This week our students will be learning aboput and celebrating National Tree Week.

Here’s some tree facts:🌳

🌳 A single mature oak tree can support more than 2,300 different species of invertebrates, birds, mammals & fungi.

🌳 The largest living tree on earth is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the USA, named General Sherman. It stands 83m tall and its trunk is 31m in circumference at its base. It’s nearly as tall as Big Ben which is 96m!

Trees live in harmony with many underground fungi, which provide the trees with much of their water and nutrients. It’s a helpful partnership for both, as the fungi gets sugars from the tree in a trade for water. Some trees may exchange up to 20% of their sugar production in a year for water, which can be particularly important in drought conditions.

🌳 These fungal networks are vast and can connect many trees across large landscapes. One fungus in Oregon called the Humongous Fungus covers four square miles and is the largest living organism.

🌳 There are an estimated 3 trillion trees in the world – that’s more than the number of stars in the galaxy.

🌳 Trees can help cities cope with global warming by providing shade and cooling the surface temperature by up to 12oC in some regions.

🌳 95% of land carbon in the UK is stored in soil, but trees help put it there. This is because trees take carbon from the atmosphere and use it to grow wood and leaves. When these falls to the ground, the carbon then gets stored in the soil.

Only 13% of the UK’s total land area is covered in trees compared to an average of 46% in Europe. In England, the figure is just 10% with an additional 4% covered by trees outside woodland.