The Best UK Street Trees for a Changing Climate

Choosing a tree for a street in the UK is no longer simply a question of what will grow well today. Street trees are long-term infrastructure: the species planted now may need to thrive in a climate that looks very different by the end of the century.

Kew Reach's street tree shortlist demonstrates what evidence-led selection can look like when climate resilience, site suitability, and biosecurity are considered together. The shortlist draws on 320 species in the Kew Reach Palette database and assesses their regional suitability under future climate scenarios, alongside drought tolerance and biosecurity profile.

The result is an identification of some of the best tree species to use for urban street planting in different regions of the UK.

Importantly, this is not intended to be a definitive list of the only trees that should be planted in UK streets. Rather, it demonstrates how climate projections and species-level evidence can be used to move beyond traditional preferences and identify trees with the potential to remain resilient as conditions change.

How were the best UK street trees selected for each region?

The starting point filtered out species not rated high suitability under the International Panel on Climate Change’s  2090 SSP3-7.0 climate scenarios. The remaining species were then scored across drought tolerance, biosecurity safety, and suitability for paved areas following the Hirons and Sjöman methodology for tree species selection in green infrastructure, and the Martin et al (2025) methodology for evaluating urban tree population fitness for the future. This approach combines geographic distribution data, bioclimatic envelope modelling, and physiological drought indicators like turgor loss point and wood density.

The final stage considered health and biosecurity risk. Species flagged on the UK Plant Health Risk Register watch list were excluded regardless of how well they scored on other measures. This is why Turkey Oak, a strong performer on paper with a high ecosystem-service score and excellent drought tolerance, doesn't appear as a top recommendation in any of our regions. It is a documented host for oak processionary moth, so biosecurity risk overrides its other credentials. Species with confirmed invasive status in the UK, Tree of Heaven and False Acacia among them, were excluded on the same basis.

An example of a top UK street tree in urbanised regions of the UK

London

Hungarian Oak: A substantial deciduous oak offering a combination of shade, resilience and suitability for a warmer future urban climate.

South East England

Strawberry Tree: A compact evergreen with strong drought tolerance and year-round foliage, well suited to the hot, dry summers expected in the region.

South West England

Italian Alder: A fast-growing, resilient tree that tolerates poor, compacted soils and exposed sites, making it a dependable choice for paved streets.

West Midlands

Tatar Maple: A hardy, drought-tolerant small tree whose compact size suits narrow streets and confined planting pits.

North West England

Sessile Oak: A long-lived native oak with high ecosystem-service value, offering substantial canopy and good resilience to a changing climate.

North East England

Almond: A small, heat and drought-tolerant tree whose early spring blossom provides valuable forage for pollinators in compact urban spaces.

East Scotland

Scots Pine: A hardy native evergreen that gives year-round structure and copes well with poor, free-draining soils.

Wales

Field Maple: A versatile native choice for tighter urban spaces, offering a naturally dense canopy in a relatively compact form.

A national starting point, not a planting prescription

None of the species presented are a universal answer, and that's because climate resilient planting schemes ultimately depend on assessing suitability at site level.

Suitability under SSP3-7.0 varies by region, for example, Holm Oak holds high suitability across southern and central England but drops to moderate further north, where winter temperatures sit outside its comfort zone.

Getting from a shortlist to an answer for a specific site means layering in regional climate data, soil conditions, and the existing tree population on that street. The right choice will also depend on what the tree is being asked to deliver, from shade and cooling to biodiversity, air-quality benefits and resilience to drought.

Building a palette

The real value of an exercise like this is being explicit about trade-offs rather than defaulting to whatever's been planted before.

A species can be highly drought tolerant but present a biosecurity concern. Another may deliver excellent ecosystem services but have more limited future suitability in a particular region. The strongest planting strategies recognise these trade-offs and build a palette of species that is both diverse and appropriate to the conditions of the site.

Kew Reach’s platform, Palette runs this assessment across its full species database, filtered to your site, region and 2090 horizon, so the shortlist designed is robust, specific and suitable. For landscape architects, engineers and environmental consultants, this provides a way to bring long-term climate considerations into species selection at the point where planting decisions are actually being made, turning climate projects and species research into practical, site-specific design decisions which have their roots in the science of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

References

1. Hirons, A.D. & Sjöman, H. (2019), Tree Species Selection for Green Infrastructure: A Guide for Specifiers, Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG).

2.Martin, K.W.E., Sjöman, H., Hirons, A.D. (2025). Evaluating urban tree population fitness for the future using the Climatic Moisture Index. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.

3. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (n.d) Global Biodiversity Information Facility occurance occurrence database. Available at: https://www.gbif.org (Accessed June 2026).

4. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) UK Plant Health Risk Register. Available at: https://planthealthportal.defra.gov.uk/pests-and-diseases/uk-plant-health-risk-register/ (Accessed June 2026).