On Saturday 29 August 2020 Roy Vickery will be leading a tree walk on Tooting Common, starting at 2.30 p.m.  Booking essential, please see the Events page of this website for further details. Fully booked

Report:  Six people booked, but only five were able to turn up on a grey, cold and occasionally blustery afternoon.  After examining pedunculate and sessile oaks (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) we followed along the north side of the railway line (it seemed that no trains were running) stopping to discuss various trees as we came across them.  Passing under the railway bridge we then progressed along the south side of the railway, where we were able to examine three honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos, trees.  This species often  exhibit spectacular complex thorns emerging from their trunks, but these trees had few thorns, all of which were high up in the branches.  Finally we examined a fine specimen of European white elm (Ulmus laevis), which is considered to be one of the Common’s more important trees.  It appears to be hardy, and produces copious fertile seeds each year; why, we wondered, wasn’t it more usually planted to replace trees lost as a result of Dutch elm disease.