Category Archives: trees

Leafmines: Eriocrania unimaculella

22 Monday May 2023

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The moth formerly known as Heringocrania unimaculella, now known as Eriocrania unimaculella – either way a tongue twister! – spends its larval stage developing within the leaves of Birch trees. And it poohs … a lot … pooh that Rob Edmunds, expert from the British Leafminers website, describes as ‘long strands of spaghetti’. There are several Eriocrania species that can be difficult to identify but Rob produced an excellent well-illustrated guide explaining how to separate them in his March 2018 newsletter (click to access). The adult moth is a tiny golden critter, which you can see on the UK Moths website.

230522 eriocrania unimaculella on birch

Leafmines: Coleophora serratella

15 Monday May 2023

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I’ve been checking Birch trees since their green leaves first started to unfold, prompted by a post I’d seen by Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman on Twitter) of the British Leafminers website to check for the small holes created by the feeding of the tiny Common case-bearer moth, Coleophora serratella. Finally, last Tuesday, I found some on a tree in Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park.

And, luckily, the little case-bearing larva was still in situ, initially checking out some silky seedhead fibres that had lodged on the end of its leaf, then retreating to the patch that marked where it had been feeding and resumed munching. You can read more about this beauty on the British Leafminers website and see the adult moth on the UK Moths website.

Leafmines: Coleophora lutipennella

01 Monday May 2023

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It’s often the way that, while looking for one thing, I find another. In this case, I was checking for eggs or larvae on the newly opening buds and flowers of an Oak tree where I’ve previously seen Purple hairstreak butterflies. No luck with those but I did find this …

230501 Coleophora lutipennella (1)

It’s the larva of the Common oak case-bearer moth (Coleophora lutipennella) – you can see the pretty little adult moth on the UK Moths website here. These case-bearing moths remind me a bit of snails, spending their larval stage in a home they carry around with them, though the moths don’t grow their own – they weave theirs from bits of vegetation and silk. In the photo below, you can see the larva poking its head out from the bottom of its case.

230501 Coleophora lutipennella (2)

It can be difficult to distinguish between the larvae of two very similar case-bearing moths, this one and Coleophora flavipennella. I had my find confirmed by expert Rob Edmunds, who manages the British Leafminers website. The difference between the two cases is minor but fascinating, the presence or not of a small hump of leaf tissue built in to the case – there’s an explanation and some excellent photos on the website’s June 2004 newsletter.

New fungus: Linospora saligna

17 Friday Mar 2023

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Inspired by Gwent birder and naturalist Lee Gregory’s recent (3 March) first record for Wales of the fungus Linospora saligna, which looks like small dark speckles on dead Salix leaves, I went searching last Saturday morning in areas where I knew Willow trees grow. And I was a little surprised at how easy they were to find. I spotted the fungus at two locations along the path around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, and I’ve also since found it under Salix trees near Cardiff Bay’s Barrage. Although Lee’s record was a Welsh first and the NBN Atlas shows very few confirmed records for the rest of Britain, this is obviously another instance where a species is under-recorded, presumably because no one knows to look for it. I’m aware that Lee has already found several further records, and I will certainly continue to check for these speckled leaves wherever I see Willow trees.

230317 Linospora saligna

Alder flowers

12 Sunday Mar 2023

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It’s almost two months to the day since I blogged about the first Hazel I’d seen with both the male and female flowers open (Flowers and catkins, 15 January). Perhaps I’ve been remiss in looking for these, but yesterday I spotted my first Alder tree where both types of flowers had opened. The reproductive systems of the two plants are remarkably similar, both with long dangling pollen-shedding male catkins and much smaller pink anemone-like female flowers, except that the female Hazel flowers develop into a nut and the female Alder into a cone. It’s the female flowers that I find particularly eye-catching.

230312 alder female flowers

Fit to bursting

05 Sunday Mar 2023

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I was checking this Yew tree for galls – found none – but it was absolutely covered in flower buds that were almost literally about to burst open. A few more days and this male tree will be spreading a sea of yellow pollen all around anytime the wind blows or someone brushes against its branches. How do I know it’s a male tree? Well, in a previous post, Flowering Yew trees from way back in March 2016, I blogged about Yew flowers so, if you want to know more about these fascinating trees, just click on that link.

230305 yew flowers

Galls: Phytoptus avellanae

20 Monday Feb 2023

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These are my latest gall finds, caused by the mite species Phytoptus avellanae, shown here on Hazel (Corylus avellana) though they can also affect the buds of Filbert (Corylus maxima). The feeding of the mites on the plant cells within the buds causes those buds to swell and multiply. You can see a comparison in my photo below, the mite-infected gall bud on the left, the normal bud on the right.

230220 gall Phytoptus avellanae (1)

The mites that cause these galls are tiny, so rarely seen, but the Dutch Bladmineerders website has some excellent photos showing them in minute detail. As with so many galls, they are thought to be widespread in Britain but are not well recorded. So, if you’re out and about enjoying a spring walk and spot some Hazel, do please cast an eye over the buds, and record any galls you see. Citizen scientists really do make a difference to our knowledge of the natural world around us.

230220 gall Phytoptus avellanae (2)

Galls: Taxomyia taxi

09 Thursday Feb 2023

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My Field Studies Council Guide to plant galls in Britain explains that the gall midge Taxomyia taxi actually causes two types of gall on Yew trees. The least common, which looks just like a swollen bud, completes its life cycle in one year – I’ve yet to find any of these. But I was very pleased earlier this week to locate several examples of the artichoke gall, in which the same midge completes a two-year life cycle. Eggs are laid in May/June, the larvae crawl in to a leaf bud and stay there, barely growing, until the following summer. At that point, they grow rapidly, over-winter again as larvae, before pupating and hatching the following May. I couldn’t find any explanation for the different life cycles.

230209 taxomyia taxi

Not wanting to kill the creatures inside, I haven’t opened up any of the galls I’ve found but, if you’re curious, as I was, about what’s inside the artichoke, the Plant Parasites of Europe website has some excellent images of the larva, the pupa and the adult fly.