Our hedges are full of dog roses. They are fragile, fragrant and short lived so come and visit them while the show lasts.
The header image is by Clive Knight.
Dog rose
Pink hawthorn
Every year, sometime in May, somewhere in the reserve, there is pink hawthorn blossom; not uniformly pink and not always in the same hedge as was pink last year but definitely pink in places. It’s very pretty but we don’t know what causes it.
Continue readingBloomin’ ‘eck
Header image by Peter White; all other images taken in the park by FoSCP members and attributed in the viewer.
Common vetch
Our common vetch (Vicia sativa) is just coming into flower. It’s a scrambling plant and you’ll find it among tall grasses, holding itself upright with the tendrils that grow from the tip of its leaf stalks.
This is black sedge (Carex nigra), also known as common sedge. It grows along the Lambrok tributary either in the shallow water or on the bank and there is a bed of it in the woods just past the wooden bridge. We think there must be a spring there because the ground is always waterlogged, making it perfect for black sedge, which likes to keep its feet wet.
Continue readingOak flowers
These are the flowers of an oak tree. Oaks are monoecious; they have male flowers and female flowers on the same tree.
Continue reading “Oak flowers”Nettles
We humans reserve a particular dislike for things that we think might hurt us: wasps, spiders, brambles, thorns and …. stinging nettles.
Continue reading “Nettles”Grasses
Grasses are flowering plants; they have all the same bits and pieces as a buttercup or a dandelion. The difference is that they are wind pollinated so they have not adapted their structure to meet the needs of insect pollinators; they have no scent, no nectaries, no colours or ultra-violet sign posts and no petals to make landing platforms.
Continue reading “Grasses”
Hawthorn blossom
The reserve’s hawthorns are in bloom and well worth a visit.
Header image taken in the reserve by Ian Bushell
Wild Garlic
Wild garlic goes by many different names: ramsons, cowleek or cowlick, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek and bear’s garlic are just a few of them.
Continue reading “Wild Garlic”Tree planting
We have been making what might seem to our followers like a great fuss about the planting of just a very few disease resistant elm trees. Here are parts of a post from March 2020, which explain what disease our precious saplings are resistant to, and why we are so eager to get them established in the hedge between Cornfield and Sleepers.
Continue reading “Tree planting”Wild arum
This is wild arum (Arum maculatum) growing in the copse at the top of Brunt’s Field.
Continue reading “Wild arum”
Bluebell time
Header image by DKG; all the photographs were taken in the reserve
No Mow May
Have you joined Plantlife’s No Mow May Movement yet?
Continue reading “No Mow May”
Disease resistant elms
Progress report
by Ian Bushell
On April 10th we checked the fifteen Dutch Elm Disease Resistant trees, donated by Peter Shallcross and Frank Crosier, that we had planted in April 2021.
Continue readingCharlock
This is charlock (Sinapis arvensis) photographed in the reserve this week by Clive Knight. It likes disturbed ground and Clive found this specimen growing in the spoil from the wetland scrapes in Lambrok Meadow.
Continue reading “Charlock”
Moss
Before you drag the pressure washer out of its winter hibernation, let’s talk about the ecological importance of the moss growing between your patio pavers.
Continue readingThe battle with Spanish squill
Every year, as the reserve’s bluebells come into flower, the Friends do battle against a dreaded invasive alien: Spanish squill. This week Sarah, Alan, Jim and Ian set to in the copse next to the Heritage Orchard, where the squill are threatening our native bluebells.
Continue reading “The battle with Spanish squill”Ground Ivy
This is ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), a little blue flower so common as to be almost invisible. It grows all over the reserve and flowers at any time of the year.
Continue reading “Ground Ivy”Arboreal sex
At this time of year, the reserve is full of pollinators carrying pollen from tree to tree in a kind of reproductive frenzy.
Continue reading “Arboreal sex”
Fact file: English oak
Here is a fact file to go with yesterday’s newly planted English oak:
Continue readingThe Trefoil Oak
by Ian Bushell
It was a bit of a miserable drippy morning but eventually we sorted things out. The Trefoil Guild and the two metre English oak tree [Quercus robur] they have gifted to the reserve to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee arrived at the top of Simpsons Field at 10:30am, as planned.
Continue reading “The Trefoil Oak”
Germination
All over the reserve, all sorts of seeds are germinating.
Cowslip
For several years, we have been trying to establish cowslips (Primula veris) in the reserve’s fields but with less success than we would like. The problem is timing.
Read on to find out moreLesser Celandine
The lesser celandines (Ficaria verna) are in flower.
Continue reading “Lesser Celandine”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 