The trees around us

• The best place to learn about local species is in our monthly blog, where we regularly feature trees that you'll encounter on the streets of Herne Hill. 

• Look at the section headed 'Find by keyword' where there are links to all the species that we've covered in some depth. 

• Some of the articles give you tips for identifying individual trees. Choose the 'Winter ID' tag for help with recognising trees when the branches are bare.

• You can also check out the trees outside your door by clicking the MAPS tab, selecting the STREET GUIDES dropdown and finding  your street name. This is a work in progress, so not all of our 24 streets are available at present.

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Naming the trees

• Tree names can be confusing. The only accurate  way to classify trees is by using their internationally agreed scientific names in what's called botanical Latin.

• We explain how the naming system works and provide a short glossary of botanical Latin. 

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Trees for a changing climate

• Some of the trees growing on our streets at the moment will find it hard to deal with climate change in the years ahead, particularly the extremely high summer temperatures and drought. Some may be vulnerable to storms and floods too.

• Native trees especially have evolved in conditions quite different to those we're already experiencing. In future we'll need to plant more species now considered exotic, not just to maintain the survival rate but to increase biodiversity.   

• We've compiled a list of the species that will be more resilient to global heating. Where we can influence the council's planting programme we'll be recommending they choose some of these.