The Hollies, Weetwood (North Leeds)

Geoff Appleyard Memorial Tree Walk

Friday 16^th September 2022

Leader: Graham Heffernan

Number of attendees: 10

William Brown, the owner of the private estate we now know as the Hollies, gave Leeds City Council the house and 30 acres of greenspace in memory of his son who was killed at the end of the Great War. From 1925 the House was used as a sanatorium for children suffering from tuberculosis, while the grounds became a public park. More recently the house was used to provide accommodation for other vulnerable groups, now private flats. It is thought that much of the vision of Tolkien's 'Middle Earth' was imagined on his walks here.

We met on a cool but fine morning on Parkside Road at the eastern side of the site. Graham led us on a pleasant walk through some natural woodland to get to The Hollies. We began at the south side of the house where there are some formal gardens. Here we were introduced to some of the trees included in the gardens. One of the first was a Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) which in its native setting is the world’s largest tree. Then we came to a young Red Snake Bark Maple (Acer capillipes) with its distinctive streaked bark. Graham showed us how to distinguish this tree from other Snake Bark Maples by looking for a white growth in the vein axils on the underside of the leaf. There was also a Blue Bean (Decaisnea fargesii), see the photo of the blue beans!

Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia) is another tree that has unusual fruits which look a little like Chinese Lanterns. Most impressive was the Deodar (Cedrus deodara), towering over a lawned area and adorned with the impressive cones typical of Cedar trees.

The tree with perhaps the most striking bark was a Paper Bark Maple (Acer griseum) which has a red-bronze colour, the top layer of which peels in small areas. The leaves have 3 leaflets, different to most maples.

Having seen the Forest Pansy (Cercis canadensis) and tasted a fruit from the Strawberry Dogwood (Cornus capitata) we had a sit down in the sunshine to eat our packed lunches.

Following lunch we cracked on looking at more trees in the formal area. This included a lovely Walnut (Juglans regia) near to which our two Fungi experts, Andy and Ian, pointed out a very bright looking fungi growing on a wooden bench, Conifer Mazegill (Gloeophyllum sepiarium). We also met a Spindle (Euonymus europaeus) with plenty of berries and a very nice-looking Corkscrew Willow (Salix matsudana).

By 2pm we were moving to a less formal area of mixed woodland where there were some other interesting trees mixed with the natives (we tried to avoid looking at Lawn Lobelia (Pratia angulata), Trailing Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana) and various garden ferns, to focus on the trees). Here was a Foxglove Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) with flowers that do look a little like the flowers of the common Foxglove flower but with unusual looking fruits.

Then there was a Judas Tree (Cercis siliquastrum), Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys verticillata), Rauli (Nothofagus alpina), Cork Oak (Quercus suber) whose bark was very corky, Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), Lebanon Oak (Quercus libani), Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) and Paper Bark Birch (Betula papyrifera). We also saw a Grey Snake Bark Maple (Acer rufinerve) to compare with the Red Snake Bark Maple we saw earlier, this one doesn't have the white growths in its leaf vein axils.

There were too many trees for me to mention them all but what an excellent place to visit. Many thanks to Graham for doing the research and leading the walk.

Text and photographs by Ian Dyson