A Lot More Blossom About

By the time you read this there should be a lot more blossom about. In mid February we can see the first white splashes in the hedgerows of Blackthorn, from which you get your sloes, and early flowering cherries are popular in gardens. At the entrance to Clos Llanfair is a quite uncommon Purple-leaved Plum or Black Cherry Plum, one of the Myrobalan or Cherry Plum family. This variety is named after Monsieur Pissard, the French Head Gardener to the Shah of Persia, who sent the first one back to France in 1880. This is already covered in blossom which in a good year is followed by plenty of fruit.

Wild Cherry Blossom

Whilst Blackthorn, sometimes called Quickthorn, is abundant in our hedgerows, there does not seem to have been much interest in planting other fruit trees in hedges and it will be some time before we see the next splashes of white; the Hawthorn, also called May blossom for the month in which it traditionally bloomed. One exception is Crab apple which does pop up all over the parish. It is not always easy to spot as it straggles up between the Hazel, Hawthorn and other taller trees but once the apples appear it is difficult to miss. However, in other parts of the country other fruiting trees have been planted which help the hedgerow to be more than just a stock-proofing fence. You have only to drive up to Herefordshire and towards Shropshire to see the masses of Cherry blossom by the side of the road. Faversham in Kent and Harrogate in Yorkshire also have spectacular displays. We have little growing wild in the parish although it has been planted in the Wild Orchard at St Lythans and the trees are already galloping skywards.

Most people around here will not have heard of Bullace but this wild plum, somewhere between a sloe and damson in size, is much more common in some parts of the country. The Wildlife Group have planted it in the Wild Orchard and in 2019 our jam and preserve expert, Daisy Graze, made Bullace jam which she considered one of the most flavoursome she had made. The real wild pear, Pyrus pyraster, is hardly recorded now in South Wales yet has been around since the Stone Age. You can find it planted on the edge of the Upper Orchid Field and, of course, the Wild Orchard. It can be very difficult to buy so it is hoped that cuttings can be taken and will lead to further plantings around the parish. The Wild Service Tree or Checker Tree is a rare native, samples of which can be seen growing above the cliffs of Jacksons Bay in Barry. The blossom is followed by a fruit like a small pear, often called Chequers and, as they were once used in the beer-brewing process, it is thought this led to many pubs being called Chequers. The tree is particularly good for a variety of wildlife. You can find them in the Wild Orchard but one also grows in the Community Orchard.

So, enjoy the blossom and the fruit that often follows. Find some space in your garden for these more unusual trees and encourage our Councils to include them in our park and roadside-planting schemes.

 



 

Leeches Not Cute And Lovable

Leeches Not Cute And Lovable

Leeches are abundant and all around us, yet few will notice them. They are not exactly cute and lovable – indeed they might generate a frisson of terror in some, particularly those who remember Humphrey Bogart being covered in them in ‘The African Queen’. Stories in the press such as the removal of a leech from the nose of a woman in Vietnam (yes, you can watch the procedure online if that takes your fancy!) just add to the anxiety they can generate.

However, unless you are setting off for foreign climes, rest assured that in the UK there is only one species of leech that is believed to suck your blood – more of that later. If you have a garden pond, and particularly if it contains fish, you are likely to have leeches in it, most fairly small. But the Horse Leech is quite common in and around Wenvoe and the photo shows one living in the stream that runs between Clos Llanfair and the new Grange development. Despite their name, they do not attack horses nor any mammals for that matter. They live on small larvae and snails, whilst occasionally moving onto land in search of earthworms. They can be up to 15 cms or 6 inches long, so are easy to spot.

The Medicinal Leech is the largest in Britain and has been used as a health cure for hundreds of years. It was thought they removed bad blood as they were placed on the body and drank their fill – ‘blood-letting’. References to the medicinal use of leeches go back to 200BC with the Greek physician Nicander. Ancient Sanskrit texts also refer to them. The use of leeches has seen something of a resurgence since the 1970s (see hirudotherapy) in association with a variety of treatments such as skin grafts and varicose veins. However the chances of you coming across medicinal leeches in our countryside are remote as they are now limited to possibly no more than 20 isolated sites in Britain and the species is so rare that it has European protected status. So if you are being treated with leeches they will have come from a leech farm, of which one of the main suppliers is Biopharm not that far away in Hendy.

 



 

New Year Resolutions

 

January is a time for New Year resolutions

so why not pledge to do some of the following.

 Put up bird boxes but site them away from where cats can get at them

 Attach a bell to your cat’s collar. This does reduce their success rate in killing small birds

 Put out bird-feeders, particularly for the winter months, restocking and cleaning them regularly

 Plant a tree or two. There are trees to suit every size of garden

 Sow wildflower seed in at least one patch

 Put up bug hotels, siting them in the sunniest spot you can find

 Install a pond in your garden – even a plastic bowl sunk in the ground will do some good

 Ensure that hedgehogs can get into and out of your garden

 Let a patch of grass grow uncut and see what unusual grasses and wildflowers pop up

 Just spend some time watching nature

 



When Did You Last Plant A Tree?

When did you last plant a tree? With November 30th being Tree Charter Day and the Woodland Trust planning to plant 35,000 trees on that day alone, here is a chance for you to consider what you can do to help.

Why bother? As the Woodland Trust says ‘as well as absorbing carbon, trees help to deal with the effects of climate change, stemming flooding, reducing pollution, sheltering livestock and nurturing wildlife’. So whether you are a farmer, councillor, run a business or have a large or small garden, this is for you to think about. And whilst big trees are great, even the smallest garden can accommodate an Amelanchier, Clerodendron or Acer. Alternatively you can sponsor the planting of a tree via the Woodland Trust. Jody Scheckter, ex Formula 1 racing champion who now lives in the UK says ‘A house without a tree is just a building site’. To back up his words he has planted 130,000 trees and 8 miles of hedgerow.

On the positive side some Wenvoe residents have applied for and should shortly be receiving packs of trees from the Woodland Trust. The Government has pledged to reach ‘carbon net zero’ by 2050 which could mean planting 30 million trees a year. Cornwall Council has pledged to plant 80 square kilometres of saplings with £1.7 million committed for the first phase. South Gloucestershire Council will be planting up 1,400 parks, verges and other green spaces with 14,000 broad-leaved trees. 2 million saplings will be planted in the Northern Forest north of Leeds thanks to a collaboration between Leeds City Council and the Environment Agency. It would be good to read in What’s On what the Vale of Glamorgan Council are planning on doing.

You will be hearing more in the coming months about the Environment Wales Act which is increasing pressure on government bodies, including Community Councils, to take account of biodiversity. But we have seen (and reported in What’s On) that there can be a huge difference between the pledges and commitments and actual delivery. England and Wales are woefully behind their own existing tree-planting targets and whilst we have praised Scotland for planting more than all the other UK countries combined we have now realised that these are mainly conifers and their own planting of broad-leaved trees is minimal.

This is a major issue for the decades to come and it is worth noting the words of Greta Thunberg who has considerable support from the youth of today:

‘You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you’.

So gardeners, teachers, publicans, quarry operators, farmers – here is an opportunity to make a difference. Plant a tree and (as the Welsh Government advises) if you cut one down, replace it with 2 or 3 new ones.

 



 

A Good Year For Apples

A Good Year For Apples

Generally it has been a good year for our apples and many of the trees in our orchards have been heavily laden with fruit. Also doing well are the insects, particularly wasps and butterflies, that appreciate apples that have started to over-ripen. Our camera traps are also showing foxes and badgers taking advantage of the windfalls and with the first frosts blackbirds and thrushes will be tucking in. One revelation this year has been the size of some of our traditional apples, the photo showing different varieties but with a conventional apple in the middle. These are dual purpose apples, good for both eating and cooking and those in the photo all weighing in at around three-quarters of a pound (0.34 kilograms) each.

 

Also doing well are crab-apples which often turn up in our hedgerows and are covering a pavement near one of the village road exits. This is our traditional apple and was once a very common tree in our hedgerows but the apple that we eat originates in the Tien Shan mountains in Asia and eventually worked its way down the silk roads to reach Britain, no-one is too sure when but was well-established in the mediaeval monasteries. The heritage varieties we have planted often date back several hundreds of years so the apple you could be sampling might also have been tasted by Shakespeare although he made few references to them other than examples like ‘There is small choice in rotten apples

 



 

Wenvoe’s Rarer Trees

Wenvoe’s Rarer Trees

Summer is often the best time to appreciate some of Wenvoe’s rarer trees. Just opposite the park is a stunning Eucryphia nymanensis which was covered in flowers this year and as it is popular with the bees, needless to say it was covered in them as well. This hybrid of two Chilean Eucryphias is called after Nymans Garden in Sussex which many readers will have visited. After seeing how good it is for insects we intend to plant one in the Bee Loud Glade which is dedicated to pollinators.

Close to the library is the unusual Loquat with leathery leaves and this year it is bearing fruit which it does irregularly. It originates in China and you will not see many of these in South Wales although Bute Park has a finespecimen. A little bit of the exotic to be treasured in the heart of Wenvoe. Nearby is a Clerodendron with amazing metallic blue berries and more used to tropical and warm temperate parts of the world than here. Not far from the Eucryphia is a variegated Sycamore which is the exact shape of a thatched sunshade you would expect to see on a Mediterranean beach. You will be able to follow the updated Wenvoe Tree Trail when it is reissued in the Autumn.

Although the intention was to extend the trail, another reason for having to amend it has been the loss of a number of Wenvoe’s specimen trees including a Walnut, a Tulip tree and a Weeping Silver Lime. How many of these have been or will be replaced? So while we still have them take time out to enjoy our trees and look out for some others in the meantime such as The Wedding Cake Tree, the Contorted Hazel (Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick) and Parrottia persica or Persian Ironwood.

 

 



 

 

Fox and Cubs = Orange Hawkweed

Fox and Cubs

Early July saw lots of these flowers in and around Wenvoe which with the benefit of colour would appear orange and brown. Nice to see that gardeners had often mowed around them. They are a wildflower known either as Fox and Cubs after the colouring or more correctly as Orange Hawkweed. Not only are they attractive but insects enjoy them as well for their pollen. They never seem to cause us a problem but in Canada, North America and Australia they are regarded as a noxious weed as this extract from the Washington State Weed Control Board indicates:

‘It’s an aggressive, unpalatable competitor of pasture and range plant species, crowding out more desirable forage. It is a serious pest of lowland pasture, mountain meadows and lawns.’

This is often what happens when a plant is introduced from another country as we have found with Japanese Knotweed and Winter Heliotrope where there are no natural predators. Meantime enjoy your Fox and Cubs safe in the knowledge that it will provide a modest splash of colour either in the lawn or the border. It has been introduced to the wildflower section of the Elizabethan Orchard where it pops up each year but has not spread beyond the point where it was first planted.

Some people in the village have commented on the apparent lack of buzzards around this year – others say they still see them regularly. We nearly lost them in the 1950s (persecution and myxomatosis) but since then the numbers have increased steadily. Causes of death and high chick mortality are usually down to the lack of food, persecution by gamekeepers and taking poisoned carcasses. But if numbers have declined this year it is difficult to see that any of these factors will have applied and even if the chicks have not done well the adults should still be around as they can live for 25 years. What do you think?

 



 

Return of the Oxeye Daisies

 

Visitors to the Upper Orchid Field may have noticed that we are beginning to see the return of the Oxeye Daisies. People who remember the field over 50 years ago often comment on the fact that Oxeye Daisies carpeted the slope. They are still only there in small numbers but hopefully we can expect to see swathes of them in future. They can spread through a creeping underground rhizome but we shall try to help them spread by scattering seed from other plants in the vicinity.

They are commonly referred to as Dog Daisies but have many other wonderful names such as field daisies, Marguerite, moon daisy, moon-penny, poverty daisy and white daisy. They are good for bees and other insects as they produce a lot of pollen. We haven’t tried this and are not recommending it but sources say that the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, the young shoots added to soups and salads and unopened buds pickled like capers.

These flowers have been largely driven out of our meadows with the use of herbicides but are quick to colonise road-side and motorway verges which tend to be unsprayed.

 



 

Pollinators Are In Serious Decline

Pollinators Are In Serious Decline

Everyone knows that pollinators, i.e. insects that pollinate our flowers and crops, are in serious decline and we are being encouraged to do everything possible to help them, not least by planting flowers, shrubs and trees that can supply accessible pollen. Typical of the advice that you will find in magazines and the media is that good plants for pollinators are:

Lavender

Dahlia

Wallflower

Borage

Foxglove

… and if you planted these you would certainly be helping wildlife. However it is worth looking beneath the surface as no two lists agree and there is seldom any indication of what research has been done to reach these conclusions.

We have three main types of bee in this country. First Honeybees, possibly not native but producing honey and living in colonies. Next Bumblebees with which we are all familiar as they are usually large, furry and highly visible. Then there are the Solitary bees of which there are 225 species in Britain. As the name suggests these do not live in hives but individually and you will often see them using our bee hotels. Which raises the next question – do all these types of bees use our recommended plants in equal measure?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A five-year research programme by Rosi Rollings has found marked differences in bee preferences. Amongst the garden flowers most visited by Honeybees are Veronicastrum virginicum (Culvers Root) and Sedum spectabile (Ice plant) yet these are largely avoided

 

by Solitary bees. However the latter love Anthemis tinctoria (Golden Marguerite) which is studiously ignored by Honeybees and Bumblebees and also Campanula (Harebell) which is seldom visited by them. Bumblebees will go for Echium vulgare (Vipers Bugloss) but Solitary bees will not go out of their way for them.

So if you want to favour one category over another you can find more detail on what plants to go for in Rosi’s website -www.rosybee.com. Or you can simply take the top five irrespective of bee type which are:

Geranium Rozanne

Calamint

Helenium autumnale

Eryngium planum

Helenium – Sahins Early Flowerer

Remember to factor in the seasons ideally providing a range of plants that will offer pollen from Spring through to Autumn and finally note that the bees are not remotely interested in whether the plants are native species or not.

 



 

We Are Surrounded By Poisons

 

You may not realise it, but we are surrounded by poisons in the shape mainly of plants and trees. Our rural ancestors knew what to eat and what to avoid but as we become increasingly divorced from an understanding of the countryside, we are losing that knowledge. The recent interest in foraging carries that risk and children are always vulnerable. A nine-year-old girl died recently after eating some Woody Nightshade – a very common plant that grows in the hedgerows around Wenvoe and St Lythans.

Some of you will know of Deadly Nightshade and Hemlock and may recall that Socrates’s death sentence was carried out by making him drink Hemlock. But would you recognise these plants? Hemlock grows commonly in the Vale, particularly along the Sully seafront and can be found in abundance along the M4 as you travel towards London. But you might be surprised to hear of the risks associated with parts of the plants of Snowdrops, Bluebells, Holly, Daffodil, Rhubarb not to mention Tomato, Aubergine, Potato and Peppers.

Apart from knowing not to eat Potatoes when they are green, the vegetables mentioned here are, of course, fine to eat in themselves – the poisons are in the leaves or the roots. The last four are all members of the Solanaceae family which includes Henbane, Mandrake, Deadly Nightshade and, still the biggest killer of them all – Tobacco. Recently there were cases of poisoning in the Chinese community because daffodils were on sale in the vegetable section of supermarkets and were mistaken for a type of chive used in Chinese cuisine.

To our ancestors even the poisonous plants had their benefits when used in the correct dosages. Deadly Nightshade (pictured here) has the Latin name Belladonna or ‘beautiful lady’ as it was used to dilate the pupils and make women more attractive. In the mediaeval hospital at Soutra Aisle in Scotland run by Augustine monks there is evidence of the use of Hemlock, Black Henbane and Opium amongst others in carrying out operations and treating conditions like depression and cancer. The Roman physicians used Mandrake as an anaesthetic in Alexandria two thousand years ago. For those who know their Harry Potter they will recognise Mandrake as the plant which screams if it is pulled out of the ground and hearing that scream is enough to cause death.

The Wildlife Group are planning to lead a poisonous plant walk in the summer where you will have a chance to see and learn to recognise some of the plants referred to. You may also learn such things as why the Mandrake had such a deadly scream. If you are interested in coming along register your interest with the Wildlife Group

 



 

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