A host of golden daffodils….
Over the years the Friends have planted at least a couple of thousand native daffodil bulbs (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) around the edges of the reserve’s woodland. Back breaking work, rewarded at this time of year with the first golden flowers.
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by David Feather
Today, April 28th is designated Orchard Blossom Day but, sadly, we have no event scheduled for that Sunday in or related to our heritage orchard.
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Around here, we have always called it wild garlic (Allium ursinum) but it is known by many different names: ramsons, cows’s leek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear’s garlic. Whatever you call it, it’s coming into flower in our copses.
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by Ian Bushell
We think we have identified THREE species of cherry trees in the reserve.
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The vernal equinox, the moment at which our sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are of exactly equal lengths, happened at 3:06 am this morning. So today, is the first day of 2024 that will be longer than the previous night. The days will get longer and the nights shorter until the summer solstice: June 21st or thereabouts. For the reserve this is a time of extraordinary growth.
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There are wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) in the copse between Sheep Field and Sleepers, and under oak 5552 in the corner by the central path..
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A host of golden daffodils….
After their short, golden flowering period, the above-ground parts of our daffodils will die back and they will spend the rest of the year hidden underground as bulbs. The bulbs are adapted stems and leaves in which the plants store their food to fuel next year’s spring growth.
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These are not the daffodils we planted in the autumn of 2017; these are a rapidly spreading clump at the bottom of Kestrel Field on the edge of the copse.
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A goat willow’s flowers, or catkins, are known as pussy willow because they look like furry grey kittens’ paws. They appear in February, some weeks before the willow’s leaves, one of the earliest signs of spring in the reserve.
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This is one of our field maples, Acer campestre, growing next to the circular path at the top of Simpson’s Field. The photograph was taken on April 1st 2021.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 