Winterreise

Cold spot

The cold weather from the east brought frost and snow to the Square Metre in mid-February but most of the snow had gone by 14th or 15th of the month.

A small amount remained at the base of the north side of the birch tree, that part of the Square Metre the sun cannot not reach.  Generally the quadrat is warm and sunny, but this area at the back of the birch must have a relatively cool and moist microclimate.

Smeuses

A short distance to the north east is the entrance to an animal's route through the bushes from our neighbour's garden (see below). Such features of the countryside are, or were, known as 'smeuses'.  It has been suggested that the word 'smeuse' is a corruption of 'meuse'. This is thought by etymologists to derive from Middle French 'muce' meaning a hiding place and was in widespread use in England in mediaeval times. It seems to have nothing to do with the river Meuse.  The s prefix could come simply by running one word into another, e.g. 'it's a badgersmeuse.

Last year's comma

Last August  I was examining the sallow cordon (Salix cinerea) that has been growing in the south west corner of the Square Metre for many years when I spotted a strange brown creature on one of the leaves.  To begin with I couldn't work out what it was.

After looking at various books I worked out that it was a full grown larva of a comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) a species that is quite common around the garden and whose larvae I have occasionally found on stinging nettles.  While nettle is the usual foodplant, the caterpillars have been recorded from sallow.  In our garden there is plenty of both these plants and it is interesting that sallow was chosen by the egg-laying female.

Birds are known to eat comma larvae and as a defence against predation, especially in their earlier stages, they are said to look like bird droppings. In the photograph above the caterpillar is clearly adopting a threat position with its hinder end raised and  its penultimate pair of legs imitating short arms.  The head, perhaps the most vulnerable part, is kept well down on the right.  Also the body is twisted well out of normal caterpillar position to give the impression of a large bird dropping.  If, when startled, the caterpillar adopted this position rapidly the sudden movement, combined with the other factors, might be enough be deter a hungry bird.

Despite searching online and in my books, I can find no reference to this kind of distinctive behaviour in comma caterpillars.

Plum Blossom Day

The 25th February is celebrated as Plum Blossom Day in many parts of Japan and, right on cue, a few delicate white flowers have appeared on the scrubby cherry plum bushes in our garden not far from the Square Metre.

As well as bringing on early flowers, the warm weather is encouraging insects to appear.  A seven-spot ladybird was sunning itself in Brambly Hedge and several bumble bees zoomed  through the Square Metre air space.  One settled among the dead leaves and ivy and remained there once it was well tucked in.  It looked too small for a queen (most early flying bumble bees are queens) and I suspect it was a worker that had managed to overwinter.

          

  

 The hiding bumble bee is in the centre of the lower picture.

Vegetation is still mostly at a standstill apart from goosegrass (Galium aparine) whose autumn germinated plants seem to grow in a cheery fresh and green manner whatever the weather.  Goosegrass is one of many English names for the plant and geese are reputed to enjoy eating it.  Perhaps it supplies some welcome fresh green stuff for them in winter.  One baffling name (to me ) for the plant is the Welsh lau'r offeiriad which means 'louse of the priest'.  I would welcome an explanation.

Franchet's cotoneaster

Several small cotoneasters have appeared in Medlar Wood over the years, the seeds, no doubt, occurring in droppings from the branches overhead.  Last year one of the largest produced flowers and fruit and, using all the botanical resources I could, find it appears to be Cotoneaster franchetii, Franchet's cotoneaster.  My plant shed its leaves quite rapidly in autumn and C. franchetii is said to be evergreen or semi-evergreen.  The leaves also turned a quite vivid red.  The indicates it could be var. sternianus introduced from Myanmar in 1919, a variety sometimes misnamed as C. wardii.  It has been given an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the Royal Horticultural Society.

The summer fruits (below) and the flowers agreed closely with descriptions of C. franchetii.  

The shrub's specific name commemorates the 19th century French botanist Adrien René Franchet.  There appears to be no English equivalent for 'cotoneaster' which is from Latin meaning quince-like.  I think Franchet's false-quince would be a nicer name, but I don't suppose it will catch on.

Early spring 2021

Now winter seems to have passed and we are getting some sunny February days.  The corona virus pandemic seems to be receding too, so spirits are rising.  Today I re-found the two older dandelion plants I spent so much time enjoying last year. They have been hidden under fallen leaves and worm casts for months.  They are currently quite small with very narrow leaves, each from a single rosette, but they look healthy enough.

I have a view down the garden from my new position at the desktop on the table.  The 18-year-old birch tree that grows in the south west corner of the Square Metre is tall enough to see it from my room.  The picture above shows it behind one of our juniper bushes during the recent cold and snowy weather.

Ivy is starting to climb the lower part of the trunk of the birch and, I suppose, will one day overwhelm it. The ivy leaders all start on the rough black bark and mostly remain on this as high as it goes when they move on to the much smoother white bark.  They seem to be able to cling tightly to either substrate without any difficulty and it makes me wonder, if it is not coincidence, how the ivy selects the black rather than the white.  

Horse flies and feathers

The other day I found a feather on the ground in the Square Metre

.It is a pigeon’s feather and a complex structure with four different shades of grey.  There is a broad white streak along the leading edge and a much finer white one along the tailing edge.  The central quill is blackand contrasts strongly with the grey on either side.

I have pushed the quill end into the ground by the self-heal near my feet where I sit and I intend to watch its deterioration (or disappearance).   I have a book somewhere which includes details of microfungi that grow on feathers.  So far I have not been able to find any of these so perhaps my pigeon's feather will fill this gap.

Although insects are rather few at the moment, the list continues to grow and the other day I photographed this horse fly (Tabanus bromius I think) resting on a leaf in Brambly Hedge.

Midsummer grasses

The largest number of grasses is in flower at the moment giving a very high pollen count.  In The Green Sanctuary sweet vernal-grass and rough meadow grass are already over but Yorkshire fog  is anthesising now and seems to be having a good year.  

Another grass currently in flower is the tall false oat-grass, Arrhenatherum elatius.  This spike is hanging over the Square Metre itself from a plant in Troy Track so maybe it will drop some seed in M3.

Still to come are the bent grasses (Agrostis spp.) of which I think I have several.  One species has leaf blades that stick out at right angles from the main stalks making a very pleasing 3D array of horizontals and verticals.  The cliché that nature abhors a straight line does not seem to apply in this case.

I wondered about the name 'bent' for these Agrostis grasses and, while I have not found any specific evidence, I think it must come from the word 'benedict' meaning 'blessed' in Latin.  This is sometimes given to plants of high worth in the shortened form 'bennett' as in 'herb bennet' (usually spelt with one t).  It is also contracted to 'bent' in other contexts as in the Danish name 'Bent' which derives from 'Benedict'.

Brambles and grasses

The bramble 'hedge' that defines the southern border of The Green Sanctuary is now at its most attractive.  It is full of flowers with their crinkled petals and there are still lots of unopened buds.  The flowers do not last long and already green blackberry fruits are starting to appear.  In the photo below a small hoverfly (possibly a Melangyna species) appears to be seeking pollen and there are many other insects that appear on the flowers and leaves.

The earlier flowering grasses are going over now and the later bents and other species starting to send up flowering spikes.  Yorkshire fog is very easily identified with its silvery spikes that often do not seem to open fully and it grows in several places in The Green Sanctuary.  In the picture below one of the only open spikes is on the far right.

Apparently, the plant is called 'Yorkshire fog' because it was widely grown in Yorkshire in the 18th century to be threshed for its seed.  So far as I can discover the seed was used for sowing to produce a quick growing 'ley' of palatable young grass for farm animals.

Holly and knapweed eaters

Most of the leading shoots on the cordon holly in The Square Metre have been bundled up and the leaves partly eaten by what I think is probably the holly tortrix, Rhopobota naevana.

I also spotted some small leaf mines towards the tips of knapweed leaves and, using the online guides, it looks as though these are made by the larvae of the beetle Sphaeroderma testacea.

Spring into Summer

It has been one of the sunniest springs on record and one of the driest Mays but The Green Sanctuary does not seem to suffer in any way apart from the drooping tops to the wood docks and some other plants at the hottest part of the day.

High up in the green mist of the medlar tree there are some flowers on the small-flowered sweet briar, Rosa micrantha, though the roots of the plant are in the Square Metre.

Back on ground level there are several plants of American willowherb, Epilobium ciliatum, starting into flower.  This is an alien species first recorded in the UK in 1891 since when it has spread very widely in many countries apart from Britain.  Curiously it is regarded as an endangered species in some American states whilst here it is one of our commonest 'weeds'.

Tutsan and aphids

The bushes of tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) on the edge of Medlar Wood have started flowering and are of great interest to bumble bees.  These shuffle about on the flowers for a few seconds but are clearly not obtaining nectar.  There seems to be plenty of pollen on the crown of anthers and they may be gathering some of that.

On one of the red campions I noticed a colony of almost black aphids, Brachycaudus lychnidis sp. grp (there are two very similar UK aphids from this genus on this plant).  Attending them was a small parasitic wasp which, I suspect, was summing them up as potential hosts for her eggs. 

I was also pleased to see a common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) on the edge of Medlar Wood and some way from the kind of water where it would be able to breed.

Plant and insect climbers

In Brambly Hedge there are three stems of tufted vetch (Vicia cracca) climbing lustily through the brambles.  They have bumped into black bryony bines at the top and the vetch has wrapped its tendrils round the still growing bryony bine.  I wonder what the outcome will be.

On the insect front I noticed a tiny moth climbing up a cylindrical leaf of one of the wild onions.  It was really a bit too far away to get a good picture but the one I took below is sufficient to determine it as the common tubic (Alabonia geoffrella).

Galls on hornbeam

A few leaves on the cordon hornbeam in The Waste just outside the Square Metre carry the tiny galls of the mite Aceria tenellus in the angles between the veins.  There are rather few records for Sussex but it is probably widespread and under-recorded.

Wild service tree arrives at The Green Sanctuary

I was recently astonished to discover what appears to be a wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis) seedling not a metre from where I usually sit to study the Square Metre and its surrounds. It is in the area I call 'The Waste' about half a metre south of the actual square.  It is remarkable because the wild service is a tree I have been studying in detail since 1974 and on many occasions I have said that it does not readily regenerate from seed in the wild.  But this one has.  The nearest fruiting tree is outside our house in Churchland Lane about 50 metres away and I suspect this is the probable source of the seed.  The plant also appears to have been cut or grazed off, probably last year, but otherwise seems quite healthy.  It is difficult to believe it is not drawing attention to itself by growing so close at hand and in a place where it will be well looked after.

Another striking feature during the last week has been the growth of new shoots on the oak cordon.  They are about a month later than the leaves on the untrimmed oak trees in the area and they have a shining coppery brown colour.  In the past they have come into leaf before the ash trees in the project, but this year they are far behind so, according to the old proverbs, that might mean we are in for a wet summer.

The white stripe behind the oak shoot is the trunk of the Emthree birch

  

22nd April 2020

Cynthia, my partner for 62 years, died a year ago today and, like then, it is a beautiful late spring morning.  God speed my darling.

Just above Troy Track I found a seedling tree which looks rather like a wild service, though it may be the offspring of the American  Crataegus with service like leaves that grows not far away.  I shall have to keep a careful watch on it.

I think some buds are starting to develop on the Cotoneaster (? frigida) that grows on the edge of Medlar Wood.  A large shoot of tufted vetch has appeared in Brambly Hedge beside my seat.  This is new, and very welcome, in the Green Sanctuary.  I have now counted four dandelion seedlings close to the large western dandelion.

Plenty of insects about today including the flying black carabid that appears at this time of the year; Rhingia rostrata, a local hoverfly and orange tip butterflies visiting bugle along with carder bees.  

21st April 2020

A year ago today this would have been the last day of Cynthia’s life as she died in the small hours, maybe around three or four a.m. on 22^nd April. She was familiar with M3 through my conversation and the various radio and film outings, but I think she was never able to go down the garden and see it. However, I feel she is with me when I make my daily visits.

Today a holly blue – a fallen fragment of Heaven – came and visited the Green Sanctuary.  There were also the usual speckled woods and a passing small white.  There was a warm southerly wind and the ground is already getting quite dry after a very wet winter..

Four dandelion plants were in bloom, the larger eastern and western and the two smaller one on Troy Track by the spindle trees and I continued my hand grazing, this time along the spinal stones of Cynthia’s Ridge.

20th April 2020

Sunny but with a cool and strong easterly blowing. The speckled woods seemed to have calmed down a bit but were still enjoying the Green Sanctuary as a sunny glade. The red admiral also put in a brief appearance.

After the flowers have faded on the dandelions their stalks lie flat, or almost flat, on the ground while the seeds develop within the tightly folded bracts then when they are ready they rise up to present the dandelion down to the wind. The first of these dandelion clocks appeared today on the far east of M3 by Troy Track.

There was a resumed fall of male birch catkins and I saw the orange underside of a flying dock bug for the first time this year.  I took a photo of the birch tree a few days ago to show its impressive curtain of hanging catkins. I noticed then that the trunk divides into two towards the top of the tree and think this may mean it has grown as tall as it can and now intends to spread outwards.  We shall see.

I have been watching the willow herb plants develop. We have two or three of the so-called weedy species and they seem immune to any sort of attack by animals or microfungi. I must investigate.

19th April 2020

The speckled wood butterflies were very active today with a male chasing the female all over the place but never quite catching her.  They rested on pale coloured perches or shining leaves and one visited the western dandelion.  There was also a fine fresh red admiral that stopped briefly on its way through.  Difficult to believe it had emerged from hibernation or flown in from mainland Europe.  It looked as though it was freshly emerged from the pupa which would indicate the species is breeding here (as the climate gets warmer?)

Nomad bees are now fling about close to the ground.  I think the species we have here is ruficornis, but I don'r want to catch one to find out.

Some of the looping wild onion leaves have changed from curves to inverted Vs rather like the coronavirus graphs that are constantly being shown on TV.

Some of the leaves on hogweed and sycamore seedlings are overshadowing smaller plants today, so I have started a system of control by selective hand grazing.

18th April 2020

Ground wetting rain overnight with droplets on the vegetation rainbow-filled and sparkling in the morning sunshine.

The ground was strewn with birch catkins like brown and yellow caterpillars knocked of by the rain.  I must look out for the birch catkin bug, Kleidocerys resedae.

Bugle is at its best, with stiff, blue spikes of flower. The largest group is  over by the edge of Medlar Wood.  It seems particularly attractive to microfungi with some 57 species recorded from it but apparently only two insects attack it, the scorched blunt marble or bugle marble tortrix moth Endothenia ustulana and the aphid Myzus ajugae.  The moth larvae live in the roots and later the midribs of the leaves and, in Sussex, it is a very rare Red Data Book species.

17th April 2020

Chilly today with a little rain.  There was a small solitary bee in one of the dandelion flowers perhaps slowed by the cold.

A shoot has emerged at the top of the grey willow (sallow) I cut back to one metre in height last autumn.  The whole plant does not look in very good condition - perhaps it is growing too close to the tall birch, but the new shoot looks healthy enough.  I think maybe I shall call the tall birch Alta Betula and the short one Parva Betula.

There is a light snowfall of wild cherry petals blown from the trees further down the garden and some creature has dug a snuffle hole in the patch of bare earth just south of the oak cordon.  Maybe a badger.