In season
What’s out on the trees, month by month
What the trees of Britain are doing in each month of the year, in photographs: catkins and blossom, new leaves, fruit, nuts and cones, autumn colour, and the buds and bark of winter. Pick a month, or see the whole year on the calendar.
JanuaryThe trees are bare, so this is the month for buds and bark. Hazel’s catkins are already loosening, ash shows its black buds, and young beeches still hold their dead copper leaves.This month
FebruaryHazel and alder catkins hang in the hedges and the buds are fattening. A good month to learn a bare tree by its twigs, before the leaves hide them.This month
MarchBlackthorn flowers white on bare black twigs, before its leaves come, and hawthorn and elder are among the first trees into leaf.This month
AprilCherry blossom and fresh green leaves: beech, birch and hawthorn come into leaf, and horse chestnut opens its sticky buds.This month
MayHorse chestnut candles, hawthorn’s white may blossom, rowan and elder starting to flower, and every leaf at its freshest green. Oaks hang their catkins, and ash comes into leaf.This month
JuneElderflower in the hedges, rowan in flower, and the first fruit setting: young keys on sycamore and field maple, and cherries on the wild cherry.This month
JulyLime trees flower and scent the streets, and the summer’s fruit starts to show: green conkers in their spiny cases, keys on the maples, green acorns on the oaks and green berries on the holly.This month
AugustThe trees are in full, dark leaf and the fruit is ripening: rowan berries turning scarlet, haws colouring, hazelnuts filling out.This month
SeptemberConkers start to drop, hazelnuts and the first acorns fall, sloes and haws ripen in the hedges, and elder hangs heavy with black berries.This month
OctoberThe conkers are down, the hedges are full of haws and sloes, and the maples and birches are turning yellow. Here’s what to look for before it’s gone.This monthNovemberMost leaves are coming down: beech turns gold, field maple yellow, and oaks go russet late. Haws and yew’s red cups are still on the trees, and ash keys hang on into winter.This month
DecemberBare branches, so bark and buds take over. Ash keys and young beeches’ copper leaves are still on the trees, and horse chestnut’s sticky buds are already set for spring.This month
In the app
Take it on your walk
- What’s out, every weekThree things to find on the trees this week
- What to look forEvery part of each tree in real photographs
- Your collectionEvery find you photograph, in its numbered place
- A short round each dayUntil you know them on sight
Free to download.
Photographs: cjoynson (CC0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Jose Gutierrez Higa (CC BY 4.0), valbentley (CC BY 4.0), jmark (CC0), redshank (CC0), oliverc29 (CC BY 4.0), Susan Marley (CC BY 4.0), Philokretes (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.