TREE-GIFTING EVENT - 9 DEC, NEWLYN ART GALLERY

09 Dec 2022

14:00 — 18:30

Newlyn Art Gallery

PICK UP A FREE TREE TO PLANT THIS CHRISTMAS AS A GIFT TO OUR PLANET.

Eighty-five hazel trees are being gifted as part of Gwelen, from the EXPERIENCE project, in collaboration with Forest for Cornwall.

Hazel was a common species in the submerged forest hidden in Mount’s Bay and is an ideal tree to plant in a garden.

Call in to collect your free tree and growing advice.

Trees will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis, one per person.

Hazel is one of the most useful trees for its bendy stems and as a conservation saviour. Its nuts are loved by people, squirrels and hazel dormice.

QUICK FACTS

Common name: hazel
Scientific name: Corylus avellana
Family: Betulaceae
Origin: native

Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach a height of 12m and live for up to 80 years (if coppiced, hazel can live for several hundred years). It has a smooth, grey-brown, bark, which peels with age, and bendy, hairy stems. Leaf buds are oval, blunt and hairy.

Look out for: leaves which are soft to the touch as a result of the downy hairs on the underside. Hazel is often coppiced.
Identified in winter by: its nuts, which are each held in a short, leafy husk which encloses about three quarters of the nut. Small, green catkins can be present in autumn.

Thanks to the Woodland Trust for this information.

Gwelen is an artwork by Emma Smith and residents of West Penwith for the Penzance to Marazion coastal path to conjure Cornwall’s largest submerged forest hidden in Mount’s Bay.

Gwelen was commissioned by Cornwall Council via the EXPERIENCE project, which encourages sustainable cultural tourism during the winter months. The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg France (Channel) England Programme.

Forest for Cornwall aims to support and empower the people of Cornwall to tackle the climate and ecological emergency by helping residents, businesses and communities to plant the right trees in the right place for the right purpose.