Of Ferns and Muntjac

'Twas a very cold morning following a hard overnight frost. Not to be daunted I girded my loins and, summoning the courage of my Viking ancestors*, set forth for the Pocket Park. A stream runs alongside the park and its banks are becoming well colonised by ferns. So far I have only noted one species, the Male Fern Dryopteris filix-mas.

 

I am no expert but this species is Northamptonshire's commonest fern, so in this instance I feel fairly confident. Of this fern Druce remarks: "Rather common...but suffering from the rapacity of vagrants."

Along the banks of the stream I frequently see a Munjac Deer, Muntiacus reevesi, often browsing and not seemingly perturbed by my presence. It wasn't there today but there were faint hoof-marks (known as 'slots') in the damp soil. The bark had also been nibbled on a fallen branch nearby.

 

* I have mild Dupuytren's Contracture. It is a condition caused by a faulty gene and is said to have been brought to Britain by the Vikings. I trot out this highly significant piece of information at random times.

Tamarisk

Tamarisks must be among my favourite garden shrubs, with their delicate, feathery branches and little "bottle brushes" of pink or white flowers. They are very common around Mediterranean coasts but one species, Tamarix gallica is well naturalised along the southern coast of Britain. On continental holidays I have often tried to identify the plants I see but there are about 75 species of Tamarisk and I'm not sure I often get it right!

My picture shows a fine specimen in Bell Lane, Byfield, where, even in late November, it remains attractive. The genus gives its name to the Tamaricaceae family.

Two tiny bugs, Tuponia brevirostris and T. mixticolor, have been found in the UK feeding on Tamarisk. Both are recent arrivals to these shores. So far the former has only been found in the vicinity of London beside the banks of the Thames but I'll keep an eye open for it, after all, our local watercourses all feed into the Thames so you never know...

The Roast Beef Plant

Common around Byfield are specimens of the Roast Beef Plant.  It is in fact an iris, Iris foetidissima, and its peculiar vernacular name refers to the odd smell of its bruised leaves. Another, more commonly used name is Stinking Gladdon. G. Claridge Druce, writing in 1930, knew it from just two sites in Northants and described it as "very rare". Gill Gent's more recent work, "The Flora of Northamptonshire", published in 1995, only gives eleven locations for the plant. Its frequency around Byfield is therefore a bit of a mystery but it is likely that birds help to distribute the seeds.

I photographed the plant yesterday beside the Village Club, where its bright red seeds, revealed when the fruits split open, caught my attention. These are a more attractive feature than the flowers, which are rather small and of a wishy-washy dull purple colour.

Butcher's Broom

A garden frontage in New Terrace, Byfield, boasts a dozen or so plants of Butcher's Broom, Ruscus aculeatus. "Boasts" is hardly an appropriate verb since they are rather scruffy little shrubs of limited garden merit.

Scruffy they may be, but this does not mean that they lack interest, for in fact they are very curious plants indeed. Despite their appearance they have no leaves; instead the work normally done by leaves, i.e. photosynthesis, is done by flattened stems called cladodes.

The plant is highly variable and the second  picture shows a form commonly used by florists (I found this piece on a pavement in Banbury, where it had clearly been dropped). Here the underside of the "leaves" show scars where the flower buds grew, yet flowers don't grow from the middle of leaves! Occasionally, if the flower has been pollinated, the cladode will bear a scarlet berry.

 Butcher's Broom is quite frequent in south east England but is not native to Northants. I  remember it well from when I served with the RAF in Gibraltar, for it was very common on "The Rock". In mediaeval times bunches of it were used to sweep the blood and gore from the floors of butchers' shops and its Latin name of Ruscus is simply the name used by the Romans for a butcher's broom.

According to my copy of Potter's Cyclopaedia a decoction of this plant "will be found of use in...female obstructions". Hmmm.

The Butcher's Broom is closely related to asparagus - another plant to bear cladodes instead of leaves.

Dead Nettles

Mention has already been made (20th November) of the Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum. Its close relative, the White Dead-nettle Lamium album, is also flowering bravely - if a little pointlessly - in many places around the village. It may not be completely pointless as the flowers are visited by bumble bees, which may venture forth on a mild winter's day. My photograph is of a specimen beside the tennis courts.

Everyone is familiar with this species for it is extremely common. For the purposes of mapping, Northamptonshire is divided up into 131 x 5 km squares; the White Dead-nettle has been found in all 131 of these squares. As children we would remove the flowers and nibble the base of the corolla tube to taste the copious nectar. Well, sweets were rationed!  Tell kids that nowadays and they wouldn't believe you.

Silver Birch

Our pocket park in Byfield boasts several birch trees and they are particularly attractive at this time of the year. One of the first songs I learnt at school was a setting of a poem by Edith Nesbit:

  The silver birch is a dainty lady,
  She wears a satin gown...

Despite its delicate appearance the silver birch is as tough as old boots and, as the last ice age drew to a close in Britain, birches were among the first trees to move into the bleak landscape.

In terms of wildlife it is a valuable species. In summer I can depend on finding the bug Kleidocerys resedae on its branches. A noisy and smelly little insect, it is one of the first species to come to the attention of people interested in such creatures. The Birch Shieldbug Elasmostethus interstinctus is also common as is an aphid, Euceraphys betulae, whilst in a single birch catkin I found 14 galls caused by the fly, Semudobia betulae. I mention the Latin names, not only because some of these insects have no common name, but because the specific name "betulae" refers to the birch tree itself, Betula pendula.

My photograph shows the largest and probably the oldest birch tree in the pocket park but, although this tree is probably around 30 years old, birches are not long-lived. Fungi attack them from quite an early age and bracket fungi are often a sinister feature of their trunks.

Druce's 1930 Flora of Northamptonshire describes Silver Birch as "rare as a native tree" and, significantly, John Clare makes no mention of it. Most of our trees are probably deliberate plantings or are seedlings from garden specimens.

Floods

Our house is not really vulnerable to flooding by the Bell Brook UNLESS the culverts downstream become blocked, so when I peeped out through the gardens at 7.20 this morning and saw much of the garden under water I knew there was a problem.

Armed with suitable tools I set off over to the village playing fields. The culvert which carries the Bell Brook under the fields is protected by iron grilles at each end and, sure enough, they were both blocked with debris. Upstream the water had backed up, and this was causing the problem in our garden.

At the culvert exit the water was forcing its way through the grille but only with difficulty. I got to work clearing masses of branches and twigs and began to make some impression on the debris but was relieved when a neighbour, John Russell, joined me. After about half an hour of pretty strenuous effort we got both grilles cleared and the water steadily began to recede. This situation mustn't be allowed to develop again.