Secret World Below The Canopy

Unbowed by time, the long-lived oak has a vital role to play in the lifecycle of hundreds of plants, animals and insects

- Tom Mason

AS THE WARMTH begins to fade on another English summer, an oak tree stands proud on the edge of a green field. The thick mature trunk supports a wide crown of branches which spread out above, as well as one or two dead ones, a sign of its age. The change in season has triggered the inevitable; the oak’s leaves start to brown, and the acorns ripen and fall from their cupules. They drop to carpet the land below with a rich source of food, perfect for the jay that is hurriedly jumping between a grazing herd of red deer, which are also making the most of the feeding opportunity.

As the sun starts to fall, a little owl finds its position among the branches. It peers down at the ground to spy a meal of the last large insects of the year or a bank vole feeding on the fresh acorn platter. With the onset of winter inevitable, a female stag beetle makes her way through the fallen leaves and acorns to where she emerged in a decaying limb of the oak.

The English oak, Quercus robur, is a large deciduous tree that is one of the most important, owing to its support of such a large amount of biodiversity. With single trees being able to sustain in excess of 300 species, they are one of the pillars of the English countryside. Growing rapidly for the first 120 years of their life, they slow down in the later years.

Reaching from 65ft to 130ft (20-40m) in height, oaks have a large crown, with study branches beneath. Their original smooth silvery-brown bark becomes fissured and rugged with age.