The shapes of trees.

Every tree is an individual, whose adult shape reflects the conditions under which it lives. Trees growing close together in a forest are narrower in outline than trees of the same species standing alone in the middle of a park. Winds blowing off the sea make coastal trees grow lop-sided, harsh, mountainous conditions make trees stunted. Young trees put most of their energy into growing upwards, reaching for the light. Later they will broaden to assume the typical adult shape of the species. Pruning also drastically changes the natural shapes of a tree. Coppicing and pollarding are well tried methods for encouraging the growth of new shoots, for firewood, tools or fencing. In coppicing , the tree is cut off at ground level. In pollarding it is cut off higher up the trunk, out of reach of grazing animals. New shoots and branches grow quickly, because there is an excising root system. Trees all grow into different shapes, or managed by humans into different shapes. Here are a few of them, flat topped mainly pines, drooping mainly willows, rounded mainly oaks and ash and beech, up swept mainly cedars, columnar mainly lombardy poplars, triangular mainly western red cedars and lovenge shaped mainly pines and common alders.