Tree Architecture

This course was fascinating, taking a deep dive into the architecture of trees in the context of veteran tree management. It was a two-day course held at the FSC Epping Forest site and led by Tom Joye of Inverde in conjunction with the Ancient Tree Forum. Tom started by introducing the concepts of tree architecture and went through the life stages of trees, looking at decline and senescence as well as the prognosis of management.

It builds on knowledge of tree morphology by looking at fixed and repetitive building plans in their structure, referred to as a blueprint. Understanding is gained from studying the architectural characteristics, which could include continuous or rhythmic growth, lateral or terminal flowering, symmetrical, orthotropic or plagiotropic growth directions, as well as monopodial or sympodial elongation of the axes. There are now 24 architectural models, 22 of which are set out below from the work of Hallé & Oldeman in the 1970’s.

It is also important to understand with trees that there is no link between chronological age and development and that trees can go through cycles and even repeat cycles of development stages as well as be an old tree but exhibit young characteristics. Trees have amazing abilities to respond and react to external influences, be that stress, storm damage, or pest attacks and have developed numerous mechanisms to adapt and change themselves and have superb resilience. Tom also pointed us to a range of wider literature to review including the work by Francis Hallé, Christophe Drénou, Jeanne Millet, Herbert Edelin, Adrian Bell and Andreas Roloff.

The outdoor element of the course was, for this event, the most challenging as we had snow as well as freezing conditions, but the group were still keen to put the new information into practice and discuss the different architectural models of each tree species as well as identify the growth units and branching structures. We also looked at the form and position of epicormic growth and whether it was orthotropic, phagotrophic or ageotrophic as well as the organisation. We then went on a wider walk around Epping Forest to see some of the magnificent Veteran trees and the current management approaches being taken.

An excellent course and well worth the two days in such stunning scenery and good preparation for the Vet Cert exam.