February 26th – Reedmace, bullrush or cat tails as they are variously known have a fascinating mechanism for deploying their seeds.
This time of year, if you can find one, just rub the head and it will explode into a huge ball of fluff – wind borne seeds.
Setting them off is compulsive and fun, but you do get covered in the stuff…
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#365daysofbiking Tinges:
September 15th – Nipping top Shenstone and Aldridge on errands, I stopped on the railway bridge to survey the classic view over the rooftops of the village, to note that autumn was coming here now – and not just the accelerated leaf drop of the leaf-miner affected horse chestnuts, either – but tinges of red and brown in most of the trees.
Soon this will be a riot of colour, and then bare trees again to close out the year.
Where has 2018 gone?
August 17th – Well, we’ve had a little rain (but not nearly enough) and something becomes clear: Grass fires are dramatic and worrying and do lots of damage, but as can be seen here on Chasewater Dam heath where there was a fire a month ago, it’s recovering well. The fire has cleared the scubas and fresh plants are shooting anew, and the area, although still scarred, is taking on a green appearance.
The grass fires are awful and so unnecessary, but nature clearly heals, and remarkably quickly too.
August 13th – At Hortonwood in Telford, I found a small wayside oak sapling, which was growing round, large acorns. they were generally healthy and surprisingly large, with only a handful affected by knapper galls – and where they were, the actual effect of the acorn remained small.
The ants were clearly interested in the acorns, but I have no idea why, and I’m wondering if the low gall-count and manner of development is maybe signifying and evolved defence to these parasites.
Certainly is fascinating. Going to be a good crop of acorns this year I think, and a bumper hedgerow harvest generally from what I can see so far.
July 30th – Nipping out of work in the earl m morning on a cafe run, passing a familiar patch of waste ground, I finally found something I’ve been looking for for a few weeks without luck; a robin’s pincushion gall.
This hairy mass on dog and wild roses is, like the knopper and marble galls on oaks, an insect gall; a tiny wasp lays eggs by injecting them into a leaf-bud surrounded by DNA corrupting chemicals that cause this odd growth to form rather than a leaf.
Beneath the bristles, there’s a solid ball of plant matter with cavities within which the larva grow and develop in safety; when ready, like other galls, they eat their way to freedom and adulthood.
The gall doesn’t harm the plant at all. It’s a remarkable thing.
June 22nd – With the excellent weather we’ve been having, Friday night, post work rides into Brum have become a thing, it seems, and this evening I really needed it. Into the city by the main line from Darlaston to Great Bridge, then coffee, cake and out again vial Spaghetti Junction, Castle Bromwich and the Plats Brook/Newhall Valley cycleway – one of the finest, anywhere.
A lovely, gentle, restorative ride.
June 18th – Now we’re in high summer the flowering phase is fading a little and we’re moving on to hardier, darker flowers and blooms, greens are deepening and the fruiting phase is commencing.
Now is the time of bramble flowers, thistles, knapweed and cornflowers – and the time when the canal looks it’s very best.
June 2nd – Coming back from Longdon, this was a good chance to see what Dark Lane was like this days. Dark Lane runs from Borough Lane to Thorley’s Hill near Goosemoor Green, and was a lane that always suffered from storm silting, being a remarkably deep holloway.
The bottom end of Dark Lane serves a farm, but further up the hill, it’s closed, and for several hundred metres it’s now been reclaimed by nature and coated in thick mud and vegetation.
It was a lovely place to explore, and brought back memories of when it was open. But if you go and look, be prepared for the mud. It’s deep.
May 17th – Again,in the ‘what a difference a few weeks make’ department, the cycleways of generally unremarkable Telford are returning to their leafy, shady but sun dappled summer state.
You would not know here you’re but feet from a motorway, and the colour and Arcadian effect is stunning, and a joy to ride along.
Telford faces much derision, not least from me, But some things it does really, really well. Telford, take a bow.
September 11th – I had promised no more wasp galls. Sorry, just one more I missed.
I’ve been looking at this type of gall for ages and not realised what they are – a small, coffee-bean sized growth, caused by genetic mutation provoked by an injected tiny wasp’s egg. These small, rough galls are tiny compared to the more familiar marble oak galls which are smoother and rounder.
They function in the same way though, as a growth pod and foot source for the wasp larva that hatches within, and when ready, the wasp will eat it’s way out to freedom.
This poor tree at Darlaston had knapper galls, marble galls, common galls and cola nut galls. And plenty of acorns!
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