Trees with buds in facing pairs
Buds in facing pairs, one each side of the twig, narrow a bare tree to a few, among them ash, the maples and sycamore, horse chestnut and elder. Then look at the colour.
What to look for
- AshSooty black buds
Horse chestnutBig, sticky, reddish brown buds
SycamoreBig green buds
Norway mapleBroad reddish brown buds on slender shoots
Field mapleCorky ridges along older twigs
ElderPurplish buds with spiky scales, like a pineapple
Common ashSooty black buds in opposite pairs
Kieran Roy Powell, CC BY 4.0Horse chestnutSticky buds over horseshoe-shaped leaf scars
SycamoreBig green buds in opposite pairs
Norway mapleSlender speckled shoots, broad reddish brown buds
David Sandler, CC BY 4.0Field mapleOften corky wings on wrinkled second-year shoots
ElderPurplish pineapple buds, white pith inside
In the app
Not sure? Ask the app
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely names the tree
- No signal? The guided keyOne simple question at a time, about what you can see
- Every part, through the yearSo you can name it in winter as surely as in June
- A short round each dayUntil you know them on sight
Free to download.
Photographs: steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Kieran Roy Powell (CC BY 4.0), jcollatz (CC0), David Sandler (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.