Identifying trees was once part of countryman’s education

The story of the macrocarpa, aka Monterey cypress, is intriguing.

On this lovely June morning I’ve been out identifying trees overhanging the stream on the edge of our garden. The beeches are obvious, and I’ve recognised an alder. Others, strangers to me, are, perhaps, mulberry and witch hazel. The jury is out; the tree books lie on top of my desk, slips of paper inserted to mark “possibles”.

An old estate lies on our boundaries, the house now in ruins, and the giant and the exotic trees around it are reaching maturity or have already fallen — dawn redwoods, live oaks, sequoias, and the two largest macrocarpas I’ve ever seen, one with a girth of 11m. My wife and I measured it again the other day. A macrocarpa in Co Down has a circumference of 12m, perhaps the Irish record, but it depends on where you measure the bole. If measured down toward the roots, our macrocarpa may well out-girth that specimen. If so, the record goes to West Cork.