Category: Nature Notes

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

 

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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.

 

 

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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?

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.

 

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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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So a new year and an opportunity for some New Year resolutions! Will we as individuals choose to make things worse, do nothing, or maybe, just maybe, do something to improve the environment. The choice is ours but what is clear is that within the parish if we do not do anything, no-one else will. Those working in conservation now refer to Shifting Baseline Syndrome and this means that each generation has a lower expectation of wildlife and the wild places that (for the time being) surround us than the previous generation. If you were alive in Wenvoe 20-30 years ago you would have heard the Cuckoo, regularly each Spring. You took it for granted – it was the norm. But the Cuckoo is no longer heard in the parish so the norm, the expectation is no Cuckoo. We still see hedgehogs but if their current decline continues they will soon be a thing of the past, read about in books like the Tale of Mrs Tiggywinkle but never seen pottering around our gardens. Remember the windscreen test? After a long summer car journey your windscreen used to be splattered with squashed flies, moths and other insects. Now you might just find one or two.

So are we part of the problem? The RHS reports that over a ten year period the percentage of front gardens lost to paving, gravel or concrete rose from 8% to 24%. And back gardens are changing as well as they shift to fake lawns, decking, paving and outdoor rooms – one estimate being that plastic grass in increasing by a rate of 10-15% each year. Not only is this bad for wildlife but it is bad for us and our health. Plants help to reduce the effects of climate change, roots absorb water and help to prevent flooding, branches reduce the velocity of wind and leaves help to lower temperatures during hot spells. People who can see trees and greenery recover from illness quicker and mental health can also benefit. Yet 5 million front gardens have not a single plant growing in them. It is said that we are shifting from green to grey.

Thousands of people have now signed up to the Greening Grey Britain campaign run by the RHS. They pledge to do something positive like planting a tree or shrub – even a small window box. So do we cut down that tree in the garden because it might appear at times to be a bit of a nuisance; do we plasticise our lawn so that we do not have to mow it or do we cover our gardens with decking or concrete slabs because it makes life just that little bit easier. It is worth thinking about – talk it through with your partner or a friend. Most importantly discuss it with the younger generation because they will inherit what you do.

 

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NATURE NOTES

Whilst much of the news about wildlife is often negative and depressing, one interesting item that is bucking the trend is the Knepp Estate and anyone with a genuine interest in UK wildlife needs to be aware of it. This is a 3,500 acre estate near Horsham in West Sussex which was not making a profit and where from 2001 this intensively-farmed land was ‘rewilded’ by being grazed by Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs and red, fallow and roe deer. These animals prevent the scrub land that emerges from becoming woodland, require little or no supplementary feeding, minimal veterinary costs and generally look after themselves throughout the year. There is a lot more to the process than we can do justice to in this short article but if you want to know more, either read the book Wilding by Isabella Tree or look at the website https://knepp.co.uk/ home. You can also visit the site and go on walks or safaris around the estate.

The results in terms of wildlife alone are dramatic. 90% of the UK nightingale population has been lost since 1970. In 1999 there were 9 nightingale territories in Knepp which had risen to 43 by 2013. Since the 1960s Turtle Doves have declined by 96% and the bird is predicted by the British Trust for Ornithology to be the likeliest to be extinct in the UK by 2020. There were 3 singing males at Knepp in 1999 which by 2017 had increased to 16. Our second biggest butterfly, the rare Purple Emperor, was not recorded at Knepp before 1999 yet is now well-established there with an increasing population. 13 of the UK’s 17 species of bat can be found on the estate including two of the rarest in Europe. All five of Britain’s owls have now been recorded there along with 600 species of invertebrates. Doing particularly well are those that feed on dung as this is uncontaminated by parasiticides which may be used in conventional farming. The rare Scarce Chaser dragonfly, which has been found at only 6 sites in the UK, has now turned up at Knepp with 18 individuals counted on a single day. Raptors include Buzzards, breeding Red Kites, Ravens (which had been absent for 100 years) and Peregrine Falcons are now also here.

Whilst there were many hurdles to overcome, interestingly some of the greatest opposition came from local residents who preferred to see fields that were all green with neatly-manicured hedgerows,

however devoid of wildlife they might have been. Comments like ‘It feels like a foreign land’ and ‘he has turned a fine working estate into a wasteland – someone needs to stop him’ are not uncommon. The most obvious point that the intensively-farmed estate was just running at a substantial loss was not acknowledged.

Those behind the project would not argue that profitable and productive farmland should follow this route but for land which is losing money it is an option worth considering. Recent announcements in Wales refer to the Summit to the Sea project which will involve up to 10,000 hectares of land in mid Wales being rewilded. Whatever the future holds we can be sure that we shall hear and see more of rewilding in the months and years to come.

 

 

With the Wildlife Group fungi competition ongoing until the end of October it is worth reflecting on what fungi are and why they are so important to us. Most people think of fungi as the familiar mushroom or toadstool sticking out of the ground and, so far, competition entries have followed this line. But just as an apple is a small part of the whole tree, a mushroom is simply the fruiting body of a whole organism stretching out for many metres under the ground or through a tree.

These filaments are called hyphae – they release enzymes and absorb food. They can link to tree roots and greatly increase the spread of nutrients that a tree can get access to which is why gardeners and horticulturalists add Mycorrhizal fungus to the roots when planting trees or shrubs as we have done with the fruit trees in the Wenvoe orchards. The fungi take sugars from the tree and in return give them moisture and nutrients.

There are many 'amazing facts' about fungi. They provide us with medicines (and not just Penicillin) and were being used in the shape of yeasts to make mead 9,000 years ago. Think how many types of food use yeast! Truffles, Marmite, Quorn and cheese all depend wholly or partly on fungi. A fungus has been found which breaks down plastics in weeks rather than years and they are used to make bioethanol from crop waste. They are even being used to extract cobalt and lithium from old batteries. Synthetic rubber, even Lego, are made using an acid from fungi. But they do have a darker side wreaking havoc across the world to trees and crops.-,Honey Fungus can often be found in our local woods where it kills trees and shrubs.

So there is a lot more to fungi than the occasional pretty red and white spotted mushroom growing under a Birch tree or the punnets in your local supermarket. They deserve respect and we hope that the competition will help all of us to be more aware of what they can do for us

 

 

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