False Brome, along the tracks of Dene Park.

False Brome, Brachypodium sylvaticum appears to be quite well distributed across the woodland tracks and paths.

While at first not very sure of it, I was eventually very happy with the identification. It was in the early flowering stage. I could see the spikelets quite round in cross-section, elongated and around 2 cm long. Each spikelet had a very short stalk indeed. The awns were about the same length as the individual flowers, more obvious when I spread the spikelet out.

The nodes and stems were softly hairy, the leaves were bristly (scaberulous, slightly rough to the touch), particularly the underside when rubbed towards the base. They were quite broad but narrowed obviously towards the sheath junction. The ligule was blunt and raggedy, a few mm long. A bright green is how I would describe the leaves, but in the image above it looks relatively glaucous. 

Flowering is stated to be late June onwards. Soils ideally calcareous, not very fertile, well drained. These characteristics seem to fit fairly well.  

  

Wood Melick in the Scambles of Dene Park

The Wood Melick grass or Melica uniflora is found in just one area in these woods as far as I know, in the Scambles, not too far from one of the Bourne tributary streams. The soil here seems drier and less clay-rich than other parts of the wood.

It would be useful to tie this down, particularly as this is a new record. It is a very beautiful plant with its nodding brown rice-shaped heads on the ends of the pedicels(?).

Generally thought to prefer poorer soils, it is usually found in discrete patches suggesting most propagation is via the rhizomes as opposed to seed.

The following day I found a few plants of viviparous Cocksfoot by the dog bin, in the central triangle of grass. Here the flower parts develop instead into leaves. I have never seen this before.

Dene Park still muddy - Enchanter's Nightshade

The Enchanter's Nightshade, Circaea lutetiana, is in full flower along the tracksides at the moment. This is a very common woodland plant throughout the UK except the north of Scotland. There is also an Alpine species found in upland woodlands. 

Apparently a traditional wound treatment. The Latin name is after Circe the Goddess of Magic, known for her knowledge of herbal medicine, and lutetiana referring to Paris or the botanists of Paris.

The delicate two-petalled whitish flowers are well spaced within each raceme. The flower stalk and the sepals are covered in long hairs.

Spreads by long thin vegetative stolons, as well as the fruiting burrs. Here is a picture of one of the typical patches of heart-shaped leaves topped by the tiny groups of flowers.

Solitary bees at Capel

 

On a full flowering Blackthorn on a walk around Capel, I found a few solitary bees. There was a drone fly as well, but I didn't ID that.

Here is the female bee, which might tentatively be identified as Andrena dorsata on the basis of the limited narrow hair fringes on the abdomen, the tawny hairs on the thorax - maybe white beneath, like the head hairs? Maybe the hairs on the legs are also a bit reddish, which should fit.

and here is a male which was close by, possibly an entirely different species, of which i couldn't begin to guess.

Woodwarts on Hazel

 

I found some dead stems in a Hazel stool by the side of the muddy steep slope on the main path round the woods. On this one were some Woodwart looking fungi, apparently quite old and solidified, all along the stem. Judging by the colour and shape I would still say that this was fairly like Hazel Woodwart, Hypoxylon fuscum. I was unable to get any samples for KOH testing. 

 

I think there might be a separate tar crust under the peeling bark. Might be worth peeling back a bit more bark to see if there are any fresh surfaces to examine.

This next one looks different though, blacker and also erupting out of the thin bark. This was found near the Scambles, but fairly near the grass triangle end. Its just got a very different "jizz" to it.

   

A tar crust on Ash - Biscogniauxia petriniae possibly

This is a highly tentative ID. I was having a look at the patch of Ash coppice that as been hard hit by Ash Dieback. All the patches of fruiting body now appear very dessicated and featureless. However when you do look at the last image, which is the only one patch on the whole stem revealing any papillae, it is brownish with slightly papillate perithecia, which fits. I really don't think it is worth trying to extract any pigments! As a cautionary tale, you can get mixed populations of tar crusts on Ash, making things even more complicated. 

 

A tar crust on Beech - Biscogniauxa nummularia, Nemania sp or Diatrype stigma?

What I think is probably a Beech branch on the forest floor, so this could be Biscogniauxia nummularia, a Nemania sp or Diatrype stigma, all quite common tar crusts on this particular tree, although there could also be quite a few others that this could be, mostly in the many Ascomycete Pyrenomyocete fungi. 

On Tuesday, I found a dead dried out Beech tree with a huge streak of a tar crust up its trunk. This would fit with the classic model of Biscogniauxia nummularia, running from the roots upward as seen in Lynne Boddy's paper. In this case it is uncertain whether it is drought, or the death of the tree from another cause, which encouraged this excessive growth and fruiting of the fungus.