As I have remarked before, the fauna of Daventry town centre fails to match that of the plains of Serengeti, and as for the flora, it hardly matches that of the Peloponnese, where at times I have struggled not to tread upon orchids. No, in this neck of the wood we have to be content with smaller - but not lesser - things. A shieldbug may not be the size of a zebra, but in the long run is probably of greater importance.
With his thought in mind I buckled my swash and, on a chilly and damp day, set off on safari into darkest Daventry - the car park at the top of North Street to be precise.
Spleenworts clung to a damp brick wall. The species is, to be precise, the Maidenhair Spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes. Its original home may have been crevices in mountain rocks in the north and west of Britain, but it clearly finds walls congenial for it is very widespread nowadays. However Druce(1930) described it as being 'local and rare' in Northamptonshire.
With his thought in mind I buckled my swash and, on a chilly and damp day, set off on safari into darkest Daventry - the car park at the top of North Street to be precise.
Spleenworts clung to a damp brick wall. The species is, to be precise, the Maidenhair Spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes. Its original home may have been crevices in mountain rocks in the north and west of Britain, but it clearly finds walls congenial for it is very widespread nowadays. However Druce(1930) described it as being 'local and rare' in Northamptonshire.
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The Maidenhair Spleenwort is common in the Daventry area and elsewhere.
Daventry, 3 March, 2020
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At the foot of the wall were hundreds of plants of Common Whitlow Grass, Erophila verna. Was this diminutive member of the cabbage family once used to treat troublesome whitlows? I have no idea - nor, if it comes to that, do I know whether spleenwort was used for treatment of the spleen (but it was perhaps used to treat people given to splenetic episodes).
Around the car park hedges of Firethorn had been tightly clipped but this had not stopped the Firethorn Leaf Miner, Phyllonorycter leucographella, from going about its work.
Its larva forms a blister-like mine around the midrib of a leaf but, although very common the attractively marked adult (imago) is less often seen.
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Whitlow Grass flowers early in the year.
Daventry town centre, 3 March, 2020
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The larva of the Firethorn Leaf Miner causes the development of a
blister-like mine on the central leaf rib. Daventry, 3 March, 2020
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Its larva forms a blister-like mine around the midrib of a leaf but, although very common the attractively marked adult (imago) is less often seen.
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| Firethorn Leaf Miner. Picture courtesy of Butterfly Conservation. |
I strolled on to nearby playing fields. A kudu perhaps? A gemsbok or two? I was disappointed. I noted that virtually all the trees had been coppiced long ago, and each stool now formed a group of strong trunks. A willow had attained considerable stature.
A sycamore was not far behind. All this coppicing had clearly been done at considerable effort and expense, but why? What had been achieved? Local authorities move in mysterious ways.
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This willow had been coppiced long ago. An unnamed park, Daventry.
3 March, 2020
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| A sycamore had been dealt with in a similar fashion. Daventry 3 March, 2020 |
In fact these trees will, in a few months time, be supporting a wide range of bugs and other insects, so who am I to complain?
Druce, G.C. (1930) The Flora of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough. Buncle & Co.
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