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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 17 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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Last week I didn't go for a walk because it was a long trip and I would have had to be ready to go by 7.30 - I'm not an early riser so I decided to give it a miss!
This week we went to an old quarry where our main quarry was the Yellow Birdsnest (Hypopitys monotropa), a rather uninspiring, though rare, plant with an interesting life style. Long thought to feed off dead plant material, recent research suggests it uses a fungus to extract nutrients from living trees. We ought to have visited earlier as it is now a bit less exciting than it ever is, with the flower heads straightening up as the seeds develop:
It has tiny scale-like leaves and no chlorophyll, and we assumed that the name derives from the root system, as in Birds Nest Orchid, but a plan to dig one up to verify this was vetoed by the site warden, who we had met earlier and came with us.
We also saw several butterfly species, including this Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
which is, technically at least, one of the 'blue' butterflies!
Henry |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 17 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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Last week we were rained off, but this week we went to a place I'd not seen before, which was an area of old gravel diggings. Mainly flooded pits, some of which were getting grown in with assorted vegetation, and lots of winding paths between them.
Some interesting plants, including Nettle-leaved Bellflower (Campanula trachelium):
There were also a few plants of Broad-leaved Helleborine but I didn't get a very good picture of that - most of them were well past their best.
Remarkably few invertebrates about, though there were ten species of dragon/damselfly.
We found this little fungus:
which those jolly chaps at Mycology Central have named The Peeling Oysterling (Crepidotus mollis)! Its most remarkable feature, apart from its name, is that the top layer of the cap is thick and elastic, so with gentle pulling you can stretch it, and it is also transparent, which gives a very interesting effect.
Henry |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2501 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2501 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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There are several species of swallowtail butterflies that we have. Tiger and black swallowtails are common. Their caterpillars feed on dill, parsley, and suchlike. Eponymously named pipevine and spicebush swallowtails much less so. Other large butterflies are the orange coloured monarch and its somewhat mimic, the viceroy.
There was another very beaten up tiger swallowtail in that garden - several ragged tears in its lower wings where birds had made a grab for it but it got away.
Buzzy, butterfly houses - where people can walk around in a large mesh hoop house with butterflies and caterpillars, caterpillar food plants, nectar plants, are popular in public gardens. If they display non-native butterflies there are strict protocols to prevent accidental release, reporting in case escapes occur, etc. When I visited Ladew Topiary Garden in Maryland earlier this year our guide said their focus was on native butterflies. People enjoyed learning about what they might see in their own gardens, plus there was no concern about escapes. |
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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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Jam Lady wrote: |
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Buzzy, butterfly houses - where people can walk around in a large mesh hoop house with butterflies and caterpillars, caterpillar food plants, nectar plants, are popular in public gardens. If they display non-native butterflies there are strict protocols to prevent accidental release, reporting in case escapes occur, etc. When I visited Ladew Topiary Garden in Maryland earlier this year our guide said their focus was on native butterflies. People enjoyed learning about what they might see in their own gardens, plus there was no concern about escapes. |
We have butterfly houses here, and I imagine they are equally careful about escapes. But there are also lots of private individuals breeding non-native species and some are not so careful, and some others deliberately release non-natives.
I made a mistake in my earlier email - the Swallowtails that occasionally turn up are a European subspecies of the one we have as a native species. Ours are Papilio machaon subspecies brittanicus, the European ones are Papilio machaon subspecies gorganus.
Apparently 2013 was a very good year for sightings of gorganus in England.
Henry |
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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45374 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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buzzy
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 3708 Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 17 6:20 am Post subject: |
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That must be primary woodland Buzzy. Herb Paris doesn't tolerate the woodland being cleared, so is only present in primary woodland. It saddens me that we don't have any, but our wood was cleared in or before the Bronze Age. We think, from various signs, that it was rewooded by Saxon times, so at least 1000 years ago, but no Herb Paris, or heleborines.
I didn't know you could get hybrid bedstraws either. We have 3 Galliams; Sweet woodruff, goose grass and cross wort on the field edge, but no hedge or ladies bedstraw anyway.
Yes, the False Saffron Milkcap is rather pretty underneath. I need to find my second fungus book next week and try to identify several fungi that have appeared, including a rather pretty one on a birch stump. |
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