The New Forest

Yet another dry but cold day saw Ghostie and myself head off into the New Forest in search botanical riches. But first we visited some birdfeeders in order to top them up and check everything was as should be. Why? I'll tell you later...

The Forest is heavily grazed by an assortment of livestock. Obviously the ponies are bloody everywhere, but there are also donkeys and pigs. Plus deer, at least those are wild. The result being that the understorey has been chomped to within an inch of its life. Only the unpalatable and the well-defended thrive here. So yeah, lots of Gorse in the open and lots of Holly in the wooded areas. However, this doesn't mean there's nothing of interest to find. Just look at this tiny bit of perfection, balanced on a hair-thin stipe, the whole situated on the spine of a Holly leaf

Marasmius hudsonii - aka the Holly Parachute Fungus

We found some genuine Crab Apples, admittedly not looking their finest in January but a bit of searching revealed quite a few wizened apples, mostly out of reach but a few lower ones remained. Guess the ponies missed those!

Crab Apple Malus sylvestris. And yum, doesn't that look appetising...

We wandered across a bit of wet heath finding a couple of Petty Whin plants followed by a bush of Chenault's Snowberry, presumably birdsown I guess? The white-coloured berries of Snowberry are not particularly attractive to birds (though in its native range birds happily devour them), maybe the pinkish berries of Chenault's Snowberry are more attractive?

Chenault's Snowberry Symphoricarpos x chenaultii

We had a little explore, finding Stinking Tutsan Hypericum hircinum, Western Hemlock Tsuga heterophylla and Bog Pimpernel Anagallis tenella amongst many others. 

Douglas Fir Pseudotsuga menziesii - self-seeding quite merrily around the Bolderwood area

We had one particular target plant in this part of the forest, one that Ghostie had already seen a couple of years back but wanted to check again. After a pleasant enough stroll through the trees, we entered a flatter area dominated by mature Beech and Pedunculate Oak trees. Happily, what with this being wintertime, we could see through the skeletal canopy layer which helped us to locate our target

Perspective makes it seem shorter than it was, but this is a big ass tree!

Clearly this would have originally been planted many years back, hence not admissible as a wild species for my PSL, or indeed for the 1000 wild plants in a year challenge. However, scouting around through the nearby leaflitter proved productive...

Tiny self-sown seedlings! And (peeking out on the left) a ten foot youngster

We hunted around for more clues and soon found a whole load of cones strewn around beneath the mature tree. Judging by the size and weight of these cones, I imagine it would rather hurt to have one fall on your head!

Entire and split open to reveal the seeds within

We had a minor disagreement as to the precise flatness of the cone apex (a critical feature that differs between species in the genus), but needle length alone was enough to conclude that this was Deodar Cedar Cedrus deodara, a beautiful tree and a lifer for both of us. 

We returned to the birdfeeders, safely tucked away out of sight of prying eyes, and waited for a certain small bird to arrive. Meanwhile, other birds kept us busy

A steady stream of birds kept us on our toes, first a Dunnock and a Coal Tit, then the Blue Tits started hitting the nets. I think about 15 of them! Plus several Great Tits and two Treecreepers. Finally, the bird we were awaiting arrived. After skipping over the top of the net three times, flying into it and bouncing off once (!) it was finally secured and processed. 

Marsh Tit!

Say hello to what may be the final Marsh Tit in this patch of woods to be fitted with colour rings. I think this one is Yellow over metal on one leg and Pink over Lime on the other. Ghostie will doubtless put me right. Its partner is Double Red, I do remember that much!

We packed away the kit and tried for one final plant, Jo-jo Weed in a campsite. This is a recently arrived alien with an interesting history. Click here and scroll down to p27 for the full story, screenshot shown below

Anyway, we looked, we failed to find it. Loads of Chamomile, quite a bit of Parsley Piert, but no Jo-Jo Weed. Oh well, there's always another time. 

When I was 17, I met an 18 year old Goth girl. I was into rock and metal and knew nothing about Goths other than they were all weird. Happily, I enjoyed the world of music she introduced me to and a bunch of us caught the ferry to France to see this lot in concert. Unfortunately for me, I drank far too much and passed out, waking up only when somebody stood on me. It was a comfy field and before I knew it (literally!) the concert was over and I'd missed the entire thing. Hey ho, live and learn.....