Diary of a Wood Part 5: Spring is on the way..
- Mar 3
- 4 min read
Mid Sussex Times March 24th 1982
New England wood, Cuckfield, has now been preserved for all time as a nature reserve by the dedicated work of the Beech Farm Preservation Society, The Cuckfield Society and other residents of the community.
One of them, Mr Stan Hallett, who visited the wood regularly throughout 1981, has produced a 54,000 word diary about it, which the Mid Sussex times is serialising.
MARCH
Very heavy and persistent rain has made the wood very wet, but it only needs a little sunshine to make it come alive and so it was today.
Along the eastern boundary is a female goat willow, which I referred to earlier this month. Male and female are separate trees. Today, however, just outside the western boundary, I found a male tree. At this time of the year they look most attractive.
I spent some time exploring the damp southern part of the wood, near the stile. Lesser celandine and golden saxifrage were looking attractive and the pendulous sedge added to the scene. At the water’s edge, the flowers of ladies smock, milk maid, or Cuckoo flower – Cardamine pratensis were waving in the breeze.
They are pale pink or lilac but tend to look white in the mass.
The bottom leaves are like watercress, with seven leaflets on a stem, and I understand may be eaten as watercress. The plant has a short rootstock and sometimes sends off runners, and as they lie in the wet ground they tend to root at every leaflet and develop a plant from the axil of each, so it is not surprising that one sees a mass of flowers in theses damp regions.
Climbing to the higher part of the wood, it was grand to survey the wooden floor, covered now with wood and anemones, to which I have referred in some detail.
I was also glad to come across some patches of wood-sorrel. – Oxalis acetossela – though still only in the leaf stage, it is attractive, for the leaflets are fresh yellow-green trefoils – backed with purple. They droop close to the stalk at night and when rain approaches, contracting or expanding under the influence of darkness or light respectively.
They really are worth looking for now. Such a graceful and charming plant, it is often seen in the rotten centre of an old beach stump, spreading in a loose cluster. Apparently they may be eaten as salad, the leaves having a pleasant acid flavour, due to oxalic acid.
The plant bears white flowers, streaked with pink, on long slender stems coming directly from the roots, which are fine and scattered along the creeping knotted pink stems. Later a five angled capsule develops, from which the black seeds are thrown with considerable force, thus ensuring a good distribution.
On a number of trees, Jews ear fungus, Hirneola auricula-judae was observed. There were generally fairly small specimens, ear shaped, or cup shaped and being wet, they were tough, translucent and gelatinous, reddish to purple brown in colour. They are said to be good to eat and can be eaten raw in salads. In China a closely related species is regarded as a delicacy.
Yellow brain fungus can be seen on many sticks and branches, as can cramp balls and redwood-wart fungus.
The woodland moss, Minim hornum, looks particularly attractive now and certainly its common name helps to identify it, namely Swans Neck moss. In one particular place, it covers a tree stump, and the older darker green contrasts with the very light green young shoots.
The outline and pointed leaves have nerves extending almost to the tips and pairs of teeth along the margins. The spore capsules looked very distinctive, growing on long red stalks, curved like the neck of a swan. The male and female parts are on separate plants, the males being clustered into a rosette-like structure.
The sun tempted out a brimstone butterfly, Gonepteryx rhamni. This sometimes happens as early as February. This butterfly hibernates in the adult stage and when resting with wings closed, it resembles ivy leaves and it is among such evergreens that the brimstone hides for the winter. It lives longer than most other butterflies.
Tree buds are expanding and hawthorn is coming into leaf but not sufficiently advanced for me to differentiate between the common hawthorn, Cratageus monogyna and the midland hawthorn, Cratageus oxyacathoides, if the latter should be present.
The leaves of the midland hawthorn are less deeply lobed that those of the common hawthorn and the berries normally contain two or even three pips, as compared with one in the common hawthorn. It is much less common and confined to heavy soils, chiefly in the east midlands and south east England.
Hawthorns take a long time to reach their full height of about 10m, which accounts for the wood being very hard. Old specimens are interesting to look at, as their trunks become gnarled and twisted. When in the vicinity of cattle, for example, by gateways or favourite sheltering places, the bark becomes glossy and polished by the constant rubbing by cattle.
It is a pity that there is not more hawthorn at the woodland edges, for it would be such a good habitat for birds who feed on the many and varied insects which like the leaves of the hawthorn. At the same time, it provides thorn protected nesting places.
As I left the wood it was grand to see the church spire of Holy Trinity again adorning the landscape, although still under construction.
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