Showing posts with label botany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label botany. Show all posts

Monday 16 July 2018

Salisbury Wildlife and the Avon Valley Nature Reserve

Visiting Salisbury


I recently had the pleasure of visiting the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire for a few days and fell in love with the place. I was happy to see that wildlife is thriving here, despite increasing declines in species throughout much of the UK.


Cinnabar Moth caterpillars (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Even in the heart of the city I spotted Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillars on Ragwort. There were plenty of these brightly-coloured caterpillars on plants growing on the riverbank right by the Waitrose supermarket. These larvae have orange bodies, banded with black rings. The adult moth is also a very pretty creature with red and black wings. It flies by day and could easily be thought to be a butterfly. This moths caterpillars eat various species of Ragwort and Groundsel (Senecio species). Although these plants are classed as weeds they are very important sources of life for many additional species, in addition to the caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth. The Buglife charity, which is concerned with the conservation of invertebrates, has reported that over 30 other species of insect depend on Ragwort alone.




Avon Valley Local Nature Reserve

King Arthur Pendragon, Kazz and Chris Stone (Photo: Steve Andrews)


I was in Britain for Summer Solstice at Stonehenge and also visiting my friends, author Chris Stone, and Druid and eco-warrior King Arthur Pendragon and his partner Kazz. Arthur and Kazz live locally and they suggested we could go on a walk in the nature reserve that is on the banks of the River Avon. I love nature, so was happy to agree to their suggestion, and was very highly impressed with what I saw.


River Avon (Photo: Steve Andrews)


The River Avon looked really clean and there were very many fish that could easily be seen swimming in the current. I spotted Brown Trout (Salmo trutta), Minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus), and what looked like Dace (Leuciscus leuciscus).

A Shoal of Fish (Photo: Steve Andrews)


Meadowsweet (Photo: Steve Andrews)


There are extensive water meadows bordering the river too, and in the marshy ground was plenty of Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) in bloom. It has a most amazing perfume that reminds of summer meadows and freshly mown grass, and is a most beautiful herb that is actually in the rose family (Rosaceae).



As well as Meadowsweet, there  were plenty of Creeping Thistles (Cirsium arvense) in flower, and also the very poisonous, but attractive to insect pollinators, Hemlock Water Dropwort (Oenanthe crocata). Kazz spotted a colourful moth feeding on the nectar from this dangerous plant, and she asked me what it was. It was a Scarlet Tiger Moth (Callimorpha dominula), a pretty moth that flies by day, and is of interest because it is unusual for being able to feed. Most other species of tiger moths have no mouth-parts and do all their feeding as larvae.

Scarlet Tiger Moth (Photo: Steve Andrews)


On the thistles I saw several Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) butterflies. This was a good sign because this once common species has been declining fast in the UK over the past few years. There were plenty of clumps of Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) growing nearby, and this is its main food-plant for its caterpillars.


Small Tortoiseshell on Thistle (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Water Voles 

Avon Valley Info Board (Photo: Steve Andrews)


Near a bridge over the Avon there was an information board showing species of wildlife that can be found on the reserve. I was happy to see the Water Vole (Arvicola amphibious) included. This is a British mammal that has become increasingly rare, so it was very good news to see that it is holding its own here. Kingfishers (Alcedo atthis) too frequent the area I learned, and I was not surprised, because it is an ideal habitat with plenty of small fish they can hunt.




Elsewhere in Salisbury

Steve Andrews in Salisbury

 I also went for an evening stroll with Chris around Salisbury and around the area outside Salisbury Cathedral. The atmosphere was calm and peaceful and it was a glorious summer evening. I was really impressed with how there was no litter to be seen, no graffiti, and no damage to trees of the city, unlike elsewhere in the UK, where trees are being felled with the support of local councils. How is it that Salisbury doesn’t appear to have the problems other towns and cities have I wondered? “I would love to live in Salisbury,” I told Chris. “I think you will find properties here are very expensive,” he told me. He also pointed out that Salisbury is a Tory stronghold, and suggested that might have something to do with how it is there. He was right that houses and flats in the city are very expensive to buy and rent, and also that the Conservative party is in power there.

In no way do I support the Tories, but it got me thinking about how it seems that it is mostly Labour councils that are behind the destruction of so many city trees in Britain. For example, this is the case in Sheffield, a city that has made world news with regard to the thousands of trees that have been felled there by Amey Plc with the support of Labour politicians. I haven’t done the research yet but I wonder how many cities have lost their street trees due to corrupt Labour councillors?

Tuesday 22 May 2018

The Pride of Madeira

A Bugloss known as Pride of Madeira

Pride of Madeira in Sintra (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The Pride of Madeira is the common name for a spectacular looking shrub in the Echium genus of plants, many species of which are known as types of Viper’s Bugloss or “Taginaste” in Spain. Known to botanists as Echium candicans, the Pride of Madeira comes, as its name suggests, from Madeira, but it is often grown in gardens and parks throughout Iberia and in many other parts of the world. Its popularity is hardly surprising because it forms a very large bush that is covered in spring and early summer in magnificent flowering spikes of purplish-blue flowers with red stamens. The Pride of Madeira will definitely catch your eye and is very attractive to bees and other pollinating insects too, as are the other species in the Echium genus.


Red Bugloss or Mt Teide Bugloss

Red Bugloss on Tenerife (Photo: Pixabay/Public Domain)


The Canary Islands are home to very many endemic types of Echium and the Mt Teide Bugloss or Red Bugloss (E. wildpretti) is a plant symbolic of Tenerife where it grows high on the mountain it is named after. This unusual plant is a biennial that produces a large rosette of leaves in its first year which is followed by a tall flowering spike in its second year. The tiny flowers are a pinkish-red but there are many thousands of them and its flower spikes can grow to as much as three metres in height. They stand out like weird red wands above the otherworldly and barren terrain on Mt Teide, which is the highest mountain, not only in Tenerife but in all of Spain.

The Red Bugloss is a very rare plant in the wild, and only found on Mt Teide and around the village of Vilaflor which is also high in the Tenerife mountains. The plant has evolved to be adapted to the cold nights and bright sunlight by day of the habitats it is found in, though it is also grown at lower levels of the island in parks and gardens. Because of its tall flowering spikes it is one of the bugloss species often called “Tower of Jewels.”


Giant Viper's Bugloss


The Giant Viper’s Bugloss or Tree Echium (E. pininana) is the best-known Tower of Jewels bugloss. It reaches four metres in height in good conditions, and like the Mt Teide Bugloss is very rare in the wild. It is only found in the laurel forested mountains of La Palma in the Canary Islands, however, it has been commonly grown for some years as an unusual garden flower in the UK and Ireland, where sometimes it gets featured in news stories because it grows so tall.

Wild Viper’s Bugloss species found in Iberia

Viper's Bugloss (Photo: Pixabay)


There are many types of Echium found growing in the countryside of Iberia, including the type species Viper’s Bugloss (E. vulgare), which is found throughout Europe and has become naturalised in North America. It has pinkish flowers which turn rapidly blue and it is also known as Blueweed. It likes to grow in sand dunes and waste places but will often do better in cultivation in the garden where it will get larger. The Viper’s Bugloss, by the way, takes its name from the tiny forked nutlets that it produces that were thought to resemble the heads of snakes, and because it was once regarded as an antidote for the bite of an adder. The herbalist Coles tells us in his Art of Simples: 'Viper's Bugloss hath its stalks all to be speckled like a snake or viper, and is a most singular remedy against poyson and the sting of scorpions.”

One species of Echium that is very common, not only in Iberia but elsewhere in the world is known as Patterson’s Curse (E. plantagineum). Its name gives a clue to how it has become regarded, because although this small species looks pretty when it creates a small sea of purple flowers, it is an invasive weed of arable land that spreads rapidly. Isn’t it interesting to consider how some bugloss types are very rare plants while others are common weeds?

Grow a Tower of Jewels and Feed the Bees and Butterflies


Most species of Echium have a lot of nectar-filled flowers making them very attractive, not only to our eyes, but, as already noted, to bees and pollinating insects. Butterflies too love to find their food in the flowers of a Tower of Jewels. It is easy to find seeds of the various species that are easy to grow in our gardens by searching on the Internet for “Echium seeds” or “Tower of Jewels seeds”.

Growing these amazing plants can not only really beautify our gardens but be a real help to the bees and pollinators that are often struggling in the world today. Cultivating a Viper’s Bugloss provides eye candy and aids conservation!

NB: Text originally published in Mediterranean Gardening and OutDoor Living magazine, Issue 25, May 2016.

Tuesday 18 April 2017

Why are Portugal's Pines and Palms Dying?

Portugal’s Palm and Pine Trees are under attack
Dead Pine (Photo: Steve Andrews)

As you travel around in Portugal you can’t hope but notice the dead palms and dead and dying pine trees, but what is causing this disaster? It is a combination of drought, disease, and in the case of the pines, because of a tiny nematode worm and species of beetles that transport it. The pines and palms of Portugal are under attack. Let’s take a look at the two problems, starting with the pines.


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Male Pine Wilt Nematode (Photo: A. Steven Munson, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org)


Pine trees, which are a very common tree in the forests of Portugal, are under threat from a very tiny worm known as the pine wilt nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), which causes “pine wilt,” as well as from a fungus known to science as Fusarium circinatum, which causes pitch canker disease. The worm’s name is often abbreviated to the letters PWN.


The nematode worms are spread to healthy trees by bark beetles and wood borer beetles that have become infested with the worms in a dead and decaying tree. After a tree is infected the needles become brown and the tree can die within a matter of months. The early stage of this nematode does not feed directly on the pinewood but on fungi in the decaying wood. Once the worm is in a healthy tree it feeds within the resin canals and spreads throughout the roots, trunk and branches. It reproduces rapidly in summer. It first caused terrible and noticeable tree loss in Japan in 1905, but is found in and has spread in many other parts of the world, including America, Canada, Mexico, China and Korea. In Europe it has become a problem in Portugal, and there are serious concerns that it could spread to other countries, including the UK, where it would be a threat to the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).


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Monochamus galloprovincialis (Photo: Siga)


In Europe, the pine wilt nematode is known to be spread by the Timberman Beetle (Monochamus galloprovincialis). In Japan the epidemics have been particularly bad in hot, dry summers, and the problem appears to be spreading in drought conditions experienced in Portugal. Drought weakens the trees and they become prone to attack by beetles.


I have become alerted to the pine wood nematode by witnessing the dead and dying pines near where I live in the Quinta do Conde area. The authorities here are chopping the trees down and then cutting up the trunks in an effort to deal with this threat to the forests. The wood can be fumigated or kiln-dried to kill the worms and beetles or it can be burned or chipped.

Infected pines (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Some species of pine appear to be more resistant to attacks by PWN than others. This can be seen in forests where there are stands of dead trees and others surviving.


Red Palm Weevil

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Destroyed Palm Crown (Photo: Kuchenkraut)


The threat to the palms of Portugal, and to those in many other countries around the world, is being caused by an insect known as the Red Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). The grub of this weevil eats the crown of the tree and burrows into the palm trunks making a long tunnel and killing its host as it does so. The adult insects are quite attractive and large, reaching a size of between 2 and 4cm.


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Red Palm Weevil (Photo: Luigi Barraco)


The females lay their eggs on palms, especially in the crowns, and on recently pruned leaf scars and in lesions in the trunks. They can lay as many as 500 in total and an infestation of these weevil larvae will kill the host palm. After eating their fill the grubs pupate in a cocoon they weave of palm fibres and usually make in leaf litter.

The insects attack many species of palm, although a favourite for this weevil is the Canary Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis), a very popular ornamental palm that is frequently planted in gardens, parks and in city streets and squares. The Date Palm (P. dactylifera) is also a victim of this pest. Fortunately the Washingtonia palms seem to be resistant to attacks by the insect. The weevils can fly and this is how they invade new territory but they can also be transported in infested palms.


In Portugal, most of damage caused by Red Palm Weevils has taken place in the Algarve and south of the country, but over the years this insect pest has spread to other parts as well. In the heart of Lisbon you will see what’s left of palms that have been killed by the Red Palm Weevil.


In some parts of the world, including Borneo, Vietnam and Indonesia, the grubs are regarded as a delicacy, and are eaten alive or cooked. In countries, like Spain and Portugal, they are a very serious problem that are destroying ornamental palms.



There are various ways of treating infested palms, and insecticides injected into the trunk is a method that has often been used. It is possible to save palms under attack by these insects but often the damage has become to severe and a very beautiful tree will die and get removed.

Both palms and pines add to the beauty of Portugal and it would be tragic if they were lost from many parts of the country.

Tuesday 4 April 2017

Great Crested Newts in Heath Park Pond and the Flora and Fauna of Heath Park

Heath Park is a wonderful nature conservation area

Heath Park Second Pond (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Heath Park in Cardiff is a wonderful area for nature conservation and is home to a colony of the rare great crested newt (Triturus cristatus). The amphibians breed in the pond there that has been in the park for very many years.

Great Crested Newts

Those responsible for the park and pond’s upkeep have very wisely left dead tree-trunks around the edges of the pool and in the woodland that surrounds it.

Habitat created for Great Crested Newts (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Water plants, such as watercress (Nasturtium officinale) are enclosed in mesh so that they are protected and this creates a wonderful area for the newts to lay their eggs in and to hide. Great crested newt females wrap their eggs in the leaves of aquatic vegetation, as do other species of newt.

Aquatic plants (Photo: Steve Andrews)

An information board gives a lot of information about the great crested newt, including how far it travels away from water. The much smaller palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) also breeds in Heath Park Pond. This comes as no surprise to me because I used to have a girlfriend many years ago, who lived in the nearby King George V Drive that circles Heath Park, and these far commoner newts could be found in the garden pool of the house where she lived. On the info board, there are illustrations and notes about the other interesting species of wildlife that can be seen in the pond. The common frog (Rana temporia) is another amphibian that breeds here.

Info board (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Aquatic insects that use the Heath park Pond include the great diving beetle (Dytiscus marginalis), the water boatman (Notonecta glauca) and dragonfly and damselfly species. The great diving beetle and its larva hunt tadpoles, small newts, fish and worms. The larvae have large mandibles with which they grab their prey as they suck out the life-blood. Both adults and larvae will bite. The adult beetles fly by night to look for suitable stretches of freshwater. The water boatman or backswimmer can also fly. It is a predatory bug that feeds on mosquito larvae and other small water creatures. It gets its name from its habit of swimming upside down and using its legs as paddles to propel it through the water.

Alien and invasive species

Parrot's Feather

The information board includes a warning and request: the public are asked not to release species that are non-native and alien to this country. An example being species of terrapin that can be a danger to British wildlife. The species of water milfoil known as parrot’s feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) is mentioned as an example of an invasive species, and it is pointed out that this particular plant caused a problem at Heath Park Pond where it grew abundantly and had to be carefully removed. It is a threat to British species because it grows so well that it displaces native plants.

Elsewhere in Heath Park

Elsewhere in Heath Park they have constructed a second pond near the golfing area. The information board explains that great crested newts do best in places where there are more than one pond, so that if one pond dries up in hot weather, for example, the amphibians can still breed in another. I don’t know if any newts are using it but it is certainly big enough and there were two mallard drakes swimming around on it.

Walking a dog to Heath Park Main Pond

There is quite a lot of woodland and areas which were once rough ground and scrub have been allowed to grow into thickets of small trees and bushes. There are plenty of great places for birds and other wildlife to live in the park. It is reported that the green woodpecker (Picus viridis) lives in this woodland, and I wouldn't be at all surprised because it is a great place for them.

Paths help you enjoy walking around the woodland and many people take their dogs for walks in Heath Park.

In the grassland and extensive lawns of Heath Park there are extensive colonies of lady’s smock or cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis), which takes its name from its habit of flowering around the time when the first cuckoos could be expected to arrive in the UK.

Cuckoo Flowers (Photo: Steve Andrews)

It is of especial interest, and a useful plant when it comes to wildlife conservation, because it is one of the main food plants of the caterpillar of the orange tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines). This pretty species, with orange tips on the forewings of the males, has been increasing again in numbers in some parts of Britain, so anywhere that plants that its larvae feed on grow, is going to be helpful in ensuring this butterfly’s survival. The cuckoo flower used to be gathered as a substitute for watercress, and like the latter plant it likes to grow near water.

The abundance of lady’s smock plants in the park, as well as the natural woodland, and the obvious great attention that had been paid to making the ponds a suitable habitat for great crested newts and other aquatic wildlife, made me feel that Heath Park is one of the best parks in Cardiff for nature conservation.

Thursday 23 February 2017

The Season for Newts

Newts at Fairwater Park aka "The Dell."


Great Crested Newt male (Photo: Public Domain)

When I was a boy, as well as tropical fish, stick insects and exotic silk moths I kept as pets, I also used to keep newts. In spring, which was the season for newts, I used to catch them in a large pond in a local park, which was called Fairwater Park, but was referred to by me and my friends as “The Dell.” I always used to wear my Wellingtons for trips to this park and carry a bucket with me, into which I put whatever I caught.

Melissa Houghton taking photos at Fairwater Park pond (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The pond in Fairwater Park was very untended by humans and had large masses of grass growing in it and around the edges, it had willow trees and bushes, and brambles coming right down to the water in some parts. It was wild and how it should be! It had large clumps of bulrushes and much of the water surface was covered in floating leaves of amphibious persicary, broad-leaved pondweed and duckweed.  The pond was basically full of aquatic vegetation with very little open water. It had plenty of brown stinking mud and would ooze methane bubbles when you stepped in it.

Nepa cinerea the Water Scorpion (Photo: Public Domain)

Many species of aquatic life lived in this pond. There were ramshorn snails, water scorpions, water mites, water bugs and diving beetles, pond-skaters, water measurers and water crickets, caddis fly larvae in their cases made from broken bits of vegetation and water snail shells, and medicinal leeches that can suck your blood.



These leeches, by the way, are now a very rare species in Britain. I am pretty sure, without checking current statistics, that many of the other species I have listed have drastically declined in numbers too.


But getting back to Fairwater Park pond, as it once was, it was an ideal habitat for newts. All three species found in Britain bred there. You could find common newts, palmate newts and great crested newts, which last-named species is now endangered, and often gets in news stories because it has been found somewhere that was scheduled for development.   
I used to catch newts, mainly by hand. I would part the weeds, spot a newt and swiftly grab it. I took my captures home and kept them in aquariums I had set up for them. In those days, you could legally catch and keep these amphibians, but this is not the case now, and for good reasons, because there are a lot less newts around now, when compared to the numbers in the UK when I was a boy.


What I loved about newts was their amazing colours. The male common and great crested newts have high frilly crests and underneath their bodies they have orange bellies spotted with black. Palmate newt males have dark webbing on their hind feet that can grow so much that it looks like they have squares of skin around their toes. They also have tiny thin filaments sticking out the end of their tails. I really don’t know why. Female palmate newts look very like female common newts but there is a difference, though it is hard to explain. The female palmates are an olive-brown or dark brown with pale bellies. The common newt females are a different shade of brown and slightly more colourful underneath. Newts have little hands and cute sparkling eyes. They have to swim up to the surface every now and then to take a gulp of air. They are fascinating to watch. The females have no crests and are not colourful like the males, but they have their own charm. They lay their eggs in water plants, carefully wrapping each egg in a leaf.  

Common Newt tadpole (Photo: Charlesjsharp)

I used to enjoy keeping the newt tadpoles too and watching them grow bigger and bigger, and losing their gills to become miniature newts that could leave the water, just like their parents could do. I used to feed my adult newts mostly on very small earthworms and the newt tadpoles fed on daphnia, which are tiny crustaceans, also known as water fleas.

Nodding Burr-marigold (Photo: Public Domain)

Sometimes I found sick newts in the pond. Sometimes they had seeds of the spiky burr-marigold embedded in their mouths. I could sometimes help the newt by prying the seed out but not always. Also some newts had dropsy and their bodies became very swollen so they could not swim properly. They would sadly die but there were plenty more healthy ones.
It used to sadden me, though, seeing what some boys used to do. They would catch great crested newts, which they incorrectly called salamanders, and put them on the grass where they would take turns in throwing knives at the poor amphibians. These boys took pleasure in the suffering they caused the newts and it made me sad but I was too scared to stop them because I knew they would beat me up. I didn’t like a lot of boys. I found them violent and destructive. I much preferred being out in nature on my own or with a few good friends I trusted. Boys I didn’t know, and many boys I did know, I began seeing as a source of potential danger to be avoided. This was to go into my ideas about male humans, so I grew up thinking men and boys were more dangerous than women and girls.



But getting back to the newts, it was many years later and I was in my late teens but still living at home.  I had seen an advert for the Cardiff Naturalists Trust and thought it would be a good idea to get in touch with these people to tell them about the great crested newts, which I knew were very rare. Incidentally, my good friend and fellow author C.J. Stone has also told this story. Anyway, I wrote a letter and sent it to the address of the organisation, and in due course, I received a reply from someone who was in charge, thanking me for my information but saying he had done a “preliminary pond dip” but had found no evidence of great crested newts in the pond, as I had described. He asked if it would be OK if he called on me so I should show him some of these newts and asked me to catch a few. I agreed to this and caught some great crested newts and put them in a bucket. When the man and his wife called at my parents’ house I was all ready to show them I was correct. The man in charge of the Cardiff Naturalists group was amazed but could see for himself that I had some specimens of this species. He asked if we could go up to the pond so I could show him how I caught them. I put my boots on and off we set in his car. When we got to the pond I waded slowly into the water, parted some of the floating grasses and weeds, spotted a newt and grabbed it. “Got one,” I said, as I put the newt into my bucket. “And another,” I added as I caught one more. Within about 10 minutes I had managed to catch several great crested newts and showed the man from the naturalists group how I did it. He was impressed and thanked me again, saying he would see to it that some work was done to make sure the pond was a safe habitat for this rare species of amphibian in future. I was glad I had got in touch with the Cardiff Naturalists and felt proud of my efforts. My attitude was to change drastically though many weeks later when I saw what had been done to the pond in The Dell. Large masses of weeds and grass had been dredged out and thrown on the banks, big spaces of open water had been created, and marginal vegetation had been cut back or destroyed. The pond was no longer wild, like Mother Nature intended. It had been cleaned up and made to fit what people thought it should be like. People like big spaces of water but newts don’t because they can easily be seen by predators.

They like weedy ponds where they can hunt, look for mates, and lay their eggs. I regretted my part in having alerted the local organisation to this, and have carried that regret onward because there were never anywhere near as many newts there after that. In the years that followed further work was done at the pond. Water lilies were planted, a big space of open water was kept that way, a wooden landing stage was erected, so people could look out over the pond more easily, and the grass and plants that grew around the edges were often cut back. Now admittedly the pond looked a lot nicer, more like a pond you might have in a painting or on a postcard perhaps, but a lot of wildlife stayed away, apart from some ducks.

Ducks at The Dell (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Footnote: The above article is taken from an unfinished book of memoirs I started writing. Fortunately in many ways, due to the economic crisis and government cuts, the pond is not being tended to any more and vegetation has returned all around it and in it, as you can see in my photos, which were taken in 2015.