Bark patterns

Emma Chaplin
, 27 June 2022
Bark patterns
Plane Tree bark © Audrey Jarvis

By Audrey Jarvis of Lewes Urban Arboretum

Trees are wonderful for all sorts of reasons – they improve our townscapes, moderate the effects of pollution and heavy rainfall, clean our air, and help to make us feel better!

Their blossom, new leaf growth and berries mark the seasons for us and provide food and habitat for a wide range of wildlife - but the bark of trees is something that we can appreciate all your round.

I'll share some favourites from around Lewes.

Main blog image (above): the bark of Plane trees is one of the most easily recognised because of the distinctive camouflage pattern. This beauty is at the edge of Malling Recreation Ground.

This Railway Poplar in Bell Lane Recreation Ground has a wonderful display of different patterns around the trunk – some of them looking like intricate ancient carvings.

Railway Poplar
Railway Poplar © Audrey Jarvis

The colourful bark of this Tibetan Cherry tree in Southover Grange gardens provides a welcome splash of colour in winter. As with all tree bark, it is best enjoyed if you stroke it with your hand.


Tibetan Cherry tree
Tibetan Cherry tree © Audrey Jarvis

The bark of an Oak, like everything else about the tree, is rather special. If you rub it, your hands feel smooth afterwards. This is the trunk of one of the fine specimens in Pells Recreation Ground.

Oak bark
Oak bark © Audrey Jarvis



The mature Walnut tree in the gardens of Southover Grange has a ridged and criss-crossed pattern. Can you imagine how long it would take to replicate this detail?

Walnut bark
Walnut bark © Audrey Jarvis

Some people like the papery “silver” bark of younger Birch trees – but older examples have a lot more character whilst retaining the silvery appearance which catches the light. All these crevices provide homes and shelter for many insects and other invertebrates.

Birch tree bark
Birch tree bark © Audrey Jarvis

Find out more about Lewes Urban Arboretum or follow them on Twitter @LewesArboretum

Leave a comment

Comments

  • Gemma Noble:

    What an enchanting blog – thank you

    30 Jun 2022 10:50:00

  • Martin White:

    I have recently visited ‘Sheffield Park & Gardens’ where they have some magnificent trees, check out their Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), which has a wonderful red bark.

    30 Jun 2022 10:57:00

  • Gabrielle:

    I found this very inspiring, creatively. Thank you.

    30 Jun 2022 13:05:00

  • Charlotte Phillips:

    I love these close-up pictures of tree bark celebrating this tactile and beautiful part of a tree.

    30 Jun 2022 13:38:00

  • Cherry Lavell:

    Gorgeous! I too have collected bark patterns over some years, both in and beyond Sussex — the spiralling chestnut for instance, or the paperbark maple. Great inspiration too for children to let their imaginations run riot… if no camera, rubbings using paper and ‘heelball’ are fun.

    30 Jun 2022 15:00:00

  • Margaret Devitt:

    I found this fascinating. Now can you go onto uses of barks eg for dyeing, medicine, analgesics, etc. and more trees found in Britain. Thank you, brilliant photos.

    30 Jun 2022 15:10:00

  • Shirley Murrell:

    Very good photos of bark.

    30 Jun 2022 15:19:00

  • Kaye:

    Just a lovely guide to seek the detail. I have always loved the Tibetan Cherry bark when they had a row of them in Highdown Gardens but didn’t know the name. Thank you

    30 Jun 2022 16:11:00

  • AJAZ SHEIKH:

    What a Fascinating article, re:Tree bark, and brilliant photos. I am learning re:Tree identification
    and was paying more attention to shapes of leaves, learnt some thing more today,re:bark pattern. Thanks a million.

    05 Jul 2022 10:46:00

  • Geraldine Wood:

    Lovely & all so different

    05 Jul 2022 15:57:00

Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782993284.71130 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782993284.73690.0256Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782993284.7370.0001Server address: 216.73.217.103
1782993284.73710Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782993284.73710Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/bark-patterns
    [s] => bark-patterns
    [1] => bark-patterns
)
1782993284.73730.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.73830.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782993284.740.0017 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782993284.74050.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782993284.74210.0015 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22519075
1782993284.74250.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22519075
1782993284.7430.0005 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-02 11:54:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-02 11:54:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782993284.74420.0013 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='bark-patterns')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:54:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782993284.74670.0024 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782993284.74720.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2821 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:54:00'
1782993284.7480.0008 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782993284.74860.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782993284.74920.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=73 LIMIT 1
1782993284.74970.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=51 LIMIT 1
1782993284.75030.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782993284.75050.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782993284.75130.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:54:00' AND postSlug='bark-patterns'
1782993284.77210.0208Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782993284.77250.0005 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782993284.77410.0015Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782993284.77430.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782993284.7750.0007 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782993284.77640.0014 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782993284.77950.0032 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.78020.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782993284.78230.0022Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782993284.78240 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782993284.78320.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782993284.78380.0006 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782993284.78680.003 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782993284.78790.0011 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782993284.78860.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782993284.79140.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.79230.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782993284.79470.0025 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782993284.79520.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782993284.79550.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782993284.79650.001Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782993284.7970.0005 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='bark-patterns')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:54:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782993284.79950.0026 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782993284.80010.0006 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782993284.80290.0028Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782993284.8040.0011 [10] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2821 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782993284.85350.0495 [10] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782993284.85650.003Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782993284.85670.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782993284.85760.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782993284.85820.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782993284.85880.0005 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782993284.86080.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.86130.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782993284.86330.002 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782993284.86450.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782993284.86510.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782993284.86550.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782993284.8680.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.86850.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782993284.87030.0018 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782993284.87290.0026 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782993284.87350.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782993284.87390.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782993284.87620.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.87680.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782993284.87880.002 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782993284.88130.0025 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782993284.88190.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782993284.88240.0004 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782993284.88450.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782993284.88490.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782993284.88680.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782993284.88830.0015Request time: 0.1786
1782993284.88830Process time: 0.1784
1782993284.88830Memory: 1.6232