Salix is the genus name of willow, trees known and cultivated for millennia for their medicinal properties.
Continue reading “Salix”Salix
Canada Thistle Gall Fly
by Ian Bushell
This afternoon, I found these galls on the Creeping Thistle in the second set-aside in Village Green. They are caused by Canada Thistle Gall Fly, Urophora cardui. This is a very distinctive fruit fly which, despite its name, is indigenous to the UK and Europe.
Continue readingIvy flowers
The reserve’s ivy flowers between September and November; each plant’s flowering season is quite short but a succession of plants flowers all through the autumn. The flowers are small, green and yellow, and so insignificant-looking that many people don’t realise that that they are flowers at all.
Read on:
Ecosystem engineers
Ecosystem engineers are organisms that modify their environment. They increase biodiversity by creating habitat for species other than themselves. The oak apple, caused by a tiny wasp called Biorhiza pallida, is just such an engineered environment.
Continue readingWalking seeds
Among the many grasses that grow in the reserve is WILD OAT (Avena fatua) which has an intriguing method of dispersing its seeds.
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 and crunch underfoot.
Read on: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”Woody nightshade
Woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) in the car park, heavy with berries, climbing through the roses.
Continue reading “Woody nightshade”Blackberry and apple jam
The reserve 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”Teasel
This is wild teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), sometimes called the common teasel, photographed in Lambrok Meadow next to Lambrok Stream.
Continue reading “Teasel”
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 reserve’s wildflowers go to seed at the end of the summer, the fleabane is a welcome splash of colour beside the paths.
Continue readingExtra ragwort
When the County Recorder for Flowering Plants, Richard Aisbitt, visited the reserve in May, he found two different species of ragwort: common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) and hoary ragwort (Jacobaea erucifolia).
Continue reading “Extra ragwort”
Water plantain
Water plantain ( Alisma plantago-aquatica) thrives in the Lambrok’s tributary stream, even in conditions as dry as these.
Continue reading
Tufted vetch
This is tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia.
Continue reading
Moschatel
Moschatel (Adoxa moschatellina) is a new addition to our species lists, reported in May this year by County Recorder, Richard Aisbitt.
Continue reading
Bimbling
By Ian Bushell
As it was a lovely afternoon and I wanted pictures of the bags of ragwort we had pulled in Lambrok Meadow, I thought I would have a bimble round the reserve.
Continue readingOxeye daisy
We would love to see drifts of summery oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) in the reserve’s fields but there is a problem.
Read on to find out what the problem is
Hogweed
The reserve’s common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) can grow two metres tall in places, with flower-heads the size of dinner plates. Every year, somebody asks if it is, in fact, giant hogweed and the answer is: no.
Continue reading “Hogweed”Common spotted orchid
There is always competition to be the first to send in pictures of our common spotted orchids. This year the prize goes to Countryside Officer Ali Rasey.
Rosa canina
Dog, used as an adjective, as in dog’s mercury or dog Latin, can be disparaging: it means something is not quite the real thing. But dog rose is a direct translation of the Latin, Rosa Canina, so named in classical times because the root of the dog rose was believed to be a cure for the bite of a mad dog.
Continue reading “Rosa canina”Bracken
This week, bracken has been identified for the first time in the reserve, in the corner of Sheep Field, under the oaks.
Continue reading “Bracken”
Cuckoo flower
Scientific name: Cardamine pratensis
Family: Brassicaceae
Common names: lady’s smock, milkmaids
Habitat: damp grassland
Conservation status: least concern, common and widespread.
Wood spurge
Scientific name: Euphorbia amygdaloides
Habitat: old woodland
Conservation status: common
Header image and image [1] taken in the reserve by Clive Knight.
“Shed not a clout till may be out…”
It’s not, as many believe, an instruction to keep your coat on until June; it’s telling you to take your cardigan off as soon as the may is in blossom, which has been known to happen as early as April.
Continue reading
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 