Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, Tree News, Trees on March 26, 2017| 2 Comments »
Here is another selection of tree news articles from around the world. Click on each of the pictures if you would like to read the full stories.
Poems for the International Day of Forests
For the International Day of Forests on March 21, The Metro published some poems and images of trees…
Mapped: Countries with the most trees
Also coinciding with the International Day of Forests is this detailed survey of the countries with most trees, reported in the Telegraph…
Posted in Languages, Uncategorized, Words, tagged colours, Words on March 19, 2017| 10 Comments »
Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria, now renamed Ficaria verna) in the woodland part of my garden this week
What a strange word “yellow” seems to be. While most of our words for basic colours are very similar to the German words, such as blue, green and red for blau, grün and rot, at first glance yellow and gelb don’t seem to be related. But they are – about which I’ll say more later. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged elm, Nature, Pontcanna, Trees on March 12, 2017| 8 Comments »
Red flowers on the 100 elms Ulmus ‘New Horizon’ in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff
As I mentioned last month, this year I am following an avenue of 100 disease-resistant elms, Ulmus ‘New Horizon’, in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff. I visited on February 24 and was delighted to see there were plenty of little red flowers. They are apetalous – they have no petals – as they are wind pollinated and don’t need to be attractive to insects.
The flowers have both male and female structures (stamens and carpels), so they are hermaphroditic (other words are androgynous, monoclinous, synoecious). (more…)
Posted in Uncategorized on March 7, 2017| 8 Comments »
This is a maple of some sort close to the 100 elm trees I am following this year…
The March tree-following link box is now closed, but below are the links tree followers have shared this month.
If you are new to tree following, read all about it here. Why not join us? There’s no rush, you can join in at any time – although spring is a good choice – and you don’t really have to do it every single month if that’s too much.
Mike – Flighty’s Plot – dogwood (Cornus)
June – The Cynical Gardener – an apple-grafting special
Alison at the Blackberry Garden – quince
Erika Groth in Sweden – rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) – and a lovely little video of the Grand Rapid
Hollis (In the Company of Plants and Rocks) – a fossil palm has some fishy friends
Pat – Squirrelbasket – red elm flowers
John Kingdon – The Rivendell Garden Blog – time for a pedicure
Thank you to everyone – see you all again on April 7, and maybe some new people, too!
Posted in Books, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, Words, tagged Books, Sci-fi, Words on March 6, 2017| 5 Comments »
Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden trilogy – the UK book covers – Dark Eden (pub 2012), Mother of Eden (2015) and Daughter of Eden (October 2016)
Sometimes I encounter SUCH a good book that I feel I must tell everyone to read it! This does not happen very often these days but I have just finished reading Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden trilogy on my Kindle, while riding on the bus to and from work. I couldn’t get enough of the world Beckett has created and polished off all three books in just over a month. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, Trees, weather on March 5, 2017| 8 Comments »
A big branch was stripped from this horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) in Llandaff Fields, Cardiff, in late February
It must be the time of year – in February 2016 Storm Imogen felled a couple of trees in Thompson’s Park, Cardiff (see my blog post here), and this time Storm Doris brought the strong winds – although luckily we did not have it as bad here in South Wales as those in the north of the country.
However, we did have some small tree losses and this horse chestnut in Llandaff Fields lost a big bough. (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 