Identification Features

• Bark: silvery-grey with greenish tinge, particularly when wet. Stays pretty smooth even in really large trees, becoming only slightly rough. Can develop light horizontal markings.
• Twigs: Slender, zig-zagging from node to node with alternate buds
• Buds: Slender, elegant, elongated (2cm), torpedo-shaped, sharp-pointed, obvious scales, reddish brown.

Description/General Character:
Long trunk, growing tall. Potentially a very large tree. When growing in the open – domed with spreading branches. When growing in the forest – tall dome on upward facing branches on top of long straight trunk.

Range:
Southern and western Europe to the Ukraine.

Habitat:
Woodlands, forming pure stands or mixing with conifers and other broadleaves. Favours mineral rich soils. Doesn’t like it wet.

Other Observations:
Dead leaves often persist on lower branches of both small and large trees.