More pocket park notes

Yesterday I visited Stefen Hill Pocket Park and was greatly impressed by the horse chestnuts. But there were other features, less striking perhaps, but worthy of mention.


The ash trees, Fraxinus excelsior, in this vicinity tend to be either male or female, i.e. dioecious. The male flowers have done their bit, the rather mealy pollen having been scattered by the wind, and they are now dry and withering.




On the male ash trees the flowers are beginning to disintegrate,

their job done,

On the other hand the female flowers are developing. The fruit, in the form of capsules, are swelling and will each develop a wing, eventually to hang in familiar bunches - the 'keys'. We tend to underrate the ash, its abundance making it too familiar to exercise wonder, but its foliage is attractive and its timber was greatly valued in the past.

Meanwhile the fruits are developing on the female trees.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park, Daventry.

Field Maple, Acer campestris, is very common hereabouts, not least because it is often planted for amenity. It is a neat tree and our only native Acer species (although there is an outside possibility that the Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, is also native). The fruit of the field maple can easily be overlooked but a small number of specimens have their developing fruits suffused in orange or red, and can be very striking. The wood is beautifully marked and can be used to make lovely bowls, or indeed, furniture.

These developing fruits on field maple were certainly eye-catching.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park. 24 April, 2020

The insects recorded included a nomad bee, Nomada marshamella, and a weevil, Rhynchites aequatus. Both were new to the pocket park. The weevil in question is a hawthorn specialist and very common, but even the most experience entomologist is probably pleased to see it, for it is a lovely little beetle. 

My picture of Rhynchites marshamella, taken as it dashed around in the

sweep net. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 24 April, 2020

I did photograph it in my net before releasing but, as with the Chestnut Leaf Miner, a better picture is merited.

The weevil is widespread across Europe and this picture was

taken in France.

The long 'snout' (the rostrum) is used to drill small holes into the hawthorn fruit, but in recent years it has turned its attention to apples, pears and, occasionally, plums. So although some will be pleased to find it, orchardists will not.