大象传媒

Britain was once covered in woodland and oaks were a major part of it. Jays collect acorns and will fly miles to find an abundant supply. They then bury the acorns to help them through the winter. A single jay can hoard more than 3,000 acorns in one month of frenetic activity and it is from these buried acorns that some our mighty oaks have sprung. Alan Titchmarsh climbs a huge oak that is over 400 years old and is at least 100 feet tall. But he is not the only one up there. Oak trees teem with life and support over 500 species of insect alone, most of whom seem to be doing their level best to eat themselves out of house and home. If Alan had climbed up an oak tree 8,000 years ago he would have seen an unbroken canopy of trees as far as the eye could see. Today it is hard to find any trace of that ancient wild wood. But Britain still has the oldest trees in Europe - ancient oaks that are over a thousand years old. And in many churchyards there are yew trees that may be five or six thousand years old.