World's smallest coppice?

I have, as I do every year, cut back my three sallow trees (actually two grey sallow, Salix cinerea, and one goat willow, Salix caprea) now all the leaves have gone (mostly eaten by sawfly larvae).

The pictures below show the situation before and after the coppicing and sharp-eyed visitors may be able to see where some of the twigs top left have disappeared.

I took the cut off twigs and shaped them into a bundle.  I call these 'woodcharms' but I suppose the correct term is 'faggots', a word deriving from the same root as 'fascist' (from the bundles of rods, or fasces, carried by people in power and authority in ancient Rome). 

A faggot was, like mine, bound with two ties.  If only one tie had been used it would have been a bavin (I now feel moved to make a bavin so I can legitimately use this word).

My faggots are also a bit small.  A short faggot would have been 24 inches (61 cm) round and 32 inches (81.3 cm) long and a long faggot 24 inches round and 48 inches (121.9 cm) long.  I guess mine is a microfaggot.

I have put this microfaggot alongside the northern end of the window box and one of the cut sallow stools can be seen top right of the photo.  Hopefully this will help to rebuild the soil level which still continues to shrink and drop.  This year I will leave any fallen leaves that blow into the box, though I don't think these will help much.

The striped gold midget

Some dark blotches on several of the leaves of the Himalayan honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) have proved to be the upper side of the leaf mine of the striped gold midget (Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella).

'Phyllonorycter' means 'leaf-digger' and 'emberizaepenella' 'bunting-winged' so the vernacular name should, perhaps be 'bunting- winged leaf-digger'. But there are some further complexities with this wonderfully Ciceronian scientific name: the second half of the specific name derives from Latin penna meaning a wing. This would give two n's in emberizaepenella and the fact that there is only one is said to be a typographical error. Unless a properly recorded earlier version of the specific name of this moth is found the misspelt version has to remain under the international rules of nomenclature.

The moth is said to widespread but very local and the larvae feed also on honeysuckles and snowberry. There are no records for the species in East Sussex in the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre's database. There is however a dot for East Sussex in The moths and butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland, so it must have been found. It is, however, listed by the Record Centre as occurring at Ebernoe Common, West Sussex.

More Nematus pavidus sawfly larvae

A few weeks back a colony of Nematus pavidus sawfly larvae fed up on one of the sallow in Wbx.  Recently a new colony appeared, founded I suspect, by an adult of one of the earlier larvae.

Today I noticed that there were three ages: the small white worms and their left behind eggshells, some rather large larvae but still with some growing to do, and some really big ones almost ready to pupate.

There was also a parasitic wasp (ichneumon or braconid) pottering about nearby and maybe looking for an opportunity to lay eggs in some of the sawfly larvae via that vicious-looking ovipositor.

A sawfly: Nematus pavidus

The baby sawfly larvae spotted recently on the goat willow (Salix caprea) have turned out to be Nematus pavidus, confirmed by John Grearson of Symphata: The Sawfly Forum (a very useful Internet discussion group for those interested in British sawflies).  The picture above shows two mature examples on the window box.

N. pavidus does not appear to be at all common.  There are no records on the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre's database and none for Sussex on the National Biodiversity Network.  Indeed there are only six 10km squares in Britain from which the species has been reported, including one that covers Lundy Island.

Although the caterpillars are very obvious, working out what they are was not easy and, as with many sawflies, the adults may not be much in evidence, so it is probably under-recorded rather than rare.

Whatever the case, they have turned many of the goat willow leaves into fretwork, though I am sure this will do no long term damage.

Hairy tare goes to seed

The hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), now sprawling all over the window box, is running out of steam as it seeds ripen.  First the pods turn brown, then black, finally splitting to scatter the seeds all over the place.

 

The leaves in the background are one of the sallows that have nearly been overwhelmed by this wiry weed.

Sawflies attack sallow

One leaf of one sallow plant has been turned to fretwork by a host of small sawfly larvae.

Although they feed quite openly during the daytime, they are easily overlooked, the bare leaf veins being the most noticeable thing.  Their habit of cocking their tails up in the air when alarmed is characteristic

They are too young to be certain of the species but I suspect it is Croesus septentrionalis.  I will be able to tell when they are larger.

Beetles, flies and rushes

Much action on the Windowbox today.  In the morning three common red soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) were crawling about on the hairy tare, which is now like green wire-netting.

Several small flies rested, as they like to do, on the leaves of the largest sallow.  The one below is, I think a lance fly (Diptera: Lonchaeidae)

There was also (below) a common flower bug, (Anthocoris nemorum) on a sallow leaf, a plant of which it is particularly fond as an aphid hunting ground (though there do not appear to be any aphids).

The soft-rush (Juncus effusus) is flowering now, though this year's stems are very weak and the flowers unusually pale.  For some reason this plant seems to be photographed by others mainly when the it has run to seed.  Maybe actual flowering is very brief.

A new hoverfly

A new hoverfly was settled on the sallow leaves on the window box the other day.  It had gone by the time I got the camera, but I re-found it on some nearby hogweed flowers.

The larvae of this species live in the hogweed roots and it is generally quite common in the English countryside at this time of year.

The flowers on this particular hogweed plant are pale pink as opposed to the normal white.  This is because the backs of the petals are pink.

More insects

Many insects rest on leaves in the window box.  Today in addition to the gold-green Chrysotus spp. (Diptera Dolichopodidae) that are around all summer, I found the wing-waving Sepsis fulgens, the lauxaniid fly Minettia longipennis and the neat gold moth, Micropterix aruncella.  There are only six Sussex records for this in the Biodiversity Record Centre's database, six of them from the garden here.  It is a pretty little thing as this picture shows.

I have now recorded over seventy spcies from Wbx.

Loxocera albiseta emerges

The other day I noticed some black and orange flies crawling about on foliage around and above the soft-rush plant in the window box.  They turned out to be Loxocera albiseta (Diptera: Psilidae), relatives of the carrot fly and whose larvae live in rushes.

I have never seen this species in our garden and we have very few rushes so I wondered if a female had laid some eggs when the Windowbox was up in Islay with Simon King during last year's Springwatch TV programme.

The flies constantly wave their rather unusual antennae.  In the picture the long black third segment contrasts with the more slender white arista (hence the specific name 'albiseta') making it look as though the antennae are forked.

Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsuta)

Today I identified the vetch, which is now flowering as hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta). Having remained a very small plant throughout the winter, it has grown rapidly over the last month and is now the largest plant in Wbx. Clearly it is finding ample nutrient. As far as I know it grows nowhere else in the garden and in the Square Metre the very similar smooth tare (Vicia tetrasperma) fills an equivalent ecological niche.  Hairy tare is flowering a week or two earlier than smooth tare and the latter is said to prefer damper conditions.

I wonder if the hairy tare is the same as the plant mentioned in the Bible’s New Testament. Matthew Chapter 13 says, for example: “tares are the children of the wicked one.” Devilish plants that strangle their neighbours. Certainly the Wbx tare has a fine capacity to overwhelm but, as an annual, it may only be a short term dominance.

Plantain arises

The spear-shaped, reddish leaves of greater plantain (Plantago major) have emerged from the soil again, having died down completely for the winter (an old flower stalk lies to the left). Though an annoying weed elsewhere, it is as welcome as a treasured alpine in the Windowbox and unlikely to become any kind of a nuisance. The white clover leaves are also starting to enlarge now, having been much smaller during the cold months.

New leaves - tutsan and sallow

The tutsan plants (Hypericum androsaemum) start into leaf very early, sending up shoots surmounted by purple spear-shaped leaves. The older leaves remain on the plant and the whole is only halfway to being a proper shrub, a suffruticose perennial I suppose is the correct description. The sallow 'coppices' are also starting into leaf.

Goblin chestnut

Hard up against the sallow log a saw a boot-polish brown glint in a small hole. After careful probing I brought a shiny Spanish chestnut to light that must have been buried by a grey squirrel. Though maybe it was a goblin of the kind described in Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti:

One began to weave a crown

Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown

(Men sell not such in any town);

This large seed raises some interesting question for a wildlife recorder. Do I claim a chestnut (Castanea sativa) for the windowbox, or should I wait to see if it grows? How about a grey squirrel, or a goblin, or a gruffalo? Well, no, I think not. I did, however, put it back in its dark hole to see what happens anon. The nearest trees, incidentally, where such a nut could have come from are probably 50 metres away.

In the middle of this episode a man called with a new shelf for the fridge. I explained the windowbox and the chestnut to him and, surprisingly, he did not seem to think I was crazy.

Rough-stalked feather-moss

I have started to look again at the mosses on the windowbox as winter is a good time for this, free of the more heady distractions of the warmer months (not that mosses aren't heady in their way).

This one, growing up the side of the sallow log, is the very common rough-stalked feather-moss (Brachythecium rutabulum). It is distinguished by the yellowish tips to its shoots and the roughened seta - the stem that supports the spore-bearing capsule. and other features.

Seasonal snow

It was reported today that Britain had its second warmest year in 2007 since records began (the warmest was 2006).

Today, however, was decidedly cold, though the snow did not lie until much after lunchtime.

As the other photo shows, I have been doing some cutting and coppicing. The rush, like a spiny green and white sea urchin, is soft-rush, Juncus effusus, and seems a very strong plant, so I am sure it will survive. Elsewhere in the picture you can see sallow stumps where I have started a small coppice.

Iced smooth tare, Vicia tetrasperma

One of the newest arrivals in the windowbox is a plant of what is almost certainly smooth tare, a mini-vetch. It appeared in the autumn and has been growing steadily since.

For the last few days the weather has been very cold and frosty and the soil in the windowbox will, by now, be frozen right through. This makes it a much harsher microclimate than the garden round about where the roots of many plants will be below the level that frost can penetrate.

We will see what survives (the previous two winters have not been as cold as this).

Long-legged fly (Tipula paludosa)

Today I found this female cranefly, Tipula paludosa, resting quietly in a cage of rushes. The Juncus in the windobox has grown large enough to serve this sort of purpose.

The insect dangled unmoving within the shelter of the plant and it reminded me, as craneflies always do of Yeats's poem:

That civilisation may not sink,
Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
To a distant post;
Our master Caesar is in the tent
Where the maps are spread,
His eyes fixed upon nothing,
A hand under his head.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.

First lichen (Lecanora campestris)

Since it was installed in the window box nearly two years ago the small sandstone rock in the top right corner has been developing a good skin of vegetation.

There are several mosses, as the picture shows, and the greenish white lichen with purple 'jam tarts' (Lecanora campestris) in the centre of the frame continues to expand. There is also a black encrustation on the rock - I will find out what that is one day. Maybe someone knows?

At the village flower show

The window box was off on its travels again today, putting in a guest appearance at the Sedlescombe and District summer flower show in the village hall.

A wonderfully English event in which Wbx looked positively scruffy: a wild gipsy of an exhibit. However, people seemed genuinely interested.

Contemplating the battered edges of the box, it occured to me that, rather than trying to remove the contents, I should lower the rim. I will just have to find a suitable implement to do this. One of those little saws that cut off plaster casts would be ideal.

The Poa burgeons

In the last ten days, since its return from Scotland, the one-grass-plant meadow has been doing very well (the rain has helped) and is now a fresh green tuft as shown above.

It will soon need cutting again.

On the other side of the sallow log I found there was a quite large conical excavation made, I suspect, either by a Scottish elf or an Islay rat. In deciding that I shall have to fill it with some of the original compost which I put in Wbx, I thought I could make little hillocks of earth here and there to compensate for some of the recent shrinkage without actually burying small plants.

The box is back!

The window box has returned from its travels. It was taken by the BBC in mid-May, first to Bristol, then to Islay off the west coast of Scotland for use in the Springwatch TV programme, then back to Bristol before returning home.

Some of the plants look a bit battered and the plastic is now starting to get brittle and crack, but generally it has survived the experience. I suspect it was allowed to get quite dry and this has had the effect of causing the soil to shrink, so the top is much lower down the box than it originally was and there is a narrow gap all round the sides. I shall have to work out how to address this problem as, once shrunk, soil does not seem to return to its former volume.

I spent some time tidying the plants up and cut back the rough meadow grass (Poa trivialis), the only grass plant to appear so far. I thought this might make a one plant lawn but, as the picture shows, it is more like grass topiary (a new art form?).

While dealing with the grass I noticed a small plant of Cotoneaster visible above the Poa in the picture. The Japanese maple has died after being clobbered by late spring frost, so the Cotoneaster, another exotic, will go some way to compensate.

The southern half of Wbx is totally different to the northern with very few plants. Many of those that do grow also seem not to have a strong hold on life. Why this should be I do not know, but there are a number of seedlings in the empty southern spaces, so we shall have to see what happens.

Welcome to Springwatch viewers

If you saw the Windowbox on BBC TV Springwatch tonight, first in Sussex, then in Islay off the western coast of Scotland, welcome.

There is plenty of detail about the project if you follow the links to the right and I hope it shows that even people who don't have a garden can create tiny wildlife reserves that deliver fascinating results.

Something of this type does, of course, have to be managed to optimise biodiversity, but every plant and animal has arrived under its own steam, some being with the project only for a short time, while others are more persistant.

Every day when I walk down our garden I look at the space where the windowbox was and remember, with a real sense of separation, that it is in Islay. I am sure the BBC will take good care of it though and I look forward to its return so that reunited we can continue our dialogue.

With all these minireserve endeavours I get the strong feeling after a while that I am not just an outside observer, but part of the project itself. We are somehow enfolded into one another.

Windowbox on Springwatch

Postings have been few recently because the BBC TV programme Springwatch have borrowed the windowbox and taken it to Islay in Scotland for a holiday.

In late April they came to our Sussex home and filmed the project as the picture shows. They subsequently sent the box down to Bristol for onward travel to Scotland. Pity they didn't take me with it really, but they have promised to look after it.

I am not sure when it will be starring on the box, but I will post up the date and time when I find out

Soldier beetle (Cantharis nigricans) on leaf

In the rain today I found a handsome soldier beetle on a leaf of herb robert (Geranium robertianum). The larvae are predatory and live under stones or at grass roots. Maybe they are resident in Wbx.

The darker marks on the beetle's elytra are raindrops.

Windowbox spring

After earlier rain and a spell of wonderfully warm weather, plants in Wbx are growing very quickly. The herb robert up against the sallow log will soon be in flower and I have had to finger pick the burgeoning white clover back to manageable proportions.

The solitary grass plant, despite much mildew, also grows quickly and threatens to swamp the southern end of Wbx. However, as soon as it has flowered and I have worked out what it is I shall cut it back thereby creating, no doubt, the world's only single plant hay meadow.

I found a beetle floating in the pond this afternoon, a Sitona clover weevil I think.

Dandelions and other things

The first dandelion has come into flower with the warm spring sunshine and it reminds of how often people say that if this was a rare plant it would be much sought after. In Wbx the two plants are certainly an asset, well behaved and small enough not to seem out of scale. They are, I suspect, Taraxacum undulatiflorum, but I will have to do some work with the BSBI dandelion book to be sure.

In the centre right of the picture is the small Japanese maple its leaves, as I predicted, damaged by a late frost. I think it will survive this year, but it will be struggling in colder winters than this.

On the far right there is one of the two tutsan plants (Hypericum androsaemum). This is supposed to be a woodland plant, but is not uncommon in our garden.

Maple crisis

Last night there was an air frost in the garden and a thin skin of ice in the morning on the Wbx pond. The Japanese maple leaves are expanding fast and I fear this sudden knee-jerk cold may well kill such tender shoots. They look okay at present, but this can be deceptive.

So, I have photographed them while they still look in good condition. An interesting feature is that these second year leaves are a different shape than those of the first year (see smaller picture) and much more like traditional Japanese maple leaves.

Pointed spear-moss (Calliergonella cuspidata)

Among the many species of moss, mostly unidentified, colonising Wbx, I noticed the one above today. It is pointed spear-moss (Calliergonella cuspidata), a species I have only just started noticing in the garden here.

Usually a moss of rather wet habitats, Wbx is maybe the equivalent of a dune slack in some respects and, in winter, quite water retentive.

Flower bug (Anthocoris nemorum) in action

I was looking at the expanding bud on the Japanese maple again today and noticed a flower bug, (Anthocoris nemorum) on the outside. Having taken a photo and enlarged it I discovered it was dining on a juicy aphid, thus ridding the maple of a destructive pest.

Southwood and Leston in their Land and Water Bugsof the British Isles say of this species that when they come out of hibernation they "feed on aphids, psyllids and other small animals and occasionally on leaves." Let's hope this bug doesn't become a vegetarian.

If you look carefully at a larger size of the photo you will see that the bug has its proboscis well thrust into the belly of the hapless aphid.

The maple stirs

The ornamental maple with the long-tailed leaves has survived both the summer and the winter and is stirring again with a slow expansion of its claw-like bud. (See 29 April 2006)

Once again, I would be grateful if anyone could suggest a name or knows of any other plants like it.

Corn mildew (Blumeria graminis)

Wbx's only grass plant (Poa annua I think) has much powdery mildew on the leaves.

There is only one mildew like this that found on grasses and this example must therefore be Blumeria graminis (formerly Erisyphe graminis). It prefers relatively cool and humid conditions and the recent weather must have been much to its liking. While I am sure that this is quite a common species in Sussex, there appear to be no earlier records for the county on the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre's database. However, I am sure this is simply because people either have not looked for it, or have overlooked it.

Hopefully the grass will flower later in the spring and I will be able to name it with greater certainty.

Budding dandelion (Taraxacum sp.)

There is a bud in the heart of one of the two dandelion plants in Wbx but, overall, the plant does not look too healthy with several leaves afflicted by rusts and mildews. I thought how much these buds resemble a rolled pill millipede (Glomeris marginata) - see top picture.

The greater plantain looks good though as the new leaves appear. Some plantains retain their leaves overwinter and are therefore perhaps more susceptible to fungal and other infections.

By the sallow log there are male flowers of capillary thread-moss, Bryum cappilare and one of the sallows is starting to sprout.

A bonnet toadstool (Mycena sp.)

This tiny, 2 mm, toadstool has appeared in a cushion of moss growing by the north west side of the sallow log. This is the first stalked fungus to have appeared since the project started.

It looks like Mycena pseudocorticola, but there are so many similar species that I would not go firm on this without a second opinion. Tiny though it is, it seems quite frost resistant and was unaffected by last night's subzero temperatures.

The snow springtail

One of the commonest arthropods in the British Isles is the springtail Entomobrya nivalis, found almost everywhere summer or winter. At only 2mm long it is not easy to photograph, especially as they are restless creatures.

They do, however, like a bit of sunshine and this one was running about on the plastic rim of Wbx in company with other springtails. The specific name 'nivalis' means 'of the snow' and does, I imagine, refer to the propensity of this species to turn up on snow fields. Apparently it can survive freezing conditions because its body contains thermal hysteresis proteins and a cocktail of other chemicals, but the trick is not well understood.

Identification of springtails is not easy, but there is a wonderful 260-page test key by the late Steve Hopkin that was issued by the Field Studies Council. Let's hope it is turned into a proper book one day.

New Year view

Wbx looks reasonably neat and tidy for the New Year. Almost (I tell myself) like a sink garden planted with precious and delicate alpines.

The large grass to the right of the sallow log has not been identified yet but, curiously, it is the only grass so far to appear. I thought such plants would quickly be dominant in the Wbx landscape.

Crimson-tuber thread-moss (Bryum rubens)

In early August 2006 the small reddish moss above appeared just in front of the sallow log.

Eventually I got round to sending some to Howard Matcham,our Sussex bryophyte recorder, and he confirmed my suspicion that it was Bryum rubens. This species has small tubers on the roots, hence the English name.

I had hoped to get fruits to make identification easier, but there was some very heavy summer rain which apparently destroyed the whole colony as none has reappeared. Beaten to a pulp by rain drops and grit from the compost.

A midwinter view

If I take the dead leaves that have blown in away, Wbx looks quite neat in these midwinter days.

The white clover has retreated to a smaller winter version with leaves only about half the size of the summer burgeoning. This gives a chance for the two geraniums to grow.

The sunlit rush plant is, I am sure soft-rush (Juncus effusus), while over to the left by the plastic there is an alexanders seedling (Smyrnium olusatrum). Surprisingly the leaves persist on the small grey sallow plants.