SWEET PEAS AND NETTLES

There are always surprises. The absence of summer is one. There's been been heat. Yes. (Rather a lot.) It's been dry. Yes. (Too dry.)

But in Loose and Leafy terms we've leapt from spring to autumn in one bound. Which I don't mind because autumn is my favourite time of year. Autumn in the midst of summer. We've had some rain. (If only it hadn't come all at once and as fast as it could and all concentrated in an hour.) Some freshening breezes would be welcome now.

This recent and sudden and explosive rain has battered haws out of the May Trees. The ground is spattered with them - brown and unripe.

It has knocked down elderberries. See the gaps? Fortunately, there are many left. It has beaten up convolvulus leaves and mangled chicory petals . . . but has also, somehow, released the butterflies. They are all over the place. Yesterday I saw a dragon fly.

There are other surprises. Surprises which come every year but which I forget in between.

Like the way garden plants creep into hedgerows and tangle with the nettles. The hedges are high and often on top of a bank. I'm not always sure which plants have worked their way up from tended gardens and which have self seeded - or are the remnants of gardens where houses once were but were demolished in the last century.

Here are sweet peas climbing above the nettles. See their pods?

Click to enlarge if you'd like to find the fly!

I went back to find 'my blackberry' - the one we saw a bee on. The bit of grass I'd tied to a branch to mark the place had fallen off or . . . or . . . the branch it was tied to had itself vanished. Maybe it got in someone's way. Maybe the rain was briefly so heavy it drooped into the bushes.




I took photographs where I thought it almost was then, when I got home, spent ages comparing the new picture with the one I'd taken last week. Nope. Not the same branch. Pretty though. And the surprise - a fly on a flower.

It often happens. You take a picture. You take it home. You put it on a screen - and there, bang in the middle - something you hadn't seen. Something you'd never have seen otherwise.

These are the joys of the ignoramus. There's nothing wrong with knowing. Of course not. I'm unduly proud when I 'know' something or learn something new; but as I nearly always everything within five minutes of finding it out - the world's forever full of surprise. Knowing nothing can be . . . well, I find it fun.

* * *

You know the Stuck Foot Posts . . . and the Street Plant Posts?

Both are occasional.

Stuck-Foots are thoughtful. Street-Plants are adventures.

Both are fun.

Do you write them too? In case you'd like an easy way to let others know about yours . . .

In addition to the regular link box for Tree Following (on the 7th of every month)

There will be link boxes on Loose and Leafy several times a year for these other kinds of post. If we put dates beside the entries they can be round-ups rather than the regular kind of meme.

Link Box Dates for Stuck Foot Posts
November     21st - 25th
January         21st - 25th
March           21st - 25th
May              21st - 25th
July               21st - 25th
September     21st - 25th
November     21st - 25th

Link Box Dates for Street Plant Posts
December    21st - 25th
February      21st - 25th
April            21st - 25th
June             21st - 25th
August         21st - 25th
October        21st - 25thDecember    21st - 25th.

Both kinds of post now have their own pages for information. They give dates for link boxes, an opportunity to ask for reminders and an invitation to include your blog in a list of bloggers who make occasional Stuck Foot or Street Plant posts.

Stuck Foot Bloggers

Street Plant Bloggers

Do let me know if you'd like your name to be added to the list. (Leave a comment or email me at looseandleafy@googlemail.com)

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ELDERBERRY - TREE FOLLOWING

The Elderberry tree I may switch to.           Februay 11th 2014

I first began following 'my' hedgerow elderberry tree in December 2008. In theory, I later moved on to a sycamore (about which more in another post). In practice, I've never left it.

This was before I ever thought others might want to do something similar and, with what may seem an odd sort of precision, I didn't follow the tree so much as a point on it where several leaf buds were forming - just that one place. Before long, it was impossible to see it. In the autumn, when the tree shed its leaves, there it was again. In the meantime, I was following something almost invisible and in shade. So I switched to another leaf bud on another tree in the same little group - which was also often in shade and produced the smallest leaves on the whole tree. The next year, the leaves there were a bit bigger. Then the branch broke off. Hmm.

Ivy berries on the original elderberry tree.
February 13th 2014

And, over this time, I found myself more hooked on the ivy that is gradually taking it over than the tree itself. Ivy, it turns out, is absolutely gripping. Its flowers have no petals. In the autumn they look like fireworks. Hoverflies can't leave them alone. The berries change from green to brown to black - then they drop seeds. How many of us have thought to look for ivy seeds? Sometimes, when my head is in a bush, people stop and ask me what I'm looking at. If it's a butterfly they are pleased. If it's a hole in a leaf, less so. If it's ivy flowers - they are stunned. Hardly anyone, it seems, has ever thought to look out for ivy flowers. That they don't even look like flowers adds to the . . . well, it's like being in a detective story.

And I've been hooked by the lichen on it too - lichen which is sometimes orange and sometimes yellow and sometimes green - depending on the weather.

Because there is more light around the new elderberry,
I'd be following 'new' plants beneath it too.   Feb. 16th 2014

Meanwhile, the elderberry itself goes under-observed. So, this year, I'm thinking I might 'do' elderberry again - but a tree which is better lit and less ivy clad. With this tree, we may have more of a chance of seeing flowers before they are lopped off by the machines which the council sends to keep branches back from the path. Of course, branches may fall off of their own accord. This is not a new and supple tree. But we've had such strong winds recently and this tree is so very exposed, I'm hoping anything naturally loose will already have fallen off.

We'd see the flowers.

We'd see the berries.

Lichen and leaf shoots on the 'new' elderberry tree.           February 16th 2014

Not that I'll be able to resist the lichen.

We'll see.

* * *

To find out about tree following, read the first post in this series. Holm Oak - Quercus ilex - Tree Following.

If you too will be following a tree this year, do add your name and blog into the linky box below. At the moment, we're simply building a list of people taking part. (For the growing list - see the Tree Following page at the top of the blog.)

If you have already added your name to the list and now have a tree-following post to announce - use the linky for that too. Come the beginning of March, we'll have a formal tape-cutting post. After that, we'll have a linky box once a month. For the moment though, I'm putting a new one at the end of every post so there are lots of opportunities for people to join in.

I'm Following a Tree

If you would like to use the Tree Following motif, feel free to use it on your blog.

Janet at Plantaliscious has introduced her hawthorn. You can read about it in her post Juggling with Trees
And read about Lucy's Common Alder on her blog Alder & Ash.
And at Flighty's Plot - What Willow?
To see the growing list of Tree Followers - click here.
Duncan is reviving his blog Duncan's Wild Garden specially to follow a tree!

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The current linky box is with the post for February 21st.

JELLY EAR FUNGUS

April 12th 2013

Judas Iscariot (goes an old tale I'd never heard before until I looked it up) hanged himself on an elderberry tree.

The fungus Auricularia auricula-judae can be found growing on elder trees.

April 12th 2013

The inside looks like the whirly bits of an ear.

So it got the name 'Judas' Ear' which morphed into 'Jew's Ear' - Jew's Ear Fungus.

April 11th 2013

It looks as if it's made of jelly - the kind you buy in packets of sweets, not the kind you have for pudding - so it's called 'Jelly Ear' as well.

February 20th 2011

When I first came upon it, it was on a fallen log in a wood and shaped differently. It was more orange than brown. Some had the eary whirls inside but others were smooth arches. (All were low down and in good light and easier to photograph!)

April 11th 2013

The fungus in these up-to-date pictures was growing on an elderberry tree - one in the clump we are following. Our very own Jew's Ear on our very own Elderberry tree. (A bit too brittle for hanging on!)

April 11th 2013

All pretty things come to an end. I hope my ears don't look like this when I am old.

Anyone know the source of the legend?

Or who first said Judas gave elderberry leaves their smell by hanging himself on an elder tree?

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FOLLOWING TREES AND VIEWS AND WILLOW HERB

What is Tree Following and Who Does It?

Although I'm officially following an elderberry tree - or, rather, a clump of tangled elders, I've not abandoned the sycamore I've been keeping an eye on for several years. Indeed, there are quite a few trees, and bushes and patches of ground that I am specially aware of. This post is about five of them.

We'll begin with that elder.

As I've mentioned, it was cut back during the summer so the berries went AWOL and the undergrowth in front disappeared. This cutting, I have learnt over time, has a reasonably short lived impact - even though though the result is a one-sided tree. And, of course, I've yet to see what happens in the very long term.

One of the things I've noticed when choosing particular leaves to follow - observing them right from when they are little green blobs - is that the ones which come to my attention early tend not to do well compared with those which burst later. This happened with the hawthorn I thought was a blackthorn (oh dear!) and it is true of the elderberry too.

February 5th 2012

This is the shoot I chose on the elderberry tree. It seemed a good one at the time because it's in the crook of a branch and easy to find over and over.

This is how it was earlier in the year.

(February 2012)

September 27th 2012

This is how it is now.

Familiar pattern?

Sycamore I'm following - September 22nd 2012

Then the sycamore.

The ivy clinging to it was cut back during the year. Necessary, perhaps, but sad for me - I'm fascinated by the elegance of single strands and the beauty, the colour, the shape of its leaves. Of the trees in this little woodland area, it is not the leafiest, despite its sturdy trunk(s!) - and autumn this year is odd. A curl up at the edges and fall off kind of event instead of dramatic colour.

September  22nd 2012

Same Tree - September 2008

On the other hand, another elder bush - one which attracted my attention as early as 2008 (when I was using my phone as a camera) continues to grow and thrive and produce yellow leaves. This is not down to autumn. This is how the bush regularly is. Maybe it isn't an elderberry?

Remember the thistle from a couple of weeks ago? Where the bees gathered in June?  I've not been 'following' that particular plant. More, I've been aware of that patch.

Willow Herb Shedding its Seeds - September 21st 2012

Willow Herb grows there too. There are lots of Willow Herbs - not just the well known Rose Bay variety (Fire Weed on the western side of the Atlantic) and I don't want to hazard which this is. However, until very recent heavy rain and short, sharp wind, they were opening their pods and releasing seeds.

September 20th 2012 (in Esther's Garden)

I've not understood how this works before. One minute there are tall, thin, upright pods. The next, the plants are 'decorated' with an ugly, fluffy, tangled mess. By being more aware, this year, I've seen what happens. The seeds are evenly spaced in straight lines up the pods and each seed is attached to a closed parachute above it. The pods don't split at the sides so much as peel back from the top and, as they dry and open, they pull open the parachutes. This, to me, is clever and marvelous but, also (to me) the next stage is less impressive. Instead of flying away like dandelion seeds, they seem to fall where they are and get caught in the peeled back bits of the pods lower down the plant. This, presumably, is why tall willow herbs grow in clumps. Some seeds get away though and it's a good 'spreader'. The smaller versions which arrive in gardens, I have noticed, are more likely to give each other space.

Willow Herb which has dropped its seeds onto opened pods on the same plant - September 13th 2012

This picture is of a middle sized one in my neighbour Esther Montgomery's garden after the seeds have fallen into their old-cotton-wool muddle. (All sorts of things can look better in a photograph then in 'real' life!)

And, last up - a view.

This is new. Well, clearly not a new view but new that I'm following. Because it's by a bench, and because there's a castle to fix in the middle of the picture, we should be able to follow it through the seasons, certain we are looking, each time, in the same direction!

September 21st 2012

By putting the ruins of Sandsfoot castle centre frame, it should be reasonably easy to keep a steady eye on what is happening to the tree on the right of the picture, the brambles on the left and the view beyond.

* * *

For more about Tree Following - Click HERE

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WHO STOLE MY LEAF?

Narrow path between elder trees.
To see what this was like in January click for
the first in this series of elder posts.

There are several of us bloggers who feel a bit disrupted when the council cuts verges along paths and roads. A few years ago, there was a specially deep and distressing hack-back, just when it was almost the moment to go blackberrying. It hasn't been too troubling since then. Vipers bugloss and chicory plants tend to be affected so the grassy edges of a route I often follow are less dramatic, less blue than they used to be - but the trees are kept trim without being splintered and torn; people can walk or cycle without being grabbed by brambles. It has to be done.

Until recently, the undergrowth (mainly consisting of alexanders and nettles) has been growing tall between me and my elder tree. (The 'my' meaning the one I've been following since leaves first showed their buds.) At times, it's been awkward. I've had to zoom in over the top to photograph 'my' particular leaf. And there have been irritations too - of all the leaves on the tree, 'mine' decided to be the smallest, the least grown, the runt for all that it started well.

The leaf I've been following used to be in the crook of this lichen covered bough which
is covered in a layer of Common Orange Lichen
(Xanthoria parietina)

And now? Between going on holiday and returning, the council has been by and shaved things back. Elderberries which were ripening when I went have been cut off or shaken from their stems. And, strangely, despite having grown in the protective crook of a bough, the leaf I was following has gone, along with its brothers and sisters.

Bits of wood are broken.

Ivy leaf pierced by twig.

Leaves pierced.

But . . . and there are lots of good 'buts' . . . nearby, a bit of colour - 

Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) butterfly on blade of grass.

a Gatekeeper Butterfly in the grass.

And blackberries too. Some have had their stems cut so the fruits have withered and dried but there are still masses ripening - not very ripe yet but there!

Attention will need to shift to them. They are looped over 'my' tree, even if 'my' tree is a little depleted!

* * *

This post is part of my 'Tree Following'

If you'd like to email me the link to your latest tree following post

looseandleafy@googlemail.com

(or, if you prefer, leave a link in the comments box)

I'll add it in here and make sure your name

is included in the list of 'Tree Followers' at the top of the blog.

What is Tree Following and Who Does It?

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Seeing for the First Time - Wych Elm at Patio Patch
Plane Tree - Summer 2012 at Gardening Ways

P.S. You may like this sequence of 20 pictures of  some of the world's most beautiful trees.

IVY AND ELDER - MID APRIL

It's surprising how many old leaves and dessicated berries there still are in the bushes.

Some of the ivy flowers and berries which were like firework balls in the autumn have turned into woody, spiky, fascinating things in which texture and structure are more prominent than colour.

They are mixed in with glossy, established leaves.

(Flies like ivy.)

And, because it's spring - there are new leaf buds.

And new leaves!

* * *

THE ELDER SECTION

Clusters of buds for elderberry flowers are beginning to form. More on some trees than on others.

And, beneath them, the scented flowers of alexanders.

Here's our elderberry shoot - it's the smallest one in the middle. Before long we will not be able to see it for other leaves. I chose it because it's in the crook of a branch and, therefore, easily identifiable but it's rather annoying that it's the slowest on the tree to grow!

THE SOUND ROUND A TREE

Pictures are important. In them, we can see all sorts of things which we'd probably not notice if we weren't taking time to examine a static image. However, a tree is more than a picture. Below are a couple of short video clips of 'our' elderberry clump. Nothing happens. That's the point. It's a little pause to listen. I've not yet managed to upload anything of a satisfying length so they stop almost as soon as they start. Apologies for that. My intention was to offer a moment in which to stand (or sit!) and stare and to be aware. Hopefully, I'll work out how to load longer clips without destroying the quality as time goes by. Meanwhile . . . oh, and if you click the YouTube option you can see them larger.

Looking up the bank to the Elderberry Clump and listening to the birds at dawn.

April 15th 2012.

The Elderberry Shoot framed by the stems of Alexanders.

Around 3:30 pm in the afternoon of April 20th 2012.

* * *

NEWS FROM TREE FOLLOWERS

The Latest Posts

from

Tree Followers

From Lichfield Lore - Tree Following . . . bring May Flowers
From On the Edge Gardening - Lime by Name
From Down by the Sea - Tree Following 4

From Gardening Ways - Plane Tree on the Move

From Walsall Wildlife - A Rotten Place to Live

From Tree Care Tips - Horse Chestnut and Red Maple

From Patio Patch - Wych Elm Cousins

For a list of the Tree Followers
And - don't forget Treeblogging which aggregates posts about trees from a wide range of blogs.

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PATHS AND THINGS

Blackthorn blossom is far from covering
the bushes yet
but it's beginning to bulk up;
a few clusters now
rather than an occasional flower.

Writing this post has been something of a struggle. I'd decided to write about paths - paths for humans and paths created by animals (mostly by dogs, foxes and badgers round here). It gives a bit of context - something which, I think, is often missing on Loose and Leafy. From time to time I try to make up for this but doing so has challenges. For one thing, I am privileged to have access to such a rich and varied environment, the wider scene could easily nudge out the detail - and it's the style of this blog that I focus on small details. (Leaves - rather than trees; what one can find without moving a foot.) Another challenge is that, because this is the internet, I prefer to be hazy about some locations. I say 'some' because several are utterly distinct and some unique! There's no getting away from the silhouette of Portland! And, finally, Dorset is such an incredibly beautiful and interesting area, Loose and Leafy could easily become an outpost of Tourist Information; an advertisement for wonderful holidays.

Writing a post about paths hit all these challenges, plus three more. One, that I took so many photos for it, I'd have needed to change the name of the blog to 'Trodden Ground'. Two, that there are other things I wanted to fit in today - it is spring, after all! The third challenge is that there are paths interesting enough to include in a wider-context post but which aren't, I find, the richest source of material for Loose and Leafy.

Never mind - here goes with a random selection and a truncated version. We'll start wide - and narrow down.

This, clearly, is the route of an old railway line. You can see the remains of a long platform on the left. A few years ago, someone proposed re-introducing trains and tracks. It would have been a lot of work and a lot of expense but the man who brought forward the idea had a lot of enthusiasm and, I think, saw it as an ecological idea - a way of encouraging people to use public transport (even if privately operated) rather than cars.

The vegetation along here does not look exciting at present but there are lots of brambles and gorse.
In the summer the air vibrates with heat and pollinators.
Quite a few small flowers - like vetches and cranesbill - grow along the sides.

I think the train enthusiast was taken aback by the vehemence of opposition. This path is incredibly well used. Finding a moment when there aren't people in view is very difficult, especially on a sunny weekend, Sometimes, parts of it get so crowded it is hard to find a route through. I took photos of it being busy - locals going to and from town, walkers, joggers, people with tripods and binoculars who'd come to spy birds, and children learning to ride bikes they were bought for Christmas which have been brought back out again now the weather is getting warm - but as I avoid pictures of people when I can, I decided to show you what it looks like in a calm moment. The person in the distance and the shadow of a cyclist can represent all those who use it. They are good symbols. It can be a peaceful place to walk but there are also conflicts between cyclists who think it's a 'proper' road and people on foot - who don't.

This is part of The Hamm -
the path which runs along the causeway to Portland.
This may not seem hopeful ground for plant watching but . . .
just wait!
Before long, there will be a sea of pink thrift along here.

This area, down in a dip and surrounded by Holm Oaks,
is genuinely short of plants all year round.
In part this is because of the trees.
In part because it's a good place for people to
clamber about a bit or
to abandon supermarket shopping trolleys.

Here's a way to the sea. The reeds are a bit higher than I am.
(I first showed this photo on my other blog, Message in a Milk Bottle.)

Here's a way I never go! It's a way made by animals. I doubt even children go down here.
As well as foxes and badgers - rats and squirrels take advantage of these cuts.

Here's the path between the elders we are following.
In the winter, there's room for children.
Already though, vegetation is beginning to crowd in.
Before long, it will be almost impassable.

The elder shoot we have been following (up on one of the branches) has hardly changed. Others near it are growing faster. I'm glad I chose this shoot though because it means I can keep taking pictures of the lichen as well - Common Orange' (Xanthoria parietina).

* * *

One of my first incentives to follow the progress of a particular tree or patch of ground was when some of the trees round here were cut back in what seemed to me to be a brutal and haphazard way. I was concerned rot would get into the bare and ragged ends of small branches. Some were on trees I recognised. But there was one tree - with beautiful twigs, chestnutty red, which I simply couldn't identify. Not in a way I could be confident of.

I am on Twitter and a friend there suggested silver birch. I said I'd go and look at the lower part of its trunk once the undergrowth had died back for winter. I could never get there. It is as protected as effectively as the sleeping princess was by brambles and briers. Just before the nettles grow up and the leaves break out to make the trunk invisible as well as inaccessible, I've managed to zoom in (hurray for cameras!) and get a glimpse.

Looks right?

And another ID problem. As I've mentioned before, I find it difficult to tell the difference between maples and sycamores in their variety.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a book which may help with this because it has examples of the different shapes of their seeds. The ones on the tree where this twig grows will be specially lovely. (I know from passed years.)

It will be a long wait. These leaf buds seem pretty static.

* * *

I'm Following a Tree

Are You? 

___

If you have posted recently about the life of a particular tree you are 'following', let me know and I'll put a link here.


On the Edge Gardening
Warts and All
(Beech)
Lichfield Lore
Sticking it Out
(Cider Orchard)

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