Trees – the biggest plants on the planet – provide us with so many benefits from carbon removal, habitats for wildlife, fruit and nut crops, mental health benefits, and urban green spaces – and they have done for thousands of years.
And yet trees are so ubiquitous that we can take them for granted – they’re just there. But besides the tangible benefits they provide, older trees also give us a living record of the landscape and an insight into the past as we realise that the collective nouns we use to name them can tell a story of our cultural history.
A forest is hard to define precisely but we generally take it to mean a large area of land, neither agricultural nor urban, that is covered by a dense collection of trees. However, a plantation is considered to be a large area of land, also covered by a dense collection of trees, which have been deliberately planted as a forest operation, usually for timber production.
We understand that a wood, or woodland, is another substantial area of trees but we universally understand a wood to be smaller than a forest.
The words copse and coppice are commonly used to describe a small wood. Technically, coppicing is an old woodland management technique that involves felling a tree at the base from which new shoots grow to ensure that people had a regular supply of firewood. The word copse actually refers to a woodland area managed as coppice, but as an added complication, the word coppice is also used to describe the coppiced area.
Like copse the word spinney is used to describe a small area of trees, often interspersed with shrubs and undergrowth, which traditionally has been managed for hunting game birds – but a spinney is more natural and less structured than a copse.
A thicket is a very dense woodland area often made up of the same species of tree growing closely together and often impenetrable to people, but a covert is a thicket that provides cover in which animals and game can hide.
Historically, an orchard is an area of trees which has been deliberately planted and managed for its crop of fruit or nuts. Today orchards are typically made up of specific varieties to improve food quality and volume production.
A grove refers to a small group of trees that doesn’t have much undergrowth and may be cultivating a particular type of fruit or nut – for example an olive grove. Shakespeare often symbolized groves as romantic places as they are generally gently attractive woodland areas.
Topographically speaking, a hilltop group of trees, often prominent in the landscape, is known as a clump. A hangar is a small group of trees that grow on a hillside or a slope, and a dell is a small valley or hollow usually covered with woodland.
Now can you see the wood for the trees?
