Cuttings: Leafy London

THE good news is that there are more than 5 million trees in London, according to a recent survey by the Countryside Commission's Task Force Trees. Three million of them are in gardens, or other privately owned land. The bad news is that the most widely planted tree is the cypress, including the dreaded Leyland. Apple, cherry and maple are the next most popular garden trees.

The most densely planted borough is Sutton with an average of 43 trees a hectare. The worst is the City of London with just eight. The leafy boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Camden, Croydon, Harrow, Islington, Kensington and Merton all have about 35 trees a hectare. All this was a pleasant surprise for Task Force who were expecting a total number of trees in the capital to be no more than a million and a half.