Diary of a Wood Part 6: Spring has arrived!
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MID SUSSEX TIMES Friday 02 April 1982
NEW ENGLAND WOOD, Cuckfield has now been preserved 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 area regularly throughout 1981, produced a 54,000 word diary about it, which the Mid Sussex Times is serialising.
APRIL
A lovely spring morning, full of promise, so I first walked the eastern edge of the wood, starting at the north-east corner. Here I was delighted to find the carpet of “Town Hall clock” at the base of a tree. Moschatel, Adoxa moschatellina, its official name, is a perennial with tuberous roots and creeping rootstock.
The square stems are about four inches high, bear a pair of leaves, which are trefoil lobed and at the top is a yellow-green flower, whose parts are in fours, whilst immediately below it are four others with the parts usually in fives. The ovary develops into a green berry.
The plants form a low carpet, and the flowers are most interesting to examine. I have been searching for this plant for some time, so it was a good start for the day.
A number of bees and other insects were seen, including a green lace wing, (family Chrysopiae - Chrysopa septempunctata) - there are quite a lot of those about this year. When attacked, they produce an offensive-smelling secretion from stink glands on each side of the thorax. The females usually lay their eggs in groups on the underside of leaves. The first larvae to hatch devour the rest of the eggs. They hibernate as larvae in white, silken cocoons, pupating the following spring.
There still remain some berries on the holly trees and the horse chestnut buds are in varying stages of opening. As would be expected, the woodland edge has its share of wood anemones and lesser celandine, but also daisies and dandelions.
Although the common daisy, Bellis perennis, may be found everywhere, it is nevertheless worth examining closely for the flower head is composed of a conical receptacle on which are crowded about 250 small flowers, and these are of two types. The central yellow ones are tubular, whilst those outside are white and flat. The latter invariably close up over the central ones at night and in wet weather, thereby fertilising the stigma. The leaves may be eaten as salad. The name comes from "Day's Eye," but actually it needs a bright day to open.
The dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, is also found everywhere. The leaves spring directly from the rootstock and the golden yellow flowers are borne on hollow stalks which exude a milky juice when broken. The florets are strap-shaped and each is a perfect flower.
Seed dispersal is by each pappus spreading into a parachute, the whole being the familiar fluffy ball. The flowers only open in full sun. It is said that the leaves are delicious cooked or eaten in salad, and the roots may be dried, roasted and then ground to make coffee. Medicinally used to clear up urinary problems.
Ribwort plantain, Plantago lanceolata, is just showing its short spikes on furrowed stalks. Children play a game with the flower heads, striking one against the other until one falls and the other wins. This is what gave it the name "soldiers" or "fighting cocks.”
It is now a lovely sight to see the carpet of wood anemones in the wood, interspersed with dog’s mercury, the very occasional primrose and now the first bluebells coming into flower, against a background of masses of green leaves that themselves clothe the woodland floor.
How lovely it will be, shortly. to see the sheets of bluebells or wild hyacinths — Endymion non scriptus — in our woods. In fact, by their density they may have ousted the primroses. They are never seen to greater perfection, anywhere else in the world, than in this country and I doubt whether they can be excelled for beauty.
The bluebell, with its wonderful rich scent, is an interesting plant which flowers before the shadows get really dense, but then its leaves die and rot very quickly, making the woodland floor quite slippery for a week or two. It has its maximum rate of photo synthesis — the process by which most plants take carbon dioxide and water from the air and turn them into carbohydrates and oxygen — in full daylight, but as the light intensity reduces so does the rate of photo synthesis.
The plant then develops increased leaf area, relative to weight, in order to achieve slightly greater efficiency'. This can compensate for the falling rate of photo synthesis down to 70 per cent full daylight. As the light intensity reduces, the number of leaves produced decreases. their size diminishes and there are fewer flowers on the stem.
If the mean light intensity falls below 10 per cent between April and mid June, bluebells cannot survive. It follows, therefore, that in a shady wood, the density of bluebells is accounted for by differences in light intensity and it is interesting to look for this.
The question is often asked, why are some bluebells white. The reason for this is that the colour in the flower is produced by the factor for blue colour and the factor enzyme. Both factors must be present. but if either the colour factor or enzyme factor is not present, the colour will be white.
When the bluebell goes to seed. the adaption is interesting, for the seed is upright and scatters rather than dropping. The stalk continues to grow. It is thinner at the bottom, enabling it to sway and, therefore. contributes to the scattering of the seed. From seed to flowering, approaches seven years.
I always hope that no one wishes to pick bluebells. since they look far better growing naturally and look nothing in a vase, or cast away when they have wilted. This applies to wild flowers in general and we do not want to stop them seeding.
In the case of the bluebell, however, picking flowers does not damage the plant producing them, but treading down the leaves does and so this should be avoided. I hope, like me, others will enjoy the wonderful carpet of bluebells which is clearly promised.
There should be some violets about and I shall be looking for them. These need careful examination with the help of a key to identify their type. As would be expected, the smaller common chickweeds are showing themselves, and the leaves and shoots of these are supposed to be pleasant to eat in a salad or lightly cooked. In various places, red dead nettle, Lamium purpureum, an aromatic annual, with heart shaped, bluntly toothed leaves can be seen.
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