The winter tree is no more…
I feel responsible. I AM responsible! In May I was intrigued by a tree in Cardiff’s Llandaff Fields that wasn’t in leaf yet, while all others were. I called it the winter tree…
The winter tree in May 2014
Red leaves trying to come through in May 2014…
When I returned in June I was horrified to find the tree wasn’t late into leaf, it was dead. Around its base grew a sort of fungus associated with dead wood…
Coprinellus micaceus, commonly called mica cap, shiny cap or glistening inky cap, around the base of the winter tree in June…
In places the bark was in a very bad way…
I called the parks department and a tree inspector went for a look. It turned out the tree was a horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) and it had possibly been killed by some sort of canker. So the mystery was solved, but the tree would have to be felled to stop the disease spreading.
In July I went back, and the tree inspector had been true to her word…
I’ve only just noticed the hornbeam I am following is in this picture, in the distance on the left…
This is what the winter tree should have looked like – a healthier horse chestnut nearby…
I wandered around the remains of the winter tree, but what can you say? A felled or fallen tree always look so solid, so heavy, so unable to lift itself up again from the ground…
Felled horse chestnut – do I find it poignant that it lies among white clover flowers?
It would have been good to have been able to count the tree rings, but they were hard to see. I’m sure it was quite a young tree, compared to most in Llandaff Fields…
There’s a distinct redness under the bark – is this bleeding canker?
Depressing from any angle…
I wonder what the letter T means?
This is where the winter tree stood. No sign of the (harmless) fungi now – have the tree roots been treated to prevent spread of the disease?
Another much smaller chestnut tree has also been felled…
It’s sad that such a lovely crop of lichen has now lost its habitat…
Nearby another winter tree still stands. Oh dear, they missed this one…
One winter tree survives
Ah well, it was nice knowing the winter trees for a while, but I hope I don’t find any more next year…
The Squirrelbasket 
It’s sad to see a tree felled, but good that it will not spread to other trees. You can feel quit sad for these big trees once you become a little attached.
Amanda xx
A little sad, but I’m glad it was one of many horse chestnuts in the park, not something unique.
All the best 🙂
At least the death of the tree had you as witness, with all the photos you took over the months.
Thank you for that consoling thought…
All the best 🙂
The bleeding canker is infecting more than half of our horse chestnuts, it is very worrying. I have two of these lovely trees and each year they get leaf miner caterpillars which is very disfiguring. They don’ t die of it but it can make them less resistant to canker.
Oh dear, what is happening to our lovely trees? We have lost elms, ash and oak are under threat. You wonder whether future generations will inherit a treeless landscape.
Yes it is absolutely horrifying!
I remember elms from my childhood but have not seen one, with its distinctive lopsided leaves, for ages.
I wonder how responsible we are? Forcing trees to grow where they shouldn’t? Or importing cheap stock from abroad? Or just climate changes encouraging diseases?
So sad…
it is upsetting that so many species of tree are succumbing to diseases and other woes and that others, such as sycamore seem to go from strength to strength.
I am certainly seeing SO many sycamores this year. Or is it because the one in the garden is suddenly old enough to bear fruit and I am seeing the keys close to my window every day…
Best wishes 🙂