Just a few days ago we experienced the warmest Armistice Day (November 11) ever, a troubling portent of what lies ahead. “The past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat,” the United Nations World Meteorological Organization said in a report earlier this month. It went on, ominously: “The warming continues.”
So while it’s cheering to see the recently planted hibiscus (Hibiscus resi) at the corner of Elmwood Road and Wyneham Road still blooming on the threshold of winter, at the same time it’s a shocking sight.
As a group, we have to keep pressing the council to plant as many trees as possible, not just to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but to give our streets and houses the cooling shade they’re going to need.
Late autumn leaves
On a more traditionally seasonal note, here are a few highlights of the late autumn leaves on our streets. Now the clocks have changed we can use all the colour we can get.
There’s a pretty-looking newcomer making a splash on Red Post Hill, a Japanese zelkova (Zelkova serrata) planted in August 2021 at no. 42/44. Another young zelkova a few doors away at 56 seems to be a week or two behind. Zelkovas are members of the elm family, with similar leaves, although true elm leaves are asymmetrical, with an extra bump on one side, just below the stalk.
Most of the stunning red leaves on the sweet gums (Liquidambar) we featured last month have now faded or fallen, but if you're lucky, and the street cleaners haven’t been round, the gutters and pavements are full of them. Some sweet gums are still green, others are part-way through their autumn show, so the spectacle will carry on for another couple of weeks.
The pink-flowering Kanzan cherries (Prunus 'Kanzan') are springtime favourites in Herne Hill, but their large, drooping, long-lasting leaves also colour beautifully in the autumn. This one is outside 95 Stradella, one of five along that stretch.
Finally, two of our bigger trees. The first one in the picture below is an unusual oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) standing just inside the grounds of Bessemer Grange school at the junction of Nairne Grove and Woodfarrs. It’s one of the parents of the hybrid London plane (Platanus x hispanica), our commonest tree by far. The other ancestor is the American plane (Platanus occidentalis).
The autumn colours are pleasing, though not especially striking, but the beauty of the oriental plane lies in its finely cut leaves. They’re too high up in the crown of the very large Nairne Grove tree to make out the details, but you can see two newly planted orientals close up outside the new flats at 62A Red Post Hill, next to the St Faith’s vicarage.
The council has agreed to plant another oriental plane nearby, on the pavement outside the church car park, so by next year we’ll have three of these splendid trees in a row.
The second photo is of course a ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), a tree that’s become very familiar on Herne Hill streets. Their unique fan-shaped leaves are gradually turning a bright buttery yellow, which looks very impressive on the bigger specimens like this one at 47 Burbage Road.
In botanical terms ginkgos - which the fossil record shows first appeared about 170 million years ago in China - are gymnosperms, meaning their seeds grow naked, unlike all broad-leaved trees (angiosperms) which encase them in fruity flesh, dry pods or hard shells. We only know of one female, seed-producing ginkgo in the area, in Sunray Gardens, which is actually a good thing since the seed smells absolutely disgusting when it drops to the ground.
Who ate all the yew berries?
Autumn fruits are getting pretty sparse now, and we think we know one of the reasons why. This individual was spotted by our tree patrol on the morning of November 9, acting suspiciously in the vicinity of the Delawyk Crescent yew trees. Locals suspect there's a whole gang of its mates operating in the area, brazenly stealing fruit right across the neighbourhood. You’ll recognise them by their distinctive bright green outfits. If you see one do not approach - that beak is very powerful.
The three yews (Taxus baccata) chomped by the parakeet grow on the front lawn of Delawyk, at the Ruskin Walk end. Every part of this historic native tree - the dark green needles, the red-brown bark and the bright red berries - is poisonous to humans and animals but birds manage to eat the fleshy red fruit without coming to harm. Their digestive systems can't break down the hard seeds so they disperse them by passing them intact in their droppings.
A harvest of haws
Natural fruit pickers like the parakeets had a good crop to feast on this year, thanks to the exceptionally hot and sunny summer, and the best of the remaining berries can be found on the ever-reliable hawthorns.
The hybrid cockspur thorn (Crataegus x lavalleei) outside 7 Casino Avenue, in the top cul-de-sac, has a heavy crop of big orange-red berries (known as ‘‘haws’), while the broad-leaved cockspur thorn (Crataegus x prunifolia) at 35-37 Half Moon Lane is looking as pretty as ever. We’re hoping for two new prunifolias on Warmington Road by springtime.
There’s another lavallei nearby, at 19 Hollingbourne Road. Their leaves are darker, glossier and larger than the prunifolia’s and will stay on the tree until the end of the year, a striking contrast to the equally long-lasting haws. The autumn colours of the prunifolia are much better, though.
If you have a chance take a look at the three rare Grignon’s thorns (Crataegus x grignonensis) on Ruskin Walk - two on the odd side and one on the even. You’ll recognise them by their abundant scarlet fruit which will hang on the branches until April.
More unusual fruit
Next to no. 2 Elmwood, just inside the gate to Sunray Gardens, is one of our more exotic-looking trees: a Koelreuteria paniculata, known variously as the Pride of India, the China tree, the golden rain tree, the varnish tree, and even the shrimp tree. Take your pick.
A native of east Asia, once its small yellow flowers fade in late summer these extraordinary, papery, bladder-like fruit appear, containing a few black seeds. They usually start off green, although we featured one earlier this year, in the grounds of Judith Kerr school, where the bladders were tinted red. All of them turn eventually to bronze and remain on the tree for months.
The next fruit-bearing tree originated in the Himalayas but seems to thrive in southeast London. It’s the Indian horse chestnut (Aesculus indica), found on Stradella Road, Casino and - this one - on the grass verge outside 22 Sunray Avenue, in an attractive cul-de-sac. The fruit are very different to our childhood conkers, with a polished, almost black seed inside the smooth, leathery, brown husk (no painful prickles when you pick them up).
Winter buds
The Indian horse chestnut and the red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea) are much more widely planted now than the traditional horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), which is very susceptible to pests, fungal diseases and other pathogens. We’ve lost many in Dulwich in recent years.
But there are two relatively young and healthy horse chestnuts on Casino, in the cul-de-sac outside 53, and while the rest of us are celebrating autumn they’re already anticipating springtime, with these huge, glossy, sticky buds.
Meanwhile, further down the hill in Casino, just past the junction with Red Post Hill, the Northern Japanese magnolias (Magnolia kobus) look like they’re decked with early Christmas decorations, their pale, furry flower buds twinkling in the sun. The one in the picture is at no. 118.
Another loss
Sadly we just lost another old London plane on Elmwood, felled on November 8. We’ll urge Southwark to plant another there as soon as possible. This is the second one to come down at the same junction, at the bottom of Frankfurt Road, in recent years - both due to decay.
The plane opposite was replaced with a sapling in May this year, but as we’ve been reporting the pit was repeatedly undermined by foxes digging deep holes around the stem. We’re pleased to say that the council has created a new tree pit there, and the freshly laid tarmac seems to be successfully repelling any new fox attacks.
Pollarding planes
While all this was going on, the London planes on Half Moon Lane were getting their annual haircut. Teams of arborists come and trim them so the 37 bus can get along the road safely.
They get their odd lollipop look - the small, round crown, unlike a normal, broad plane - by initially getting their main branches severely lopped. The bushy growths that sprout where the cut was made grow very vigorously and have to be cut right back every year. That’s what the climbers in the pictures are doing with their chainsaws.
Here’s how London Transport used to do the same job: tree surgeons stood with their loppers on the upper deck of an adapted open-top bus!
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