36 native Irish trees / shrubs

There are 36 trees and shrubs thought to be native to Ireland.

1. Alder
2. Alder Buckthorn
3. Arbutus, the Strawberry Tree
4. Ash
5. Aspen
6. Bird Cherry
7. Bramble
8. Broom
9. Burnet rose
10. Common (or European) Gorse
11. Crab Apple
12. Dog Rose
13. Downy Birch
14. Elder
15. Guelder Rose
16. Hawthorn
17. Hazel
18. Holly
19. Honeysuckle
20. Ivy
21. Juniper
22. Pedunculate Oak
23. Privet
24. Purging Buckthorn
25. Rowan or Mountain Ash
26. Scots Pine
27. Sessile Oak
28. Silver Birch
29. Sloe, Blackthorn
30. Spindle
31. Western (or Mountain) Gorse
32. Whitebeam spp. S. anglica
    Whitebeam spp. S. devoniensis
    Whitebeam spp. S. hibernica.
    Whitebeam spp. S. latifolia
    Whitebeam spp. S. rupicola
    Whitebeam spp. Sorbus aria
33. Wild Cherry
34. Willow spp.
35. Wych Elm
36. Yew

Climate change threat to native Irish woodland

Phenology is the science of recording natural regularly occurring events, such as the annual timing of leaf budding and spring blossoms. Over many years, collection of this information of seasonal occurrences can help demonstrate how climate change may be affecting wildlife habitats, for instance by influencing trees to come into bud burst earlier.

Phenology provides some of the longest written biological records in Ireland. Based on such records, Ireland's Native Woodland Trust believes that climate change is a major threat to what little remains of Ireland's ancient woodland:

Steady increase in temperatures

"The 20th century has seen a steady increase in temperature with 1990s being the warmest on record. The mean temperature for January-March in the 1960s was 4.2°C compared to 5.6°C in the 1990s. The mean temperature in the spring 1999 was 6.1°C. Phenology offers real evidence that climate change is happening now and that it is already having a significant effect on our wildlife. Trees are coming into leaf sooner, and some typical spring flowers are increasingly being seen coming into bloom in November and December. Butterflies are appearing earlier, with evidence that some are begining to overwinter in Ireland. New birds, such as Egrets, and insects, such as some Dragonflies, are moving northwards into Ireland, with some other migratory species showing signs of staying year-round."

Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal

This 170 sq km granite-bedded wilderness of lakes, ice-carved cliffs, gentle hills, deep peat bogs and the swampy Owencarrow river valley cradles Ireland's golden eagle reintroduction project. Natural woodlands of oak and birch are inhabited by badgers, foxes and stoats. Bird life includes siskins, treecreepers, redstarts and wood warblers. Pyramidal Errigal, Donegal highest peak overlooks the park, its uplands punctuated by ravens, peregrines, stonechat and grouse, and prettied with the yellow flowers of tormentil and bog asphodel. Glenveagh (meaning Glen of the Birches) contains a herd of red deer (not of native Irish stock).

Find out more at:

• http://homepage.eircom.net/~knp/glenveagh/index.htm
• http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/travel/attractions/gardens/glenv.shtm

Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry

103 sq km of mountain, moorland, woodland, waterways, parks and gardens. Home of Ireland's only remaining wild herd of native red deer, the largest area of old-growth oakwoods left in the country and one of only three pure yew woods left in Europe.

Pearl mussels vs the Irish forestry industry

Ireland's state forestry department Coillte is being restricted in its forestry activities in an attempt to prevent the extinction of pearl mussels, a protected species under European law. Ireland is one of the last places in Europe where this bivalve survives and has the largest remaining population. The pearl mussel is Ireland’s longest living species, living for up to 120 years. Recent surveys show that in all rivers where previously healthy populations of the species survived it is now facing extinction.

Born before Irish Independence
In recent years, many young mussels have succumbed to deteriorating water quality caused by river pollution and siltation. For instance, in 2004 phosphorous and nitrate silt leaked into the Owenriff river in Galway. This caused an algae bloom that asphyxiated most of the mussels living downstream. Such events are often related to the amount of artificial fertiliser applied to Sitka spruce trees, a species introduced to Ireland in the 1830s and now grown commercially. Sitkas need aerial fertilisation if they are to grow on infertile Irish bogland. When the trees are harvested, subsequent soil erosion leads to silt and fertiliser entering rivers. The mussels that manage to survive pollution events are generally the larger ones, many over 100 years old. Their age means that, even though a population remains, its ability to reproduce is inhibited.

Pearl mussels need unpolluted rivers
In 1990 the pearl mussel occurred in just 10 to 12 rivers remote Irish rivers. At the time, these flowed through rural areas where forestry and fertilisers were minimal. Since then, rapid economic and population growth intensified development and forestry activities throughout the country. As a consequence, water quality has deteriorated.

A mussel.. reforming the Irish forestry industry
The minister for agriculture, Mary Coughlan, imposed a moratorium on forestry activities in all pearl mussel areas in May 2005, 18 months after the problem was identified by officials in the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Coillte can now neither continue fertilising the trees in these areas nor, it is claimed, cut them down in an economically viable way. The Irish forestry industry faces millions in lost revenue, and it is unclear what the future holds for the Irish pearl mussels.

Find out more at:

• Conservation Management of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel in Ireland (PDF, 35 pages)
• http://www.constructireland.ie/news.php?artID=3787
• http://weblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/archives/2006/09/forest_fertiliser_time_bomb.html
• http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/fnn/article.php?sid=197