VIOLETS

Dog violets.  Can you see them?

So easy to miss

But beautiful when you get down and look at them closely.

 

BARREN STRAWBERRY

A tiny flower, easily overlooked.  It looks like a strawberry but is actually a Potentilla not a Fragaria.

 Instead of a red, juicy fruit it produces a little brown nut.

You can quickly tell it is a barren strawberry and not a true strawberry by looking at the three-lobed leaves.

The middle tooth at the end of each toothed leaflet is shorter than the teeth to either side of it.  This is not the case with a true strawberry.

LOOK UP FOR CHERRY BLOSSOM

In the Old Plantation at Filnore (check the map), between posts 15 and 16, there are a number of flowering cherry trees left over from when Northavon Council used this area as a tree nursery.

Some of the blossom is low down and that's what alerted me to the floral display up high against the sky.

Shows up well from a distance too.  Cherry trees in the old plantation can be seen from the viewpoint and there is also a good one near post 5, just outside our boundary. 

WHITE BEADS IN THE UNDERGROWTH

What could these little white globules in the hedge be?

Don't let the bramble leaf trick you.

Scroll down for answer.

It's blackthorn blossom in bud.  this is what it will look like.

Photo: Paul Raven

The off-white flowers of blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) are a week or so later than . . . .

The slightly larger and whiter flowers of myrobalan plum (Prunus cerasifera)

THE GOLDEN BOUGH

Seen from a distance the whole pussy willow tree shines golden.

These are the male flowers and the gold is pollen.  The female flowers are on separate female trees and look like little green hedgehogs.  Although insects do visit the male flowers for the pollen, they are not very interested in 'green hedgehogs' so this species mostly relies on the wind for pollination.  

The male flowers will drop to the ground when their job is done, but the female ones will develop into fluffy seedheads.

 

CHIFFCHAFF

Photo: Paul Raven

This week I heard a chiffchaff in Filnore Woods for the first time this spring.

One of the most easily recognised bird songs.

Hear is a video by Paul Dinning

 

SUNNY STARS

Though they are almost impossible to eradicate if you get them in your lawn or flower beds at home, lesser celandines are a gloriously cheery sight in woods and on grassy banks at this time of year.

They wait for the sun to shine before they open up, and close again when it is dark or dreary.

 

PRIMROSES AT POST 10

You will have seen primroses blooming.

We have a nice show near post 10 at Filnore Woods

and this shot kindly donated by Paul Raven

This is also a good spot for Bluebells, Violets and Perforate St Johns Wort.

(BTW 'wort' is pronounced 'wert' not 'wart' as I heard on Countryfile last week.)

 

To keep these flowers blooming we have to cut back the nettles and bracken each year once the bluebells have gone over.  

 

BUSY MOLES

Moles are rarely seen as they spend most of their life underground catching earthworms, their favourite food.

But at this time of year they seem to be busier than usual.  We know they are there because, in the course of building new tunnels or tidying up old ones, they throw up numbers of molehills, like these on the Mundy Playing Fields.