Mama tree

This ancient sweet chestnut was my OneTree back in the days when we did OneTree blips. I haven't visited her for a while because brambles and undergrowth have made her less accessible. She's been here over 200 years and her bark is as gnarly and pitted as the hide of an old elephant, her girth as massive as a whale's.

I call her 'she' out of respect but sweet chestnuts are rarely self-fertile and in the absence of another member of her species the prickly cases that litter the ground don't contain any nuts. But she is foster-mother to a multitude. Several young clones have sprouted up from her roots; ivy, ferns, moss, fungi and even a small yew tree grow upon her trunk and branches. Birds can use her wide arms and insects her deep crevices. Her root network, which will match the spread of her canopy, must be laced with subterranean mycelia.

I would hate to find she has fallen but I think she will be standing long after I am gone.