by David Feather
This is not a slogan to free a political prisoner; it is just information that a few of the apples in the Community Orchard next to the allotments are ripe for picking.
Continue reading “Free Apples”Free Apples
Why do the leaves change colour?
There are three kinds of pigment in a usually green leaf: yellow carotenes, red and pink anthocyanins, and chlorophyll, which is the green that masks the other colours until autumn.
Workparty
From white elephants to daffodils.
Some of the £145 we raised on our White Elephant Stall at Southwick Flower Show on August Bank Holiday Monday has been spent on 250 native daffodil bulbs.
Continue reading “Workparty”Bioturbation
Wikipedia defines bioturbation as the reworking of soils and sediments by animals or plants. Here is a video of a system with and without soil fauna such as earthworms, mites and isopods over a 15 week period: this is what is happening to the fallen leaves all over the reserve.
Seed dispersal
Seed dispersal is an annual problem for trees and shrubs. If seeds just fell down and germinated under the parent tree, they would be competing with their parent for nutrition, water and eventually light. Trees need a way to send their seeds far off to a new environment where their germination will not pose a threat.
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The ground beneath our feet
We rattle on about the reserve’s biodiversity, its species-rich hayfields, the insect life buzzing through the hedges and our woods filled with birdsong but we pay scant attention to its most biodiverse habitat, the soil.
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Fascinating fact
In the next few weeks each of the reserve’s jays will cache as many as 7500 acorns, carrying away from the tree as many as six acorns at a time and hammering them into the ground in a spot believed to be chosen for a nearby memory-jogging marker.
Yarrow
As the reserve’s flora turns itself over to making seed, there are fewer and fewer flowers in our hedgerows. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is one of the few.
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Salix
Salix is the genus name of willow, trees known and cultivated for millennia for their medicinal properties.
Continue readingOak galls
At this time of year, the park’s many oak trees have shed not only their acorns but a variety of galls.
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Wednesday’s work party
This week’s work party began with an official heat warning from the Countryside Team:
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Fleabane
Yesterday’s headline picture was of a marsh damsel bug on a fleabane flower, which reminded us that fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) is an essential late summer nectar source for our invertebrates that deserves a post of its own.
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Stunningly beautiful greater bindweed (Calystegia sepium).
Woody nightshade
Woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), climbing through the reserve’s hedges, is heavy with berries at this time of year.
Continue reading “Woody nightshade”Heritage orchard
In February of 2014, the Friends planted an orchard: thirty eight heritage apple trees of fourteen different varieties, in the southern end of the park. They have really beautiful names:
Continue reading “Heritage orchard”Honey bees
There are at least two feral honey bee colonies in the reserve, nesting high in our mature trees. Unlike common wasps, honey bees don’t die at the end of the summer; the colony stores enough food for the queen and the workers to survive through the winter.
Continue reading “Honey bees”Bulrushes
These are the flowers of Typha latifolia, the common bulrush, growing vigorously in Lambrok Stream.
Read on:Poisonous berries
The changing climate rushes our flowering season on and the reserve is already full of seeds, fruits and berries, food for our wildlife but not always for its human occupants. Some berries are poisonous and every year we publish pictures of those best avoided.
Continue for details and picturesRobin’s pincushion
This strange growth is called a robin’s pincushion.
Continue reading “Robin’s pincushion”Hottest July
While here in the UK, July 2023 was slightly cooler (and a lot wetter) than usual, worldwide it was the hottest July on record.
Continue reading “Hottest July”Rosebay willowherb
The rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium) in the Arboretum is in flower and well worth a look.
Read on:Ragwort
Ragwort is extraordinarily successful; all the “injurious weeds” named in the 1959 Weeds Act are.
Continue reading “Ragwort”Extra ragwort
We have two different species of ragwort in the reserve, common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) and hoary ragwort (Jacobaea erucifolia), both valuable nectar sources for our late season butterflies.
Continue reading “Extra ragwort”Ten facts
Bush vetch
Continue reading “Ten facts”Himalayan balsam
We keep constant watch in the reserve for the beautiful invasive alien, Impatiens glandulifera, or Himalayan balsam. It might be very lovely to look at but it is an environmental horror story
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 