London, Feb 27 (ANI): When it comes to telling the difference between an English oak or a sycamore, one third of Britons might score a zero, according to a new study.

The researchers said that one third of Britons cannot identify the nation’’s most famous types of trees

The study by UK firm Forest Holidays found that one in 20 people questioned could not name any of Britain’’s common trees.

In fact, seven in ten people couldnt even identify the horse chestnut, which has produced conkers for generations of schoolboys in UK.

For the study, 250 adults were shown pictures of 10 of Britain’’s most popular types of tree and were asked to name them.

But the results indicated a widespread ignorance of native flora, and this was despite the fact that the participants saw the trees everywhere from city gardens and parks to the open countryside and forests.

The study found that the most familiar type of tree was the Ivy, but still, only 69 per cent could correctly identify it from pictures.

At the second place was the oak, with 67 per cent recognition.

While four in ten recognised the beech tree, and an equal number of participants correctly named the silver birch.

But only three in ten identified the horse chestnut and the sycamore.

And the hardest tree to be identified was the hazel with only five per cent able to pick it out, while only per cent were familiar with a yew and 20 per cent with the hawthorn.

One third of participants knew that an acorn comes from an oak, but only 38 per cent were aware that conkers come from horse chestnut trees.

Older people were found to have more knowledge of trees than younger adults, but they are not passing it down.

Over seven in ten parents admitted that they never taught their children the names of trees or quizzed them on what they may have learnt at school or elsewhere.

“It is disappointing to learn that people know very little about British trees, the Telegraph quoted a spokesman for Forest Holidays, which specialise in nature breaks, as saying. (ANI)