Leaves Green, December

The valley behind Leaves Green on a misty morning.  10 December 2013.

There are already a couple of posts from Leaves Green at this time of year (in 2011) which you can find if you search the blog.  So here are just a couple of shots of the valley behind the village on a misty morning.  The first one was on my way into the valley, no sunshine, so the colours are subdued.

The horses are standing at an angle to the vertical - maybe that's more comfortable for a four-legged animal than trying to stand vertically.  But it makes the photo look rather odd! 

There is a small fire in the valley and its smoke adds solidity to the low mist.

The valley behind Leaves Green on a misty morning.  10 December 2013.

Almost the identical view later on, when the sun was shining through the mist, shows the fire clearly.

These photos were taken with a 100mm macro lens on my EOS 6D, because that's what I had with me.  You can see that it's good for long shots as well as closeups.

One Tree Hill, December

One Tree Hill, 11 December 2013.

Here are a few shots taken on my iPhone, walking around One Tree Hill, a National Trust wood near Sevenoaks, in December.  It was a sunny day, but there was a lot of mist, which shows up nicely in the first photo.

Ferns near One Tree Hill, 11 December 2013.

This walk goes along a track at the low edge of the woods.  There are many lush ferns growing on the slope.  These are Male Ferns and Hart's-tongue Ferns.  There are also clusters of Soft Shield Ferns.

There are some spring flower photos from this area in a post from March last year: One Tree Hill, March.

At the end of this stretch I turned back and climbed a steep path that cuts along the side of the hill and comes out back at the top near where I parked. 

Path to One Tree Hill, 11 December 2012.

You can see the steep drop-off to the left.

Looking down from the path to One Tree Hill, 11 December 2012.

This is a view down to the left.  It looks a lot steeper in real life than the photo suggests, because the camera is angled downwards.  In the distance, not quite visible, is the Weald.

Looking up along the path towards One Tree Hill, 11 December 2012.

This is the last section of this particular path.  One Tree Hill proper starts at a stile at the top. 

A brisk walk around this route takes about an hour, if you can negotiate the steep bits!    A wonderful and refreshing morning.  There is a viewpoint with a seat further along the top, but on this day, nothing at all could be seen because the mist still covered the lowlands.

Toy's Hill in Autumn

The path down into the wood.  Toy's Hill, 7 December 2013.

Early in December I walked round some of Toy's Hill, through part of Scords Wood.  I was looking out for anything still in flower .. and saw nothing.  But it was an excellent walk.  The first photo is the path down into the wood.

Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, high in a Silver Birch.  Toy's Hill, 7 December 2013.

Not far down, I saw what looked like a fern growing high in a tree!  When I got closer I saw it was an unusually tall stand of bracken, which grows differently; single leaf stems rising from the ground.  It mush be quite dark here before leaf fall to make them grow so high.

View from the edge of the wood over the Weald.  Toy's Hill, 7 December 2013.

There was an amazing view over the Weald at one edge of the wood, with layered distances just like a traditional painted landscape.  I would have liked to go down a little so that the photo would miss out those nearby branches, but the slope was too steep.  That body of water in the middle distance must be Bough Beech Reservoir, much loved by bird fans. 

I turned then, leaving the path, and walked up through the wood.  This turned out to be tricky.

Fallen trees making it hard to climb up the hill.  Toy's Hill, 7 December 2013.

The whole hillside was like this, fallen tree after fallen tree, all laid across my path.  They were all covered with moss, so it must be a damp environment.  I had to climb over, under or around dozens of these. 

Orange fungus crust on old deadwood.  Toy's Hill, 7 December 2013.

Suddenly, this caught my eye; a single piece of old deadwood covered with a bright orange fungus crust. 

Eventually I came to a path and walked back up.  Near the top I saw this:

Triceratops skull?  Toy's Hill, 7 December 2013.

You can see what I thought when I saw it.  Maybe there are other dinosaurs that look more like this, but Triceratops was impressed on my mind as a child, so that's what came up.  Regrettably, this is just wood.

Male Fern and Soft Shield Fern

Male Fern, Drypoteris filix-mas.  In my garden in Hayes, 5 December 2013.

The Male Fern is probably Britain's commonest fern.  This one grew unasked in my carnivorous plant tray, and has thrives since I transplanted it to a shady spot in my garden.

It is bipinnate; the pinnae branch into pinnules.  This puts it in between the simply pinnate ferns like the Polypodies and the tripinnate Broad Buckler Fern, both of which I have posted recently.

Soft Shield Fern, Polystichum setiferum.  Near Leaves Green, 15 December 2012.

It looks superficially similar to this Soft Shield Fern that I saw in a small wood near Leaves Green a year ago.  But if you compare the pinnae close up, like this:

Male Fern, Drypoteris filix-mas, and Soft Shield Fern, Polystichum setiferum.  Pinnules compared.

You can see that the Soft Shield Fern is almost tripinnate, and has "thumbs" at the base of its pinnules.

Fungi at Trosley

Clytocybe geotropa, Trooping Funnel.  Trosley Country Park, 19 November 2013.

A coupe of fungi seen on a walk in Trosley Country Park in November.  "Trooping" means occurring in numbers, but scattered, perhaps a few individuals here and there, perhaps in a curved row.  But I only saw this single Trooping Funnel!  It was fairly large, about 5 inches across.

Coprinopsis picacea (Coprinus picaceus), Magpie Inkcap.  Trosley Country Park, 19 November 2013.

This is the top of another conspicuous species.  The Magpie Inkcap, like its relatives, deliquesces into a black liquid as it ages.  The colour comes from the spores the liquid contains.  Here you can see the "ink" dripping off the edges, which are just staring to disintegrate.  This fungus was about 8 inches tall and 3 inches across.

Common Puffball, Lycoperdon perlatum.  Trosley Country Park, 19 November 2013.

This one was lying on top the the leaf letter.  It must have been kicked there by someone, or maybe an animal, as it was off the track.  It's a young specimen of a common fungus, but always pretty, looking like the head of a medieval weapon.

Ferns on Hayes Churchyard Wall

Hart's-tongue Fern, Asplenium scolopendrium.  On Hayes churchyard wall, 2 December 2013.

The churchyard in Hayes is surrounded by a low wall that borders on the main road through the old village, which is now really just another outer suburb of London.  The wall has a nice range of plants growing on it, and it is good that no-one tries to tidy these away.  They include three types of fern that are perhaps not the sort of thing people usually think of when ferns are mentioned.

The top one is well-known.  The Hart's Tongue grows in many damp, shady places, whether natural or man-made.  The "frond" of this fern is a imple flat blade, with no divisions.

Rustyback, Asplenium ceterach.   On Hayes churchyard wall, 2 December 2013.

The Rustyback is quite scarce in this area, so it's nice to see it thriving here.  You can see under the edges of the pinnae how it gets its name.  It is quite small, but in its form it is more like a traditional fern, straightforwardly pinnate.

Maidenhair Spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes.  On Hayes churchyard wall, 2 December 2013.

Another small pinnate fern, this one with wiry black rachises and rounded pinnae. 

To survive high on a wall, a fern must be able to withstand drought and recover when moisture returns.  The extent to which these ferns can do this affects where they grow.  The Hart's Tongue can  not withstand drought, and does best at the base of the wall on the shady side.  Even there, the specimens are quite small.  It does not grow on the drier side at all. 

The Rustyback and the Maidenhair Spleenwort grow up and down the wall on both sides, but they are larger and healthier on the shady side.  In a dry summer, Rustybacks curl up and both species look dead, though they are not.  The lively specimens shown here are on the shady side, and we have had a long wet spell, so they are at their best.

High Elms Polypody

Fern, Polypodium species (or hybrid).  High Elms, 26 November 2013.

Last time I showed a Broad Buckler Fern that is tripinnate.  This fern is much simpler in structure.  The pinnae come straight off the main frond stem, the rachis, so it is described simply as pinnate.  There are three native species of Polypody, but it is not easy to pin down a species by eye.  The pointed pinnae suggest that this should be Polypodium interjectum, Western Polypody, but I cannot be certain.

This one was growing on a moss-covered log on the south-east slope of a wood at High Elms.  Facing south-east, you might expect it to be sunny and dry, but the dense cover must allow this slope to stay damp or there would not be this cover of moss. 

I saw several fungi on this walk, including a nice growth of Turkeytail, which often puts on a good show.

Trametes versicolor, Turkeytail   High Elms, 26 November 2013.

Apparently this can be used medicinally, dried and made into a tea, but I would not recommend any herbal medicine as there can be many complex chemicals in them and the dosages are likely to vary unpredictably.  That is on top of the general note of caution about eating fungi found in the wild.  Plants often contain things which repel or harm creatures that want to eat them!