Day dull: blog dull

We awoke to a foggy day and, on top of that it was chilly (5 degrees) and wet. Of course the Winter Solstice is only five days away after which all will be sunshine and joy - or not.


I invariably visit Byfield on Wednesday but for divers reasons I went today ('Events dear boy, events,' as me old mate Harold MacMillan once complained). Anyway, undaunted by fog, rain or chill I set off. I paused in Woodford to perform a small task.  Hogweed was stubbornly blooming in the main street hoping ('Like Patience on a monument' as my mother would have said) for a visitor.

Hogweed bloomed in the main street of Woodford Halse.

 17 December, 2019

On then to Byfield where I was astonished to find Elder, Sambucus nigra, in the pocket park displaying fresh growth. It was probably a response to being cut back late in the year and I suppose that if it can hold on to these recently-produced leaves it will give the plant a head start in the spring.

This elder has recently put on fresh growth. Byfield Pocket Park,

17 December, 2019

But elsewhere everything appeared lifeless. This is deceptive of course and if I had lifted some flat stones...

In the burial ground which lies adjacent to the pocket park a Paperbark Birch, Betula papyrifera, was peeling in an attractive manner and shed bark lay scattered on the ground all around. A native of Canada and the northern states of U.S.A. it copes perfectly will with conditions in Britain. It is birch bark (although probably not from this species) on which the oldest known Hindu manuscripts, dating from c. 1800 B.C.have been written. As a schoolboy I was familiar with birch for a different reason and I learn from Colin Tudge, that the word Betula is derived from the Latin 'to beat'.


Early humans including Neanderthals are known to have produced, by a process known as dry distillation, a sort of chewing gum from birch bark. Even as I write news has come of the reconstruction of an ancient person's complete genome from a piece of this discarded gum. Now I know I'm getting on a bit but I promise it wasn't mine!

The bark is lifting on this Paperbark Birch and, in so doing, revealing
fresh bark beneath. Byfield parish burial ground, 17 December, 2019

Beneath the tree an Ivy-leaved Cyclamen, Cyclamen hederifolium, is patiently waited for spring to arrive, but it won't flower until autumn is almost upon us. With its curiously reflexed petals it is odd to reflect that this is a member of the Primrose Family, Primulaceae.

Cyclamen hederifolium is called the Ivy-leaved Cyclamen for very good

reasons. Byfield parish burial ground. 17 December, 2019

As the title of this blog indicates, it was hardly an exciting day. In fact, for all naturalists except mycologists, (who may still be finding interesting toadstools) and ornithologists (who will be sifting through gull roosts in the hope of a Glaucous Gull or whatever) this tail-end of the year rarely produces surprises. I did have one little surprise however.

A couple of days ago the family held a pre-Christmas get-together at a Turkish restaurant in Daventry. Rather appropriately a couple of olive trees stand outside and I noticed a leaf-mine on one of the plants. Once home I was able to confirm that it had been formed by the larva of an Olive Moth, Prays oleae. This moth, although a pleasing find for me, is far from welcome around the Mediterranean, where it is a serious pest.

This may be my last blog before Christmas so to all my readers (who range, I am, astonished to find, from California to India), have a suitably bibulous time and a happy New Year.

*Tudge, Colin (2005) The Secret Life of Trees  Penguin Books.  This is a wonderful read for anyone with even the slightest interest in plants.




Tony White  E-mail: diaea@yahoo.co.uk