Native British Trees List

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 frangula – Purging 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 monogyna – Midland 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 caprea – White Willow, Salix alba – Crack 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:

‘Royal Ruby‘
‘Streetwise‘
‘Elsrijk‘

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.

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Native British Trees List

Table of contents

Native British Trees List

Definition of native VS naturalised trees

List of Native British Trees & Shrubs

Which Trees are Unique to Britain?

What is a Nativar?

Are nativars as good for wildlife as native species?