Hornbeam

Spotted in the park nearby, the fruit is shown in the thumbnail, this forms as a catkin before turning into the above. The tree is a native in the south of the UK although John has grown a couple, neighbour Nick now has them, he will Bonsai them, apologies to N if this is not the correct way for describing his wonderful collection.

This afternoon a visit to a couple of garden centres, the first was a nursery with a sale price for some plants. We could happily have bought a good few. The second had masses of autumn flowering plants. We don’t have room in the car also not sure about taking plants from this milder climate to the west coast of Scotland. Anyway, it was a great pleasure to wander around without the need to rush.

Below is a brief description from the Woodland Trust.
A similar shape to beech leaves – oval with pointed tips. Hornbeam leaves, however, are smaller and more deeply furrowed than beech leaves and have finely toothed edges (whereas beech leaves have wavy edges). They become golden yellow to orange in colour in autumn and most stay on through the winter.