Since we are off to the Sheffield Tree Festival later, amidst talks between Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Tree Action Group, it seems appropriate to feature one of England’s iconic but threatened tree species. Introduced from Turkey in the 16th Century, the Horse Chestnut was widely planted in public spaces and large estates but there are fears that this all-year round beauty, from the early sticky buds, and beautiful ‘candle’ blossoms, to the Conkers so many of us grew up gathering and playing, to the stunning bare trees and trunks of old specimens, there are two attacks on Horse Chestnuts. A moth, spreading from Greece and Macedonia, is destroying leaves before many Conkers have had time to fully develop. And a fungal infection, reported only 4 times in 2000 but affecting around half of all our trees by 2007, damages and weakens the trees themselves. We were lucky to have found
some lovely Conkers in Lincolnshire last week. Conditions: Still and blue-skied. Temperature: Max 15 Min 8C.