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Category Archives: plants

Fern Friday: Hart’s-tongue

27 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by sconzani in plants

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Asplenium scolopendrium, British ferns, fern, Fern Friday, Hart's tongue

Perhaps, when I began these Fern Friday blogs, I should have started with the fern with the most basic shape, the one with the long simple leaf shaped, apparently, like the tongue of a deer (commonly called a hart in former days), the Hart’s-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium). As it grows everywhere in Britain except in the colder far northern regions, and can be found draping stone walls, in woodland, under hedgerows, in roadside ditches, I’m sure this fern will be familiar to most of you.

230127 hart's-tongue fern

Hart’s-tongue has featured on this blog before, in particular because its glossy leaves provide a home to several species of leafminers, including these two Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora 3 January 2022 and Leafmines: Chromatomyia scolopendri 1 March 2021.

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Fern Friday: Common polypody

06 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by sconzani in plants

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British ferns, Common polypody, Polypodium vulgare agg, Polypodium vulgare sensu lato

Fern Friday will be a very occasional series as I try to learn to identify the various fern species I encounter during my meanders. Common polypody is one I see quite often but it turns out not to be as straight forward as I was hoping. It seems that the various Polypodiaceae look very similar and require expert examination to be sure of their species. So, I’m lumping mine together as Polypodium vulgare sensu lato (i.e. broadly speaking, these are Common polypody).

230106 polypody (1)

As you can see, this specimen was growing on an old stone wall, acidic rocks and walls being their preferred habitat, though they can also grow as epiphytes on trees. The fronds of a fern are divided into pinnae (like leaflets): if divided just once, like the Common polypody, they are described as pinnate; if twice, they are bipinnate; if three times, tripinnate (further Fern Friday posts will show examples of these multi-pinnate species).

230106 polypody (2)

On the underside of a fern leaf the sorus (plural sori) can be found. The sorus is a small cluster of sporangia, where the spores the fern uses for reproduction develop. In the Common polypody, the sori, which are usually round, start off a pale yellow and change to an orangey brown when mature. You may recall that these sori are sometimes home to the larvae of a tiny moth, Psychoides filicivora (see my 19 December post, Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora,2).

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Merry Mistletoe!

25 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in plants

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British galls, British plants, Christmas plant, Mistletoe, white berries

Whatever today means to you – holy day or holiday, special times with your family, or just another day (that’s me), I hope you find time for a walk in Nature, for the peace and joy it can bring. Also, merry feasting!

221225 mistletoe

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Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora, 2

19 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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Common polypody, leaf-miner on fern, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, Polypodium vulgare agg, Psychoides filicivora

At the start of this year I found my first moth larvae living in self-constructed coverings of spores on the underside of fern leaves. At that occasion, the ferns were Hart’s-tongues (Asplenium scolopendrium) and the moth larvae were Psychoides filicivora. However, there is another moth species that lives like this on fern fronds so, when I found this larva last week on one of the Polypody fern species (Polypodium vulgare sensu lato), I was hoping I’d found the second species, Psychoides verhuella. Unfortunately, I had not but I was still pleased to have found P. filicivora on a different fern species. My search for the other moth species continues.

221219 psychoides filicivora

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Leafmines: Phytomyza glechomae

12 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants

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fly leafmines, Ground-ivy, leaf mines, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafmines on Ground-ivy, Phytomyza glechomae

This time last month I found my first leafmines on Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea) (and blogged about them on 14 November, Leafmines: Coleophora albitarsella). Now, I’ve found another new-to-me leafmine on this same plant species only this one was made not by the larva of a moth but rather but the larva of a fly called Phytomyza glechomae. The mines are quite distinctive, starting with a winding gallery and finishing with a wider blotch, with plenty of frass scattered throughout. As always, you can read more and see plenty of images on the excellent British Leafminers website.

221212 Phytomyza glechomae

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Leafmines: Coleophora albitarsella

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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blotch leafmines, British leafmines, case-bearing larva, Case-bearing moth, Coleophora albitarsella, leafmines on Ground-ivy, leafmining moth larvae

For months, both earlier this year and in recent weeks, I’ve been casting an eye over all the patches of Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea) I’ve noticed so I was delighted, last Friday, to finally find what I’ve been searching for, a new leafminer. Even better, as well as the tell-tale blotches on several leaves, when I turned over one leaf there was also an empty larval case.

221114 coleophora albitarsella (1)

These are the feeding signs for the larvae of the little moth Coleophora albitarsella (also known as the White-legged case-bearer, you can see the rather non-descript adult moth on the UK Moths website here), which munches on a wide variety of different plants (see full list on the British Leafminers website here). This moth species is relatively scarce in Glamorgan, with just a few sightings this millennium; in fact, it’s not very common anywhere in the UK, with just 109 records currently showing in the NBN Atlas (110, when mine is added) , so I feel rather privileged to have found these leafmines.

221114 coleophora albitarsella (2)

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An empty pod

06 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by sconzani in plants, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, plant pod, pod, seed pod, seeds, vetch seed pod

This pod has done its job, encasing within its sturdy walls the growing seeds of the next generation of legumes, in this case one of the vetch family. Once the seeds were mature, the pod began to dry out, in the process turning from a lush green to rich brown. And then, when the time was right, the temperature and humidity at optimum levels, the pod split open, flinging its seeds as far and wide as possible to try to ensure the success of the next plant generation.

221106 seed pod

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The aphid munchers

06 Tuesday Sep 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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British hoverflies, hoverfly larvae, hoverfly larvae on Wild parsnip, Melangyna sp larvae, Melangyna species, Syrphus sp larvae, Syrphus species, Wild parsnip

Today’s focus is on one of the smaller things in life, specifically every gardener’s friend, one of the aphid munchers, the hoverfly larva.

220906 syrphus sp

In fact, not just one larva, but many, and from more than one species, feasting on aphid-infested Wild parsnip plants. The larvae in the photos above have been identified as being one of the Syrphus species of hoverfly, while those below, according to an expert, are probably Melangyna compositarum agg / umbelltarum. All would need rearing to adulthood for more precise identification.

220906 Melangyna sp

It’s worth checking the stems, leaves, seedheads of plants with aphid infestations as hoverfly larvae are almost certain to be lurking there somewhere.

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Hips, haws and berries

04 Sunday Sep 2022

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, trees

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autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, fruits, haws, hips

As the days grow noticeably shorter and the leaves being to turn, bursts of colour adorn the trees, shrubs and hedgerows, and help to feed hungry critters, birds, insects … and, occasionally, me, if the blackberries look lush and bursting with flavour.

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Wild word: sessile

07 Sunday Aug 2022

Posted by sconzani in plants, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Cirsium acaule, Dwarf thistle, sessile, thistle, thistle species

Sessile: adjective; Botany zoology (of a plant or animal structure) attached directly by its base without a stalk or peduncle (Oxford Dictionary).
Dwarf thistles (Cirsium acaule) are also known as Stemless thistles and are a good example of a sessile plant. The only local patch of Dwarf thistles I know is flourishing this year, as their preference is for ‘dry grassy habitats’ on ‘calcareous soils’ (Naturespot website).

220807 dwarf thistles

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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Recent blog posts

  • Fern Friday: Hart’s-tongue January 27, 2023
  • Feasting Chiffchaff January 26, 2023
  • A Water vole does lunch January 25, 2023
  • A cool cloud January 24, 2023
  • Snoozing January 23, 2023

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