Introducing our oldest resident– The Old Holm Oak of Warren Hill.
This Oak is a tourist in these parts, usually being found in the Mediterranean, our native oaks have iconic squiggly leaves and branches that look like bolts of lightning, whereas the leaves of this oak are pointed ovals, dark and glossy.
Oak Trees help to clean the air that we breathe, as they extract carbon from the atmosphere and stores it within their huge trunks. A mature tree can support whole ecosystems with some trees recorded as hosting over 500 species of animals, birds, insects, lichens, fungi, and plant life.
This is called being a Keystone Species; life relies upon English Oaks, more so than any other native tree, without oaks life would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Listen out at night for the call of the owl that lives in this one!
Left undisturbed all environments in England would have oak trees, which makes sense as to why we have developed such a strong cultural affinity with them – from folk tales and legends to art and poetry, and food and herbal remedies these trees have been looking after us for centuries. Oak trees can live for 100s of years, any guesses at how long this tree has been looking out for the Melville Community?
