Riverhill Himalayan Gardens

The two specimen of the Chinese White Limes or Oliver's Limes, Tilia oliveri Szysz., on the east end of the front terrace are looking a bit tatty really, although on the plus side, the Mistletoe plants do love them - perhaps a Mistle-Thrush or two might be involved.

From above, the sub-cordate leaves looked a rather acidic lemony yellow rather than a dark green, while from below a very uniform whitish or light grey colour is produced presumably by the tomentum (stellate-downy). The base of the leaves is quite unequal, looking as though the leaf is set upon the petiole at an angle. Things I did notice were the (glabrous) smooth glossiness of the young shoots, and the quite long petioles. I didn't notice the colour of the bark.

The plants originate from moist forest in NW. Hupeh, in Central China, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 metres altitude.

Hilliers describe it as: "Medium Tree. This is an elegant domed -shaped tree, leaves dark green above and silver-white beneath. Very pretty in wind. It has silver-grey bark which is clear and smooth. This tree is clear of aphids.". There is also an excellent article in "Trees and Shrubs Online".

It is listed as fairly narcotic to bees.

Westgate Park

There is this lovely Mongolian Lime on the city side of the river in among the collection of other ornamental trees.

It is said to be a relatively small lime with great autumn colour according to the books, with several cultivars available in the trade. It grows quite slowly at first, however the TROBI champion in Yorkshire is about 20 m high, twice the height mentioned in many catalogues (not Burncoose). The smaller branches are quite densely packed and the overall shape of the tree is rounded or oval. The mature leaves resemble (to me) birches from their shape, colour and texture all together, while the young leaves emerge bronze, reportedly quite attractive. It flowers quite early, and is said to be bee-attractive. However it may not be attractive to aphids, and may be honeydew free.

The yellow autumn colour is really good, and has therefore been used in the hybrid with the small-leaved lime, 'Autumn Harvest'.

It was discovered by Pere David in 1864 and brought to Europe in the late 19th century, seed being sent to Paris in 1880,  and the Arnold Arboretum in 1882 and is now grown in quite a few situations. Its native habitat is in Mongolia, Eastern Russia and Northern China, at about 1,000 m, the altitude of Snowdon. It is an extremely cold-hardy tree, tolerating minus 20 C.

Alders at Leybourne

I found what appears to be a third Grey Alder at Leybourne Lakes today, planted to the south side of the Round Pond.

The bark was a lovely shade of grey, although confused with various lichens.

Botanising in Blean Village

This is a sort of revision for the practical walk we did earlier in the evening.

For example we looked a a couple of sedges. The first was the fairly common Hairy Sedge, Carex hirta, and the second was Grey Sedge, Carex divulsa,

Hairy Sedge, Carex hirta, has long sparse hairs on the edges

The Grey Sedge, Carex divulsa, was found in a hedge bottom along the pavement, on the way back close to the village hall. This has long narrow droopy dark green leaves in loose (dense, surely??) tussocks of many stems. The inflorescence is spaced out small clumps of nutlets, with a thin needle-like bract, which is shorter than the inflorescence as a whole.

Lichen on the Blean

It seemed to be quite a coincidence that I stopped to take a photo of a fairly obvious lichen that proved to be one of the key species noted in the area, Thelotrema lepadinum. There are about 20 official records in TR on the NBN database, all in The Blean or down towards Mersham.

It has an unusual appearance as the apothecial bounday membrane is separated from the thallus wall, and appears as a papery membrane inside the throat of the volcano-like apothecia. It is regarded in East Kent as an indicator of an ancient woodland site - possibly. There are no records from West Kent at present. It is much commoner in the north and west of the UK.

The above photo was taken from quite a large well-established patch.

Here is a newer patch appearing on a fairly smooth-barked tree:

Lichens on trees at Yalding Fen

Had a lovely day with the Ash Project and Ishpi Blatchley looking at lichens on trees, particularly Ash Trees, wood and other substrates.

This is one of the common bark lichens we found, Parmelia sulcata, with its exuberant soralia developed from pseudocyphellae obviously in the centre of the thallus, its lovely grey lobes, brown to black on the undersurface.

This I think is a Physcia species, with the narrow lobes, in this case growing on wood, the hand-rail of a footbridge between the central pond and the marsh with the duckboard path. I think it is quite likely to be Physcia tenella, but I couldn't see any developed apothecia, or indeed any of the tiny black spots or pycnidia that you often see in pictures. The cilia on the edges of the lobes are quite visible, so it could perhaps be P. adscencens or P. tenella.

In the more established part of the lichen, the soredia make it look much more fuzzy.

This is an interesting photo of another section of the bridge timbers, with a grey foliose lichen with pseudocyphellae on the lobe to the bottom left of the photo. There are also some tiny black pimples on a surface in front, on the other section of timber.

Here are three different lichens on the top surface of the main bridge timber rail:

Evernia prunastri on an oak or willow perhaps

Usnea?

Grey lichen with black jam tart apothecia, perhaps Lecidella elaeochroma (Ach.) M.Choisy, slightly overgrown by a Physcia species, and with some limited black margins to be seen.

This is the white paint lichen, Phlyctis argena, on one of the trees along the driveway into Great Comp garden. In this instance I couldn't see see soredia (the usual description is soredia abundant or rare) or any apothecia (usual description is rare, but if found they should be dark grey, pruinose, with large muriform spores).

Fieldfare in the garden

We were so pleased to see a Fieldfare in the snow in the garden today (probably the same one more briefly yesterday afternoon). I hoped that it was attracted by the newly planted Crab Apple, and sure enough it spent some time feeding on the crabs on the tree itself. Paula took a photo with the iphone, and I followed up with a few of my own. Fieldfares are very dramatic thrushes, and I was also very pleased to see over a score scattered across the College grounds, but particularly on the banks of the ditch along the main drive. Make the most of it while its there I thought!

All plumped up...

The Fieldfare, Turdus pilaris, is a common winter visitor to the UK, one which I always absolutely delighted to see, and of course to hear. Perhaps a couple of pairs breed in the UK.

They do have a bit of a reputation of being driven into gardens in hard weather, feasting off crab or domestic apples and whatever they can find. Today was no exception, Twitter containing many similar experiences to our own. I must get some apples to put out! Meanwhile this particular bird has found my crab apple fruits.

I have come across one (only one) website that suggests that the female is a little duller. The juveniles are duller, without the grey head, but I assume they will have moulted before arrival in the UK I think.

About three quarters of a million migrate over to us each winter, starting in September but continuing until November at least.

25 cm long, wingspan about 40 cm, so quite a large thrush, nearly the size of a Mistle Thrush.

When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter. When foraging on the ground, often in association with Redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding. When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere.

When berries ripen in the autumn these are taken in great number. Hawthorn, holly, rowan, yew, juniper, dog rose, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha and Berberis are all relished. Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten