Bird-in-a-Bush
Written by Hans Rieder
2nd April 2014 at 08:47 PM
Peter Hill's Corydalis patch has extended considerably this year.
Keith Dodd took these pictures on March 31, 2014. They turned out to be beautiful sharp photos.
There are several large clumps in flower along either side of a 15m length of the path just beyond the wooden steps (en route to the slime mould!). It is clearly spreading dramatically and is flowering well.
It's an intriguing name, 'Bird-in-a-bush'; the flowers do look a bit like little birds among the foliage.
A walk through Nutwood LNR
Written by Hans Rieder
13th March 2012 at 8pm
Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) is more often a summer annual but occasionally a winter annual weed found in landscapes, container-grown plants, and greenhouses. Hairy Bittercress is found throughout the northern half as well as the south eastern United States.
Bird-in-a-bush (Corydalis solida) is a very rare established perennial. This European native was recorded at Risley (SK4635) in 1982 and in 2006 at Repton (SK3026). It produces mauve-pink, purple, or white flower spikes in spring over deeply divided grey-green leaves that are barely 10 inches tall.
Peter Hill writes: “We had an interesting walk around the Nature Reserve on Tuesday afternoon. Bluebells are growing - I got excited by some seedlings at the bottom of the slope then realised there were lots of them – Himalayan Balsam! Now would be a good time to remove them – while they are still small; we’ll pull some up next time we are there”.
Peter continues: “We found an almost complete badger skull - just a few teeth missing, lower jaw still attached – do you like to keep such items? If not one of my grandsons would be pleased to look after it”.
OK Peter, give your Grandson the badger skull, but Keith would be interested to have a picture of the skull.
Keith said: “There were plenty of fresh badger poo in their latrines today (along the transverse path near the north end). I suggest the balsam is left for now; we usually tackle it in the stream bed when we have a general tidy up later in the spring - it’s easier to pull when it’s bigger.
Peter also saw a female Reed Bunting as well as a large number of Redwings (100 estimated) in the pasture to the north of the path leading out to South Avenue - busy feeding on the ground at 4.15pm
Thanks for the badger skull photos Peter. Hopefully your Grandson doesn’t put a light in it and frighten old Ladies!
