Disease resistant elm
We have precious elm saplings, resistant to Dutch elm disease, that will need to be planted out in the park soon.
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A gallery of autumn leaves
Silk button galls
There are silk button galls on the underside of oak leaves all over the park.
Continue reading “Silk button galls”Salix
Salix is the genus name of willow, trees known and cultivated for millennia for their medicinal properties.
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More about oak galls
Yesterday’s post about oak apples prompted questions. Here is more information about some of the oak gall wasps that induce oak trees into producing such strange growths.
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More about our oaks.
Continue reading “Oak gall ink”Planting whips in the car park
From Wikipedia:
A whip is a slender, unbranched shoot or plant. This term is used in forestry to refer to unbranched young tree seedlings of approximately 0.5-1.0 m (1 ft 7 in-3 ft 3 in) in height and 2–3 years old, that have been grown for planting out.
Why do the leaves change colour?
There are three kinds of pigment in a usually green leaf: carotenes which are yellow, red and pink anthocyanins, and chlorophyll, which is the green that masks the other colours until autumn.
Summer Branch Drop
Several of our mature and healthy oak trees have lost branches this summer, not as a result of August’s storms but during calm, still, summer weather. Our Tree and Woodland Officer, Rich Murphy, came to see what was going on.
Continue reading “Summer Branch Drop”Sweet chestnut
Sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa) in the Arboretum, photographed yesterday from the park’s central path.
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The tiny flowers of thyme-leaved speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia) photographed in Cornfield.
A red tailed bumblebee worker (Bombus lapidarius) collecting nectar and pollen from a meadow cranesbill flower.
Photographed in the park, Friday 11th September.
Woody nightshade
A woody nightshade flower, photographed this week, in the car park.
Continue readingMore about acorns…
…and squirrels.
Here is a video, taken from BBC Earth’s Spy In The Wild series, about squirrels caching acorns.
The header picture was taken by DKG
Acorns
Oak trees produce thousands of acorns every year. Somebody has worked out that an oak tree can produce ten million acorns over its lifetime. In a good year, they carpet the ground under the tree.
Read on:Blackberry and apple jam
The park is full of ripening blackberries, all free from the contaminants of vehicle exhaust. Here is a recipe for blackberry and apple jam.
Continue reading “Blackberry and apple jam”Ragwort
Ragwort is extraordinarily successful; all the “injurious weeds” named in the 1959 Weed Act are.
Continue reading “Ragwort”Honey bees
Unlike common wasps, honey bees (Apis mellifera) don’t die at the end of the summer. The hive stores enough food for the queen and the workers to survive through the winter.
Continue reading “Honey bees”A parasitic plant
Message from a park goer:
I took this picture this morning out in the park. I have no idea what it is – it’s almost heather-like. It’s in Lambrok Meadow by the stream near where there is a ford across into the Church Lane field.
Ragwort again
A version of this post was first published in July of last year.
This year the park produced beautiful hay: a variety of grasses, dry, sweet smelling, full of wildflower and not a single shred of ragwort anywhere. Already, we have turned our attention to pulling and digging the ragwort that might spoil the farmer’s next crop,
Continue reading “Ragwort again”Oak number 5526
Message from Ian Bushell.
Sad to report that Oak number 5526, dubbed Stoat Oak, in the hedge line between Corn and Sleeper Fields has suffered a two limb loss – the large upper branch taking out the lower one on its descent. The fallen branch is safe and not impinging on the hard path.
No idea why; admitted it is in full leaf and thus heavy but there has been no wind or rain in the last couple of days. This tree lost a limb about the same place about 10 years ago. Don’t think there have been any other losses in the park this summer.
More from Ian about the park’s oak trees:
Himalayan balsam
We keep constant watch in the park for the invasive alien, Impatiens glandulifera, or Himalayan balsam. It might be very beautiful to look at but it is an environmental horror story
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Field garlic
The extraordinary flowers of Allium oleraceum or field garlic, found growing at the bottom of Kestrel Field.
This is common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica); it is a plant that grows all over the place but nobody ever seems to know its name. As the park’s summer wildflowers go to seed, the fleabane is a welcome splash of colour beside the paths.
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