THE WILD PLANTS OF SOUTHAMPTON HIGH STREET

At the top of a pedestrian subway in Southampton (but not in the High Street).

This little garden has a lawn and leaves and flowers.

If I have a mission, it's to persuade people that every street is a garden. Not has a garden, note; but is one.

My theory is that in every street there are flowers and lawns and trees and . . . it's just a matter of adjusting your sense of scale and looking for them.

Those of you who have been reading Loose and Leafy over the years will be familiar with my posts about street plants. Until now I've gone to towns I already know so I've had good ideas about where to look.

For the free-range gardener,
trees put there by the council don't count.

On Wednesday I was in Southampton. I've been there in the past but not much. I once went to an art exhibition. I accompanied a friend to a shop where they sell exceptionally smelly soaps. I've visited a road which used to be a wharf but is now a long way from water. That's about it.

The main shopping street in Southampton is broad and for half its length traffic free. At one end there's a lumpy entrance you can walk through or round - The Bargate. (Built around 1180). At the other - where the traffic is - a park. In between are the usual City Centre shops, all built since the Second World War. (Southampton was bombed.) Some have doors opening directly onto the street. Others are in arcades. Some of the architecture is very grand and modern. Some is dated and beginning to decay. There were market stalls the day I was there. And a roundabout.

A little urban lawn.
There was a slightly larger patch of grass by a group of benches
but I would have felt awkward asking people to move their feet so I could take its picture.

Time to put my theory to the test. This is a very busy street. Is it also a garden? It didn't look promising. But there's no point in having a theory unless you put it to the test.

Shopping centres where rubbish is collected and pavements forever swept clean can be arid and dull. From that perspective, Southampton High Street definitely looked dull - dull and dry and lacking in green.

When you can;t see much by looking down - look up.
See the tree? One in an arboretum.
Although it looks alone there are bound to be others in streets nearby.
Birds would know.
Indeed I found a big, flowering buddleia down a left-hand turn. Ferns by a down-pipe too.

It was. I struggled to find anything. There is, I realise, little to show. Indeed, at one point I was wondering whether I should conceal the fact that I'd tried or accept I'd failed and admit it; that my theory had bitten the dust.

Smooth sow-thistle (?) by a bus-stop.
(Sonchus olderaceus)

But no! There was a small lawn, a flowerbed and a tree.

Hurray! Southampton High street is - as you see - a garden.

What's more, there were wild animals. Aphids. Ladybirds!

This Harlequin Ladybird  (Harmonia axiridis )
was on the Smooth Sow-Thistle
above.
See greenfly legs sticking out from its mouth?

To a flock of aphids a Harlequin Ladybird is more dangerous than a lion is to a herd of gazelle. It will chomp and keep chomping.

My theory holds. We're short of rain. It's rather hot. Once the pavement is watered and the gutters have been washed through with rain . . . maybe it'll become a 'Botanic' one. Perhaps it'll go in a yellow book!

* * *

The current population of Southampton is around 237,000.

Southampton is in Hampshire in the South of England.

If you live in the UK you can take part in the Ladybird Survey

which has a picture gallery of kinds of ladybirds to look out for on its site.

There's a downloadable Ladybird Identification Guide on their site too.

Here's a link to find out about The Ladybirds of Ireland.

* * *
More Street Plant Posts on Loose and Leafy

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Do You Post About Street Plants?

Here's a post on Hollis' blog - In the Company of Rocks and Plants
 - Urban Botany, Urban Art and the Instagram Effect
And from Amanda at 'The Quiet Walker'
 - Urban Plants at the Town Hall

STOP PRESS

Irrelevant to post but have just come across this Facebook Page of Moths found by BSG Ecology in 2014. Click on the pictures to find their names.

HARLEQUINS

Those who do not live near ivy may not realise how poplar it is with insects. When it is in flower, you can hear them buzzing loudly as you approach.

In the last week, I have been taking pictures of ivy in various stages - buds, flowers, beginnings of berries. The weather has been variable so I've been going backwards and forwards, trying out different lights.

Sometimes, there were three insects per mini-firework display so my attention drifted to them . . . and from them to ladybirds in the leaves . . . and from ladybirds to realising there are Harlequins here - Harmonia axyridis.

Harlequin Ladybird -Harmonia axyridis

The good thing about these ladybirds is that they eat lots of aphids. That's why, in 1988, some were taken from Asia and introduced into the U.S.A..

The trouble is, these ladybirds have such a great appetite for aphids . . . they gobble up every single available one of them. Indigenous ladybirds begin to starve to death. Does this bother the Harlequins? No. They extend their diet to include the already declining species of local ladybirds . . . and lacewings . . . and butterflies . . . and hoverflies . . .

Their population is expanding. It is now the most widespread ladybird in North America and some species which used to be common in Canada are now rare.

Un-hatched Harlequin pupa

Bizarrely, despite this experience, Harlequins were introduced to mainland Europe as a device of pest control . . . and then they flew to the British Isles.

The empty skin of a hatched
Harlequin pupa. 

There is a lot of alarm about this (naturally!) so the UK Ladybird Survey has set up a special section for monitoring their spread here.

It's almost useless to explain what to look for because although the Harlequins I came across on the ivy look much like 'ordinary' ladybirds, they can come in a surprising number of guises. (Disguises!) The best thing (I suggest) for people in the UK to do is to submit photos of ANY ladybird to the UK Ladybird Survey. Not only will they be able to distinguish one species from another, it's as important to record the distribution and numbers of indigenous ladybirds as it is to make a map of Harlequin spread. The impact of Harlequins needs to  be monitored - and it's good to keep an eye on what's happening to our wildlife whether or not we have concerns about the activities of a particular predator.

Another empty skin of a hatched
Harlequin pupa.

There are charts and pictures on the UK Harlequin Survey site - these are worth consulting too. There's an interesting summary of information about Harlequins HERE - and information about studies of them in the London and Essex areas HERE.

But what about other insects on the ivy?

I went back to take photographs. The weather had cooled - was it this which meant there were fewer around - or was it that the sun was shining on the bushes and the insects preferred shade? . . . 

I don't know - but whatever the reason was, as soon as I decided to pay attention to insects, most of them vanished. But there was a Blowfly next to a Harlequin - 

And a Drone Fly. (Probably E. tenex).

And a moth. (Possibly a Nettle-Tap - Anthophila fabriciana).

The rest kept flying around, buzzing off, flitting away - if only they had been prepared to sit as still as this snail!

With thanks to members of iSpot for help with identifications.

SOME LINKS YOU MIGHT LIKE

UK Ladybird Survey

Pictures and Charts to help identify Harlequins

Harlequin Ladybird Survey

Record sightings of UK Ladybirds

Record sightings of Harlequins in the UK

History of Harlequin invasion - on this page there is information about how to send live ladybirds to the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University. The address for this has changed and specimens are no longer needed from certain areas. Details are on the right hand side of THIS page, the address to which ladybirds may now be sent is on the left.

To find out about the forty-three species of ladybird native to the UK. (Click the red names on the right hand side to see pictures.)

Using sexually transmitted disease to render Harlequin females sterile is being studied at Cambridge University but parasites are another form of control. You might like to take part in a parasite survey on the BBC Breathing Spaces site.

And . . . beyond ladybirds - here's a list of surveys UK residents can take part in with OPAL (Open Air Laboratories).

And . . . I know I'm always going on about iSpot . . . but it really is worth belonging to / contributing to if you live in the UK.

For readers in other parts of the world . . . there seem to be no parallel ways for people who live on mainland Europe to take part in surveys like these. It may be that there are some in North America . . . if there are, I'll add information here . . . or does anyone already know?

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P.S. You can follow Dr Helen Roy of the UK Ladybird Survey on Twitter.