Garden Tool Set

This week the gang are London bound and begin with a really interesting subject. Sally introduces us to something that we’ve seen on our pavements for years, but probably misidentified as chewing gum. However, this interesting species is a lichen commonly called the chewing gum lichen (Lecanora muralis). To explain how this lichen can survive – and perhaps even thrive – being on the pavement pounded by constant footfall Sally excavates a slab laden with this lichen treasure. We see that the lichen gets deep in the holes of the concrete by sending out microscopic threads providing an anchor. Observing the outer surface of the lichen Sally notes that it is made of thousands of tightly packed filaments, which collect moisture and nutrients from the air and protects it from our trampling. Interestingly it can even use our footwear to spread probably one of the reasons that from being a rarity 50 years ago it is now prevalent throughout the country.

Chris investigates how the Loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica), a member of the rosaceae family and native to China has begun to make London its home. The reason being two-fold: Firstly the temperature in London is much higher than it normally would be due to the extensive construction that uses large amounts of concrete, which collects heat during the day and radiates it back out during the night. Making London up to 10 degrees centigrade warmer than surrounding rural areas. Secondly, evidence shows that after people have eating the juicy part of the plum and then discard of the stone by spitting it or throwing it into the grass or other planted areas - an ideal environment to germinate.

Chris and Trevor set up an experiment to test the greenhouse effect in London by using two glass cabinets. One filled with plants and the other concrete. After some hours in the sun we find that the air around the concrete is at 26 degrees centigrade. The air around the plants in the cabinets is at 22 degrees centigrade. Trevor explains that it is the large amounts of oxygen released by the plants that not only refreshes the air, but also has a cooling effect due to the water vapour leaving the leaves. I was very happy to see Chris and Trevor explaining the stomata which allows gaseous exchange between the atmosphere and the plant. A very interesting fact Chris gives us is that one large beech tree can supply the oxygen requirements for 10 people.

Trevor goes off exploring and shows us the gorgeous passionflower (Passiflora sp.), of warm climate areas such as Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, growing in the wild around London. While some have been found growing wild elsewhere in the country, it has only survived in London due to the extra heat there. It’s a rambling sort of plant that grabs onto other plants with its tendrils for support. While being difficult to eliminate, I wonder why we would – the flower is a wonder of nature and interestingly Trevor shows us that its fruit is edible (which to me at least is a new find!). But I can see that it can smother other plants and may decrease diversity and even be partly responsible for us losing some native species. But along with the heat of concrete, we have the current global warming, so we may have to lose a few species along the way and embrace what nature provides.

Finally we get to visit a sky high wild place in the form of a rooftop garden on the Barclays building; 500 foot up. This gravel bed on the rooftop was initially planted with grasses, mosses and shrubs 2006 to encourage other plants to grow. It has certainly been a success. It’s a low maintenance, perhaps even no maintenance wild place that is sustaining itself.

Update: Here's Trevor's blog post for this episode.

As promised, here's the second part to the study period 2 for this course.

We look at the beginning of food crops and the advent of farming. I won't cover that here as I have written about it before, if you wish, see here.

Crop Improvement
We then look at crop improvement and how by accident of design the early farmers managed to produce a selective breeding programme for the food crops that they were using. This has the following steps:

1. Collection of seed from the most productive and healthiest plants - which are at this stage; wild.
2. Sow this collected seed and over time cultivate the plants.
3. Harvest seed from the best performing cultivated plants.
4. Breed the best performing plants together - these are the plants that have the characteristics you're looking for, for example ease of harvest.

Other characteristics include:

• produce ideal amount of seeds.
• produce ideal size of seeds.
• produce an end produce that can be stored easily (for example over winter) or easily processed.
• ideal growth characteristics that make the plant manageable over its life history. An example being cultivating wheat to have shorter stems which allow for easier harvesting, among other things.
• ideal length of seed dormancy, for example you may want your seed to begin germinating immediately after the harshest weather has passed - rather than wait until the middle of summer, this also requires a high rate of germination.
•  increased resistance to plant pests and diseases.

Looking at the origin of the main food crops that we use leads us to Nikolai Vavilov, a botanist and geneticist. He came up with the idea that each cultivated plant came from a particular place. In this place the greatest variation of its wild relatives can be found. He called these places 'centres of diversity' and 'centres of origin'. For example, cabbage from the Mediterranean, apples from Turkey.

Staple Food Crops
We have staple food crops that provide the main food of a community, being cereals, sugar crops, fruit and veg, for example. We learn that grains, containing approx. 75% starch, 15% protein, 2% fat, along with vitamins such as B and E, should be eaten whole. As white flour is only made from the endosperm (as in the diagrams of part 1), but doesn't contain the fibre-rich bran of the grain's testa or the vitamin-rich germ of the embryo. In rice this is called 'polishing' and can lead to a disease in humans that can lead to death if it is the main food eaten - beriberi - as it lacks vitamin B1.

Non-staple Food Crops
We also grow crops to be used for their oil, for example, sunflower or oilseed rape. The oil can be used in food production or for industrial purposes.

We can derive many benefits from these crops, such as omega-3 fatty acids.

Feeding a growing population
Poor harvests, droughts, floods, and conflicts within a food producing region are all causes of hardships on populations that rely on these sources.

We learn that even with computer modelling, it is difficult to predict how issues, such as climate change, will affect crop production. It is suggested that rising sea levels, due to climate change, will result in 20% of the Nile Delta being lost - an enormous amount when considering that it currently produces 60% of the nation's food supply.

There are many research organisations looking into improved crop production, such as fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. Along with greener options, such as green manure - growing a crop that is then ploughed back into the soil before the main crop is grown.

Plant Nutrition
There are micronutrients and macronutrients. With 10x the amount of macronutrients required compared to micronutrients.

There are three main macronutrients that plants require:
Nitrogen (N): strong plant foliage.
Phosphorus(P): Growth and development of roots and flowers.
Potassium(K): Overall plant health and fruit development.

I hope you find these notes helpful. See you at the end of Study Period 3!

Note: The following appeared on the St. Giles Living Churchyard blog last year and can be read in full here.

July saw all three of our stonecrops in flower; the biting stonecrop, english stonecrop, and white stonecrop. In the past when I've seen english stonecrop and white stonecrop in isolation, I've sometimes struggled to reach the correct identification, so let's have a look at our stonecrops and see the distinguishing features are when compared to other common Sedum species.

Biting Stonecrop


This is our only yellow stonecrop and it's a perennial, which immediately rules out annual stonecrop (Sedum annuum) which at most is biennial. Being a low mat-forming plant, we can see that it's not reflexed stonecrop (Sedum rupestre (S.reflexum)), which grows up to 30 cm tall and has its' yellow flowers clustered on an umbel-like stalk.











White Vs. English Stonecrop
Now, it's with these two species that I can sometimes become unstuck. They are both mat-forming evergreen perennials and both grow in similar conditions (rocky ground and stone walls) and flower around the same time of year (June to September). Let's see photos of some features side-by-side and see what the differences are.

The photos below show the leaves of each stone crop.  We have English stonecrop (Sedum anglicum) to the left with pale green to red leaves that are often described as 'egg-shaped'. To the right is White stonecrop (Sedum album), with (what looks like to me) fuller green to red leaves that are often described as 'cylindrical-oblong'. On both species the leaves are alternate. In the books I have (see references below), which have illustrated rather than photographed images the English stonecrop tends to be shown as the plant with red leaves, with white stonecrop being shown as having primarily green leaves. This may well depend on the time of year and the population being observed.

Our english stonecrop has 6 petals, which seems quite common, but often both species are described as having star-shaped flowers with 5 petals per flower that are white or pink tinged. On our specimens we can see that the pink tinge is more easily seen on the white stonecrop with our English stonecrop showing a yellow tinge in the centre.

Finally, let's have a look at the stems. The stems of the English stone crop have large hairless leaves growing alternately up the stem, which rules out thick-leaved stonecrop (Sedum dasyphyllum), which is very similar looking.
The leaves of the white stonecrop remain cylindrical and have a much brighter and shiny look to them.


Writing this has certainly helped me get to grips with these two species and I hope it assists anyone who stumbles across this post! It's important to remember that there is always variation within and between plant populations, but using a botanical key like that in The Wild Flower Key by Rose and O'Reilly will help you understand which features are important when identifying your plant.

Receiving the books was a great feeling. It meant that I had started my formal journey to learn more about plants. The books are used in conjuction, with the Why Plants Need People (WPNP) being the coffee table book giving some basic science, but mainly and successfully imparting ideas in quite a light way (so far anyway). The second book is the science book (SB) that provides greater detail than WPNP and poses questions and gets you to actively study the material presented. It is this second book what we start with and follow, dipping into WPNP as and when we're told.

The module began with a swift introduction and a cool audio clip about the relationship between plants and people. As with most OU modules, there was a discussion on study methods before getting into the module proper.

We began with photosynthesis, which is similar to a previous post, so I won't go into detail here. This naturally led on to looking at different parts of plants and their names, which is what my notes are focussed on.

A Plant Cell

The feature pointed out on the course is that the chloroplasts are responsible for photosynthesis.
Water + Carbon Dioxide > Sugar + Oxygen.

Chloroplasts appear green because they absorb all colours, but green. Therefore green is reflected back. This is probably good because if they absorbed all colours of the spectrum they may overheat and die.
A Typical Plant

A plant is made up of two large parts, the root (comprising of the roots) and the shoot (comprising of everything labelled on the diagram and much more).
Leaf Cross-section
This is a cross-section of a leaf showing the depth of the leaf from the top that faces the sun, to the bottom that exchanges gases, etc. Then there is a close up of the guard cells, which open and close the stomata to allow the exchange of gases, when open.

The study period closed with a short discussion on how plants are named. I have written about the binomial system previously, here.


I think that this is a great start to the course and while I'm learning lots, it's also allowing me to consolidate the bits of information that I already knew. Roll on study period 2!

Good luck to my fellow students on this course - I hope it's going well for you.

1. · Leisure Reading - Probably everyone's favourite. This is useful when needing to understand concepts or to get to grips with the authors style of writing. It is basically just reading the book, no note taking involved.
2. · Speed reading - This can involve skimming the material, to get a quick overview, or reading the introduction and conclusion to each chapter to ensure that you get an idea of the concepts coming up.
3. · Study reading - This entails reading the material while taking notes. This can be done time and time again, refining your notes to only include the things that you don't know well enough.

· Notes - notes can be written or drawn. Notes can begin with highlighting parts of the book that are important, whether it's a physical book or an e-book. You can then write out the notes either in prose, bullet points, or using a mind-mapping application such as xMind (free online). You could also put these notes into tables or draw things like plant cells, appending your notes to the diagrams.

A couple of months ago I introduced our Star magnolia. This time, we'll have a look at the rowan tree in our garden.

We moved into our house in November 2009 and on the 5 December of the same year there was a nationwide project called Tree O' Clock. At least 230,000 trees were planted during that single hour in 2009 and I'm glad to say that two of them were planted in our garden, a cherry and the focus of his post a rowan tree.

Me and our Rowan.

Moving swiftly on to 2014 and the rowan has put on great growth and for the first year it had multiple flower heads, rather than the single one of last year.


The rowan or mountain ash is a member of the utterly massive Rosaceae family which consists of more than 2800 species across 95 genera. The buds are covered in a hairy felt that fades over time.


When the serrated-edged leaves appear they are arranged in pairs along a central vein, which ends with a terminal leaf.


The flowers are a beautiful yellowish-white colour and are arranged on a pannicle-like structure called a corymb. As you can see in the photo below there are many flowers within the inflorescence. There are 5 roundish petals and many stamens surround the carpels.



Next time I'll give an update on both of my trees and may try to find some larger specimens of the star magnolia and a rowan, so I can see what my trees may eventually look like!

Until then, have a look at some of the other trees being followed this year throughout the world - over on Loose and Leafy:

Tree-following is kindly hosted by Lucy Corrander of Loose and Leafy.

Having plants indoors can be a wonderful thing, especially when they are arranged with care and understanding of what the plants need to thrive. And when plants thrive, we thrive. Because they not only look fabulous, but they can soften the hard lines and materials that we use to build our living spaces and can provide many benefits to our health. 
As well as being a wonderful focus as you enter or look around a room, plants are very good at controlling humidity. This can be beneficial because a low humidity environment can increase the likelihood of developing viral infections with high humidity leading to mold and mildew and the health issues that these can bring with them.

Plants not only bring interest where ever they are situated, but as they photosynthesise they also create the rather useful byproduct of oxygen. In addition to this, many plants are well known to remove airborne contaminants that can cause us headaches and nausea. For a handy list of the most beneficial plants; see here.

It has also been shown that caring for plants can improve and maintain mental health. From looking after the plants, which gives us a purpose; to enjoying watching the plant thrive as it goes through its life cycle - certainly great therapy.

While it can be difficult to find the right spot for a plant, for instance: direct sunlight or very low light areas; it's worth doing a bit of research before you go out to buy some plants. This will save you time, because you'll know which plants are suited to the places you have available, rather than the frustration of trying to make a plant live where it's not suited (trust me...I know!).

Thank you to my parents for providing such good displays for this post. :)

Sadly we’re getting ever nearer to the end of the series, with only one episode following the adventures and experiments in the Yorkshire Dales. Excitingly though, I chanced upon the book at my local library, so will be reading that over the next few weeks – with a review to come.

I have to agree with Chris that the Yorkshire Dales are beautiful. In the novel The Secret Garden, we were lead to believe that the Yorkshire Dales were a dull and dreary place. But Dickon must have gotten its knowledge from somewhere – and this episode shows us just some of the plentiful wild things on offer.

Following Chris to a farm, we see him counting the petals of creeping buttercup flowers. He explains that the breeding between the buttercups in the field cause a genetic mutation that means around every 7 years a buttercup with an extra petal is born. Counting over 20 buttercups in this meadow with 6 petals, Chris calculates that the field has been undisturbed for over 140 years. With this mutation only occurring in undisturbed fields, we can see on the maps that due to our farming methods, we have lost some of these fields over time. Chris follows this up with a cool experiment, first showing us flowers through a series of photographs in ultra violet to show us how bees see the plants. The fun part is when Chris remotely controls a small helicopter with the UV camera attached, viewing through some cool head gear – the point is to see how amazing the fields look in UV and how the yellow of the buttercups really stands out.

Next we visit Sally and learn some really awesome stuff about lichens – particularly how different lichens can tell us about the environment that they live in (click here to see the lichens that the Opal air survey are recording. Sally explains that by looking at the small things, we can see the bigger picture. The pixie cup lichen which makes water bounce off the cup spreading its spores. Other lichens such as the Caloplaca tells us that the air is clean. Other lichens can tell us that the substrate, in this case the wall, is limestone. The Xanthoria can tell us that the air is nitrogen rich, a by-product of exhaust fumes and fertiliser.

We then follow Trevor on a mission to see the very rare Lady’s Slipper orchid at a super secret location. When this Orchid is in flower, it receives 24 hour protection – a shame that it has to be done; but wonderful that it is done. Hunted to death by collectors by 1917, a single specimen was found on a Yorkshire hillside in 1930. Trevor’s enthusiasm is clear to see and clearer to understand when we see the beautiful flower that is produced (no sooner than 15 years after germinating). We then see Trevor hand pollinating the orchid to assist in ensuring the survival of this orchid. As with many orchids, the pollination method is intricate with the bee having to follow a route through the flower to ensure that the pollen is collected and then passed on.

After such as serious episode last week, it’s nice to see some lighthearted experiments. We see Sally and a brass band explaining how the bees use sound. We find that the bees flap their wings 168 times a second to heat up the hive and evaporate the water held in the nectar. We find that the musical note is an ‘E’, which is 158 hertz and copied by the band to really illustrate the point.

Excited, but saddened, that the next episode will close of this series. I can’t see how this series wouldn’t inspire anyone that watches it to get out there and look at the ‘wild things’ all around us. Hopefully there are lots of kids out there watching – the next generation of plant scientists.

Date Photographed: 06/05/2012
Location: Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Doncaster
Resources: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/hoof-fungus
Notes: This fungus is well known to grow in standing dead Birch trees. It's also used for tinder, with another common name for it being tinder fungus. I wouldn't be staying true to my enjoyment of bushcraft if I didn't embed a video of it being used for such a reason!

Sometimes it's really easy to identify a plant; you may be with someone who knows the plant, or it may be really similar to plants that you already know. At other times, however, we need to go a bit deeper and follow many research paths.

Recently I needed to go through quite a bit of research before I was able to find out the plant that I'd found. The photos below show the plant that I'm using in this example.


Books
My first port of call are the plant books that I have, to use these well I need to consider characteristics such as: flower colour, amount of petals and sepals (occasionally tepals), leaf shape, plant/leaf/flower size, type of inflorescence, etc.

The first two are for wild flowers of Britain, the smallest is the Collins book of Wild flowers. This book is a small field guide that is handily sectioned into flower colour. This can be ideal for a quick flick through to get an idea of the type of flower you're looking at - especially if you recognise the characteristics in other flowers you know. This didn't help much this time, so I went on to my next wild flower book. This book is the Collins Complete British Wildflowers. This book has a great short cut for finding flowers by the amount of petals - which is handy if the petals and sepals have obvious distinctions! However, this blook led me to the understanding that this plant must be a species of Allium.

So, I then thought that perhaps while this may not be a wild flower, it may well be a cultivar or similar. I therefore checked my garden plant book - the RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers, but unfortunately - and surprisingly, this didn't lead to a solution. So the next step is the internet!

Internet
As I thought that this may be an Allium, I initially started searching for photos of Alliums. I also used search terms for the amount of petals, the colour of the flower, and the rather interesting three green stripes on the petals. Alas, still nothing.

So I uploaded my photos to Wild About Britain (iSpot is another good website for identification help). A website that has a forum of excellent members, some of whom are true experts. The first responses were from the memebers that I would expect to supply the answer immediately, but they weren't sure. I was quite surprised. This plant must be something special. However, some members did recognise the flower as perhaps something that they had grown previously.

This led me to emailing the RHS member's advisory service in the hope of gaining an answer.

Why do I take the fun out of everything for myself?
It's something that I've done for years. Is it because we're always told to set goals, to achieve?

As a child I was fairly aimless and didn't really have any focus. Then as soon as I left school I seemed to get focus, but with that focus was the idea that I had to become good at something or become very knowledgeable about whatever I was focussed on. Apparently it takes 3000 hours studying something to become an 'expert'.

So, stupidly, when I become interested in something, I look around for 'best practice' approaches. I look for the governing or professional body for that topic. I look around for courses or other educational material. I look for blogs and other free resources online.

Now, how does this relate to this blog? I've always had an interest in nature, but never more so than this year.

Since January I've been dealing with the most destructive episode of depression that I've had in my life so far. I've been signed off since January. I lost my job, my social life, my hobbies, and interest in most things.

Then some how and utterly innocently I started taking photographs of plants. It was amazing. I'd take macro shots and be amazing that there was this beauty that I hadn't seen, even though I'd been looking. Then I started to try to ID plants. I already had this blog; it was more related to camping, but close enough to my new pursuit that I could adapt it to fit. Sometimes the only way I could force myself out of bed was to think of the new flowers I may have the opportunity to take photos of, in the garden or just down the street.

But then, idiotically, I started searching online for things to help me learn more. This in itself isn't a bad thing, but with the way my mind is, it's just not a good idea. I started with lectures available on YouTube from UCBerkeley about Plant Botany. They really are brilliant videos and I've learnt a lot from them. Then I started reading books on the topic. This took a long time as my level of concentration is terrible. Sometimes I'd read a whole page before I needed to rest. These books were interesting, but hard going. Then I decided to do a course with the OU about why people need plants.

It's just all too much. I've ruined my relationship with plants. I truly hope I can get it back. I'm eager to find a way to simplify my mind so that I can take my time with things and not go overboard to needing to feed the appetite for knowledge when I become interested in something. It certainly hasb't helped me get out of this slump. I want to simplify my relationship with plants, back to where it was - just taking photos and identifying plants.

I hope I can get back to that. Because while I appreciate the knowledge I've gained in such a short period of time, it's taken its toll on me. If anyone knows of techniques to help me simplify my mind or relax - to relax would be nice. PLEASE get in touch.

Thanks for reading.

Tim x

Term and pronunciation Calyx (cal-ix)
Etymology From Latin and Greek meaning the outer covering of a bud, flower or fruit. Similar to the Latin calix, meaning cup.
 
Meaning
This is the collective term for all of the sepals of a flower.

Usage and examples

The calyx is the protective layer when the flower is enclosed in the bud. The sepals can be grown together or separate and are normally green. 

• The collective term for all of the petals in a flower is corolla.
• When the petals and the sepals look similar the term is tepals (for example, tulips)
• The collective term for the calyx and corolla is perianth. 

The (rather hairy) calyx of this common chickweed (Stellaria media) is clear to see as the petals are so small.

History
One of the first written examples that the OED has of calyx is that in 1686 by the proclaimed father of English natural history, John Ray, in his three volume History of Plants.

Bibliography 
"calyx, n.". OED Online. December 2012. Oxford University Press. 21 February 2013 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/26611?redirectedFrom=calyx&>.
Allaby, M. (2012) Oxford Dictionary of Plant Sciences, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
"Petal". Wikipedia. December 2012. Wikipedia.org. 21 February 2012
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petal>

Anyone who's suffered from jet lag will know that circadian rhythms are an important process. But perhaps what you didn't know is that plants are also regulated by a circadian clock - and - that the same receptor is used in both plants and animals.
Read more »

Here's a nice easy going book that I loaned from our local library. It's a compilation of Alan's articles in the Gardener's World magazine.

Now with all authors that write about themselves, it takes me a while to decide if I like their writing style and to some degree, if I like them. But with a third of the book gone and the rest on its way to being devoured, I decided that I do like this Titchmarsh lad. I thought I did, after seeing him on Gardener's World and Ground Force for all those years, but now I know for sure.

The book is chaptered off in months, I assume it's to group the articles into the month they were written! It starts in January with Alan talking about gaining wisdom in the garden as we age and ends in December with Alan talking about Christmas during his Parks Department days.

I think you've got to get on with Mr. Titchmarsh if you're to read this book, because really it's a sort of diary. We come across some of the same topics a few times in the book, for instance, those Parks Department days, and the 'sons and daughters of the soil' line, but it's a nice easy read about a topic I enjoy: gardening. There are a couple of fun articles about the meaning of flower names and a brilliant one about his mum and the Duchess of Devonshire, simply entitled 'Mum'.

There are some nice line-drawn ilustrations that head the article titles, these are rotated through the book and don't always correlate with the topic, but are a nice distraction if you need a break inbetween readings!

If you can get it at your library, then I'd suggest giving this a read. It's not going to blow you're mind with life changing revelations, but I don't think the book was compiled for that. It was compiled to give one man's view on the state of affairs that come with gardening. It helps that he's a good writer and adds a dash of humour every now and then. Overall a nice easy read inbetween deeper reading material!


 

This was the best present that I ever bought for Lucy. I'm not sure she's ever actually looked in it, but I certainly have. I spent Spring 2011 reading it during lunch breaks and managed to get around 150 pages in before other things took over my time.

What do I like about this book? I like that it's a general all-rounder, with a breadth of topics and also what it covers within a topic. Take, for instance, Roses. The book begins with buying roses, moves on to planting roses and routine care, before discussing bush roses, climbing and rambling roses, species and shrub roses, and standard roses. Then to finish the topic of roses, the book discusses rose renovation and rose pests and diseases.

I also like the wonderful illustrations of the techniques described, they really make this book something special. An example being all of the illustrations for pruning all the different types of plants in the book, they're all unique. They show you exactly where to chop and how to train that plant. Mixed in are photographs of plants and flowers, which are also sometimes used to illuminate the topic further, as well as for interest.

The book covers the following general topics, there are sub-topics within them, but you'll have to search them out as I only have so much time to copy this list out!!

1. Gardening Basics
2. Wildlife Gardening
3. Ornamental Gardening
4. Growing Vegetables and Herbs
5. Growing Fruit
6. Lawns
7. Water Gardening
8. Container Gardening
9. Gardening Under Glass
10. Plant Propogation

I also like this book because it took a team of about 15 experts in their field to create it. Meaning that you get the best of the current information at the time of print.

But this leads me on to what I don't like about the book. With so many cooks in the kitchen, or more aptly so many gardeners in the greenhouse, the book does lack personality. I know that they have to choose a house style for the book and stick to it chapter after chapter, but it was a bit much for me at times. I have read a heafty chuck of this 480 page book, which is why I go back to it time and time again - because while I may not remember something specific, I remember the information I need is in this book. So for that, it's a go-er for me. I'll just dip in and out over time and get through it - the book's too useful not to.

My review is of the 2008 edition and I've noticed that there is a new edition coming in October 2012, so I've added that to the Amazon widget below too.


 

Cross-over post: This is a post that I wrote last week for a project I'm involved with called the Living Churchyard Project. If you'd like more information, feel free to visit the blog: http://stgileslivingchurchyard.blogspot.co.uk/

Front cover of God's Acre by Francesca Greenok Illustrated by Clare Roberts.

Prior to the weekend just gone, I had no idea a book like this existed. It was given to us as a wedding gift by one of our churchyard friends. Francesca's beautiful flowing prose is only matched by the detailed, yet minimal drawings and watercolours provided by Clare Roberts.

The author visited over two hundred churches while collecting material for this book and the detail provided in the text makes this apparent - as each page is full of gems. It's lovely to see that while a lot of churchyard match our own in terms of species, there are differences in species and usage in the churchyards of England and Wales.

The book is laid out in five chapters, the first being History and Heritage. Throughout the book Francesca makes obvious, yet thought provoking points about how our churchyard are used and about the connection of churchyard with wildlife. She makes is clear that it is desirable for wildlife and civilisation to exist in harmony. The research that the author has done for this book is clear throughout, especially in the choices of quotes used, including this one from Pope Gregory the Great that 'people would 'continue to frequent the same sacred places' even if the altar there was dedicated to a new god'. It was also interesting to find that at one point in history it was illegal to donate land to the Church, although it was again legal by the time of George III. We manage our churchyard with grass of primary importance, so it's humbling to know that managing churchyards as a meadow is a traditional practice. As such we can expect to see at least some of the plants and animals that were present in the historic churchyards.

Which brings us on to chapter 2 of Churchyard familiars. I'm a fan of ivy, so was pleased to see that the author chose to speak of ivy as a plant that is good for wildlife throughout the year. Another familiar in churchyards, including ours, is that no matter how it is managed for wildlife there always seems to be a stretch of grass that is always well trimmed on either side of the lych-gate all the way to the porch.

The third chapter talks of the churchyard being a place of sanctuary and survival. I hadn't realised that throughout history people have always been able to find sanctuary within the churchyard, but these days, perhaps more importantly, it is other kingdoms of life that required the safety of a churchyard to survive. This includes the tens, sometimes hundreds, of species of lichen that survive within the grounds of a churchyard, when they cannot survive anywhere else. This is often because churchyards are out of the way and face fewer problems with pollution, but also because the churchyard tends to stay the same for decades or hundreds of years, allowing wildlife to make a home without being disturbed.

For many this is a cause of celebration and ceremony, which is the topic of the fourth chapter. Something that the author points out is so obvious that I hadn't thought about it before and now wonder why it had never come to mind, is that some plant species are in the churchyard because they were used inside the church. Some species such as lady's mantle managed to survive or set seed when they were discard from floral decoration within the church. Other species, such as holly and ivy were grown because they were used at certain ceremonies through the Church year. A wonderful tradition, that I'd never seen, but could picture well because of Francesca's wonderful description is the rush-baring procession whereby the floor covering of rushes would be changed in late summer. This takes place as a community event, which is the discussion of the final chapter of the book.

In the community and conservation chapter, the author points out that most people are totally unaware of the species within the churchyard, but when told are not only interested, but concerned. This is especially the case with species considered as rarities, but I hope even common species would be of concern as the churchyard is often 'a shaded fountain in a parched desert' as Francesca quotes W. H. Hudson at the close of the book.

An appendix of plants with religious names and associates follows two churchyard surveys.

This book was a real pleasure to read and provides so much information within such few pages - but doesn't overwhelm. Instead the words and illustrations only serve to inspire the reader to a deeper appreciation of the churchyard as a place not only for wildlife, but for us to enjoy wildlife.

I've posted a few times now about my Phalaenopsis orchid, here and here. I just wanted to write a quite post because, with this being my first orchid, I was really pleased that it grew a brand new flower stalk and put on an impressive flower display.
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Well it’s here. The last episode of Wild Things. It’s been a fantastic journey, especially for people like me who are interested in plants, fungi, and lichens; but that don’t yet know much about them. Not only have we learned about the plants that are thriving and those barely surviving, but we’ve learned some basics about how plants work.

Anyway, on to the episode…
Joining the team on the Merseyside, they split up to investigate the wild things. Chris starts with the art installation ‘Another Place’ by Anthony Gormley of 100 life size statues looking out onto the busy shipping lanes of Liverpool docks. Finding that these statues have been covered by the Australian barnacle.
These barnacles arrived in the 1940s, hitching a ride on the ships. Slowing a ship by up to 10%, these barnacles can be a real pain and Sally shows us that they can even grip the most smooth surface made by science – the non-stick coating on frying pans! Before growing a shell, the baby barnacle, or cyprid needs to find a place to stick to so it can move on to the next stage of its life. Using a light microscope we see the cyprids slide around the pan. Using its antennae it find purchase it tightens its hold – permanently – exuding a sort of biological cement. These long fibres bind together very tightly allowing the barnacle to make the connection it needs.

Next Chris finds a special moss; the tall clustered thread moss. Special not only because it was only found on the zinc spoils of old lead moss, or because when these mines closed it was on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss, but because it have found a new habitat. This new habitat is under metal fencing, under what Chris called the metallic drip zone. The rain runs down the fence taking with it small deposits of metal from the fence with it. This moss really needs such high metal content to thrive. Chris runs an experiment on the alpine penny cress to give us an idea of what it does with this metal. Using a x-ray image, we see that at cell level the plant stores the zinc just under the skin, but still in the upper layer of cells. This makes it difficult for animals to eat the plant and for the tall clustered thread moss, this has helped it extend its range.

In part two we investigate a pond plant that does need light to grow. This plant is the New Zealand pygmyweed and it’s clogging up our ponds and waterways . From next to no plants on the map 50 years ago, it is now prevalent throughout the UK and is on a government black list. A quick Internet search brings up loads of information on management and eradication of this species – it has even been known to close canals. Plants use light to photosynthesise and store carbon dioxide with the process stopping during hours of no light. The pygmyweed stores carbon dioxide throughout the day and night. It stores the carbon dioxide as malic acid, when the sun comes up it then uses this during photosynthesis. In its native habitat it cannot photosynthesise during the day because its leaves would be scorched. Therefore it has evolved to grow in the cool of the night, but over here in Britain is can grow for around 20 hours each day. This enables it to out complete all of the native plants to Britain, growing up to 6 inches ever 24 hours. Even when Trevor liquidises the pygmyweed, he explains that even a branch of this plant 5mm long will grow into a new plant! The abilities of plants is wondrous – but sometimes no good for a healthy ecosystem in Britain. Therefore small pieces carried by birds can populate new ponds and waterways. Perhaps an insect from its native homeland can help us control this plant by acting as a biocontrol.

Built 400 years ago, Speke Hall http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/speke-hall/ is our last stop. It was built when Liverpool was a farming settlement made of around 500 people. What are we doing here – we’re supposed to be investigating industrial Liverpool, I hear you ask! Well hold your horses as Sally has the explanation. The timbers that were used to build Speke Hall had lichens growing on them before they were cut down. The then died leaving little dots – the dead bodies of lichens. Using the light microscope we can look at the 500 year old spores of lichens that used to flourish in this area. The spores of this lichen that they find has never been recorded in Liverpool – showing that industry has polluted the air and destroyed the habitat for this lichen. But not forever, this lichen – the Arthonia Radiata, is making a comeback as our air gets cleaner due to the decline in heavy industry.

Well peeps, that’s the end of the series. But it doesn’t have to be an end to our learning on the endlessly fascinating topic of plants and their habitats. One place to start is to follow the team on twitter:

This feature length documentary takes us on a journey through the soil and our relationship with it. We begin by learning that it's rare for a planet to have soil - something I've never considered, but ultimately true.

Not all soil is the same and we're told that of the 12 mentioned in the film, Mollisol and Alfisol are the most productive soils. It's the plants that make the soil productive and the roots that slough off provide food for some of the many members of this massive, but mainly microscopic ecosystem.

The artwork throughout the film make it really enjoyable to watch and is used effectively to visually show concepts explained. The film is a worldwide endeavour with scientists and farmers providing the narrative and real world examples of how feeding the soil can not only provide the same harvest as fertilised land - but much more. One farmer we meet is growing potatoes on his land, but also plants purely for wildlife, with 50% of the land going to each.

Legumes are used expensively to gather nitrogen from the atmosphere, which is then available for use by plants. A history of nitrogen fertiliser use is also covered.

One of the most interesting points of the film was a simple, but well done demonstration that showed the difference in water run-off and water supplying aquifers. The soils used were: conventional soil, organic soil, organic soil with compost, and organic soil with compost and a cover crop. There was lots of run-off from the conventional soil and no water supplying aquifers. With the other 3 soils there was less run-off, to close to none with organic soil with compost and a cover crop and a fair amount of water reaching the underground aquifers.

The film closes with a nice explanation of Adam and Eve. With Adam being the masculine of Adama, which means earth and Eve meaning life. So the writers of the bible knew that life came from the Earth. They lived in the garden of Eden, with Eden meaning delight. I hope we can get back to a place where the earth is a garden of life that we can delight in and be proud of our existence on it.

At 1 hour 44 minutes, this film proceeds at a pace that keeps interest, but allows time for the viewer to grasp the topics and concepts covered. You can rent the film to stream from Vimeo here and watch the trailer below:


I wrote this because I'm trying to learn more about soil as it's International Year of Soils.For more information about it, click here.

I recently saw that the charity Plantlife have an annual survey and got very excited indeed! I feel that over the past year my identification abilities have increased quite a lot. Not only am I needing to ask the people over at Wild About Britain for identification help less, most of my posts on there are noting my method reaching my identification - and happily hearing that people agree with it (most of the time).

Survey Pack

So, what was in the pack?

• There was a survey safety guidance sheet, which includes a really helpful checklist to ensure that all surveyors ensure that they have their safety in mind during the surveys.
• Survey guidance notes were also included. This provides instructions on how to select and survey the 1km wildflower path, the 5 x 5 metre plot, and the 1 x 20 metre plot - Plantlife note that you can choose to do either or all of the surveys.
• A leaflet that explains and encourages more people to join in the survey. Which I shall pass on to my living churchyard group this coming weekend.
• A recording sheet that has all the plant species and habitat types listed.
• A map of my area.
• Most importantly an excellent full colour booklet that provides an illustration and a photograph of each of the 99 plants that are included in the survey. The identification points are very clear and concise. Each species entry includes the flowering time, habitat and information on the leaves and stems of each species. Ideally the plants are organised by flower colour.

Importantly the 99 plants are selected to be easy to identify. The list includes herbaceous plants; such as Buttercups, ferns; such as Bracken, trees; such as Scots Pine, and shrubs; such as Hawthorn.

The square I was allocated is currently being built on. Hundreds of houses have popped up in the past couple of years, with more appearing on a weekly basis. However, the square next to my square has a right of way path that follows a stream, meaning that I could easily perform all three surveys. I had a quick chat over email with Sue and she was happy that I changed squares and emailed me across a new copy of the map.

So, now I have everything I need to get on with the surveys. How did I get on? I'll let you all know in a future post.

If you'd like to become involved, then you can find out more on the Wildflowers Count page on the Plantlife website.
You can also follow Plantlife on Twitter: @Love_plants


Have you completed some of these surveys in the past? I've love to hear your experiences, or any questions about the surveys, down in the comments.