Back at home I suddenly realised that what I should have done while my husband was
taking the pics, was to collect some seeds to grow here at home. However, I only thought
of that later, so it was back again on the bike to collect some. Another surprise: no
fruits! Then I realised that this plant was quite bushy with about 50 flowers fully open
whereas the normal plants had only one or two flowers, at most, and lots of ripe fruits.
Now these two facts are often linked; without fruits growing many plants will flower
profusely to try to get more chances of pollination and hence seeds. This is why many
sterile natural or horticultural hybrids look very bushy with lots of flowers, and why we
cut the dead heads off roses and sweet peas and pansies. But why were there no fruits in
this wild plant? Maybe the blue colour was not recognised by the usual pollinators, so
no pollination and no fruits. The flower parts all looked fine and normal. Another
difficulty, since it has no fruits or seeds, is how did it get here? And how do the ones
beyond Chelmsford propagate? Maybe the mutation happens frequently enough for
mutant seeds to form in normal parent plants, so a population is maintained by frequent
mutations instead of by the mutants making seeds? Nobody seems to know.
While we were out taking photographs of Mallows, we passed near a wetland where my
husband saw two Dragonflies, presumably mating. Trying to identify these was a challenge
for me, with only one very old book, but Martin Heywood helped (many thanks, Martin)
and probably they were Ruddy Darters Sympetrum sanguineum which are fairly common
round here.
A couple of weeks later I was with a group in Belhus Woods Country Park looking for
fungi. We found rather few, as it has been warm, dry, sunny weather for well over 3
weeks, with hardly a sprinkle of rain. However, somebody picked up a dead log to show
me the bracket fungi growing on it, and off it fell some bits of debris. One caught my
eye, and it was a rotten acorn with Acorn Goblet
Ciboria batschiana on it! I took it home and my
husband took a picture of it laid out on our garden
table (see right). It is supposed to be quite
uncommon, so I was delighted. I first met it at
Hainault Forest in 2007, only a few miles from
BWCP, so clearly it likes the acorns round here.
On the same trip, one of the Rangers picked off a dry Cramp Ball (aka King Alfred's
Cake) Daldinia concentrica. I knew this fungus could be used as tinder, as it is very
porous although hard, and it is almost pure carbon when dried and old, so it was like
having a piece of charcoal. But I was surprised when one of the Rangers made sparks
from steel and a flint to ignite it. Soon there was smoke coming from it, then, with
careful blowing, we saw a red glowing patch. Then another Ranger grabbed a small
handful of dried grass from the woodland floor, and held it against the glowing black
fungus and soon the hay caught alight with a big flame, so he dropped it and stamped out
the fire. Everyone, including me, was mightily impressed!!
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 58, January 2009 5