MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT

Saw this neat little fern on a Thornbury wall.  Each frond has a black filament at its centre with small green Pinnae (like leaflets) in pairs along the frond.  It's very common on limestone rocks including the mortar of old stone walls.  

 

MOLE IN THE WAY

No idea why this mole decided to throw up a molehill here in the middle of the path.  

I guess he enjoyed the challenge of compacted soil.

 

ELMS

  

Some four years ago Alan's grandsons planted three elm trees, supposedly dutch-elm-disease resistant, supplied by a friend of Jim Dadd's.  It hardly showed at the time but they were of two different species: Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra) and so-called English Elm (Ulmus procera)  

  

'Glabra' means 'smooth' referring to the bark so you can see that we have Wych Elm on the left, and the corky bark of English Elm on the right.  Wych Elm also has rather larger leaves.

 

NOT JUST ONE RABBIT, SURELY

When you see a large amount of rabbit droppings, don't imagine it is all from one animal.  Rabbits tend to have communal latrines, where several bunnies poo in the same place.

They also have a rather unusual  (I think) habit called autocoprophagy.  As their grassy diet is so hard to digest, they eat their new droppings to process them a second time.  This is also practiced by hares and mountain gorillas, I have read.  

Unfortunately for those of us attempting to grow trees, they also strip tree bark.  This can turn out to be the reason why trees might have died, like this 3-year old juniper.

  

Rabbits bark-strip low down, hares a bit higher, deer even higher and squirrels high up.  Even horses and sheep will munch bark if there is not enough grazing available.   This oak has lost its main stem but is trying again from the root.   

But while there are rabbits around, however cute, it is quite hard to establish new trees.

Photo: unknown source

 

FERNS

We have six common ferns at Filnore Woods.  These include Bracken, Harts Tongue Fern,

Male Fern, Lady Fern, Soft Shield Fern and Broad Buckler Fern.  They may all look the same at first, but when you get to know them, their individual characteristics and differences are a delight. 

The easiest is the Hart's Tongue.  The strap-like fronds are not divided at all.  Look on the underside to see the brown sporangia, which generate the spores -  a fern's equivalent to seeds.

   

The Male Fern's fronds are divided twice into pinnas and pinnules.

     

Behold the sporangia on the underside of male fern fronds.

In Victorian times it was thought that the Lady Fern was a female counterpart to the male fern.  It is in fact a completely different species.   It is also divided into pinnas and pinnules but the pinnules have frilly edges.  It is rather more delicate than the robust male fern and prefers damp places.

     

 

 

The Soft Shield Fern is also doubly pinnate, with pinnas and pinnules, but the larger pinnules are like tiny mittens with a hand and a thumb.  If it helps you to remember the name, think of a mitten being a soft shield against the cold.  Their is also a hard shield fern (not at Filnore) which has a spine at the end of each mitten but the soft shield fern's pinnules end in a soft hair or seta.

  

and the sporangia

The Broad Buckler Fern is tripply pinnate with pinnas, pinnules and pinnulets.  It prefers acid soil and we have a few patches at Filnore.

   

And here is a fern that is is different from the others because it has a vertical stem with branches at intervals.  Bracken is an international weed famous for being difficult to eradicate.

It invades, woods and grassland, swamping most other plants.

  

  If it is cutback it just pops up again.

All photos taken recently of these ferny riches at Filnore Woods.

 

BEECHMAST

Beechmast - the nuts of the beech tree.  This year seems to be a good 'mast year' as there are nuts all over the floor beneath beech trees.  Crunching along the path under our two big beech trees, I realised that it was not just the prickly shells. 

There were loads of the three-sided nuts as well.  This should be good food for winter finches as well as those pesky squirrels.

Beeches and oaks attempt to flood the market with nuts and acorns every few years in a mast year, while only producing a few in the intervening years.  This way at least some of the seeds will survive to start new trees.

 

AWARD FOR FRIENDS OF FILNORE WOODS

Filnore Friends volunteers have been awarded the Thornbury in Bloom Perpetual Cup this year, for 'continued environmental work'. 

 

  

  

Grassland managment  and  Woodland management

  

Path clearance and maintenence

  

Step building and benches