Category: Nature

NATURE NOTES

Community Orchards Resurgence

With 5 Community Orchards in the parish we are starting to reclaim some of the ground lost through the wholesale removal of orchards over the last hundred years. In this and future articles we shall consider the origin of orchards, the history of their rise and fall and why they are important for wildlife.

To begin at the beginning – the ‘sweet’ apple that we eat originated in the Tien Shan mountains of Kirghizia on the border between western China and the former Soviet Union. A Russian plant geneticist writing in the 1920s commented that it was like a Garden of Paradise with apple groves, mountain turkeys, porcupines and a host of other wildlife. Alma Ata, capital of Kazakhstan, means ‘Father of Apples’. Over time these apples travelled locally in the intestine of bears and other animals or were carried along the silk roads, eventually reaching Europe and Britain. A couple of thousand years BC the remains of apples have been found in Mesopotamia. The Persian word Pairadaeza was a walled garden enclosing fruit trees and canals and this translated to the Latin word Paradisus and our word Paradise.

Now, take an apple and plant a dozen or so pips from it and you will get 12 different apple trees of which 11 may be useless and just one palatable. Because apples from seeds do not grow true to the original, grafting is necessary where a bit of branch/twig from the original is attached to a rootstock. So if you find a particularly tasty apple you can produce more of those trees by grafting. The Romans understood the principles of grafting as specialist tools have been found in excavations. Pliny referred to over 20 varieties of apple in his Natural History and he was writing in the first century AD. Subsequently fruit growing was maintained by the monasteries but really took off in Tudor times with Henry Vlll’s fruiterer, Richard Harris, establishing what was England’s first large fruit collection. The 18th and 19th centuries was a high point in the development of apple varieties with thousands of varieties being grown, many of which have now been lost.

There have, of course, been apples in Britain for thousands of years but these were Crab Apples, small, sour and often sporting spines on the branches. There are many still growing in the hedgerows around Wenvoe. References to apples in old Celtic traditions and myths would have been about Crabs which were cooked or fermented. But most commentators suggest that Crab Apples had little or no impact on the origins of the sweet apple and that they do not generally hybridise.

The image in the painting shown may be a little idealised but it is one that it would be nice to replicate and we are getting there slowly. Next month we shall discuss the decline of orchards and apple-growing in Britain and why it is important to bring them back.

Nature Notes

Commentaries on Nature will always be something of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

So let’s start at the grimmer end of the spectrum. Neonicotinoids are a form of insecticide widely used in the 1990s but when evidence became clear that they were killing bees they were banned in the European Union in 2018. What does history tell us? It took 30 years to ban DDT before it was proved that what was believed to be safe just wasn’t. It took 24 years to ban neonicotinoids and 50 to ban chlorothalonil. But the salmon-farming industry in Scotland are now seeking to have approved a new pesticide, Ectosan, which includes imidacloprid, one of the banned neonicotinoids. One teaspoon of imidacloprid could kill one and a quarter billion bees. You can read more about this topic in British Wildlife, August issue.

On a happier note, our Gabalva apple tree in the Goldsland Orchard is bearing fruit – see photo. This local apple, introduced by no less than the Treseder family in 1901 was until a few years ago thought to be extinct. In 2006 the National History Museum at St Fagans considered it ‘lost’. But it must have been rediscovered as a number of fruit suppliers now have it on offer. Described as having yellowish flesh and being somewhat dry and spicy, the apples are quite large as are many of the older varieties. Gabalva is believed to derive from the Welsh Ceubalfa or ‘place of the boat’ as it was once the site of a ferry crossing across the Taff. We shall return to the topic of apples and their history in future issues

Nature Notes

Discover our 5 Community Orchards

With more and more people discovering one or more of our 5 Community Orchards, all designed and planted by the Wenvoe Wildlife Group, the question is often raised – What has this got to do with wildlife?

Orchards are a priority habitat in Biodiversity Action Plans whether at UK Government levels, Welsh Government or Vale of Glamorgan County level. And as with wildflower meadows, what once were common are becoming rarer. Since the 1950s, Britain has lost 90% of its traditional orchards and of those that are left in Wales, 35% are in a poor condition and only 7% excellent.

Orchards, particularly traditional, established ones, attract many species of wildlife. The obvious ones like Fox, Rabbit, Badger, Blackbird and Thrush take advantage of the fruit but our cameras at the Goldsland Orchard also recorded Greater Spotted and Green Woodpecker, Tawny Owl, Jays, Chiff-chaff and Goldfinch all visiting regularly. And some much rarer species such as Noble Chafer Beetle, Shaggy Bracket Fungus and Red-belted Clearwing Moth are almost exclusively associated with orchards. There is even a European Orchard Bee which only arrived on our shores recently.

Our orchards, although still young and immature, are already attracting Field Mice and Voles, Moles, Grass Snakes (which do not bite!) and a legion of plants and insects. It is worth distinguishing between traditional orchards where the trees are allowed to live their full lives which may be 100 years or more and are not sprayed with chemicals and commercial ones where the trees are grubbed up after 8 or so years and may be sprayed 20 times a year. The commercial orchards have only minimal wildlife benefit.

The second reason for planting an orchard is to help conserve the old varieties of apple, pear, plum and cherry along with less common fruit like Medlar, Quince and Mulberry. Names like Catshead (photo) and Tom Putt apples, Jargonelle Pear and Morello Cherry go back hundreds of years.

The orchards are also there for you to enjoy thanks to the generosity of farming families like the Readers and the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Orchards have played an important role in our history and literature from the Garden of Eden, through the Romans, Normans, mediaeval monasteries and the fruit-growing bonanza of the 18th and 19th centuries. And when the fruit is getting riper from August onwards why not try sampling the odd apple and let us know your favourite.

Red Kites spotted flying over the Parish

A number of residents have spotted Red Kites flying over the Parish recently which is great news. Once upon a time they were quite common and Shakespeare referred to London as a ‘city of kites and crows’. They were the street cleaners of the time and even had a degree of protection However steady persecution led to a massive decline and by the end of the nineteenth century there were just a few pairs hanging on in Wales. Gamekeepers played a major part in the persecution along with Victorian egg and skin collectors. Some farmers believed they took lambs and that view can still occasionally be heard today. However research has shown that Kites are essentially scavengers and are ill-equipped to take animals as large as lambs. They may be seen in fields when lambs are being born but they are attracted by the afterbirth and end of the tails that have fallen off. Even dead lambs will be ‘opened up’ first by ravens and crows, followed by the buzzards. At Gigrin farm near Rhayader where many people have watched Red Kites being fed, young lambs were allowed to graze in the field where the kites were feeding and at no point did they appear as a threat. But persecution continues and in April three Kites were killed at Tregynon near Newtown.

The most likely threat may be to your frilly knickers – if you happen to own some! Shakespeare said ‘When the kite builds, look to lesser linen’. Particularly in the days when washing was spread on bushes to dry, kites were in the habit of helping themselves to items that they felt might enhance their nests. Items found in Red Kite nests recently included flags, handbags, magazine pages, tea towels, lottery tickets and socks. One was even adorned with – yes, you’ve guessed it! – frilly knickers. In one case a Kite swooped down into a suburban garden and pinched the squeaky toy from under the nose of the shocked family pooch.

From a low point at the turn of the last century, re- introduction programmes using eggs from nests in Sweden and Wales have caused the numbers of Red Kites to increase significantly and the UK now has 48,000 breeding pairs – around 15% of the world’s population. Without any local re-introductions it has taken a while for the Kites to reach here – Rhayader is only 80 miles away – but the signs are promising. And, hopefully, we can all look forward to finding the occasional disappearance of an item from our washing lines.

NATURE NOTES

Wildlife Photos In The Parish

Those who follow us on Facebook will have seen the large numbers of photos of wildlife taken in the parish. Many are coming from gardens, others from the countryside, as more adults and families are walking the footpaths around the village. Species sent in include moths such as the Cabbage, the Silver Ground Carpet and Grass Wave; beetles including the Red-headed Cardinal and Wasp beetle; a rare form of Early Purple Orchid known as ‘var. alba’ and fungi such as Dryad’s Saddle. The Cockchafer beetle has been snapped – Thomas Gray referred to this in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard – ‘Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight’. A Dormouse was believed to have been seen up Pound Lane – we are not aware of any formal records of this in the parish although it has been identified near Wrinstone on the parish border. Gardens have revealed everything from the modest Vine Weevil (not great news for gardeners) and the Grey Squirrel, which can attract all sorts of reactions.

First imported from America between 1876 and 1929, they proved to be great colonisers and can be found all over Great Britain. Unfortunately the spread of the Grey coincided with the retreat of the Red Squirrel which, despite claims that they have been seen locally (probably Greys with a bit of russet colouring) cannot be found anywhere near here. The nearest Red Squirrel populations to Wenvoe are around Llyn Brianne reservoir in mid Wales with populations also established on Anglesey and elsewhere in North Wales. In the south of England they can be seen on Brownsea Island near Bournemouth. The Isle of Wight has also stayed Grey-free and Reds are surviving. Most people find the Red attractive and lovable but it is worth noting that the Squirrel Hunt (and this was before Greys ever set foot on the island) was part of the Boxing Day or St Stephens Day celebrations.