Scottish Gaelic Tree Alphabet Series - Single #5 of 13.

Please note: This is track #11 on the new album THE WOODS - the full 21 track album will be released on 20th March (the Spring Equinox) and is available now for pre-order.

In the Scottish Gaelic alphabet 'F' is for the alder tree, while 'E' was represented by the aspen. Both have some similar associations in folklore.

'F' is for FEARN [Fy-arn], Alder, feàrna, ruaim, aller, arn, aar, alrone, Alnus glutinosa.

Both alder and aspen were used to make shields, but alder was harder to penetrate with arrows. Alder turns red when cut and warriors believed that this was the wood protecting them by bleeding sacrificially. Alder was also a shield tree in the sense that outlaws and lovers would take refuge in alder carrs and thickets when fleeing from persecution. Alder has shiny, dark-green, back-to-front leaves (it looks rather like the stalk is at the wrong end) and it is the only broadleaf tree to possess cones. Alder, like willow, is a riparian tree and is common on riverbanks and loch sides. The wood was used for the piles of Highland crannogs, due to their resistance to rot when submerged in water. Alder roots make the perfect nest sites for otters. Alder is a nitrogen fixer so it actually improves the soil fertility wherever it grows.

'E' is for EADHA [Ehy-ah], Aspen, critheann, tremmlin tree, esp, quaukin-aish, Populus tremula.

Aspen’s long leaf stalks let each leaf flip and flutter freely in even the gentlest of breezes, so they can absorb the energy from the sun and photosynthesise on both sides. The joyful, uplifting sound of a stand of shimmering aspen sounds much like the patter of rain or a mountain waterfall, as you may hear at the end of this track. In the 17th century, the Brahan Seer declared aspen an omen tree, believing the sound induced prophetic sight. Aspen can propagate in two ways, one by seeding and another by cloning itself by ‘suckers’ (growths at the feet of the ‘parent’ tree). Often when you come across a grove of aspens, they are all genetically identical and the same sex. Aspen is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers (catkins) are found on separate trees, instead of having both on the same tree like a Scots Pine. In Utah’s Fishlake National Forest there is an aspen wood 80 millennia old consisting of 48,000 genetically identical male trees. In Scotland seed production is rare, but in 2018 cross pollination between males and females occurred for the first time in twenty-three years!