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.

One Tree Hill Invertebrates

Fly, Bibio species, on a Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

I saw several invertebrates at One Tree Hill.  This is a Bibio species, related to the larger St. Mark's Fly that is usually so common at this time of year.  I am not good enough to get the species of this one.  It looks particularly slim and alien from the side! 

Hawthorn Shield Bug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This shiny creature was spotted by Sue Buckingham on a Cherry Laurel.  It's a true bug, with sucking mouthparts. Those shoulders look very aggressive.

I always like to photograph hoverflies; there is a wide variety of them, and most of them look pretty impressive.

Hoverfly, Cheilosia species, with one deformed wing.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Unfortunately, I don't think this fuzzy fly will do very well with that malformed wing.  It probably didn't expand properly when the adult emerged.

While I was photographing the hoverfly, I was called to exercise my mothing skills on this creature, which was crawling around in the grass:

Adela reamurella.  Male.  Micromoth.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It's a shiny micromoth and has very, very long antennae, which means that it is a male.  The males need long antennae to sense minute quantities of the female mating pheromones.  I hadn't seen one of these since last summer, so I had to look it up on my iPhone to bring its name back to mind.

We only saw two butterflies. One was an Orange Tip, which I didn't manage to photograph, but Sue pointed out one of its eggs on the larval food plant, the Cuckooflower:

Cuckooflower or Lady's-Smock, Cardamine pratensis, with one egg of an Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines.
One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The single orange egg is on the leaf petiole just right of centre, the highest of those with no petals left.  Unlike many butterflies, the Orange Tip works on the basis of one plant, one caterpillar.

The last invertebrate of the day was this woodland moth:

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

A pretty creature, and quite well camouflaged when it settles on a footpath or among dead leaves.

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

You can often see pairs of males battling in woodland glades.  They're usually quite wary, and when they settle it's usually with wings spread, so I was doubly pleased to get this shot of the underside of its wings.

One Tree Hill - Green

Llama. One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The llamas were still there.

This is more from my recent wild flower course day, run by the knowledgeable Sue Buckingham.  As well as the flowers, which I showed some of in my last post, there were many leafy sights.  After all the recent rain, it was quite lush.  This one was new to me:

Beech seedling, Fagus sylvatica.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It's a newly sprouted seedling of a Beech tree.  Those broad leaves are the cotyledons, the seed leaves that are held in the seed until it germinates, and which then give the new plant its first dose of sunlight energy.  More typical leaves are just beginning to sprout in the centre.

Foxglove leaves, Digitalis purpurea.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Here is a Foxglove, among the Bluebells and with a Dandelion to one side. 

Grey Sedge, Carex divulsa ssp. divulsa.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Sue is good at sedges; we had a lesson on them last winter, but most of them still look very similar to me.  This one stands out to the experienced eye (Sue's) because it looks greyer than the surrounding leaves.

Here's the flower of one sedge I do know:

Pendulous Sedge, Carex pendula.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The male flower is at the top, shedding pollen.  Female flowers are lower down.  This sedge stands out because it is so large, and has the creased leaves that are typical of sedges.  There is a mnemonic: "Sedges have wedges, rushes are round, grass stems are hollow wherever they're found."

Dog's Mercury is green, always green, with green flowers and green fruits.

Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis, female.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It is a very common woodland plant and often covers swathes of ground early in the year.

This next one is a humble little plant that looks much like a chickweed.  This specimen has one flower, which has lost a petal.

Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

You can see a single central "nerve," and two more which curve to either side.

This, too, has flowers, but the green leaves are its predominant feature.

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis acetosella.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This is not related to the Common Sorrel, Rumex acetosa, which is sometimes used in soup; eating this one is not advised.  This one normally grows in these small clumps, but in one place the whole woodland floor was covered.

Lastly for today, a Wood Sage. I think this plant is edible, or at least not poisonous, but the leaves do not seem particularly aromatic when crushed.

Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia, among Bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

All today's photos were taken with my EOS 60D and 100mm macro lens, with ring flash.

One Tree Hill, April

View over the Weald from the lookout point at One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

I was at One Tree Hill with the Orpington Field Club in March.  This new visit was part of the summer extension to the wild flower course I have  been taking.  We covered part of the same circuit and it was interesting to see how things had moved along.

This time the weather was better, often with sunshine, and only a smidgeon of rain.  I took my SLR with me and I was able to get plenty of decent photos of some of the things I had missed out on the last time. It's a good site for wildflowers; there are quite a few even round the edges of the car park.  It was there I took this:

Fresh Oak leaves and immature catkins.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

New leaves, glossy and delicate, look delicious.  The background wasn't really that dark but the use of flash makes it seem so.

Early Dog Violet, Viola reichenbachiana.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This is a side view of the flower of the Early Dog Violet.  We also saw another species in flower, the Common Dog Violet, distinguishable (usually) because the spur of this one is dark, and that of its Common relative is white.  But you can also find hybrids ...  Luckily there are also other distinguishing features.

This was the first time I saw the little Wood Speedwell, in the grass by a path:

Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana. One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

There are quite a few Speedwells, some of them looking very similar until you bend down for a closer look. 

There were plenty of Bluebells in the woods, with here and there a white specimen.

White bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This is just a sport or form of the native Bluebell species, not a hybrid or garden escape.  You can see the flowers all tending to one side of the stem, and they have long tubes which do not open much at the ends, both typical signs of the native.  These do not seem to crop up in every wood.  I saw none in Lilly's Wood the other day.

This next is the flower spike of a Cherry Laurel.

Cherry Laurel, Prunus laurocerasus.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

That's rather pretty, but the tree as a whole is a bit of a nuisance in our woods.  It's an invader, and with its robust prolific habit and big leaves it tends to out-compete and shade out our natives.

We saw some Wild Strawberries and some Barren Strawberries, plants that look very similar but are of different genera.

Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Sue Buckinhgham identified this as a Wild Strawberry, though to my much less experienced eye it has some of the signs of being a Barren Strawberry.  But Sue really is an expert so I will go with her ID.

Last flower for today: a Wood Forget-me-not.  These self-seed in my garden, so I know them well.

Wood Forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

And to finish, a fungus.  We found a fallen Elder branch which was covered with these, which these days are called Jelly Ears.  They are soft, floppy and gelatinous to the touch.

Jelly Ear, Auricularia auricula-judae, on fallen Elder, Sambucus nigra.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

One Tree Hill, March

Llama in a field near One Tree Hill.  17 March 2012.

This was yet another rainy day out. I miss my big camera when I see things to photograph on which I could use it well, but it would be silly to take it out in the rain. So these shots were all taken with my Ixus 100. These, and many more taken on this trip, are in an album here: One Tree Hill, Feb 2012.

One Tree Hill is south of Sevenoaks, on the Greensand Way, and is mostly woodland on soil of varying degrees of acidity, depending whether you are up on the ridge or down below it. We walked a circuit that took in both.

Bluebell in flower.  Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

This was the first reasonable shot of a bluebell I have managed this year. It's too early for them to be out in my local commons, but here one is, on the roadside half an hour's drive to the south, just far enough to make a difference. There were other early flowers here too.

Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia. One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

This tiny plant was growing in crevices in a high wall, and among the grass at its base. I was tickled to see this as we had covered Speedwells in my wildflower class the day before.

There were also several mosses which our Bryological expert identified for us.

Homalothecium sericium.  Silky Wall Feather-moss.  One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

This one was on another wall by the roadside.

We saw quite a few Sweet Violets by the footpath, both white and purple varieties, though it's no doubt correct to call this colour violet!

Sweet Violet, Viola odorata.  One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

We were circling the edge of the wood below the ridge, with trees up the bank on our left and fields and houses to our right. Soon we passed two llamas in a field (one is shown above). And we encountered an unexpected hazard. There were several badger dung-pits by the path, easy to tread in while concentrating on the flora. Badgers make these shallow pits to mark the boundaries of their territory.

This walk was familiar to some of the group, who were keen to show us these highlights:

Leaf rosettes of  Early Purple Orchids, Orchis mascula.  One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

Leaf rosettes of the Early Purple Orchid, which will soon be flowering.

Life-sized model tiger. One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012

An unexpected sight, created by a local sculptress. This beast used to be much fresher-looking.

Green Hellebore, Helleborus viridis. One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

There was a whole patch of these Green Hellebores. Compare this with the cultivated Hellebore I showed a few days ago: Christmas Rose.

Near our lunch spot was an unusual sight: two blobs of a Myxomycete, or slime mould, looking just like tasty helpings of blancmange. I cut through the edge of one but there was no sign of any structure within, just more milky pudding, by its looks.

Myxomycete, perhaps Enteridium lycoperdon. One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

I will try to confirm the identification, and if I can I'll edit this note accordingly.  Myxomycetes are very odd creatures, neither animal, plant, nor fungus, with the ability to rove around hunting food at one point in their life cycle, a bit like The Blob from an old Steve McQueen film, but hungry for bacteria rather than people.  They put out spores like a fungus at another stage. When I first encountered slime moulds at University it was as though science fiction had overlapped with real life.

Here are some beautiful mossy rocks from near our lunch spot:

Mossy rocks. One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

(In the rain, of course.)  And the last pic for today is some little ponies we saw earlier. I think these are Shetlands, though I am no horse expert.

Small ponies.  Shetlands?  One Tree Hill, 17 March 2012.

There are photos of most of the things I have mentioned, and several others, in this album: One Tree Hill, Feb 2012.