Woodlands

Glossary

Afforestation: The planting of trees on previously unwooded land.
Agroforesty: The growing of trees on land also used for the production of crops or livestock
Ancient woodland: Woodland that has existed continuously on the site since 1600 AD or earlier.
Arboriculture: The cultivation of trees and shrubs to produce specimens mainly for ornamental and landscape value rather than for timber production.
Assart: An historical term for a woodland area cleared for arable cultivation.
Bare-root tree: Tree lifted for transplanting without soil around its roots.
Bark: Outer protective tissue of a woody stem.
Bast: Thin layer of tissue between the bark and the cambium, which carries leaf-sap downwards to the roots.
Beam: A squared section of timber for use in construction, typically with a minimum length of 6m (20') and minimum sides of 200mm (8") and cut from heartwood of a straight oak log with no large side branches.
Beating up: Replacing failures after tree planting, also known as filling up.
Blaze: To mark a tree, usually for felling, by removing a piece of bark from the trunk.
Bole: The stem or trunk of a tree.
Bolling: The permanent trunk of a pollarded tree.
Brash: Small branches trimmed from the sides and top of a main stem. Also known as 'lop and top' or 'slash'. (v) To cut away the side branches of conifers to about 2m (6') height to improve access or to reduce fire risk.
Bryophytes: Mosses and liverworts.
Butt: Bottom (root) end of a log/pole.
Buttress: Reinforcing projection near the base of the tree. Also known as a spur.
Callus: Healing tissue formed by the cambium which grows out over a wound.
Cambium: A layer of growth cells which form bast to the outside and wood on the inside.
Canopy: The uppermost layer of woodland structure.
Carr: Fen scrub.
Chase: A tract of land where wild animals were conserved for hunting, similar to a Forest but not owned by the Crown.
Clearfelling: Felling a whole woodland or compartment at one time.
Clone: A tree or strain of trees propagated vegetatively from a single individual.
Collar: The part of the stem at ground level where shoot meets root. Usually shown by a soil mark.
Compartment: A management area within a woodland that is given an individual name or number.
Coppice: Broadleaved woodland which is cut down to near ground level at regular intervals to produce shoots from each stool. Also ainsert into glossary values (null, 132, multistemmed underwood tree or shrub created by coppicing. (v) To cut the stems from a stool so that more will grow.
Copse: Another name for a coppice.
Cord: A volume of stacked logs, usually 2.4 x 1.2 x 1.2m (8' x 4' x 4'), but varying in different districts. (v) To cut wood to cord lengths and stack it in a cord.
Coupe: A coppice plot cut on a regular basis, or a clear-felled area in a plantation. Also known as a cant or panel.
Covert: A small wood, usually within farmland, managed primarily for game.
Crown: The spreading branches and foliage of a tree.
Crown lifting: Removal of the lower branches of a tree, leaving the upper crown untouched.
Crown reduction: Pruning back the crown to its main branches whilst maintaining its overall shape.
Cutting: A short length of young shoot or root used to propagate a new plant.
Danger zone: The area within two tree lengths, in any direction, of a tree being felled.
Drift: Cut coppice material or brash laid in rows for sorting or disposal.
Drip line: The ground below the outermost branches of a tree's crown, where most of its feeding roots are concentrated.
Emergent tree: A tree whose crown overtops the standards in the woodland canopy.
Epicormic shoots: Shoots sprouting from dormant or adventitious buds on a tree's main stem.
Epiphyte: A plant growing on another without being parasitic.
Extraction: The removal of felled timber from a woodland.
Extraction track: A track cut for the extraction of timber.
Feathered tree: A young tree well furnished with branches to near ground level.
Felling cut: The cut made from the back of the stem which fells the tree. Also known as the back cut.
Field layer: The part of the woodland structure containing low-growing shrubs, herbaceous plants, grasses, bulbs and ferns.
Flush: An area of ground receiving nutrient-rich runoff. (v) The first spurt of growth after winter dormancy when the buds break.
Forest: Originally, a tract of heath, moor or woodland controlled by the Crown for the purpose of conserving deer and other wild animals, and subject to Forest Law. Now, used to describe a densely wooded area, normally a conifer plantation.
Formative pruning: The pruning of branches, usually within three to ten years of planting, in order to improve timber quality.
Greenwood: Freshly felled wood.
Ground layer: The part of the woodland structure which comprises mosses, liverworts, lichens and fungi.
Group felling: Felling of a group of trees or a subcompartment within a woodland.
Hanger: A wood growing on the side of a hill.
Harden off: The process of acclimatising nursery grown plants to the conditions in which they will be planted.
Hardwood: Any broadleaved (deciduous) tree, irrespective of the actual hardness of the wood.
Heartwood: The inner wood of large branches and trunks, which no longer carries sap. After felling, it becomes the most durable part of the timber. In older living trees, it may decay.
High forest: Woodland dominated by full-grown trees, suitable for timber.
Hinge: A portion of stem which is left uncut during felling, in order to help control the timing and direction of fall. Also known as a hold.
Hoppus foot: Unit of measurement for the cubic contents of round timber. 1 Hoppus foot = 0.036 m³, 1m³ = 27.74 Hoppus feet
Kerf: The cut made by a saw.
Layer: A side shoot which roots to form a new but connected plant where it touches the ground.
insert into glossary values (null, 132, (v) To bend over and peg down a shoot so that it will take root.
Laying in: Cutting away the buttresses of a tree before felling. Also known as rounding up.
Leader: The main top shoot of a tree.
Maiden tree: Any tree not grown from a coppice stump.
Mast: The fruit of the oak and beech tree. A mast year is a year in which large quantities of mast are produced.
Natural regeneration: Trees and shrubs which arise from naturally-shed seeds, without help by man.
Node: A swelling on a shoot which marks the position of a resting bud.
Nurse species: Hardy, quick-growing trees grown for the purpose of providing shelter for other young trees which are less hardy, slower growing or more valuable.
Park: Originally, land enclosed for the keeping of deer and other animals. Later, an area enclosed for amenity.
Plantation: Woodland where most of the trees have been planted.
Pole stage: Stage between the thicket stage and maturity in a timber crop. For broadleaves, from first thinning to about 50 years. For conifers, from first thinning to about 40 years.
Pollard: Tree which is cut at 2-4m (6'-12') above ground level, and left to produce a crop of poles or branches. (v) To cut a tree in this way.
Primary woodland: Woodland that has had a continuous cover of native trees throughout its history.
Prog: A stout forked pole used for pushing and levering trees during felling and conversion.
Provenance: The place of origin of a tree stock, which remains the same no matter where later generations of the tree are raised.
Pruning: Cutting branches from a standing tree, to alter its shape, encourage upright growth, remove diseased branches or encourage fruiting.
Recent woodland: Woodland which has grown up since 1600, on land which had previously been cleared, or was previously not wooded.
Respace: To cut out surplus young trees from natural regeneration.
Ring shake: Splitting of timber along the annual rings.
Rotation: Length of time between successive fellings of a plantation or cuttings of a coppice coupe.
Roundwood: Wood of small diameter used for fencing stakes and other purposes for which splitting or other conversion is not needed.
Sapwood: Wood which carries sap. This may be all the wood in a young stem, or the outmost layer in an older, larger trunk or branch.insert into glossary values (null, 132, Sapwood resists decay when alive, but is not durable when felled.
Sawlog: Timber of a size and quality acceptable to a sawmill. Typically, straight, clean stems at least 16cm (6") diameter and at least 3m (10') long.
Screefing: Scraping away surface vegetation prior to tree planting, to reduce initial weed competition.
Secondary woodland: Woodland growing on a site that was formerly not woodland. Can be ancient, if it grew up before 1600.
Selective felling: Felling to remove particular trees of commercial value.
Semi-natural woodland: On ancient sites, woods made up of native species growing where their presence is apparently natural rather than planted. On recent sites, woods which have originated mainly by natural regeneration. Both types are subject to man's influence.
Set: A large unrooted cutting, usually of willow or poplar.
Shake: Cracking of timber due to stresses of growth, impact of felling or drying.
Short rotation coppice: Coppice grown on a short rotation, of up to about ten years, and used for hurdle making and other crafts. Also a modern system of coppicing using fast growing species of willow or poplar, which are cut on a three to five year rotation, for the production of woodchips for wood-fuelled electricity generation.
Shredding: A method of cropping branches for fodder, by periodically cutting off the side branches of a tree. Obsolete in Britain, but still used on the continent.
Shrub layer: The part of the woodland structure which includes shrubs and young growth of canopy trees. This layer may be coppiced.
Singling: Retaining one stem on a coppice stool and allowing it to grow into a standard tree.
Sink: A wedge-shaped cut made in the front of a tree, in order to control the direction of fall when felling. Also known as a bird's mouth.
Snedding: The removal of branches from a felled tree.
Softwood: The timber of a coniferous tree, irrespective of the hardness of the timber.
Stag-head: Old tree with crown that has died back, leaving the upper branches dead.
Standard: A tree with a clear stem or trunk. A transplanted tree with 1.8m (6') or more of unbranched stem. In woodland structure, a tree forming the dominant layer of the canopy.
Stem: The living trunk of a shrub or tree.
Stool: The stump or cut base of a shrub or tree, from which new shoots grow.
Stooling: A method of propagating coppice in which cut stools are earthed over to encourage new shoots to produce roots.
Stored coppice: Coppice which has been left to grow beyond its normal rotation.
Structure: Determined by height and density of crowns, presence of layers, glades and types of wood margin.
Succession: The process by which one community of plants gives way to another, normally from coloniser to climax.
Sucker: A young tree arising from the roots of an older tree.
Thicket stage: Stage after planting and before the pole stage, when young trees have grown up to form a dense thicket.
Thinning: Removal of selected trees from a a crop to give the remainder more growing space. A tree so removed.
Timber: Tree trunk suitable for making beams or sawing into planks; a tree with such a trunk, the use made of such a trunk.
Transplant: Tree moved from one place to another, eg from nursery to growing site.
Undercut: Cut made in the front of a tree to reduce the chance of splitting when felling. Also refers to cutting the roots of tree seedlings in a nursery without removing them from the soil, in order to promote branching roots.
Underplanting: The planting of a new forest crop under an existing one.
Understorey tree: A tree with a crown below those of the dominant trees in the canopy.
Underwood: Coppice growth, shrubs or pollard growth, either growing or cut, and used for fuel and other purposes.
Whip: A young tree for transplanting, 120-180cm (4-6') height.
Windblow: Trees blown down and wholly or partly uprooted. Also known as windthrow.
Wood: The part of the stem, inside the cambium, which supports the tree, carries water to the crown and stores reserves of food over the winter. Also poles and branches of smaller diameter than timber.
Wood-pasture: Wooded land which is regularly grazed, and includes areas of grassland.
Woodbank: A boundary bank surrounding or subdividing a woodland.
Yield class: A system of assessing the productivity of a crop of trees based upon the measurement of tree height and age.