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Two ID’s Please!

NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
in Plants
1. This has always been that irritating, spiky shrub thing in my wild woodland, but this year has burst into flower. My neighbour says it’s a tree heather, is she right? As you can see from photo three, it can get pretty large:





2 . This sapling has recently sprung up from nowhere, any ideas on this one, looks a bit scary/invasive:


Many thanks.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.

Posts

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    The bottom one is a horse chestnut.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Someone’s planted a conker for No. 2 

    Don’t know No. 1 ... sorry. It looks rather gorgeous tho ... is it scented? It looks as tho it ought to be 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Tree Heather. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I googled tree heather and got Erica arborea - which looks a lot like what you have (not the baby conker tree, the other one). It's very pretty.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    Lyn said:
    Tree Heather. 
    aka Erica arborea
  • TackTack Posts: 1,367
    edited April 2021
    Second one I agree
    Edit, beaten to it


  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    Interesting, Nollie, given how alkaline your soil is. Maybe you can grow more than you think.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Thanks everyone, brilliant as ever. 

    We did think ‘that looks like a horse chestnut’ then dismissed that as crazy, how would’ve it got here unless it’s been planted by a child and been lying dormant for over 5 years since we bought the house? If dropped by a bird, it would have to have been a big bird!

    @Dovefromabove not sure if it’s scented will investigate...

    @edhelka yes interesting! The steep, wild woodland where the heather is growing is at the top of my plot, a tiny sliver of the ancient, predominantly holm oak forest surrounding me. Holm oaks (Quercus ilex) grow on a wide range of soils, but perhaps hundreds of years of leaf litter has neutralised the soil enough for the heather to grow? The useable terraced land below where I garden is very alkaline.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Well I solved the mystery of how I ended up with a little Horse Chestnut sapling! I started digging around it today as it has to go (too close to a path and other trees). There is a two inch thick lopped off trunk buried in the leaf litter, it’s re-sprouted from that, having been dormant for 5 or more years since we bought the house.

    @Dovefromabove sorry, I forgot to get back to you, no scent from the Tree Heathers. 
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    @Nollie thanks for checking ... it looks gorgeous anyway 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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