Beyond the windmill

It was back to Foxhill Farm today taking advantage of fine weather. At the eastern edge of the farm stands Newnham Windmill and a little beyond there are interesting woodlands and steep furze-clad slopes. The scenery is wonderful.

Looking east from near Newnham windmill.

15 May, 2020

To the west the views take in Warwickshire and north Oxfordshire and it is a scene which I suspect hasn't changed dramatically for a century or more.

The gorse still bore a few flowers but had mostly gone to seed and was presenting a dull, scruffy brownish appearance. I paid little attention to it although I knew it would be harbouring countless beetles and spiders.

Gorse had passed its main flowering season although blossoms

will appear throughout the year. 15 May, 2020

Instead I turned my attention to a brightly coloured relative. As kids the Bird's Foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, was always known to us as Eggs and Bacon. I spent a few minutes with it because I see it less often nowadays although it remains generally common.

It is easy to see why Bird's-foot Trefoil earned the local name of

 Eggs and Bacon. Foxhill Farm, 15 May, 2020

It has an abundance of local names and Geoffrey Grigson in his Dictionary of English Plant Names lists over 70, including Fingers and Thumbs, Granny's Toenails, Cuckoo's Stocking and Dutchman's Clogs. To John Clare it was the Lamb-toe and he wrote:

                   

                                   The yellow Lamb-toe I have often got

                                   Sweet creeping o'er the banks in summer time.

                                                                                   Clare's Village Minstrel, 1821

It is technically poisonous although the active ingredient, hydrogen  cyanide, is only present in very low quantities. It is the food-plant of the Six-spot Burnet Moth, Zygaena filipendulae. This insect, when a caterpillar, extracts the cyanide from the plant and stores it in its body, retaining it when it emerges as the imago. It warns would-be predators of its unpalatability with striking coloration, a dodge known as aposematism.

The imago of the Six-spot Burnet Moth wears warning colours.

Photo courtesy of Naturespot

A closer view of the flowers shows that they are pea-like, making it a member of the Fabaceae family. They produce enough nectar to make them valuable to bumblebees although, worryingly, I saw none feeding.

The egg-yolk flowers are favourites with bumblebees.

Foxhill Farm, 15 May, 2020

The plant pops up in our garden from time to time, posing the question: have the seeds been lying dormant since the houses were built, some 35 years ago? It never becomes a weed and I welcome these occasional plants. Incidentally the word corniculatus means 'horn-shaped'. Does it refer to the pod or the flower? I have no idea.


And of course, it has nothing to do with the 'lotus eaters' mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey.