BRISTLY OXTONGUE

 It's usually quite difficult to separate all the different, yellow, dandelion type flowers but this one is easy if you look at the leaves.  

The answer is in the name, Bristly Oxtongue: the leaves are covered in bristles sprouting out of whitish pimples.  

The flowers are fairly bright yellow and quite robust.  

A cheery sight in autumn, and flowering quite late this year.

      

 

AUTUMN JOYS FOR OUT OF WORK WORKER WASPS

Last chance saloon for worker wasps.  Nectaring on ivy flowers

Photo: Marianne Mogendorff 

And chomping on fallen apples.

Scissoring off fragments to guzzle.

Then joined by a sister.

Obviously on good terms with each other and I think you can see them interacting and communicating through their antennae.

And why were all these wasps crawling about beneath this willow.

Then I noticed black colonies of aphids on the willow shoots.   So the wasps were presumably enjoying the honeydew that the aphids produce, although they didn't seem to be milking the aphids like ants do.   They were just fossicking around trying to find any honeydew residues.

I searched the internet and discovered that these are Large Willow Bark Aphids (Tuberolachnus salignus) and regular visitors to willows.  Autumn is their peak season and they survive through the winter.  Mysteriously they all disappear -  usually in February.  Nobody knows where they go but they reappear in late spring.  

Apparently they do no harm to the willows and provide a food source for numerous other insects and small birds - not to mention wasps.

RHS page link

MEADOWS ARE STILL SWEET

Walking near the sailing club at Oldbury-on-Severn we saw Meadowsweet in flower.

Usually at this time of year you would only expect to see the leaves 

but here were several plants merrily in flower.  

The foamy spray of flowers has a heady, sweet fragrance. 

The leaves however have a medical smell, like germolene.  Apparently the plant used to be known in Yorkshire as 'courtship and matrimony':  the sweet perfume of the flowers for courtship and the more astringent smell of the leaves for the reality of marriage. 

As well as the smell you can identify the leaves which have up to nine leaflets on each stalk with tiny leaflets interspersed between the larger ones.

 

SYCAMORE TAR SPOT

At this time of year many of the sycamores get these black spots on their leaves.

This is a fungus called Rhytisma acerinum or Tar Spot of Sycamore

Now you could say, "Oh dear this tree is infected!" or alternatively, "What a decorative finish to the sycamore year."

It has a negligible impact on the foliage's capacity to photosynthesise, does the tree no harm, so why not enjoy it?

 

SILVER LEAF

This is the reason you don't prune plum trees and cherries at this time of year.  It is the fruiting body of the fungus that causes silver leaf disease, Chondrostereum purpureum.  Here it is growing on the stump of a damson tree that was felled three years ago in our garden.  

In summer plum and cherry trees produce a resin, which can seal small wounds to prevent fungal spores from entering.  That's the time to prune them - if you have to.

A few days later some toadstools appeared, feeding on the dead roots of the damson tree.

2 days later.

And another 10 days later.

These are the fruiting bodies of honey fungus and will soon turn black and slimy when frost happens.  Meanwhile the fungus will be sending out underground runners called rhizomorphs in search of other susceptible plants to attack.  

I should probably grub this stump out to remove the food source for this fungus.

 

LONG LEGS FOR SAFETY

The cobweb spider isn't keen on cold weather, so it frequents the roofs of caves and the ceilings of cellars, garages and rooms in your house.  Well maybe not in your house but certainly in mine.  

They weave a muddly web often in the top corner of a room and wait.  Sometimes they get fed up and descend to the floor in search of something tasty.  But it's dangerous.  This one on my kitchen floor has only six legs instead of the usual eight.  Clearly some rough encounters have occurred.

They will eat any insects or other arthropods including other spiders.  They get up high on their long legs to avoid getting bitten until the prey is safely trussed up in silk.   Then they can insert their fangs and suck the victim dry.  😮😮 

I was surprised to learn that they even catch, kill and eat the rather more robust looking house spiders (Tegenaria) that run across winter carpets.

 

PEAR FOLIAGE IN AUTUMN

Sandwiched between an ash and an oak this pear tree displays startling autumn colouration.  It is opposite post 3 at Filnore Woods, where the three memorial limes stand.  

Some shoots colour up before others.  

What is needed is cold nights and sunny days to get the best fall colours.

Last chance to view the yellows and reds on other trees before the wind and rain knock them to the ground.

 

Field Maple and Hawthorn

  

Wych Elm

  

Sycamore and Ash

  

Spindle and Dogwood

Even on the ground they make a fine display