Two Iris Seed Pods

Seed pods of Yellow Iris, Iris pseudacorus.  Spring Park, 17 October 2014.

Two types of ripe Iris seed pods seen on wet days.  First is the Yellow Iris or Yellow Flag,  a plant that grows in shallow water and so is common around the edges of ponds.  This one was in the pond at the bottom of Spring Park wood.  These pods look a little like miniature corn on the cob.

Seed pod of Stinking Iris, Iris foetidissima.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 4 November 2014.

And the showy pods of Stinking Iris, crammed full of vermilion seeds.  The leaves have a very odd smell when crushed, which is sometimes compared to roast beef, though I wouldn't want to eat it if it smelled like that.  Those who have tried them tell me that it takes a long time to get flowering plants from these seeds.

White Flowers in Spring Park in Spring

Wild Radish, Raphanus raphanistrum.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

This goes back to April, when I led a walk in Spring Park.  It was already well into the flowering season in the local woods.  Many woodland flowers come out early on, before the tree canopy can shade them out.

But this one was in the meadow below the woods.  Flowers of the Wild Radish can be yellow or white.  But if you dig them up, you won't find any tasty salad vegetables whatever their flower colour.

White-flowered English Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

Spring Park is a lovely bluebell wood in season.  A few white-flowered plants always occur, standing out in the mass of blue.  This is a true wild English bluebell, not to be confused with the hybrid variety, often grown as a garden plant, which can also be seen in the wild as a garden escape.  You will see white and pink forms much more often among the hybrids.

Pignut, Conopodium majus.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

Much less common in the woods is Pignut, looking rather like a feeble Cow-parsley but with much more finely divided leaves.  It has an edible nut-like tuberous root.  I refrain from digging it up because there is so little of it here.

Three-cornered Leek or Three-cornered Garlic, Allium triquetrum.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

This is quite another story.  It's an invasive plant which is against the law to spread.  This small stand is at the top of the wood and I took half of it home to eat.  It has a mild garlicky flavour and the whole plant is edible.  You just need to be careful and wash any wild-gathered plants thoroughly, because of dog walkers and the like.

Ramsons, Allium ursinum.  Spring Park, 4 May 2014.

Coincidentally, these Ramsons are also garlic-flavoured edible plants, but these are natural inhabitants of our ancient woods and should not be picked. 

Narrow-Leaved Water-plantain, Alisma lanceolatum.  Spring Park, 4 May 2014.

Narrow-leaved Water Plantains grow in a pond at the bottom of the wood.  It is a construct, made a decade ago where it is thought there used to be a pond long ago.  It is fed by one of the springs that give the wood its name.

Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia.  Spring Park, 4 May 2014.

The Three-nerved Sandwort looks very much like the common Chickweed that grows everywhere in suburbia.  It has five leaf veins seen from above, but from below, specially on the new leaves, three veins are prominent.

There are other white-flowered plants than these, but this is all for now!

Coppicing in Spring Park

Trees felled during coppicing in Spring Park, 6 November 2013.

This was a dark wet day in the woods.  The management programme for Spring Park's Small-leaved Limes was under way, with sections being coppiced and the felled trunks being taken out by heavy horses.

This is a Comtois, a French breed.  The use of horses minimises damage to the woodland floor.

Coppicing refreshes the growth of some trees, and creates glades of different ages which provide habitats for plants, insects and birds and increase the diversity of the woods.  The woods have been managed like this for hundreds of years, but now there is not the same demand for the produce, and we have to pay people to do the work.  There were uses in the past we would not think of today.  For example, in the mid 19th century many sweet chestnuts were planted here, and the chestnuts were supplied to London's bread makers.

This exercise concentrates on the Small-leaved Limes, Tilia cordata.  There are many in these woods, including even a few seedlings, which is rare these days as they need a warmer climate than England can provide.  But once established, they flourish.  Branches that touch the ground can root in, and shoots can come from underground.   They sprout easily from the coppice stools.  Coppicing seems extreme, but does no harm at all to the population, and encourages healthy new growth.

Trees felled during coppicing in Spring Park, 6 November 2013.

The trunk nearest us has been down there for some while.  Those fungi look to me like Sheathed Woodtuft, Kehneromyces mutabilis.

(This seems to be my 500th post in this blog, which surprises me!)

Not Dandelions

Rough Hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus.  High Elms Country Park, 2 June 2013.

 I have posted some flowers that are not Dandelions before.  There are quite a few, including Hawkweeds, Hawkbits and Hawk's-beards, and it can be hard to tell them all apart, specially for non-botanists.  Recently I was looking at some photographs in a London gallery, and there was one set that was supposed to represent the life cycle of a Dandelion; at least one was definitely not a Dandelion, being far too hairy.

Some of them dominate a particular field or area.  At High Elms, there are Rough Hawkbits.  They are generally very hairy, and have sepals that clasp the inflorescence.

Cat's-ear, Hypochaeris radicata.  Spring Park, 5 June 2013.

Cat's-ears can also fill a field.  They do not have hairy stems, but they have little bracts at intervals up the flower-stem.  The bracts around the inflorescence are arranged in helixes, like the Rough Hawkbit, and have a central row of soft prickles.  The tips of the bracts are purple.  (There are other features, but I am describing the ones you can see.)

Beaked Hawk's-beard, Crepis vesicaria.  By Hayes Station car park, 12 June 2013.

This Beaked Hawk's-beard tends to grow at the edges rather than everywhere.  This one is in a crack at the edge of a road.  The sepals are symmetrical rather than spiralled. It is downy rather than hairy, and has an outer ring of sepals that stand out, forming a neat ruff at the base of the flower.  The outer surfaces of the outer florets are usually reddish.

So once you know what to look for, you can tell most of them apart quite easily.  Of course, this is far from the full set, and you sometimes need to see the leaves as well.  Also, some of them flower at different times of year. The true Dandelions have been going for a while, but these three are just at their peak now.

More Pollen

Soldier Beetle, Cantharis rustica, visiting a Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna.  Spring Park, 5 June 2013.

Here's another beetle, also eating pollen.  These are sometimes called Soldier or Sailor Beetles because of their red and black patterning, like an old-fashioned military uniform.  They are good flyers, and you might think the air was full of bees as they move from plant to plant, but when they land you can see what they really are.

The black mark on top of the thorax varies a little in detail between individuals.  It's usually described as triangular, but to me it is more of a heart shape.

Bees and Flowers

Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, in the pond in Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

I was in Spring Park recently and I was pleased to see a good display of Marsh Marigolds in the pond.  It's an artificial pond, lined with rubberised plastic to retain water, fed by one of the springs from the hillside it sits next to.

You can just about see, if you enlarge the photo, a dot on one of the flowers a little right of centre.

Bee on a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, in the pond in Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

It's a bee.  A solitary bee, not a hive-dwelling honey-bee. 

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes, on a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris. Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

In fact it's a female mining bee, so-called because they dig holes in tightly packed earth in which to lay their eggs.  I have shown these bees before, here: Andrena flavipes in Jubilee Country Park and here: Andrena flavipes on Keston Common. The second link shows one of the holes.

This one is a female.  There were males around as well:

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes, on a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris. Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

This one was feeding on a dandelion near the pond.  Their home is a footpath that runs along the base of the wood.  I would have liked to get a photo of one of the bees entering or leaving a hole, but they are extremely wary when they are on the footpath, which is a reasonable response given the number of people and dogs who go along it quite unaware of their presence.  (The people are unaware; I can't vouch for the dogs, but they ignore them.)

Spring flowers and spring insects!  At last.

Diaea dorsata

Spider, Diaea dorsata, female.  Spring Park, 17 November 2012.  Brought back to Hayes for photography.

While we're on spiders, here is a pretty little specimen that one of the Orpington Field Club spotted on a walk in Spring Park.   It's a crab spider, a type that catches prey by lurking on spots they will visit and pouncing when they arrive.

The best known crab spiders wait in flowers, and catch the insects that come for nectar or pollen.   This one waits on tree leaves, typically Oak.  Like some other crab spiders, she can make some changes to her colour.  It takes a few days.  But this mixture of green, yellow and brown should work well in autumn.

Spring Park, Autumn

Spring Park on the morning of 5 September.

A couple of photos of Spring Park at the end of Summer.  I went back the morning after one of our moth-trapping evenings to check the exact location of the traps.

It was cool and bright.  The morning light picked out the hay in the meadow, which had just been mown.  It's managed as a wildflower meadow, so is mown late on, allowing the grasses and flowering plants to spread their seeds.  The hay is later removed, to keep a low level of soil nutrition.  That discourages the larger, rougher plants and grasses.

This path runs along the bottom of the wood parallel to the edge of the field.  That tree is a Sweet Chestnut; there are also big old Hawthorns along this line, and some magnificent Small-leaved Limes.

There are many paths through the wood.

Spring Park on the morning of 5 September.

Speckled Bush-cricket

Speckled Bush-cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima, ovipositing.  Spring Park, 4 September 2012.

Ishpi and I were out in Spring Park woods with Ishpi's moth trap.  Ishpi has the sensible habit of casting around every now and then with a torch, checking trees to see what might be on them, and she spotted this.

It's a female Speckled Bush-cricket.  What looks like a massive stinger on her rear end is an ovipositor, used by the insect to lay her eggs under the tough bark of an oak tree.  This can't be easy.  Oak bark is thick and tough, and this Bush-cricket has found a weak spot.

You are not likely to see this behaviour unless you are in the woods at night with a torch, looking carefully at tree-trunks, so not many people do see it.

A similar British  insect, the Oak Bush-cricket, can also be found in North America, where it is called the Drumming Katydid. 

Spring

Prunus in flower at the edge of the wood.  Spring Park, 18 March 2012.

A small cherry tree in full blossom, another sign that spring is here.

Dragonflies

Broad-bodied chaser, Libellula depressa, by the pond in Spring Park, 3 June 2011.

I saw quite a few dragonflies during the year, but didn't get many photos; they move too fast for me, swooping and circling, though better photographers seem to manage! The dragonfly experts recognise them in flight, from the flash of colour and their behaviour, but I can't do that. However, a few types will rest regularly, and this is what I got.

The first shot is a Broad-bodied Chaser in Spring Park, patrolling around the small pond and occasionally resting on a plant. I posted a photo of this dragonfly earlier: Broad-Bodied Chaser.

Black-tailed skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum, on the ground by the middle lake.  Keston Ponds, 29 June 2011.

This one, a Black-tailed Skimmer at the much larger Keston Ponds, had a similar habit, but rested on the ground. The Chaser had brown eyes, but I really liked the colour of these, a jewel-like dark mottled green.

Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum.  Jubilee Country Park, 31 July 2011.

Finally, later in the summer I saw this one by Ray's Pond in Jubilee Country Park. It chose a tall dead stalk to sit on, and looked over the pond as it rested. The pond is fenced off and I coulnd't get a better angle, but this one does show off its wings very nicely.

The Last of My True Bugs

Bug on Hogweed, Heraclium sphondylium.  Spring Park, 4 July 2011.

These are the last of my true bug photos for now. I was not able to conclusively identify the one above. I think it is either a Potato Capsid or a Potato Mirid, Closterotomus norvegicus or Calocoris norvegicus.

The one below has actually been posted before, but I am including it for the sake of completeness. It's a Tortoise Bug, and to me it looks similar to the shield bugs except for its odd plastic-looking mouthparts. It was in the bushes at the edge of an insect-rich meadow. And below it is another specimen, this one from a hedge in Scadbury Park.

Tortoise bug, Eurygaster testudinaria. Darrick Wood, 22 May 2011.

Tortoise bug, Eurygaster testudinaria.  Scadbury Park, 20 July 2011.

Coney Hall to Spring Park

Dappled sunlight on the path through the woods of Spring Park
29 July 2011.

On Friday there was a walk through some local fields and woods.

There were ten of us, including Stephen Tickner from Bromley, who led the walk. The job titles in the Countryside Service have all been changed during their reorganisation, and Stephen is a Principal Countryside Development Officer.

This walk was planned by Ewa Prokop, who has left, but Stephen did a good job of showing us round. There are still a few of Ewa's walks to come; the events planned in the current leaflet run up to the end of September.

We started at Coney Hall recreation ground and walked past St. John's Church and over the fields. It was hazy, but warm, and the countryside was pleasant and green. We paused at some hedgerows to look at the flowers and insect life. Some of the fields were set to grass, one was full of ripening wheat. At the bottom of the slope we crossed a busy road, called locally the Mad Mile, and went up to Spring Park's pond.

Plant life at the edge of the wood by the pond in Spring Park.
29 July 2011.

It is fenced off and surrounded by tall and scrubby wildflowers, and backs against the wood. I looked for damselflies and dragonflies, but saw only one dragonfly that disappeared up into the trees before I could get close to it. However, there were quite a few Gatekeeper butterflies around.

The second photo shows a typical slice of the plant life between the pond and the wood. You could find something like this anywhere in England. Included here are grasses, some with seed heads; white clover in the foreground; ripening blackberries and many bramble leaves; dock leaves; and some Creeping Thistles, one of which is flowering. To some, this might look like a patch of weeds, but these are all useful plants in their context. A Gatekeeper butterfly is basking on a dock leaf.

During the walk, as well as Gatekeepers, we saw a couple of Meadow Browns, some large and small Whites, and in the woods, a pair of Speckled Browns flying round and round each other, then away into the trees. Not very many for such a warm day, but it was good to see them.

We walked up the slope, through the woodland along abroad main pathway, and then back to the start point.

Sixteen Spot

Sixteen-spot ladybird, Titthaspis sedecimpunctata, on a cat's-ear flower in the meadow in Spring Park, 25 May 2011.
Taken with the EOS 450D and 100mm macro lens.

Cabbage White

Cabbage white butterfly, Pieris brassicae, sometimes called the Large White, feeding on bramble flowers
in the lower edge of the woods in Spring Park, 25 May 2011.

Broad-Bodied Chaser

Dragonfly, the broad-bodied chaser, Libellua depressa.  Male.
At the pond in Spring Park, resting on reed mace, 25 May 2011.

There were two of these large dragonflies patrolling the pond. They would not allow any sort of close approach until I was able to get near under the part cover of the clump of reed mace leaves this one was perched on.

The small pond is shown below. The reed mace is on the left. It is choked with mare's-tail, Hippuris vulgaris, which was introduced by accident.

View of the pond in Spring Park, 25 May 2011.

Fat Green Thighs

Oedemera nobilis male on a buttercup beside the pond in Spring Park, 25 May 2011.

Below is a photo of this beetle from above, showing the shape of those thighs, properly called femora. They are only like this in the male.

I am getting more interesting results now with my EOS 450D and macro lens. I could have taken a photo like the second one with my Ixus 100; perhaps even a better one. But this one above is something else, and reveals much more about the creature; its hairiness, the details of its iridescence.

Such a photo is only possible if an insect will sit still, or nearly still, and let me get up close. Some will not. Butterflies and dragonflies shoot off as I approach.

Oedemera nobilis male on ox-eye daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare.  Hayes Common, 21 May 2011.

Bluebell and Bumblebee

Bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum, on a common bluebell in Spring Park, West Wickham.  22 April 2011.

Bluebells

Common (English) bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta; the native species. Spring Park, 16 April 2011.
Used to be named Endymion non-scriptum.

Detail of a common bluebell. Spring Park, 16 April 2011.

Spanish bluebell hybrid, the invader species.  Hayes, 15 April 2011.

Spring Park Lumps

Coppiced hazel, last cut 4 winters ago, and standard oaks in Spring Park.

Barry Gutteridge, the senior City Commons warden, led a stroll through the park advertised as "Lumps and Bumps," though actually there were very few of these; it was really about being able to interpret our surroundings to understand the history and uses of the park.

Spring Park is in two sections. The hillside section is wooded, 35 acres, and between the hill and the road are 15 acres of meadow. Both the woods and the meadow extend beyond the park into areas which are the responsibility of local councils. Some of the Council-managed areas are used for recreation, some are managed as natural areas. All, including Spring Park, are popular with the locals, particularly dog walkers.

Oak catkins in Spring Park.  22 April 2011.

Although this is an ancient woodland, full of species that you will not see in younger woodlands, the whole area is managed and cropped, and no doubt has been for as long as mankind has lived here. The photo at the top is a good example. This path leads through coppiced hazel and standard oaks; both are crops. The hazel is cut back to ground level every 10 years. It is not cut all at once. The cuts are cycled in patches through the woods. This gives a variety of types of habitat, ranging from open glades to tall scrub, which promotes a rich variety of wildlife.

In the past, hazel would have been used for charcoal. The tall oaks scattered through the woods — 40 per acre — were also a crop, and would have been used in ship and house construction. They would have been harvested at about the size these are now, or a bit sooner.

Woodland management of this sort was neglected before 1987, but the hurricane-strength winds that blew down so many trees made it essential to do something; the woods were closed to the public all that winter until dangerous areas could be cleared. And it was decided then to re-start coppice management.

A bank and ditch at the border of Spring Park, with small-leaved limes.

There are also sweet chestnut trees in the woods, which are coppiced on a 16-year cycle. It is possible to coppice oaks, perhaps on a 50-year cycle, but that was not done here, though there are some coppiced oaks in Sparrow Wood a few miles away.

A number of other trees are scattered through the woods. There are some old yews, and some newer incomers like cherries, white beam, rowan and silver birch, which add pleasantly to the diversity of the area.

Small-leaved limes are well embedded here. This is a scarce tree (in nature) and a good sign of an ancient woodland. They need very warm summers to produce seeds, so seedlings are rare; Barry knows of only three in this wood. Luckily for the species, they are very good at producing suckers and will also regrow from the base if the original trunk dies back, rather like a natural coppice.

Seedling of a small-leaved lime in Spring Park.  22 April 2011

The only real "bump" we saw was a bank and ditch planted with small-leaved lime coppices and pollards (where the trunk is cut at about head height). It is by no means obvious unless you know what to look for, and you certainly can't tell that it probably dates back to at least 1600 CE. That requires research.

It runs down the hill at the border between Bromley and Croydon councils, probably at one time the border of Kent and Surrey. These trees were all pollards before 1987, but when some were blown down they were cut back and have regrown from ground level. Small-leaved limes were harvested for use in rope-making.

I saw many splendid flowers in the woods. There are thousands of bluebells just reaching their peak, as well as areas of lesser celandine and wood anemone, almost finished flowering. There was some herb Robert, and many yellow archangels, which like the bluebells are a good sign of an ancient woodland. These are spreading well in newly coppiced areas. Also flowering along the paths and at the margins were white dead-nettle, greater stitchwort, cow parsley, buttercups and dandelions. Among the trees, the oaks were covered with catkins, and there were masses of creamy flowers on the rowans.

Photograph of Spring Park and surroundings taken by the Luftwaffe in 1942. Click on it to see it enlarged.

Spring Park woods and meadow are the areas in the centre of this photo, which Barry showed us. The woods were less densely canopied than they are today, after another 70 years of growth on the oak trees. You can see that the meadow is cultivated. It was used to grow crops to help the war effort. There is no sign of that today.

You can see a few dark dots bisecting the meadow top to bottom. That is the line of an old hedgerow, which the rangers plan to reinstate this coming winter, with a pleasant mix of hawthorns, blackthorns, hazel and spindle — all local hedgerow species.

As you can see, this was a very interesting and informative walk, and lots of questions were asked and answered. The City of London has a web page on Spring Park here: Spring Park.

Barry Gutteridge pointing out a pollarded small-leaved lime to the group. Spring Park, 22 April 2011.