Colour in December

Things are not as monochrome as you might imagine in winter.  

The bright green fronds of harts tongue fern are prolific where the soil is slightly alkaline.

The fluffy seed heads of Old Man's Beard, the wild clematis, 

are draped over bushes and trees. 

 On old dead elder wood there are the deep red fruiting bodies of Jelly Ear Fungus.

What sight is more refreshing than the silver-white bark of birches against a blue winter sky?

Snow on the hills

From the Filnore Woods viewpoint yesterday, I could see snow on the Cotswolds.

But actually there was a fair bit in Filnore Woods too.

The benches looked a bit cold for sitting.

Walking on I found this fat, sticky bud on a horse chestnut sapling, full of spring promise. 

The resin on the outside of the bud scales helps to protect the new leaves inside from the cold.

Filnore fungi 3 - on stump ends

Many fungi live on dead wood, often on the cut ends of logs and stumps.  Here are four common ones:

Hairy Curtain Crust (Stereum hirsutum) 

 Photo: Simon Harding

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor OR Coriolus versicolor) 

with concentric bands of colour.

Photo: Simon Harding

Chondrostereum purpureum starts off beige

 Then goes purply

Photo: Simon Harding

And eventually changes from being resupinate (flat on the wood) to a curly bracket.

And lastly some Jelly Ear on the end of a log.  It used to be called Jew's Ear, reflected in the scientific name Auricularia auricula-judae, because it occurs most frequently on Elder, which was one of the trees reputed to have been the one Judas Iscariot hanged himself from.  

  

It is soft and slightly furry, which does make it feel a bit like a human ear.  Put one in a feely bag and fool your friends!

And another couple of Jelly Ears on a dead Elder branch.

Photo: Simon Harding

Fire damage

We don't mean to spoil the fun of lighting small fires at Filnore.  We even enjoy the odd bonfire ourselves.  But these photos show the result of lighting fires near trees.

When the fire was first lit about three years ago, the damage was hard to see.  

A year later dead bark was clearly visible

See the difference from 2015 to 2017 on another tree nearby

2015                               2017

Please don't light fires near or under trees.  Not only can it damage branches and foliage, and scorch the bark, but the unseen damage to roots can have an even worse effect on trees. 

Filnore fungi 2 - little tufts

Some fungi show up as quite small tufts. Here are three different coloured examples found recently at Filnore by Simon, our mycologist.

Small Stagshorn (Calocera cornea)

Grey Coral (Clavulina cinerea)

Candle Snuff (Xylaria hypoxylon).  

This one is the easiest to spot as it is white and quite common, growing on dead wood.  It often comes in when other wood rotting fungi have finished with the wood and turns what remains into a crumbly mess ready for insects and other small creatures to feast on.  So a valuable contributor to recycling nutrients.