I grew up in Northern England, on the Yorkshire coast, and was taught to identify trees by my older sister on our Sunday outings to the North Yorkshire Moors. The easiest to identify were the broad-leaved oaks. There are oaks here in our secret valley, but they are so different I didn’t in the beginning identify them as oaks. They are holm oaks, the leaves are small, spiky like holly, and are evergreen. That said, they do lose their leaves, but it is a continuous 12-months-of-the-year process. The leaves of the holm oak tree are an excellent motivation for remembering to wear gloves when weeding.
5 to remember
identificar – to identify
mi hermana mayor – my older sister
hoja ancha – broad-leaved
de hojas perennes – evergreen
la motivacion – the motivation
Notes on a Spanish Valley 
I have a holm oak outside my flat in Barcelona and at first it really puzzled me to see an evergreen version of the tree. At the moment it is full of wood warblers from the nearby park, which gives a double burst of green to the grey city!
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Yes, the year-round green is good. When I first saw them, I thought they were a type of holly because of the prickly leaves. SD
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They look a bit like holly leaves. A magnificent specimen.
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Exactly! SD
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