Shady Lane Arboretum - From Living Fossils to the Future of Leicester’s Trees

Alan Bevington writes.

On Saturday 21st March 2026 nine members of the Section met at Shady Lane Arboretum for a fascinating guided tour led by Janet Gurney and Jo Warburton who are two experienced members of the Leicester City Council Tree Warden volunteer team. They gave a detailed tour of 24 of the trees on this site, explaining their biology, their origin, their diseases, and some of their history.

Figure 1 Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) (Photo - Alan Bevington)

The Arboretum, which was planted in 1973, has acquired some of the most remarkable trees in Leicester. Perhaps the most famous of these on the tour was the Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) a conifer in the Cupressaceae family that sheds its needles in autumn. Even though the leafless tree looks completely unremarkable (Figure 1), it makes up for this in its biological history. For many years it was known only from fossil records dating back 100 million years. However in 1941 living specimens were discovered in remote valleys in central China, making it the only surviving species in the genus Metasequoia -  a fine example of a “living fossil” which has survived multiple mass-extinction events. Currently regarded as endangered in the wild, significant numbers of these trees have been cultivated since the 1940’s -   a good illustration of the conservation value of arboreta.

Figure 2 Siebold’s Crab (Malus sieboldii) (Photo - Alan Bevington)

Less famous, but still surprising was the Siebold’s Crab Malus sieboldii  that we were shown towards the end of the tour. From a distance in March this resembles a leafless Hawthorn with yellow berries (Figure 2). It is in fact a species of apple (a native of China, Japan and Korea – rarely planted in the UK) in which the diminutive crab apples are only a few mm in diameter.

An interesting example of tree biology was shown by the Black Walnut. The biodiversity on and near the tree seems to be limited by an example of arboreal chemical warfare: - the high concentration of the walnut-specific toxin juglone which the tree releases into the soil is thought to inhibit growth of potentially competing plants.

 We were also given interesting insights into the historical background of the planted trees. For example that expensive walnut veneers have become such an integral part of Jaguar cars that the company has set up a research plantation containing a number of European and American walnut species at Lount in the National Forest.

The Section is very grateful to Janet and Jo for their valuable and encyclopaedic coverage of the trees on this walk, and for all the time and effort that they invested in this valuable event. For members of the Section who were unable to attend, but would like to make a self-guided tour of the trees, the full list will be provided in a table in the next newsletter, along with the approximate What3Words location of each tree.

(Photo at top - Alan Bevington)