Mouse-tail and Jew's Ear

 

As a supplement to my last posting here is a lovely photo taken by Simon Harding, of the Jelly Ear fungus with a spray of moss known as Mouse-tail, Isothecium myosuroides.

Ears on your Elders

This fungus is found almost exclusively on dead branches of Elder bushes.  It's scientific name is Auricularia auricula-judae, Jew's Ear, but many people have taken to calling it Jelly Ear to avoid causing offence.

Photo taken at Filnore on New Year's Eve by Simon Harding

 

If you touch it it has just the feel of a human ear, slightly downy.  Slightly creepy!

 

 

Leaves

One way to identify trees is by their leaves. 

 

 

Even in winter many leaves persist on the ground.  But because the wind blows them, you cannot always be sure which individual tree they have come from.

 

Most people can recognise the lobed leaves of the common oak.

 

Field Maple leaves resemble large hawthorn leaves.  As with many maples, their leaves have five lobes like a spread-out hand.

 

 

This next one is really European but naturalised in Britain (i.e. it will grow and spread by seed quite happily here).  It is the Norway Maple.  The leaves are a bit like Sycamore but they have whiskery points on the lobes.

 

 

Preparations for springtime

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

 

I know spring may seem a long way off, but all last summer the trees have been preparing for it.  Their buds are full of promise, ready to burst into action.

 

Here we have alder on the left and pussy willow on the right.

 

 

 

The alder twigs carry bunches of unexpanded catkins.  In early spring, about February, these will stretch out and produce pollen to help produce next year's seeds.  You can see last years conelets, still full of seed, on the twigs.  This is an important source of winter food for some small birds.

 

The pussy willow buds are fat and round, like little beads glued on to the twigs.  These will produce the 'pussy' catkins covered in silver hairs, as silky as kittens' fur - hence the name 'catkins.'  Some will turn golden, covered in pollen.  These are the male flowers.  But on female trees, (yes you get male and female trees in some species) the silky buds grow into little spiky fruits that produce the fluffy seeds in late summer.

 

Old Man's Beard

The fluffy seeds of the Wild Clematis show why it is also called Old Man's Beard.

 

 

Draped on bushes and trees it makes a pleasant substitute for blossom at this time of year.

 

2013 is now the old man and soon to pass away.

 

Stream flooding

This section of the track gets flooded after heavy rain.  It's because the culvert pipe under the track gets blocked with leaves and debris.  Then all the silt carried down by the stream piles up and we effectively hava a dam.

 

 

 

 

You can see in the picture above that nothing is coming through the pipe.  The water is just flowing over the track.



 

 

 

After a bit of poking with a long stick to release the blockage, the water gets through again and the flood level drops on the track.

 

 

 So if you are passing after heavy rain, and you see the water level rising . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Culvert blocked with debris

 

Grab a long pole and try to poke it clear.  This would be really helpful.  I have left one pole by the willow tree on the left of picture 1-5 above, and another in front of the new tool store.

 

Unblocked again - but see the puddles on the track

It's quite satisfying when it gurgles and the water level goes down in a vortex like the water in your bath.

 

 

Chips to go with our stakes

Apologies if you have tried to walk up the tree covered tunnel path from post 11 to post 19.  It is blocked with a great pile of woodchip.

 

Once we had finished edging the path, we needed some woodchip to level it off. 

 

Paul from the Mundy Playing Fields supplied us with three large trailer-loads which we shall spread to produce a much easier slope to climb, from post 1 up to post 9..