Tag: poisonous

#365daysofbiking Don’t break the chain

May 20th – Laburnum is a beautiful tree. Of the same family as wisteria, with similarly structured but different coloured blossom, golden chain as it is often called was for many years was a staple of parks, gardens and urban public spaces.

Sadly, the seeds are very, very poisonous, and after a number of well publicised poisoning cases in the 80s many hundreds of these trees were cut down.

A few though, remain and this one at Shelfield was looking particularly fine as I returned from work on a grey evening.

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June 27th – Another grim, overcast day threatening rain but there is always brightness in a midsummer gloom – and here, it’s ragwort.

Another yellow weed that’s usually overlooked and indeed hated by horse owners, to whose animals it’s poisonous, this is actually a beautiful wayside flower that feeds bugs aplenty and keeps pollinators busy.

Many of what we would ordinarily class as weeds are very, very beautiful if we stop and look closely.

August 6th – Another fruit of the season, but this time doing well, are honeysuckle berries. Sticky, poisonous and sugary they would upset human digestion but not that of the local birds, who will strip the shrubs on the south side of the Black Cock Bridge clear of berries as soon as they’re ripe.

Their sticky coating leads to them acquiring a patina of dust and road film, and I often wonder what effect that has on the wildlife that dines upon it.