Calendar June 2015: Yellow Archangel

June: Yellow Archangel

Angel in Ancient Woods

(Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Order: Lamiales, Family: Lamiaceae, Genus: Lamium )

June is a transitional month, from the early summer to the summer.  When the carpets of bluebells and white wild garlic flowers faded toward the end of May, woodlands are settled in the colour of green.  Around woodlands, hedgerows, and meadows are gradually filled with colourful flowers.

Yellow archangel grows at edges of ancient woodlands or shady hedgerows.  It's more often seen than herb-paris, but one of precious wild plants.

I find them at some road banks near by woods and at the edge of my favourite woodland, just alongside dog's mercury, red campion, ground ivy and some other wild plants.  The yellow flower brightens up the shady place.  

The leaves, crinkled with tiny hair on the surface, have similarity to lamiaceae family such as basil, mint, marjoram etc.  They are also look like stinging dead nettle, but are not stinging.  Two leaves attach to the stems like a pair of wing, one above the other.  If you look the plant from above, each two-paired leaves descends by 90 degree to the bottom, which look like a lot of propels.  The flowers sit in between.

The flower buds are like tiny cream-yellow balls.  The flower looks like a cream-yellow armchair with a roof.  The flower clusters are somehow like a tower of armchairs.  Flower fairies would rest their wings on the chairs....

Yellow Archangel....., I have looked my Edith Holden's books (See my blog in March), The Nature Notes of An Edwardian Lady and The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady, whether she mentioned this plant in her book.  Almost overlooked her small water-colour illustration with the name, 'Yellow Weasel's Snout'.  (The author, Edith Holden was a naturalist and illustrator in the early 20th century.)

It is resemble to yellow rattle in her books.  But yellow rattle grows mainly in sunny meadows, while yellow archangel prefers shady places like at the fringe of woodland or in shady hedgerows.

Weasel'a snout, a plant, is also in Lamiales Order as yellow archangel is.  The plant has pink flowers, but the shape is resemble.  I try to imagine a snout of a weasel of animal, though, it looks hardly like this pretty flower!

In olden days this plant would be commonly called yellow weasel snout.  But I like call this plant ' Yellow Archangel' The name just suits the appearance, like an angel with a pair of green wings, don't you think?    If you look at the upper half, an angel with a yellow clown to be fly away at any moment, and if looking at the upper half, an angel with an arched green collar is resting its green wing on its back.

Confusing species is 'variegated yellow archangel', of which flowers are almost same as of yellow archangel, but it has white variegated leaves.  It is popular as garden plant and easily spreads in the countryside.  A wild plant conservation organisation, Plantlife, warns that this subspecies is an offence to the other wild plants.  (Though, I cannot find this name in the UK's Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.)  Hopefully these cultivated species won't invade this ancient plant.

Yellow Archangel is thought to be an indicator for ancient woods.  It must have existed for many many years in the woodland, possibly since a tiny woodland formed.  Interestingly I find yellow archangel as well as herb-paris (see my blog in May) in the ancient wood, while none of them is seen in a park near by my house, which used to be a limestone quarries until 1970 and was developed after the closure.

As I research on woodlands, I realise that a woodland hasn't been created in a instance and also it's not simply an cluster of trees.  A woodland is a ever growing living biodiversity's cluster unless it is crucially damaged, possibly by human.

Calendar May 2015: Herb-Paris

May: Herb-Paris

'True Lover's Knot' in Ancient Woods

(Paris Quadrifolia, Order: Liliales, Family: Melanthiaceae , Genus: Paris )

Herb-Paris; not only its name but also the appearance is distinctive in woodlands in the early summer.  I have seen it in the woodland when I met the gentleman for the first time, whom told about his involvement into the Woodland Trust and inspired me a great interest in the woodland nature.

He told my friend and I that a rare plants were blooming in the gorge, where it stayed shady and humid.  Interestingly, he added, its colony dwelled only in the very localised areaHe described how they looked like; namely, it had four leaves and only one distinctive flower on its top.  So, when having entered into the shady damp gorge, surrounded by ancient trees, we carefully looked around.  Indeed, as he described, the unusual plants were blooming here and there next to a small stream.

The four broad oval leaves are spreading outward from the upper middle of the thin stem.  The flower was curiously tiny, rather didn't look like a flower buds.  After the walk, I looked at my wild plant guidebooks.  It has thread-like green petals (you hardly see in my print, though), four broad green sepals (hanging just under the purple object), eight spiky yellow stamen upright, and a dark purple tiny berry-like ovary in the middle of a flower.

The gentleman said to us that herb-paris was an indicator for an ancient woodland.  The woodland, where the herb-paris colony thrives, consists of mature beech, ash and oak trees. They bloom among broad carpets of Bluebells. They can be easily disguised by the impressive blue pretty.  But once you look closely, herb-paris plants stand here and there.  You cannot miss out the distinctive appearance.

The name, 'herb-paris', confused me, if the plant was possible any link to the metropolitan city, Paris.  But no, this Latin word of 'paris' of herb-paris comes from "the 'herb of equality' because all of its parts are considered equal and harmonious".  This symmetric appearance appealed to herbalists in the medieval time.(from The Wild Trusts 'Herb-Paris').

Trying to imagine this plant blooming in the woodland, where I now often walk around, in the early Middle Ages, under an iron age hill fort.  I've been reading the latest novel of Kazuo Ishigro, Buried Giant.  The story was set in the early Middle Ages just after King Arthur died but still his knight and nephew, Sir Gawain, one of the main characters, was still alive.  Herb-paris might have been already blooming with a kind of dignified atmosphere in undisturbed the woodland in those ancient days.

Herb-paris has common names such as 'true lover's knot' or 'devil-in-a bush'.  People in those day, who believed in mysterious creatures, saw the plant as a symbol of both love and evil.

It should deserve 'true lover's knot', as a symbol of the eternal love rather than the latter one because herb-paris has existed and hasn't changed for so long, while its surrounding changed so much.  Besides, the ancient woodland, where the colony of herb-paris is preserved, has tranquil peaceful atmosphere.  Sadly such ancient woods will hardly survive without support by human nowadays.  Human have destroyed the nature.  I do hope the ancient woodlands will thrive forever.

Easter Walk: Around St Brides Major

The Easter Monday was pleasantly warm and sunny.  So we drove to the west for a half hour.  At the end of a small village, St Brides Major, we parked our car, and walked up to the limestone hill.

The view from the top of the hill was stunning.  We saw the blue sky and just hills.  The yellow gorse flowers were full in bloom.  A flock of sheep, including new-born lambs, were gazing or lying idly on the grass.  Only a few groups of people passed by.

We walked down the hill.  A sign post for walkers stood at every corner, so that we didn't get lost.  The footpath was quite steep, though you cannot see in the picture.

 What we saw was an interesting road under the water.  On the right side there was stone steps, maybe quite ancient.  The road crossing the small river didn't have a proper bridge, instead, the middle of the river was shallow so that cars could drive through the water.  A few cars came to the point, and the drivers hesitated briefly, then drove in the water to the other bank.  A woman with the dog, in the picture, who wasn't far enough from the water, got soaking wet just after a car drove away from the water.  But her dog was enjoying in the water.  Why not, it was sunny and warm!

We saw this ancient clapper bridge over the river.  Village people would use for their daily life.  The stream was calm and clear as ever, I think.

As we walked along the river, there were two stone bridge for the railway above.  A girl was riding a pony, accompanied by her mother, when I reached the second bridge.

 

 Toward the end of our walk, we came upon the field, just in the middle of nowhere.  Actually, no.  On the right side of the picture below, we found a small stone cottage with a sigh of 'Eggs for sale'.  We asked the man in the back yard for eggs.  Eggs on Easter Monday were just right.  The eggs were of white and brown leghorns and silkie chickens. 

On the way back home, we drove at the coast, where number of people were walking and playing at the beach, contrasted to the calm paths, where we just walked.

Calendar April 2015: Wood Anemone -Vigorous Windflower-

April: Wood Anemone

Windflower

(Anemone nemorosa, Buttercup family)

In April, we can see the white carpets of wood anemone in a beech woodland nearby our house.  The flower is tiny, about 4 cm diameter.  Bluebells and wild garlic are also blooming neighbouring areas at the same time.  The woodland is carpeted with white and blue flowers.  This is a stunning view, and I look forward to seeing it every year.  

I've never seen wood anemone in Japan, in my mother country.  It looks fragile with the tiny pretty white or sometimes pale pink petal-like sepals.

Another name of wood anemone is windflower.  Wood anemone usually grows in shady woodlands, protected from the wind, I thought.  But, in fact, 'It was said that the flower could open only when the wind blew upon it.', according to a book, Wild Flowers of Britain by B.D. Inglis (Nelson, 1958).  She described that wood anemone was quite sturdy in the bare woods despite the fragile looking.  The weather in the early spring can be rough and windy.  Unless it was vigorous, it wouldn't  appear in the woodland every spring today.

When searching wood anemone on the internet recently, I happened to find a website with an image of the wood anemone fairy by Cicely Mary Barker.  I remembered that I had some old copies of her fairy books.  One of them was the very book, in which the wood anemone fairy was.  As a school girl, I collected points of the sweets, of which company offered to give their customer the books of the flower fairy series for free.  Well, I had to spend my pocket money to buy the sweets.  But at that time it was quite hard to get foreign books in Japan.  Looking at the book, this was edited specially for the sweets company, but it states only 'This edition published in Japan by permission of Black & Son Ltd.' with no published year.  It is mysterious.

The  Windflower Fairy is a slender girl with long curly brown hair in a pale pink simple dress , brown butterfly wings on her back.   She holds two (white and pale pink) flowers in her arm and as if she were starting dancing when the wind blows on her.

THE SONG OF THE WINDFLOWER FAIRY

While human-folk slumber, 

The fairies espy
Stars without number
Sprinkling the sky.

The Winter's long sleeping,
Like night-time, is done;
But day-stars are leaping
To welcome the sun.

Star-like they sprinkle
The wildwood with light;
Countless they twinkle
The Windflowers white!

(Flower Fairies of the Spring, Cicely Mary Barker)

(The first of her Flower Fairies books, Flower Fairies of the Spring was published in 1923.)


The first time I saw wood anemone in the woodland, it was late afternoon, and the flower closed the sepals and faced down to the ground, like violet.  I thought it might belong to a violet family, or a kind of fritillary.  But some time later, having found white twinkling wood anemone in the sun light, coming through the bare branches, I was surprised.  They looked quite different and very lively.

A few years ago, I was walking in the woodland in the drizzling rain.  The rain didn't reach onto the ground, but countless tiny dews were on every single petal and leaf.  It was tranquil there as if the dews had been absorbing all the sound.  The pure white flowers were twinkling on the ground.  The view in front of me was really magical, felt like in another fairy tale than CM Barker's.

Calendar March 2015: Primrose -Call for the Spring-

March: Primrose

Call for the Spring

(Primula vulgaris, Primulaceae family)

A bunch of cream-yellow flowers of primrose caught my eyes in a woodland, somewhere in Switzerland or Black-Forest of South-West Germany many years ago.  I was quite surprised that primrose grew in shady places because primroses, which I had seen in Japan, had always vivid colours such as pink, red, purple etc, and were planted in gardens, parks, not just grew in the wildness.  Cream-yellow colour brightens up the shady woodland in the early spring.

Since we moved from Germany to the UK, South-East Wales, I can spot the pretty primrose here and there, in and around woodlands, parks and gardens.  Where they are well protected from harsh wind and bitter coldness, you can see the flowers even in the late January!

There are 2 different types of flowers.  I didn't know about that at all until I saw the illustrations of them in an old book, Wild Flowers of Britain (B.D. Inglis, 1958, Nelson).  One is 'pin-eyed' and another is 'thrum-eyed'.  The flowers of my print are probably 'pin-eyed'.  The female stigma of pin-eyed flower appears in the middle of the corolla and the male anthers are underneath and not visible.  The male anthers with pollen of thrum-eyed one appear in the middle of the corolla, and the female stigma is underneath and not visible.

'Pin-eyed': the female stigma appears in the middle of the corolla

'Thrum-eyed': The powdery male anthers in the middle of the corolla

(These two photos are from my own photo album.)

The reason why two different types of flowers exist doesn't state in this book.  Luckily, I could find the reason on the internet.  The website, Offwell Woodland and Wildlife Trust, based in East Devon and another website, First Nature, based in Wales, are quite useful. They have photos of the two types of flowers and put an explanation.

Darwin first pointed out the reason.  This is to promote cross-fertilisation between the two different types of flowers.  Fertilisation between the same type is not effective.  As for pin-eyed one, only long-tongued insects such as butterflies can reach the nectar at the bottom.  As the insect flies to the thrum-eyed flowers to collect nectar, the pollens on the insect are transported onto them. Or, other way round, the pollens of the thrum-eyed flowers on the insects are fallen into the corolla and reach the hidden female stigma when the insects fly over to them from the pin-eyed ones.

Now as for the leaves:  The crinkly bright green leaves look like those of a kind of savoy cabbage or very green China-leaves.  They are edible and can be cooked like those green vegetables.  

Maybe I might try to make Primrose Vinegar with those leaves.  There is an interesting recipe of 'Primrose (leaves) Vinegar' in The Hedgerow Handbook: Recipes, Remedies and Rituals (Adele Nozendar, Square Peg, 2012).  The ingredients are simply leaves (plenty!), sugar, water and active yeast.  It takes about a month until the vinegar is ready to use.  Well, I need plenty of leaves and yet patience...  I would try this with another leaves of such as nettle instead.

The edwardian naturalist, Edith Holden recorded in her Diary book of the year 1906, The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady (1977 edition, Webb&Bower), that she saw a quite a lot of primrose with large buds at the beginning of March those days.  Later in the middle of March they had still snow and frost several times in Warwickshire, where she observed the flora and fauna.  Here in South-East Wales, where I live, primrose starts flowering even in February.  Primrose is in charge of calling for the spring.

Sunday Walk

 It was the last Sunday, sunny warm day.

Recently I found some brochures for country walks in the region.  I wanted to try one of the walking courses, called 'Salmon Leaps Walk'.  This time of the year was not unlikely to see salmons leaping in the stream there, but the course is located near by our house and just behind my favourite woodlands and I haven't been there.

We parked at the end of a small village, then went toward the stream.  The sign for the course was clearly indicated.  So you can't miss the start point.

The stream was filled with water plants such as water cress and reed.  A bunch of bamboo and winter heliotrope kept away from the bank.

As we walked, we saw quite a lot of fallen trees.  Some fell in the woods, some were over the stream, which might have block salmons leaping and others lay on the footpath.

The footpath was alongside the stream between hills, where the sunlight didn't reach a lot.  It was chilly and damp.  Those fallen trees are gradually decade by little spices.  Here and there we saw thriving mushrooms and fungus, and moss on the dead trunks.

At the end of the walk at the stream, we walked up to the hill.  There were wild daffodils in the shade, awaiting to bloom.

It was so calm and sunny.  We felt the early spring.  The bare trees were changing for the spring.

Cows were just fed in the mud.  A cow was looking at us curiously.  There was no one around us.

We didn't see any salmon (of course), but enjoyed the quiet sunny Sunday walk.

Calendar February 2015: Snowdrop -Fair Maids of February-

February: Snowdrops

(Galanthus nivalis, Fair Maids of February, lily family)

'Fair Maids of February'.  I didn't know such a sweet another name of snowdrop.  I found the name in a book, which was written by an Edwardian naturalist, Edith Holden, in the early 1900's.(The book, 'The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady', wasn't the original edition (edition in 1977), though.)  She recorded a whole year of the flora and fauna in the countryside in England.  

In a page of February She cited a poem by Hartley Coleridge.  The poem seems to be well-known in the UK.  I didn't know it.  In my town there is a Coleridge Avenue.  But I didn't know it was the name of a poet in the 18 and the 19 Centuries.

Anyway, snowdrop in the poem is a symbol for the beginning of the next season after the dark winter, which brings the liveliness and the brightness onto the dark ground.  What I found interesting is that Edith Holden in the early 1900s as well as Hartley Coleridge in the mid 1800s had shared the same feeling about snowdrops.

After December solstice, I feel it is getting brighter and longer every day.  Here, in south Wales, the winter is mild and wet.

Snowdrop's greyish green leaves sprout from the ground, where they get enough sunlight and are well protected from the cold bitter wind through the winter.  A few snow-white drop-like buds would be appearing at the beginning of February in our garden.  

But this year I found small buds of snowdrops in our garden in the forth week of January.  According to an article of Woodland Trust last year, spring has arrived gradually earlier over the last 25 years.  Hopefully snowdrops will not be 'Fair Maids of January' soon!