Planting for posterity

We all know the old, presumably American, joke: 'Posterity never did nuthin' fer me'.  I was reminded of this when visiting our neighbourhood Tesco car park earlier today.

Lime trees stand leafless beside the Tesco
 car park in Daventry. 3 November, 2015

The Daventry store, like so many other supermarkets, is not a thing of beauty, and the car park is ... well, a car park. But some attempt has been made to soften the scene by the planting of trees. Some lime trees are present but these are quite old and clearly pre-date the development. Others are commonplace: ash, birch and rowan are dotted around. However, a little 'planting for posterity' is evident.










Understandably people, by and large, look for instant impact when putting in plants. Few are prepared to plant trees which may not flower until they have long shuffled off this mortal coil. The consequence is that many lovely trees go unplanted.

Dove Tree photographed at Hellidon, Northants.
8 June, 2015

One such tree is the Dove Tree, aka the Pocket Handkerchief Tree, Davidia involucrata.  It is not difficult to grow (although seed germination can be tricky) and once established will develop into quite a large tree. But it may take ten years before producing its first 'flowers' (what appear to be white petals are really bracts) and sometimes quite a bit longer.




Back to the supermarket...

I was strolling along when, peripherally, I noticed an oddly-shaped leaf and, looking up I realised I was standing beneath a Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. Posterity planting!

Foliage of a Tulip Tree in Tesco car park, Daventry.
3 November, 2015

This member of the Magnolia family is native to the southern states of the U.S.A. The leaves are generally described as orbicular, but at both the base and apex they are truncated in a very characteristic manner.

Tulip Tree leaves can hardly be mistaken for any others.
Tesco car park, Daventry. 3 November, 2015

A downward glance showed that the pavement was littered with these leaves and no doubt, were Chris and I regular Tesco shoppers, we would have noticed them long ago.

The Tesco chain of supermarkets has not enjoyed a good press over recent years but my view of them became a little less sour when finding these Tulip Trees - of which there were several. The trees showed no sign of having flowered and, from seed germination, it may be twenty years before their lovely, goblet-shaped, pale yellow and orange blooms appear. (And, incidentally, the trees can top 150 feet in good conditions. Has anyone told Tesco of this possibility? But, hey, the wood is a valuable timber.)

I'm unlikely to change my shopping habits and become a Tesco customer, but I will try and visit the car park next summer to see if the blooms appear. They have probably been there for fifteen years, so maybe...

Finally I would mention that Tulip Trees - and indeed the whole Magnolia Family - evolved before bees evolved on earth and pollination is mainly carried out by beetles. I believe the seeds are rarely produced in Britain.

Frustration!

I am very limited in what I can do over the next few days, and as for the excruciating pain... [Ed. There is NO pain. Stop trying to milk sympathy and get on with it!] 

Anyway, I can't drive yet and am only allowed to walk for short distances, so I potter around the garden champing at the bit.

Our native plants have recognised the approach of winter and are behaving appropriately: there are few flowers to be seen in the wild and most of our broad-leaved trees are shedding their leaves apace. Exotic plants fail to take note of long-range weather forecasts and are in for a shock.

Begonias like this appear to be complex hybrids.
Stefen Hill, Daventry. 1 November, 2015

Begonias are blissfully unaware of of what is about to hit them and are flowering freely. I am not a great fan of begonias but these plants came as part of a deal and I hadn't the heart to discard them. This individual came unnamed but is clearly one of the picotee type derived, I believe, from Andean species found in Bolivia and Peru. The genus Begonia contains some 1,800 species but are all from more or less tropical regions so none is hardy.

Passiflora caerulea in flower, Stefen Hill, Daventry.
1 November, 2015

Passion Flowers are similarly tropical and of the 750 or so members of the genus Passiflora, only one species, Passiflora caerulea, is hardy in Britain. I have two plants of this species and they too are making no obvious preparations for winter; indeed, they currently flowering! 

Another specimen from our garden. Stefen Hill, Daventry.
1 November, 2015

Our two Passiflora plants differ slightly in the flower coloration. Bees have paid both the occasional visit but I wouldn't champion the species as a bee plant. No fruit have been produced but they are, I find, insipid. The usual fruit on sale are from Passiflora edulis, which is not hardy in Britain.









The flower structure is bizarre and has given rise to a strange pseudo-religious interpretation:

The pointed tips of the leaves represent Christ's thorns
The tendrils by which it climbs represent the whips used in his flagellation
The ten petals represent Christ's ten faithful apostles, i.e. all except for Peter (who denied him) and Judas Iscariot.
The 40-50 radial filaments are the crown of thorns.
The three stigmata represent the nails used in the crucifixion
The five anthers are Christ's five wounds (four nails plus a sword thrust)

Three nails or four nails? The discrepancy is not explained.

Like the begonias in the earlier photograph, the species is native to South America. The floral structure was apparently used by missionaries to 'educate' the indigenous people of the region.

The palmately compound leaves of Passiflora caerulea.
Stefen Hill, Daventry. 1 November, 2015

Whether early missionaries recommended it to cover a garage wall is unclear but certainly that is the use to which I put it. I grow mine in a very large container and, with the palmate leaves being vaguely cannabis-like, it gives a whole new meaning to the term 'pot plant'. Incidentally it is quite unrelated to cannabis but some botanists argue a kinship with the Cucumber Family, Cucurbitaceae.

Within one hundred metres

We haven't yet had, I'm told, a significant frost. Chris has put her foot down - quite rightly I suppose - and I can presently only walk a hundred yards or so. But what a lot can be found virtually on the doorstep.

Convolvulus cneorum, still in flower on 26 October, 2015
Stefen Hill, Daventry.

Late November, and the garden is still full of colour. Shrubby Bindweed, Convolvulus cneorum, has become very popular in recent years, perhaps because gardeners are anxious to find drought-tolerant plants. It is native to coastal regions of Spain, Italy and the Balkans, but copes with our chilly conditions well if placed in a well-drained situation. Not only is it in bloom for me but there are still many flower buds waiting in the wings.

Next to it a plant of Argyranthemum frutescens is smothered in flowers. Again, this can cope reasonably in a sheltered spot despite originating from the Canary Islands. It will be interesting to see if it comes through the winter but, as it is usually employed as a summer bedding plant, I am not over-optimistic.

The Ruby Tiger caterpillar is one of the 'Woolly Bears'.
Stefen Hill,  26 October, 2015

On a chunk of rock was a 'woolly bear' caterpillar, the larva of the Ruby Tiger, Phragmatobia fuliginosa. This is probably the commonest of all the 'tigers' and, feeding on dandelions, plantains and other garden weeds, this should not be a surprise. The caterpillar appeared to be fully grown and was therefore probably seeking a suitable place in which to pupate. 




A poem which I find excessively irritating is Frances Cornford's 'To a Fat Lady seen from the Train'. Apart from being  - by modern standards - very politically incorrect, it shows the poet to be wholly insensitive to any experience outside what may have been her very restricted world. 

                        O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
                        Missing so much and so much?
                        O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
                        Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
                        When the grass is as soft as the breast of doves
                        And shivering sweet to the touch?
                        O why do you walk through the fields in gloves
                        Missing so much and so much?

The poet (I will flatter her with that description) sits haughtily in her railway carriage - no doubt first-class - and almost pities a woman strolling through a meadow, apparently assuming that this woman has a sad, narrow life. In fact the woman will observe flowers, butterflies and other insects, mosses and birds. On top of that she will have the breeze in her hair, the scents of the meadow and, with luck, the sun on her back. Meanwhile Cornford will sit there, cocooned in her carriage, only hinting at the lovely texture of the grass. Who, I wonder, is really 'missing so much and so much?'

Quite remarkably, she was the grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, a man who spent such a great deal of time wandering through the fields, presumably also missing so much!

For myself I intend to wander through the meadows for as long as I am able, missing as little as possible.

Stents and sensibility

For the millions worldwide who have been thirsting after my pearls of wisdom, apologies. In fact 'there's been trouble at t'mill', the mill being my heart. A visit to Angie O'Gram at Northampton General Hospital confirmed that a blood vessel perilously close to the heart was severely restricted and I was passed over to Oxford, where a stent was duly inserted. The good news is that I am now I'm as right as a trivet (What does that mean?) but the bad news is that I'll soon be blogging again. To every silver cloud there is a dark lining, as the man said when his mother-in-law died and he got lumbered with the funeral expenses.

I'm to take it easy for two or three days and then gradually increase my exercise, so I'll soon be poring over lichens, mosses and divers other exciting organisms. Heigh ho!

Lots of good wishes have arrived from friends, and for their support I'm very grateful.

Tony


E-mail: diaea@yahoo.co.uk

Brrr...it's getting chilly!

Cyclamen hederifolium, the hardiest of the genus.
Our garden. 14 October, 2015

I peered through the bedroom curtains to look for signs of frost, but so far we seem to have escaped it. Nevertheless Sowbread, Cyclamen hederifolium, was in bloom, a reminder that winter is on its way. Some authors, such as John Hutchinson, have opined that it could be a British native. Certainly it was recorded from Kent in 1778, but it is generally regarded as an introduction.



I had jobs to do in Daventry and, needing some exercise, I decided to walk. My journey took me through some rather dreary areas of housing - or at least, they could have been dreary but, for the gimlet-eyed naturalist...

Hawthorn 'berries' are ripening. Daventry.
14 October, 2015

Fruits were to be seen everywhere. These haws are beginning to soften and become more palatable to birds. Specialists like the hawfinch, Coccothraustes coccothraustes (Don't you just love that name!) are quite rare and certainly unlikely to be seen in suburban Daventry. But many other birds will feast on the haws even if they haven't got the hawfinch's ability to crack open the stone.

Firethorn in fruit, Daventy. 14 October, 2015

Even more common were shrubs of firethorn, Pyracantha coccinea. Both yellow and red cultivars were to be seen everywhere and, again, will be much appreciated by birds as temperatures drop. It is a good plant for the naturalist's garden as the flowers are rich in nectar.

Firethorn Leaf-miner. Daventry. 14 October, 2015

Firethorn and hawthorn are closely related members of the Rose Family, Rosaceae, so it is not surprising that they are attacked by similar insects. Here the Firethorn Leaf-miner, Phyllonorycter leucographella, has formed its characteristic blister-mine on a leaf...

It also affects hawthorn. Daventry, 14 October, 2015

...whilst on a nearby hawthorn a leaf is under attack from the same species. It was first recorded in Britain as recently as 1989 but has since spread very rapidly. It is a native of southern Europe.

A nearby species of Berberis was unaffected, being not at all related to the Rosaceae. I make no claim to be an expert on these shrubs, but I believe this is Berberis wilsoniae.






Two minutes further on an I came to a Eucalyptus tree, more precisely Eucalyptus gunnii, and paused (I do a lot of pausing!) to look at the 'leaves'.

The cladodes of Eucalyptus gunnii. Daventry.
14 October, 2015

In fact this tree has no leaves but, like many eucalypti, bears instead structures called cladodes. These are flattened sections of stem which have the same functions as leaves. A true leaf always has a tiny bud (an axillary bud) in the angle between the leaf and the stem. As can be seen from my photograph, no such bud exists.

This species blooms in mid-winter and the flower buds were swelling in anticipation.

Wild Privet was heavy with fruit.
London Road, Daventry. 14 October, 2015

Another shrub producing a heavy crop of fruit was Wild Privet, Ligustrum vulgare. This is not to be confused with the privet of garden hedges, which is Ligustrum ovalifolium, from Japan. The latter does produce fruit of course, but not in abundance. If the fruit look like little black olives, that is because they are closely related, being in the same family.





So, a potentially tedious walk turned out to be quite 'fruitful' and I was in Daventry in double-quick time, to be greeted by a lovely bank of white Cyclamen. This time it was (I think) Cyclamen coum, a species with far more rounded leaves.

A snow-white form of Cyclamen coum, London Road, Daventry, Northants. 14 October, 2015

Odds and ends around Byfield

Chris and I popped over to Byfield today to 'sit' for Jane. Her daughter Harriet is a delightful child but needs lots of care and support; that is where Chris comes in. On arrival at Byfield Chris dropped me off at the village centre and continued on to Jane's and I made my way by foot.

As I strolled through the village a pleasant, honeyed fragrance wafted towards me at intervals; the ivy was in full bloom. Insects of many kinds were taking advantage: a comma butterfly flitted past; a hornet buzzed away as I approached a little too closely and bluebottles were feasting at the flowers.

Palomena prasina, a final-stage instar.  Byfield, Northants.
12 October, 2015

A little less likely was a Green Shieldbug, Palomena prasina. Common certainly but not always to be seen at flowers. It was at the final instar stage; its final moult will see it emerge as an adult, with fully-formed wings.

A female Eristalis tenax on ivy. Byfield,
Northants, 12 October, 2015

And of course there were hoverflies, dozens of them, all bee mimics of some sort. The one shown is Eristalis tenax. Known as the Drone Fly it does have some resemblance to a Honey Bee drone. It is a hardy insect and will sometime emerge in the depths of winter, prompting newspaper reports of 'honeybees' in January. The presenters of BBC's 'Gardeners World' are caught out too, where this insect is often filmed as the presenters chatter on about 'bees'. 

Ribes odoratum. Bell Lane, Byfield. 12 October, 2015

Down Bell Lane a Buffalo Currant, Ribes odoratum, was an arresting sight. In the U.S.A. it is sometimes called the 'Spice Bush', helping to explain the specific Latin name, but the fragrance escapes me (or perhaps it is reduced in Britain). It has pretty yellow flowers but I have never heard anyone refer to its amazing autumn colour. Perhaps it should be grown more often.

Steatoda nobilis (female). The Twistle, Byfield,
Northants. 12 October, 2015

At Jane's a common but nonetheless quite interesting spider was scuttling across a window ledge. Much is heard about the False Widow Spider, Steatoda nobilis, (and I had an encounter with one recently on the Isle of Wight). It has a unpleasant, but not dangerous, bite

This is its smaller, harmless and very common relative, Steatoda bipunctata. With a glossy, dark brown abdomen and a variable white streak down its back, it is easily recognised.

The species seems to have a penchant for door jambs on rarely-used garden sheds and, as in this case, windows, where its retreat is often beneath the sill. It is probably one of the first species with which an arachnologist becomes familiar. The four 'dorsal punctures' which give the species its name are points of muscle attachment.

Walking for Children in Need

All over Britain sponsored walks are being organised this weekend to raise money for the BBC's Children in Need campaign. Locally a walk was setting out from Byfield with a meeting point at the Cross Tree.

Chris and I decided to go and were pleased when Jacqui agreed to come with us. About twenty people duly assembled. 

Lovely weather was the icing on the cake.

Angelica was blooming near Byfield Pool.
11 October, 2015

We wound our way out of the village via The Twistle and were soon heading towards Boddington Reservoir. This took us across sheep pastures and some wet ground adjacent to Byfield Pool where Angelica, Angelica sylvestris, was still in flower. This plant generally attracts many insects but at this time of the morning was still in shade

Speckled Wood basks in the sun near Boddington
Reservoir. 11 October, 2015

Elsewhere the morning was warming up and the occasional Speckled Wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria, was taking advantage of the conditions.

Once arriving at the reservoir I prudently zipped up my jacket; a brisk breeze was keeping the nearby wind turbine moving and dinghy sailors busy doing whatever dinghy sailors do. A rather late pair of Common Terns were making the most of the conditions before heading for southern Africa.

Musk Mallow. Note the deeply dissected leaves at the
 lower right of the picture. Boddington Reservoir.
11 October, 2015

On the stony reservoir bank Musk Mallow, Malva moschata was flowering in its less common white form, with the usual bright pink blooms nowhere to be seen. A limestone gravel formed the embankment perimeter path and this plant, with its liking for alkaline conditions, seemed strong and healthy.

Wild carrot. In the centre of the umbel a single red flower is present.
Boddington Reservoir. 11 October, 2015

Another lime lover also in flower was Wild Carrot, Daucus carota. Related to the Angelica seen earlier on the walk, its single dark red flower was present, as usual, in the centre of the white umbel.

The feathery fruits of Clematis vitalba. Boddington
Reservoir. 11 October, 2015

Our only native clematis, Clematis vitalba, has long ceased flowering but its fruits (technically achenes) with long feathery styles, are far more decorative. The reasons for the old country name of Old Man's Beard, are too obvious to require discussion.







Further on a few plants of Chicory were in bloom, their flowers tatty but of a lovely deep sky-blue. Otherwise few photogenic features were to be seen, at least none that could be photographed as we pushed on at a steady pace. 

And so, back to the pub for a coffee and a few minutes of relaxation and gossip. Most were staying on for burgers or whatever but we had other jobs pending. So, our four miles complete, we left. The kitty stood at just over £100 but more contributions were pending so, overall, a worthwhile morning.