Dear Readers, I have visited Bluebell Wood in Bounds Green before, but never, I think, in the spring. And it’s been a hard one for this little patch of ancient woodland – the incessant rain of the early part of the year reduced whole areas to a mud bath. Today, though, things have dried up, and so I took a wander with my friend S to see what was going on.

First up, the understorey is looking very good – fences have been put up in some of the areas that have been most heavily trampled during the pandemic to allow the forest floor to recover, and it’s doing just that.

There is herb robert and forget-me-not…

But there are also ancient woodland indicators such as wood anemone, which have been lost from so many ancient woods.

There are a few tiny patches of sweet woodruff too.

And there are bluebells everywhere – the vast majority appear to be hybrids, but there are some that look closer to English bluebells.

 

 

 

There are a lot of young trees in Bluebell Wood, including both Midland and Common Hawthorn. It’s a bit difficult to see in the photos below, but Common Hawthorn has just one stigma (the pointy bit in the middle of the flower), whereas Midland Hawthorn has two or three, and the leaves of Common Hawthorn are more deeply incised than those of Midland Hawthorn. Midland Hawthorn is a plant of ancient woodlands, and its numbers have diminished along with its favoured habitat.

There is Bird Cherry in the wood too. It always reminds me of a little white firework display.

And there are a few patches of wild garlic (ramsons). Not enough to be picked though, so hands off!

And the holly is in flower. It’s interesting to me how smooth the leaves are on the holly in the first photo. The story usually told (including by me) is that the spikes, which are energetically expensive for the plant to produce, appear on leaves that are likely to be browsed by large mammals, whereas the leaves at the top, which are harder for deer or ponies to reach, can be smooth. However, some recent studies suggest that the reason that spiky leaves are produced is damage of any kind, not just browsing. So, a holly bush that is regularly pruned will produce more spikes that one that’s left to its own devices. I’m thinking that there is probably a genetic factor here too, with some garden varieties being inherently spikier than others. Anyhow, you can read a very interesting explanation of the phenomenon here, and the article also mentions that the amount of spikiness on a plant is known as ‘spinescence’, a new word for me but definitely one to add to the dictionary.

And finally, here’s a grass. Grass doesn’t get half as much attention as it merits in my opinion, being such a vital part of so many habitats. We might not think of grasses as playing much of a part in the understorey of woodlands, but this is Wood Melick (Melica uniflora), and very green and delicate it looks too.

Wood Melick is the foodplant of the Slender Brindle moth (Apamea scolopacina), The caterpillar starts its life in the stem of the grass, before emerging at night to eat the leaves and spending the day hiding on the ground. It eventually pupates on the ground, and emerges in late summer. What a stunning moth it is!

So, Bluebell Wood is a tiny slice of ancient woodland, but it certainly punches above its weight. As we walked, we could hear great tits, blue tits, robins, blackbirds, wrens and black caps singing, and green woodpeckers and ring-necked parakeets yaffling and squawking away. The fenced areas are allowing biodiversity to return, without impinging on the pleasure of walking in the wood. I look forward to seeing what other plants and animals will turn up as the wood recovers.