On Wednesday 11 May, Professor Paul Layzell, Principal of Royal Holloway and Michael More-Molyneux, The Lord Lieutenant of Surrey unveiled a plaque to commemorate the Queen’s Green Canopy, where over 30 new trees have been planted in Royal Holloway’s Heritage Orchard.

L-R: Chloe Plummer (Student Volunteer) Eoin Ford (Student Volunteer) Sarah More-Molyneux, Michael More-Molyneux (Lord Lieutenant of Surrey) Cllr Elaine Gill (Mayor of Runnymede) Rida Haider (Student Volunteer) Professor Paul Layzell (Principal of Royal Holloway) Daniel Phillips (Student Volunteer)

The Queen’s Green Canopy is a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 which invites people and businesses from across the United Kingdom to ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee.’

The Mayor of Runnymede, Councillor Elaine Gill and other local councillors attended the unveiling at Royal Holloway. The area will provide students, staff, and the local community with even more opportunity to experience and learn about rare and veteran species of trees and to explore the woodland areas on campus.

The new trees planted in the orchard for the Queen’s Green Canopy include apples, pears, quince, cherries, and almond trees. The trees were chosen as a focus on heritage varieties and as an acknowledgment to the agricultural origins of the university campus, which was a working farm and orchard, before the university was built.

The trees provide even more opportunities on campus for pollinating insects and a chance for students from the Department of Biological Sciences to work on campus when carrying out research projects.

Prior to Heritage Orchard being planted, the area was a wildflower meadow, which the Royal Holloway gardeners cultivate annually to coincide with summer graduations. The tree planting has been considered carefully to retain the wildflower element of the meadow.

Professor Paul Layzell, Principal of Royal Holloway, said: “I’d like to thank colleagues who have led the work to establish our Queen’s Green Canopy to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. It provides an enduring symbol of Royal Holloway’s commitment to an environmental and sustainability agenda, which we champion in our research and through our local and international partnerships with organisations such as Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and the Harvard-led Planetary Health Alliance.”

For more information on Royal Holloway’s 135-acre estate, click here.