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Native British Trees List

01/09/2025

You can find all the native British trees listed here, and we grow and sell most of them.

Definition of native VS naturalised trees

True natives trees are often defined as:
Trees that colonised Britain during the time between the end of the ice age about 10,000 years ago and the formation of the Channel by the gradual expansion of ancient rivers, some thousands of years later.
Trees that came after the Channel had formed are generally called Naturalised.

List of Native British Trees & Shrubs

This list includes all the native woody plants.

Plant Group Native Trees in the Group “True” Native Tree?
Alder Alnus glutinosa Yes
Ash Fraxinus excelsior Yes
Aspen Populus tremula Yes
Beech Fagus sylvatica No (Probably brought by stone age humans)
Birch Downy Birch, Betula pubescens & Silver Birch, Betula pendula Yes
Blackthorn Prunus spinosa Yes
Box Buxus sempervirens Yes, South GB only
Buckthorn Alder Buckthorn, Rhamnus frangulaPurging Buckthorn, Rhamnus cathartica & Sea-buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides Yes
Cherry Bird Cherry, Prunus padus & Wild Cherry, Prunus avium Yes
Crab Apple Malus sylvestris Yes
Dogwood Cornus sanguinea Yes
Elder Sambucus nigra Yes
Elm English Elm, Ulmus procera – Wych Elm, Ulmus glabra – Smooth-leaf Elm, Ulmus minor Yes for Wych Elm. The others are disputed & only in the South.
Hawthorn Hawthorn, Crataegus monogynaMidland Hawthorn, Crataegus leavigata Yes
Hazel Corylus avellana Yes
Holly Ilex aquifolium Yes
Hornbeam Carpinus betulus Yes, Mostly South GB
Juniper Juniperus communis Yes
Lime Large Leaved Lime, Tilia platyphyllos & Small Leaved Lime, Tilia cordata Yes, South GB only.
Maple Acer campestre Yes, Mostly South GB.
Oak Common Oak, Quercus robur & Sessile Oak, Quercus petraea Yes
Poplar Black Poplar, Populus nigra & Aspen Poplar, Populus tremula Yes
Rowan a.k.a Mountain Ash Rowan / Mountain Ash – Sorbus aucuparia Yes
Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris Yes
Spindle Euonymus europaeus Yes
Strawberry Tree Arbutus unedo Yes, Ireland only.
Whitebeam Sorbus aria Yes
Wild Service Tree Sorbus torminalis Yes
Willow Goat Willow, Salix capreaWhite Willow, Salix albaCrack Willow, Salix fragilis – Salix triandra – Salix pentandra Yes
Yew Taxus baccata Yes

Which Trees are Unique to Britain?

Although Britain has many native trees, there are effectively no endemic trees, i.e. trees that are native here and nowhere else.

If all the trees in Britain were destroyed tomorrow, the world would not lose a single distinct species.

The small exception is a handful of asexual micro-species of Whitebeam, Sorbus aria.
These apomictic plants are cheating in order to be unique: they naturally occur in Whitebeam populations around the world, and each strain barely counts as a distinct species only because they reproduce by cloning.
They are otherwise the same as normal Whitebeam, so they are not of any special importance to an ecosystem.

What is a Nativar?

A cultivar is a cultivated variety of a species (read more about plant botanical names), so a nativar is a cultivar of a native species.

For example, Acer campestre is the native British field maple.
Acer campestre has several cultivars, which are also nativars in Britain, even if they happened to have been bred in another country:

If a non-native plant is bred into a cultivar in the UK, it’s just a normal cultivar, not a nativar.

Are nativars as good for wildlife as native species?

Overall, native species are better for wildlife than cultivated varieties.
In many cases, there will be no measurable difference, but when there is you’ll invariably find that wild native species are better for insects, and therefore everyone else in the food chain, than their cultivated forms.