DENDROCLIMATOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON TREES AT KEW AND WAKEHURST PLACE- EVENT AND POINTER YEARS

The growth responses to varying meteorological conditions of a number of trees grown at Kew Gardens and Wakehurst Place are investigated. Ev ent years for each tree-ring series are identified and then pointer ye ars for all trees recognized and related to weather records. The use o f pointer years has highlighted the similarity in growth characteristi cs throughout a range of taxa in the more extreme years. The strongest pointer year, 1958, coincides with a warm wet summer. Narrow rings ge nerally correlate well with known periods of agricultural drought for the trees grown at Kew. Response functions for oaks and hickories are also presented. Several individual Kew trees have growth patterns whic h cross-match with oak site chronologies from southern England using s tandard dendrochronological techniques.