Further on, in a patch of woodland, a tree had recently fallen. It was a large Hornbeam,
just over 20m high, or long, as it was lying down, and it had clearly fallen very recently.
Its fall had broken a substantial Ash and another middle-sized Hornbeam, as well as bits
of brushwood. The three trees were very clean in the splintered wood, and the soil
turned up and exposed at the root plate was also very fresh, so we thought it must have
happened in the preceding week or two at the most. This gave us much thought as to
how it had happened. It certainly looked natural, like wind-blow, except we have had
very little wind in the last couple of weeks. The tree did not appear diseased or sick, as
there was no sign of fungus or rotten wood anywhere. So we left it, still puzzled.
Later on, in another bit of woodland by the main track, several kinds of fungus were spot-
ted. They were all on dead wood, but different kinds on different kinds of wood. Some-
body spotted Oyster Mushroom: a typical set of slate blue-grey, overlapping and curving
brackets, in amazingly good condition and thus would make very good eating. So they
were taken home, and I hope the couple enjoyed them at suppertime. I was surprised at the
number of fungi we saw along this walk, particularly since the weather has been so cold.
Following my story of the sterile blue Common Mallow (see Newsletter, January 09
issue), I had three responses. The first thought it was usually a garden waste throw-out,
but the plant I found was some distance (800m minimum) from any house, not near a
road, and not with other garden throw-outs, so I think this one was unlikely, but you
never know.... Another was from someone who had seen a plant not far from EWT HQ
at Wigborough, on a roadside verge, and accompanied by a photo or two which clearly
showed that this plant too was sterile. Also it was not in a place where people would
throw out garden plants. The third was from a well-known botanist who knew about
sterile garden varieties of this same mutant Mallow, with a number of helpful comments
for me to follow up. Thank you, all three of you. So far, the puzzles surrounding this
plant remain. Any further reports to me this summer would be very welcome, particu-
larly if you can determine whether it is sterile or not, and/or if it is clearly a garden
escape or not. Even more interesting would be if anyone comes across a blue Common
Mallow that has real fruits on it, and not profusely flowering. A photo by email of any
blue Common Mallow would be wonderful!
You may recollect seeing an amazing sun spectacle on the front cover of a recent Essex
Naturalist (issue No 24, 2006/7) and article about it inside on pages 43-44, by Chris Gibson.
This morning we saw something similar, but less dramatic. Just after breakfast on Jan 24"'
we noticed a hazed sun coming up in the morning mist, and suddenly we saw two sun-dogs
(like small suns, very bright), one each side of the sun, diametrically opposite across a
large halo with slight rainbow colours all round. The rainbow colours were more intense
by the sun-dogs. Now I have seen sun haloes aplenty, and know they indicate high ice
clouds. But we had never seen sun-dogs before. Thank you, Chris Gibson.
On the evening of Sunday lst of February we had a little flurry or two of snow, nothing
much. It kept going overnight and we woke to about 15cm depth, very pretty, on Mon-
day morning, but it brought all transport by road, rail, bus, bicycle, in SE England to a
halt as the snow was much deeper in Surrey (31cm in Epsom) and Kent than it was here.
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 59, May 2009