Falmouth Cemetery - 30 Days Wild

30 Days Wild - Falmouth Cemetery

Many of us lead busy lives, so much so that it is easy to let our connection with Nature slip away. This lack of interest in our local wildlife has many consequences, for what we cease to value can be so easy lost, sometimes forever.

30 days lost is a initiative by our Wildlife trusts to encourage people during June to get out and about to experience the natural world. Not only does this benefit our wildlife as people's connections with Nature are strengthened but it has measurable health benefits for those that participate.

Let's go wild in June.

Ashy Mining Bee - Kimberley Park, Falmouth

Nature in Falmouth - Kimberley Park

The first in a series of short videos showing wildlife, flora and fauna, in and around Falmouth.

Download "Nature in a sacred place" - a look at the importance of Falmouth Cemetery for Nature

In the autumn of 2016 I began writing down my observation and thoughts on the importance of the old parts of Falmouth cemetery for bees and other insects. It was in part motivated by the publication of The State of Nature – 2016 that described the declines happening to so much of our wildlife. It was then, and is still my conviction that the opportunity exists to manage our urban green spaces to protect local wildlife and to promote the health benefits’ engaging with Nature offers the local community.

It was my hope that by providing an introduction to some of the wildlife to be found in the cemetery, together an overview of its ecology it would influence Falmouth Town Council’s management. In this, it has been partially successful and I remain optimistic that while it is very much a work in progress, further improvements to the maintenance of the cemetery are achievable.

Download the guide here, http://bit.ly/2FYIt4U 

Fox Rosehill Gardens, Falmouth - Plants flowering in Winter

I confess that it is my interested in bumblebees that draws me to Fox Rosehill Garden each winter. The garden's various varieties of Mahonia are pretty well guaranteed to attract winter active buff-tailed bumblebees from November through to the end February. While a bumblebee visit to a Mahonia flower is almost certain, some days entail quite a lot of waiting for a visitor to arrive. This allows me to take a look at its other attractions.

The garden is home to a variety of exotic plants from around the world. Quite a few of these flower during in the winter. I am not very knowledgeable on ornamental plants but with help from Robbie Blackhall- Miles from Fossil Plants and Helen Brown at Little Ash Gardens I have managed to put a name to the plants in my photos.

Bumblebee on Mahonia flowers

Fuchsia microphylla

Amaryllis belladonna

Impatiens tinctoria

Sparmannia africana

Correa glabra var. turnbullii

Salvia corrugata

brugmansia x Lutea

Clerodendrum trichotomum
- these are fruits not its flowers

Lambertia formosa

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Wolfgang von Goethe and one of the smallest living organism

It was an accidental discovery while I was looking for early flowering wildflowers at the beginning of January. I spotted a few Scarlet Pimpernels flowing in my garden and picked one to photograph. Only when I looked through the camera's viewfinder did I notice something unusual. Where the stamens and pistil should have been, small leaves were to be seen.

Normal Scarlet Pimpernel Flower

My not so normal Scarlet Pimpernel Flower

This phenomena was observed in roses by the German writer and polymath, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and he named it, Metamorphosis. Today it is usually known as Phyllody (leaf like) and it is generally caused by infections although adverse environmental conditions may also cause an imbalance in a plant's hormones producing the same effect.

With this plant flowering so early environmental stresses could be a possible cause. However Scarlet Pimpernel is also a known host for aster yellows phytoplasma. This disease can infect over 300 species in 38 families of herbaceous plants, symptoms are variable and include phyllody.

Phytoplasma are one of the smallest living organisms and cannot be seen through an optical microscope nor can they be cultured like many other types of bacteria. Little wonder that they were not discovered until 1967 by Japanese Scientists.

If the phyllody in the flower was caused by a disease it was mostly likely infected by a sap sucking insect such as a leafhopper. Interestingly the phytoplasma in the sap once ingested by a female leafhopper can extend the insect's lifespan and increase the number of eggs it lays. While this benefits the insect it also increases the opportunities for the bacteria to infect other plants. 

An unusual start to year to be sure, I had not seen anything like it before or heard of Phyllody. I will keep my eye on this patch of pimpernels during the spring to see if I can see any recurrences.

Dance of the Faeries

It is a magical spectacle of the autumn, swarms of the cranefly Dicranomyia chorea dancing in patches of sunlight towards sunset. These were filmed in Fox Rosehill Gardens in November and I have also seen them in the old parts of the cemetery above Swan Pool in early October. Could they be mistaken for faeries or pixies? I think it likely that they are one natural phenomena that may have supported the folklore. 

November Wild flowers

November can seem like a rehearsal for winter as the days shorten, temperatures fall and deciduous trees make their final preparations for shedding their leaves. It is not though a month entirely of gloom with Nature snuggling down to sleep through the long nights. A few wild flowers can still be found adding colour to the landscape in the milder parts of Britain.

The plants I discovered on a walk at the beginning of the month can be divided into four groups. The first would be the last remnants of species that mainly flower in September and October such as Ivy and bramble flowers. The second group are those species that take advantage of Falmouth’s mild coastal climate to flower for much of the year, examples of these would be Red Campion and Ivy-leaved Toadflax. A few individual plants of spring flowering species can be enticed into flowering in autumn by mild weather, the primroses and wood sorrel flowers I saw for example. Finally there are the winter flowering species that tend to be garden escapees for example Winter Heliotrope.

In all I spotted twelve species flowering, a reasonable count for early November.