Two interesting plants

Such botanical expertise as I possess is underused and rusty so it was pleasing to met two out-of-the-ordinary species today. Something to get the grey matter working. 


The first one was perhaps the more interesting of the two as it is a native plant and rather scarce. We are all familiar with the Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum. It is frequent on waste ground, particularly if the ground is on the damp side. It seems happy with clay soils so here in Northamptonshire conditions are to its liking. What we are all less familiar with is the Small Teasel, Dipsacus  pilosus.

Dipsacus pilosus beside a ditch at Foxhill Farm. 8 August, 2020

I found it today when on a visit to Foxhill Farm. To be honest I found it last January, leafless, flowerless and at that stage it was - to me at least - unidentifiable. Today it was flowering and its true nature was obvious. It was not just the flowering heads, smaller than but broadly similar to, those of D. fullonum, but the spiny stems, these having just the same texture as it larger cousin . There are two centres of its distribution in Northamptonshire: one is a region in the east of the county between Oundle and Stamford, whilst the other is north and west of Daventry. The total number of known sites seems to be about twenty. I found it in a typical situation beside a ditch. It may have been recorded at this site before but to be on the safe side I will let the county botanical recorder know.

The flowers of D. pilosus are smaller and more globular than the larger

species. Foxhill Farm again, 8 August, 2020

It was while out walking with Chris later in the day that I had my second surprise. It was a Manna Ash, Fraxinus ornus, and it shouldn't have been a surprise as I saw the plant in flower some fifteen months ago, but had forgotten about it. Its leaflets are not unlike those of the Common Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, but are rather broader.

The leaflets of Manna Ash are broader than those of the Common Ash.

Badby Road East, Daventry. 8 August, 2020

 

In flower and fruit it is rather different. The 'keys' (posh name, samaras) hang in longer, more drooping bunches than common ash but are unremarkable.

The same tree showing the drooping fruit.

So it is down to the flowers to make this tree an arresting sight. They are in panicles, creamy white and pleasantly fragrant. The species seems to be perfectly hardy so why it is not planted more is a mystery. The answer could be that the tree is dioecious and only the female bears the lovely flowers, although few books seem to mention this. As for fruit, fortunately the local authority planted a pair side by side and so cross-pollination occurs.

Manna Ash flowers. Fragrant, beautiful and visited by many insects;

 what more could one ask?

But why manna? This is referred to twice in the Hebrew Bible and in the Quran it gets three mentions. It was an edible substance provided by God for the Israelites in their wanderings following the Exodus and prior to their settling in Canaan. 

Israelites gathering manna. 'The Gathering of the Manna'

by Dirck Bouts. c. 1465

Manna Ash, when the bark is slashed, exudes a sweet and nutritious substance (Reference 1) so inevitably some scholars have suggested that this was the biblical manna but there are several other possibilities. The desert shrub Haloxylon salicornum provides another potential source (Reference 2) but I do not intend to go further into the debate.

In fact the manna ash grows plentifully in Sicily and 'manna' is apparently sold in some villages there.

References


1. Blamey, M. and Grey-Wilson, C. 1993 Mediterranean Wild Flowers  Harper Collins


2. Guttman, V  Manna is Real and Not So Heavenly  Jewish World, Winter Issue, 2019