September beauty and abundance in New England Wood

Diary of a Wood

Mid Sussex Times September 17 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 Hallet, who visited the wood regularly throughout 1981, has produced a 54,000 word diary about it, which the Mid Sussex Times is serialising.

WHO could forget John Keats’ “Ode to Autumn” — “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.”

The tenth day of September, the official first day of autumn has passed, and cold nights and misty mornings will become commonplace, but there will be splendid mornings.

The hedgerows are full of blackberries, hips and haws and in some places sloes, while beneath them, perhaps, some sweet wild strawberries. Spiders’ webs sparkle with the dew or maybe overnight frost.

It is the harvest and what we are seeing is protected seed boxes and the means by which the seeds are scattered, far and wide, well away from the parent plants. It is nature’s way of thinning them out, and giving light to the seedlings, so that their survival rate is increased.

Seeds pass through the digestive system of animals, without adverse effect, but in the process they automatically become distributed away from their productive source. Many nut fruits are stored by animals and birds at great distances from their parent plants and may never be retrieved. This is a big factor in the survival of species.

It must always be remembered, when picking berries, that although they may be edible to animals and birds they can still be poisonous to humans and this also applies to many fungi. The utmost caution should always be exercised, before deciding that they are edible.

It is my practice not to comment on whether a specific item is edible, but to make a point of stressing the fact that many are poisonous and some deadly poisonous. In the case of fungi, positive identification often entails a number of tests and it is obviously very unwise to be foolhardy.

Today I came across a group of Amanita rubescens, known as the blusher, and they were barely visible amongst the dead leaves, the caps being reddish fawn with dirty white, warty patches, which were moveable.

The stripes were white, with a pinkish flush, possessing a ring and suggestion of a volva. It is the red colouration which distinguishes them from the very poisonous, Amanita pantherina, known as the false blusher.

Amanitas, in general, are recognised by possessing a volva, or a bulbous stem, with a rim of woolly scales on the bulb. The scales on the cap are moveable and there is often a ring on the stipe.

In a tree stump cavity, I was delighted to find some Lilac Mycena, Mycena pura. The gills were broad and the stipe covered with woolly hairs on the base. The smell was of radishes.

The colour is variable, and in this instance was a quite deep purple, but in all respects appeared to be this species, which both in size and colouring varies tremendously.

Mycenas, are known as helmet caps and are a large genus, varying in size from medium to very small. They may have conical or bell-shaped caps and their stipes are thin and cartilaginous.

Nearby there were many bracket fungi developing, including Trametes betulina, which is semi circular, in fact sometimes almost circular. It is sessile, greyish brown and zoned, sometimes with a wavy margin. Quite common on stumps and branches of broad-leaved trees and often growing in tiers.

The Jelly Fungus, Dacrymyces stillatus, was showing its masses of orange, jelly like cushions, on some wet dead wood.

In the wet, northern areas of the wood growing with great pendulous sedge, was lesser spearwort, Ranunculus flammula, family, Ranunculaceae, with its lanceolate leaves, which were more or less toothed, its furrowed stalks and small golden yellow, five petalled flowers.

It is said that the root was pounded, then applied to the skin in a limpet shell, to produce blistering, which was thought to extract disease and was used on plague sores.

There are signs of much animal activity, but much of it is nocturnal. Undoubtedly, foxes are about in the wood for who can mistake their scent, particularly on an autumn morn, and the tell tale signs of wood pigeons’ feathers scattered over the ground.

The fox, Vulpes vulpes, family, Canidae, is a beautiful creature. Cubs born in late March or early April are now almost fully grown and have left the vixen. They are fit and strong, able to fend for themselves, and in fact lead their own lives.

Whilst possessing the sharpness of wit and cunning of the adult, they do not reach sexual maturity until late in December and are, therefore, still considered to be cubs. The sandy, russet, or redbrown fur above and white under, the black at the back of the ears and front of the limbs, usually present, and the white tipped, bushy brush are typical, and make them quite unmistakable. They do, however, vary considerably in colour, but are always beautiful to behold.

They are largely nocturnal, but can often be seen at dusk, or early morning, and particularly when playing with their cubs. The long pointed muzzle, erect ears and elliptical pupil of the eye, give them alert appearance, capable of making astute moves. Most of the day they spend in an “earth” acquired possibly from a rabbit or badger.

In the case of a rabbit burrow, the fox eats the constructors and takes unquestionable possession, but with the badger, the fox has a different approach, he fouls the entrance to the set, with a secretion from glands under the tail. This makes it uninhabitable for the badger, who has essentially clean habits.

The fox is omniverous. Of the variety of foods eaten, the chief are rabbits, rats, mice and bank voles, but he eats a great deal of vegetable matter. Frogs, snails, insects, hedgehogs and squirrels are all taken and many birds fall victim. There is often evidence of this, in the wood.

Mating takes place from late December to February, the single litter being produced about April, and usually comprising four cubs. Foxes are naturally playful and possibly use this process to lure their victims into a state of false security. They lead solitary lives, except at the breeding season, when, once mated, dog and vixen keep close together.