Budburst is the emergence of new leaves on plants, which signals the beginning of a new growing season cycle. (GLOBE)
Budburst is one of the more commonly recorded phenophases; many organisations and phenological networks carrying out recording for this seasonal event; including: Project Budburst, Nature’s Calendar, USANPN, Beagle Project and GLOBE.
While checking the progress of the bee orchids this morning I noticed that the re-seeded area where building work has been happening has a thriving population of what looks like young Phacelia tanacetifolia. While this might be an exciting new record for campus Phacelia can be a problem weed if it gets established. I’m curious to know why it was included in the seed mixture.
There are some interesting plants appearing around the old buildings near Earley Gate.
A particularly interesting piece of ground is the site of an old greenhouse adjoining the lawn to the north-east of the Agriculture Building. This looks like a messy, dry piece of waste ground but has some interesting plants: Continue reading
Prunus spinosa shrub
A real favourite of mine, and a sure sign that spring is with us, is Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa. Its pure white blossoms emerge before the leaves and so are set against the very dark, leafless, spiny twigs, surely one of nature’s simplest, coolest and mouth watering colour combinations.
Blackthorn is one of several white flowered shrubs native to Britain but these don’t tend to flower together, rather they bloom in sequence from spring into summer. Blackthorn kicks off the year being at its best in April, the clear white flowers of Hawthorn follow in May (indeed ‘May’ is one of the common names of Hawthorn), finally the creamy white saucer-shaped inflorescence (technically corymbs) of Elder adorn the hedgerows from June. These three are also bounteous, Blackthorn flowers ripen into sloes for sloe gin, possibly the most delicious drink that nature (with a little help) can offer, Hawthorn offers its fruits the ‘Haws’ as fodder for birds and indirectly benefits us by their presence and beauty, and finally Elder offers, surprisingly for such a stinky plant, blossoms for Elderflower tea, cordial and of course Elderflower Champagne and Elderflower wine, and eventually berries for, well for more wine!
Prunus spinosa flowers
Identification: To some extent flowering time helps separate these three white-flowered shrubs, but Elder (in the Caprifoliaceae) is easily told apart from the other two by its grey bark with prominent lenticels (breathing pores) and when you split the twigs there is an extensive soft white pith and the whole plants reeks with that characteristic rather gross, cat-pee like Elder odour! Blackthorn and Hawthorn are both in the Rosaceae and so are more similar to each other, but it is still pretty easy to tell them apart. Blackthorn has dark, even black twigs, bearing perpendicular lateral spines and also terminal spines, the spines themselves may bear buds and flowers, the leaves are narrowly oval and toothed. Hawthorn on the other hand, has greenish brown or dark grey twigs with lateral thorns, angled, not perpendicular and with no buds on them, the shiny leaves are characteristically deeply and variously lobed. Later in the year the fruits are very diagnostic being purplish ‘sloes’ in Blackthorn and red ‘haws’ in Hawthorn. Enjoy the recent images of Blackthorn above and I’ll post images of the other two later in the year as they come into flower!
Erophila verna (Spring Whitlow Grass)
One of the first botanical signs of Spring is the aptly named Spring Whitlow Grass (Erophila verna) (except it is NOT a grass, not even remotely!). It’s a very common plant in urban habitats and there’s lots of it in car park 13 by the Harborne Building! Continue reading
The grasslands areas which I surveyed on campus lie either side of the campus lake. These areas contain many differing grass species and are managed to allow patches of grasses of different heights to occur. Amongst the grassland are various trees and shrubs, which provides perches for the avian inhabitants. Continue reading
Ginkgo biloba
We have a few plants of Ginkgo biloba on campus, all of which are fairly small and young compared with the historic specimen at Kew gardens. However that tree is small compared with the huge specimens that can be seen in the far east. Ginkgo biloba is a gymnosperm that has a long fossil history that suggests it was once very widespread. However it became reduced in its natural distribution to a small area of China where it stayed until horticulture spread it to surrounding Japan and Korea and later into Europe and the Americas. It is now widely used as a street tree.
There is a comprehensive new book on the species by one of our most eminent botanical alumni, Professor Sir Peter Crane FRS, who is now working at Yale. The book has its own Facebook site. To read more about the book see Yale University Press.
Frank W. Thomas Residence, 210 Forest Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois – 1901 Prairie Style home by Frank Lloyd Wright
Ginkgo is one of the most distinctive, long lasting and fascinating of the gymnosperms. Peter Crane is a world renowned palaeobotanist but also lives in Oak Park, Chicago, just a few blocks away from Frank Lloyd Wright’s home, a man famous for his prairie style architecture and for popularising the Ginkgo as a street tree.
Long-jawed orb weavers: Pachygnatha degeeri
The name “orb weaver” has a poetic ring to it and the craftsmanship surrounding the design of an orb web is certainly deserving of such a title. The long-jawed orb weavers are known as the family tetragnathidae which are spiders that all spin a delicate web with a hole at the centre (hub). The only exception is the genus pachygnatha, members of which only spin webs as young spiderlings and these are never far from the ground. The older individuals eventually lead a ground-dwelling, web-less lifestyle (Foelix, 1996). Having said that adult spiders can often be found high up in vegetation during the night where they move about on numerous silk strands. Clearly species in this genus are very adaptable to different habitat strata.
Pachygnatha degeeri 
By BKoe.
Wolf Spiders: Trochosa terricola
Although they do not hunt in packs like wolves, the spiders of the family Lycosidae are very much nocturnal predators. These wolves, unlike their counterparts, are readily found in the UK and within the genus Trochosa 4 species are present in Europe (Roberts, 1995). These are large spiders (comparative to other British species) with a heavyset body reaching sizes of 20mm, although many rarely exceed 10mm.
A male Trochosa terricola – one of our larger species of lycosidae. 
By Rhithrogena22
T. terricola is a common species that can be found prowling damper environments amongst moss and stones all year round. It has light brown colouration on the legs and fringes of the carapace with a cardiac mark behind the eyes of the same tawny brown. The abdomen is chestnut brown and the legs exhibit flecks of tan.
Wolf spiders generally sit and wait for prey to come to them, reacting to the vibrations produced by the smallest movements. Their eyes offer visual sensitivity and spatial awareness which is unparalleled in spiders (bar the jumping spiders) but only produce sharp images up close (Herberstein, 2011). This is a possible reason for the elaborate courtship displays found in Lycosid spiders, a kind of spider semaphore (Foelix, 1996).
Finding them at night may at first present a challenge but with a torch handy they soon become apparent. Night time is when wolf spiders truly shine, literally. Their eyes, not unlike cats eyes, reflect light. The reflective membrane that allows this, known as the tapetum, has a grid iron structure whereby beneath each row of receptors in the eye there lies a row of reflectors. The tapetum is mainly formed from layers of guanine crystals which usually cause the light reflected to be green (Land, 2000).
During the day these predators will hide away in dugout burrows lined with silk, a more primitive arrangement to building a web. The mothers make doting parents and will carry their egg sacs and spiderlings between burrows to keep them safe as well as making sure there is good foraging to be had once the spiderlings disperse. This takes place about a week after hatching (Foelix, 1996).
T. terricola was first recorded in Britain in 1820 and since then a large database of sightings has been established as part of the Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme. Over 10,000 records have been made and many of these occur in the South and East of the UK where the warmer conditions allow spiders to be active for more of the time (Partridge, 2013). Further information on the distribution of this species can be found here.
References
Available at:
http://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/summary/s/Trochosa%20terricola
The third and final part to my blogs on the bird species that can be found on the Whiteknights campus lake. Today, I am including the rest of the water birds which were sighted during the survey period, and some ‘edge’ species; in this context, I am referring to the birds sighted at the edge of the lake where there are woodland areas.
Water Birds:
Black-Headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
Black-headed Gull in Winter Plumage on Whiteknights Campus by M. Sandilands
These are currently sporting their winter plumage, with only a black spot on the sides of their heads, but as we enter the warmer months they will develop the dark hood which gives them their name.
Continue reading
