Bath Riverside Ramble

23rd August was a bright, sunny day when we met at Bath’s Green Park Station for the first of our Bath Tree Trails. This one was a short riverside and street walk, looking at the many trees that have been planted (or just appeared!) in the last couple of hundred years. Some are now “Champion” trees due to their being the widest or tallest of their species in the country, others had interesting back-stories, others just relished growing next to water.

We got off to a good start with a couple of walnut trees full of fruit (the edible nuts are inside the fleshy outer layer and inner shell); these were introduced to the UK by the Romans from the Eastern Mediterranean. We then went into Green Park itself, and immediately found a Champion Double Horse Chestnut; its massive girth measured 5.78 metres in 2014, so obviously is even fatter now! Also in Green Park was a Champion Narrow London Plane, Platanus x hispanica ‘Pyramidalis’. This only became a champion for its girth when mature, having lost its slim shape with age but still recognisable from the common London Plane by its simpler-shaped leaves and less crooked branches.

We left the park and wandered along the riverside path, noticing common Hawthorn, Alder, Birch and Willow, Turkey Oak and Turkish Hazels. Once we crossed the River Avon at Halfpenny Bridge we noticed Weeping Willows (Salix babylonica), which can propagate by dropping branches into the water to root themselves further downstream. Other moisture-loving trees were here, including Grey and Italian Alder, Elder (covered in Elderberries at this time of year!) and a line of Tulip trees, Liriodendron tulipifera, named for the early-summer flowers; the leaves turn a wonderful shade of gold in the Autumn.

Photo: Group by the Champion Narrow London Plane

Crossing back over the river at North Parade we found a Monterey Pine, which had very large cones in pairs; these are retained for years. We also saw a Holm Oak which has evergreen leaves like Holly, but it has acorns (unlike Holly!). The Holm Oak is one of the main trees used in Truffle orchards but there were no sign of truffles here.

We were now well away from the river, and arrived at a special tree in Abbey Green. This was a London Plane, Platanus x hispanica, which had been planted in 1880 to celebrate a marriage. It looks much older than its 140 years, but still looks absolutely magnificent.

In the Shickle Garden of St John’s Almshouses grows a male Ginkgo biloba, looking amazing. Ancestors of this tree were around at the time of the dinosaurs, in China! Fortunately the gardeners here didn’t plant a female as the fruit has a disgusting smell. I know, I’ve been near one or two.

Finally we reached James Street West and the last trees on the trail; a magnificent Golden Weeping Willow which shows its spectacular yellow twigs before the leaf buds open in the Spring, also two Oriental Planes, which are one of the parents of the London Plane. The leaves are more deeply lobed than the latter, more like the fingers of a hand.

We obviously couldn’t resist finishing with tea and cake, before catching the bus back home to Keynsham!