REDWOOD TREES IN THE NEW FOREST

Several times I've tried to photograph the tallest London Plane trees in Europe. Complete waste of time. I could show leaves. But all plane trees have leaves. I could show branches - but there's was no way I can give any idea of height. They are in a wood so you can't stand back. And even if you could - suppose there were a hill to stand on a bit distant and you photographed them poking above the other trees - still it wouldn't work. How tall are the trees around them?

This link gives you a chart of their height. 

 I don't know why it looks as if it's standing in ice or snow. It wasn't.
Blame it on the light.

Now, inadvertently, I've visited the tallest Redwood tree in the UK. If there hadn't been a notice to say so, I would never have known. Its trunk wasn't especially wide - not as wide as you might have expected. And like the plane trees, its height was obscured by tall trees nearby.

I wasn't especially impressed - except for its exceptionally strokeable bark.

Common Frog - Rana temporaria
June 22nd 2014

For, as you know, it's the small things in life and nature which usually catch my attention. Like this frog which was sitting still in a damp place beneath the tall-but-not-quite-so-tall trees across the road.

I found myself making an exception though for this tree - another Redwood.

(I'm being vague about the names of these trees - though I think they are Sequoia Wellingtonias. I wasn't paying attention. I was simply feeling their trunks and walking round them. I think you'd have done the same.)

This tree may not have been the tallest (though it was still very tall; for England) but the flare at the base of its trunk was massive - and beautiful.

Absurdly, here I am with a nature blog - and not minding that I don't know exactly what I've seen. And I took hardly any photographs. Sometimes (mostly if you are me) simply being in the presence of something - a tree, a frog, a leaf - is enough. And taking note of its parts instead of its impressive whole.

And the pictures imprinted in my brain are as good as any photos I might take. It's just that I can't share them as I can images from a camera.

* * *

If you'd like to see these trees for yourselves . . . and hunt for frogs . . . Here's the link to The Forestry Commission's Tall Trees Trail. (We saw a woodpecker walking up a trunk too.)

I'm Following a Tree
Are you?
The next link box
will open at 7:00am (UK Time)
on 7th June 2014.
If you'd like to know more
about Tree Following,
click the tree!

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P.S. The New Forest isn't exactly 'new'. It was developed for hunting in the late 11th century but it existed long before then. Here's the Wikipedia link.

Will you Help me Improve Loose and Leafy?

My stats count readers by country (UK, USA, China etc.) but I'd be interested to know something more precise - how many Loose and Leafy readers live in Dorset and the counties around. It would help me judge how much information about place I should give. Context is important for plants so I'd like to be sure to explain enough - but not so much I bore readers already familiar with the area. So . . . if you are a reader from the West Country - perhaps you could tick one of the boxes below? (They are a bit pale - you can find them above the labels - where it says 'REACTIONS'.) It's completely anonymous. The results are no more than you can see - a count of ticks per box. I'll leave the boxes there for a while. Please feel free to leave a tick for each post. (There's even a space for 'Elsewhere' so if you live 'elsewhere' you won't feel left out and get to tick a box too!)

NATIONAL INSECT WEEK

It's National Insect Week (23rd - 29th June 2014) - which is why all insects have gone away. On holiday, I suppose. Celebrating their smallness, their essentialness, their general interestingness. It's annoying though because I'd hoped to write you an interesting post - show some brilliant pictures - that kind of thing.

It was certainly sunny enough when I went looking. And when I went looking again. And a third time. Maybe they didn't like the cheerful breeze. Or, maybe, as I said, they'd gone on holiday. Having a special week having gone to their heads.

But I did find some.

There were masses of Swollen Thighed Beetles on white flowers. A bit small, I thought. Or maybe I remembered them wrong. Beauty expands in memory.

Swollen-thighed Beetle
(Oedemera (Oedemera) nobilis)
June 25th 2014

It's hard to catch their colours. Sometimes they seem blue; a bright, iridescent blue. And at others -they look green.

Broad Centurion Fly
(Chloromyia formosa)
June 25th 2014

The Broad Centurion Fly really is green. Or, rather, it has a green body. Its wings are brown.

Aphids and ants
June 25th 2014

Ants farming these blackfly on a broken elderberry twig are brown too. These I found specially interesting for I associate aphids with gardens, not with hedgerows. Hedgerows usually seem to hold themselves in a better, healthy balance. I'd hazard a guess this balance is disturbed when bushes and trees are trimmed back. It's only a guess though. I hope you can bear to look.

Large Skipper
(Ochlodes sylvanus)
June 25th 2014

This Large Skipper is another matter. A beautiful orange and a pick-me-up for those of you who need to recover after being confronted with aphids! The puzzle here is why it's called a 'Large' Skipper for it's only about half an inch across.

Riband Wave Moth
(Idaea aversata)
June 25th 2014

This Riband Wave Moth may have been just as beautiful when it was alive - but it's been caught in a spider's thread. (I wish spiders counted as insects because I found some interesting ones. Another time.)

There were bumble bees bent on being busy behind bramble twigs and leaves. I lurked for them a bit; then gave up. I'd already been chasing Ringlet butterflies up and down and was beginning to feel a little self-conscious. There may have been few insects but there were masses of walkers - mostly older women. Maybe National Insect Week coincides with a festival for feminine fitness for the post-sixty-fives. Some were walking in regimented hoards. No time to stop. Others were more on an amble - and a chat. It's hard to chase a butterfly and be polite.

Honey Bee
(Apis mellifera)
June 25th 2014

This honey bee was a bit easier to snap. It kept moving from blackberry flower to blackberry flower and not staying still even then but at least it stayed on the same bush long enough to show it was there. Imagine being able to fly on such thin wings!

I don't know what this is.
There are masses of them in the convolvulus flowers.
Maybe there are more elsewhere - but they show up well against the white.
They are 3mm long at the most.
June 25th 2014

And there are always these little insects on bindweed. What are they? I don't know. Just little black insects who like to live in convolvulus trumpets. Cheerful creatures. (I think.)

The slogan for National Insect Week is 'Little Things that Run the World'. Maybe this little black dot is supreme ruler of us all. I nodded respectfully. Took its portrait - and moved on.

Have you spotted any insects recently?

* * *

I've found a new site that may be of interest to readers in the British Isles (and fun to browse for others). As well as other information about butterflies and great help in identifying them, it has charts of which to look for each month. Here's a link to butterflies which fly in July.

Here's its home page - Steven Cheshire's British Butterflies

* * *

Here's the link to a previous National Insect Week post on Loose and Leafy. 'Followed Trees and Incidental Insects' (July 3rd 2012). There you can find a
Swollen-thighed Beetle -(Oedemera (Oedemera) nobilis)
Honey Bee - (Apis mellifera)
Garden Bumble Bee - (Bombus Hortorum)
Common Carder Bee - (Bombus (Thoracombus) pascuorum
Shield Bugs Mating - Palomina prasina
Darkling Beetle (Lagria hirta - I think)

* * *

With thanks, as ever, to iSpot for help with IDs.

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STREET PLANTS

Mexican Fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) beside downpipe in garage forecourt.

June 12th 2014

Before the post proper - a big thanks to everyone who took part in the June Tree Following update - whether by writing about their own trees or by reading the posts of others. The characters of the trees (and to some extent of those following their progress) is emerging as the year passes - and it's fascinating. Some trees have found their identities or had them revised; it's easier to work out what they are once leaves have opened. Maybe by starting with bare branches we will all find it easier to identify trees in winter? Some trees have run into trouble. Some have burst out of iffy patches. Over the summer months we will need to become even more efficient as detectives - what is happening when nothing seems to be happening between now and autumn? I anticipate our July and August posts will be amongst the most creative and revelatory.

To see the branches of 'my' tree, I have to crane my head back - it's so very tall. So this week I thought I'd look down. The hedgerows seem high at present - with fennel being feathery and the umbeliferous flowers seeming like inside out umbrellas (except prettier). It's all a big green blur, for all the little flowers growing in the big plants' shade.

Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)
June 15th 2014

So I looked to the streets - or, more particularly, to the car-parks, where plants are more likely to grow separately. Here, they are more distinct. And astonishing. And pretty.

And not just pretty (like the Erigeron (Mexican Fleabane)) above. Resilient and surprising like this Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) behind the bins in a car-park recycling area.

Poppy by building site. See the buddleia to its left? Opportunists both!
June 15th 2014

Where there's a new building, there's often more new building in progress nearby. It's how towns spread! On the edge of the car-park belonging to a three-year-old supermarket, something else is being built. I don't know what. The ground is cleared. Machines are there. And pipes and chain link fences all around. Where flowers grow.

Faded beauty!
There were newly opened poppies too, bright red and with unblemished petals. But in this flower we see the seed pod forming. It's like watching a caterpillar turn into a chrysalis - the old and new entangled. But it's not just that..

Aren't the curls and dents, and wrinkles just as beautiful as the flat blandness of a young flower. (Say yes!) I'd be hard put to it to tell one new poppy from another. But once they begin to die - that's where their individual character creeps in. Or leaps in, in the case of a poppy, because the petal stage doesn't last long! 

For more Loose and Leafy posts about plants about town - click HERE.

For more about Tree Following - click HERE.

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TREE FOLLOWING LINK BOX FOR JUNE 7th 2014 . . . (#treefollowing)

Ssshh . . . I think summer's here; at least it seems so in Dorset.

Elderberry Trees are coming into flower.

Trees with keys (Sycamores and Maples) already have their seeds.

And hawthorn its berries.

Just a bit more ripening . . . and, lo and behold, it'll be in autumn.

It's all happening.

HAPPENING!

Present tense.

* * *

Sometimes, with some trees, it can seem that once their flowers have flowered and leaves fully unfurled, once the fruits are set and birds have left their nests . . . that all's organised, that nothing much more will happen until our trees change colour.

Which means . . . now is the really interesting time. The real time of observing. The new stuff. All the things we've not taken time to notice before.

On the whole, we notice spring. We watch out for blossom. We are pleased to see the landscape green. Then . . . ? We wander along in the sunshine and drink cold drinks and go on holiday and complain about the heat when it's hot and that it's raining when it's not . . . and . . . and . . . forget the trees? Go on, admit it. A tree in full leaf is a wind-waved blob.

Or is it? Now is the time to find out. We know about spring. We know about autumn. What happens in between? We'll start to find out next month.

Meanwhile . . . here's the box for June! (Hopefully! It should pop up of its own accord at 7am UK time.)

I'm Following  a Tree
To find out more
Click Here

Oh - before the box . . . there are new entries on the Help With ID Page. There's advice about how to judge the age of an older tree (thanks to Pat at Squirrel Basket who found the link) a downloadable guide to identifying reptiles and amphibians, a bumblebee ID link and more recording projects to get involved with.

THE LINK BOX

Please remember to enter the URL for the post about the tree you are following rather than for the blog itself.

Also - because some Tree Followers are posting more than once a month, it might be an idea if you enter the link to your most recent post here and re-direct readers to your earlier posts from that. Having people stay on your blog a little longer and going from page to page within it may give less of a fragmented view than if they keep coming back here for the next installment.

Links to your Tree Following posts from March to May can be found on the Loose and Leafy Tree Following Page. Click HERE for links to the June 2014 tree following posts.

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OF RESIN AND CONES

I've been waiting for a pine cone to fall from the tree I'm following and at last one has. The first, no doubt, of many. Compared with others I've seen in previous years, it's not large. How large? I don't know. I didn't have a ruler - oh . . . except I had my foot.

Here you see them; fallen cone, fallen needles and a foot to measure them by. (I always knew my foot would come in handy one day!)

There are many yet to fall. If my blog goes dead. If suddenly there are posts no more - it's probably because I've been struck on the head by a cone. Be warned!

Meanwhile, the trunk still captivates me; the trunk, its bark and its oozings.

Here comes a drip.

Some drips form planes.

Some . . . I don't know how to describe this shape.

Some grow . . . toadstools?

I'm still not clear whether this is a real fungus or a resin shape. I'll keep looking.

At the foot of the tree - a bramble has sprung up. It won't last here long. The grass is often mown.

And thinking of mown . . . the wind was roaring away up there in its high branches. (They are all high!) I recorded the sound - and discovered something . . . 

For a while, the wind waved the branches and the noise was pleasant and loud but at ground level all was still. Then the noise from the branches died away and the camera picked up on the breeze which had sprung up at head level. Two winds. Hadn't expected that.

I'm Following a Tree
Click Here to Find Out More

If you too are following a tree - the link box for June is now open and won't close till 7pm (UK time) on the 14th.

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THRIFT ON CHESIL BEACH

Sea Beet  (Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima) (I think!)
The white flowers beside it are Sea Campion. (Silene uniflora)

June 1st 2014

Let me first remind you of the context.

(We began this exploration in the last post - Nothing But Stones.)

A sea of stones between sea-and sea.

Where somehow, some plants grow.

Not many. And only on the lower levels. But they do grow.

This Sea Beet plant plant in the picture above is about two feet across.

The focus of this post though is Thrift (Armeria maritima).

Thrift - Ameria maritima. June 1st 2-14

In the foreground, Thrift. Further back - green patches where plants also grow. These in the picture are several feet across but some little islands of green are only twelve inches. Even in these small circles there are Thrift flowers in May.

For an idea of scale - the dots are people climbing to the top of the beach.

A sea of Thrift with the cliffs of Portland beyond. May 6th 2014

In the winter months of early 2014, this part of the world was specially storm tossed. Not only did great waves come over the top of the beach but tides came up higher than usual. The road that runs beside this part of Chesil Beach had to be closed from time to time because it was flooded.



The extraordinaryness of this is hard to explain if you've never been here. And if you have . . . it is probably even harder to understand. For when you see where the sea is meant to be, it is . . . well it's terribly hard to believe that it can have come so far over its usual bounds. But come it did - up and over from one side and in on the tide from the other. So, to my mind, it's not only extraordinary that Thrift can make a mat for itself (along with other sea plants . . . and the odd dandelion that gets in on the act) and grow among pebbles, it's astonishing that it can make such an incredible display where everything has been thoroughly salt-soaked and under water.

May 6th 2014

Here is an individual flower. For those of you who have not met Thrift in person - they look very much like chive flowers. They stand five or six inches high. Their leaves are a mat of spikes; barely distinguishable from mown or cropped grass.

May 12th 2014

This incredible flowering began in late April and has continued right through May.

Now we are at the beginning of June the great expanse of colour has gone, even though there are still many blooms.

Spent Thrift. June 1st 2014.
(Ignore the green furry thing on the left. That's something else.)

But even dying flowers are lovely. And soon there will be seeds.

These Thrift flowers were growing on the other side of the road - next to Portland Harbour.
The ground there is dry, hard earth rather than pebbles. May 14th 2014

Then, next year. It will all happen again. (Though 2014 has, I think, been a specially spectacular year.)

Notes.

Here is the RHS page about Thrift. The description there suggests Thrift will grow almost anywhere - but . . . does it?

If you look at the top left hand side of the picture with the cliffs of Portland, you'll see a cluster of white buildings. This video clip from February shows the sea coming over the beach where they are. (At the very beginning of the clip. After that it's beer barrels and things floating around in the flood.)

Our World Tuesday

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