effect on tools and has a tendency to bind saws. An excellent machined finish can be achieved. The timber glues easily and stains well. It also has good turning properties.
Modern and Historical use: Cabinetmaking, joinery, solid and laminated furniture, chairmaking, shoe heels, sportsware, toys, bobbins, tool handles, turnery, musical instruments, flooring, heavy construction. More European beech is consumed in the UK than any other hardwood. The Britons, as well as the Gauls are thought to have mixed the ashes of Beech-wood with goats'-fat to make a red dye for their hair and moustaches. Chairmakers in the Chilterns were called 'bodgers' and once worked in the woods turning Beech legs on primitive lathes. The nut is known as mast and occurs in abundance every five to eight years. It is nutritious and rich in oil and attractive to birds and small mammals including deer and badger. The oil can be extracted and used for culinary purposes.

Other names: Gean, Wild Cherry, Mazzard, Fruit Cherry.
Distribution: The three wild forms of cherry trees are popularly distinguished under the names Bird Cherry (P. Padus), Wild Cherry, or Gean (P. Avium), and Dwarf Cherry (P. Cerasus). The geographical range of the three forms is nearly the same, from the Himalayas, through Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Europe. However, the Dwarf Cherry seems more restricted, not occurring either in Scotland or in Africa, whilst the Bird Cherry occurs in the Arctic regions both of Europe and of Asia.
Tree description:
Wood description: The heartwood is pale pinkish brown, straight grained and with a fairly fine, even texture.
Working properties: Cherry has a moderate effect on cutting edges. Straight grained wood machines satisfactorily. Its resistance to splitting on nailing and screwing is good, and it glues well. Cherry polishes exceptionally well.
Modern and Historical use: Generally used in small sections due to its tendency to warp. Used in cabinetmaking and furniture, panelling and decorative joinery. Used for domestic ware, toys and parts of musical instruments. Also available as a highly decorative veneer for furniture, doors and wall panelling.

Distribution: Ebony is a small tree that grows across the African, Asian and Indian continents in the equatorial zone.
Tree description: There are 100's of types of ebony worldwide, but most are only shrubs. The rare specimens of more than a 100 years in age can grow to 50 feet in height and 1.5 feet in girth.
Wood description: A dense black wood often streaked to grey or even straw colour.
Working properties: Very dense and difficult to cut. Dulls blades rapidly.
Modern and Historical use: The wood is often used for musical instruments where its black appearance and hardwearing properties are prized.
Myth and legend: Ebony is the greek word for "fruit of the gods". The Greeks made drinking gobblets from ebony, as they believed it was an antidote for poison, and its use would ward off their enemys' evil intent.

Other names: English Elm, Red Elm, Nave Elm, Orme.
Distribution: Europe and the UK. Mainly in England and Wales.
Tree description:
Wood description: The Heartwood of Elm is dark brown in colour when kiln-dried. Annual rings are distinct due to large earlywood pores which give a coarse texture to the wood. A conspicuous grain pattern gives the timber a very attractive figure. Green streak can be evident in wych elm.
Working properties: The timber has a moderate blunting effect on tools. It machines to a high finish and will polish or wax to lustrous finish. It glues and turns well.
Modern and Historical use: Elm is used in the furniture industry for cabinetwork and kitchen manufacture. It is widely used in boat building, and for domestic flooring and wall panelling.

Other names: Field Maple, European Maple.
Distribution: Throughout Europe, Asia Minor and Russia.
Tree description: The fruits are 2-4 cm across and consist of a pair of 'propellers' each with a seed enclosed in a hairy swelling at the base. The leaves produce a honeydew on which hairstreak butterflies feed.
Wood description: Creamy white when fresh felled with a natural lustre on quartered surfaces. Tends to weather and mature into a light tan colour. The grain is generally straight but often curly or wavy grain is present. Fine textured.
Working properties: Hard maple has excellent strength properties, which makes the wood highly resistant to abrasion and wear. The wood dries slowly with high shrinkage, so it can be susceptible to movement. Pre-boring is recommended when nailing and screwing. With care, hard maple machines well, turns well, and glues satisfactorily.
Modern and Historical use: Maple wood is used for amongst other things, violin making, forming the back, sides and neck of the instrument. Also used for brushbacks, domestic woodware, furniture and joinery work. Also produces highly decorative veneers. Can be treated chemically to produce 'Harewood' with an attractive silver-grey colour in which the veins appear tan coloured.

Other names: English, French, Polish Oak etc, according to country of origin. Also Pedunculate Oak.
Distribution: Uk and Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa.
Tree description: The Latin name 'robur' means sturdy, which describes the tree and its timber which are both strong and durable.Pedunculate Oak is a deciduous tree, with a broad, rounded outline up to 30 m or more tall, with a bark which becomes deeply fissured with age. It is one of the commonest native woodland trees and grows on neutral or lime-rich heavy clays and loams. Green male and female flowers are in separate clusters on the same tree (monoecious) and appear with the young leaves in May. Male flowers are in whorls of stamens in drooping catkins 2-4 cm long. The female flowers are scattered on 1-5 flowered stalks. Greenish striped, fawn acorns, ripe in October, are on long stalks, 2-8 cm long.
Wood description: The heartwood is light tan to biscuit coloured. Usually straight grained, but irregular or cross grained material can occur according to growing conditions. Characteristic silver grain figure on quartered boards due to broad rays. British and Baltic oaks are tough and hard.
Working properties: Cutters should be kept sharp as Oak can have a moderate to severe blunting effect. The wood gives an excellent machined finish. It is advisable to pre bore before nailing oak, though it is highly resistant to splitting in screwing.
Modern and Historical use: Depending on size and quality the timber can be used for sawn timber, veneer, building timber, hardwood pulp, poles, fencing, firewood and charcoal. Food and drink - Tannin used to be produced from bark for tanning leather. Acorns formerly used to feed pigs, the right to graze pigs in woodland was called 'pannage'

Other names: East African olive, loliondo, musheragi, Elgon olive. Related species include Olea europae [Mediterranean countries].
Distribution: East Africa.
Tree description:
Wood description: Pale to mid-brown, marked with irregular grey, brown and black streaks giving a marbled appearance.
Working properties: The interlocked grain makes the timber difficult to work. Moderate blunting effect on tools. Stains and polishes to an excellent smooth finish.
Modern and Historical use: High grade flooring with excellent resistance to abrasion. Great for turnery. Also suitable for furniture and panelling. Plainer wood used for tool handles and vehicles. Sliced for decorative veneers.

Distribution:
Tree description: Originally a native of the mountains of Central and Southern Europe, Sycamore is an introduced deciduous tree, with a stout trunk. It grows up to 35 m in height and has a massive, rounded outline and dense foliage. The grey bark is fissured and turns pinkish-brown with age. It was originally planted but is now widely naturalized from seed in woods, plantations and hedgerows.
Wood description: The sapwood of sycamore is white to light yellow, while the heartwood is light to dark brown. The wood has a fine close texture with interlocked grain. Contrasts well with other species.
Working properties: The timber works easily with hand and machine tools and has only a moderate blunting effect. It machines to a fine smooth finish. The timber nails and glues well and polishes to an excellent finish. It also turns very well.
Modern and Historical use: The creamy-white wood is used for furniture-making, veneers and in musical instruments.

Distribution:
Tree description:
Wood description: A true walnut imported from America where it is grown for its nuts. The timber is a rich brown to purplish black with a pale cream sap wood.
Working properties: Walnut works easily with hand and machine tools, and nails, screws and glues well. It holds paint and stain very well for an exceptional finish and is readily polished. It dries slowly, and care is needed to avoid kiln degrade. Walnut has good dimensional stability.
Modern and Historical use: Extensively used for high class furniture, cabinetmaking, turnery and carving due to its fine even texture which polishes to a superb finish.

Other names: Common Yew, European Yew, Yewtree.
Distribution: Scandinavia, Europe, UK, Western Russia, Asia Minor, North Africa, Burma and the Himalayas.
Tree description: Yew is an evergreen tree up to 20m high with a round crown and spreading branches in the wild, with a massive but much divided trunk. The bark flakes off to leave reddish patches. It is native in woods and scrub and grows mainly on lime-rich soils and rocks, but also is widely planted for ornament and hedges. There are about 10 different species of Yew in the northern temperate zones of Asia, Asia Minor, India, Europe, North Africa and North America. They are all thought to have descended from Paleotaxus rediviva, which was found imprinted on a Triassic era fossils laid down more than 200,000,000 years ago. Recently, more fossils of the Yew have been found from the Jurassic era, 140,000,000 years ago. So the Yew has managed to survive the great climatic changes of our planet, adapting and finding ways to live longer than most species alive today. According to pollen counts taken from peat bogs of Europe, the Yew trees grew in greater abundance at the time of the Ice Age than they do now. As the glaciers receded northwards, the great forests of Europe contained up to 80% of Yew trees, and since these times have been in continuous decline. Some English Yews are as much as 4,000 years old.
Wood description: The heartwood is a golden orange-brown, streaked with dark purple, mauve and brown in patches with veins, tiny knots and clusters of ingrowing bark. The grain is straight but sometimes curly and irregular.
Working properties: Although yew, as a conifer, is classified as a softwood, it is in fact harder and heavier than most commercial hardwoods. The timber varies in colour from a light toffee tan to rich red. These colours, allied with a characteristically distorted and swirling grain make it a particularly attractive timber for turned craft products such as ornamental bowls, lamp stands and door handles.
Modern and Historical use: Ancient Yew wood tools and implements can be found in museums throughout Europe. Because it is a slow-growing tree, it has a tight-grained wood, tough and resilient, used in the past for spears, spikes, staves, small hunting bows and eventually the famous longbows of the Middle Ages [the arrows were tipped with poison made from the Yew]. The entire tree is poisonous - wood, bark, needles and seed. The only part which isn't is the fleshy part of the seed. All parts of the tree except red aril are poisonous to man and animals although deer browse young seedlings. Birds eat the arils and spread the seed. Yew has also been used for making wheels and cogs, spoons, handles, bowls and other turned items, as well as the body of the lute. In northern England, the Yew was used for dowsing to find lost property. The trees were also used as landmarks, because of their size and longevity, and their dark branches would make them stand out in the landscape. Yew groves planted by the Druids were common by ancient ways, on sacred sites, hilltops, ridgeways and burial grounds.
Medicinal uses: Because of its toxicity, there are no herbal remedies derived from the Yew, although it was sometimes called the forbidden tree as it was used to stimulate abortions. In recent years it has been found that taxol, a chemical found in the bark of the Yew, inhibits cell growth and cell division, and may have some promise in the fight against cancer. The biggest problem is that such a huge amount of bark is needed to produce even small amounts of taxol. The Pacific Yew of North America has been found to have the most taxol in its bark, but the bark is only 1/8th of an inch thick. A 200-year old tree with a diameter of 10 inches will yield 6lbs of bark, which in turn will produce 1/5th of a gram of taxol. The average amount to treat one patient is 2 grams. Although they have tried, scientists have not been able to make a synthetic version of taxol. Now researchers are trying to find ways of extracting the taxol from the twigs and needles. Yew tree forests as a sustainable resource could be planted. Branch trimming would probably stimulate growth of foliage and a continuous and potentially increasing supply of raw material. Experiments are being made with varieties which grow faster and may produce higher levels of taxol. Already scientists in America have destroyed thousands of Yew trees in their research programme, and now the English Yew is being used.
Myth and legend: In hot weather the Yew gives off a resinous vapour which shamans inhaled to gain visions. The Yew has always been held sacred and understood as a link with death and rebirth.

Distribution: Zebrano is a West African wood, coming chiefly from Gabon and Cameroon where it is known as Zingana.
Tree description:
Wood description: Renowned for its zebra stripe appearance of dark brown to black streaks or veining on a golden yellow heartwood.
Working properties:
Modern and Historical use: