Early in March 2026 we held a Treeline workshop at the University of Kent, organised by the Gulbenkian Centre. Canterbury will be one of our final stops on the summer tour and a beech tree was chosen from the outskirts of the campus to profile. We had a superb talk from William Rownlandson on the trees in the area, we made audio recordings, visited huge ants nests and discussed mycorrhizal networks and the connectivity that goes on under the ground between trees.
Beech trees can grow pretty tall. They are ‘climax’ species, meaning that they need a little time to get going, and a little protection too from earlier pioneer species, but when they crack on they really go and can reach 130 feet or more in height. They are monoecious, which means that both female and male flowers can grow on the same tree.
Thanks to Naomi Rosser at Gulbenkian for all her work in setting this up and the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industries for joining in.