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Tag Archives: autumn fruit

289/366 Spectacular Spindle

15 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, trees

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Tags

autumn colour, autumn fruit, British trees, Euonymus europaeus, fruit, Spindle

Spectacular. Flamboyant. Ostentatious. Garish. There are so many adjectives you could use to describe the fruit of the Spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus). If I had a garden, this is one tree I would definitely plant in it, for the fruit alone.

201015 spindle

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285/366 Fruity beauty

11 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, seeds

More autumnal fruity beauty today. Can you name the plants?

201011 fruits (1)201011 fruits (2)201011 fruits (3)201011 fruits (5)201011 fruits (4)

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271/366 Tooty fruity

27 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, trees

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Tags

autumn berries, autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, fruit, hips

‘Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.’
~ Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1912.

200927 1 cotoneaster200927 2 snowberry200927 3 spindle200927 4 hawthorn200927 5 japanese rose200927 6 sloe200927 7 guelder rose200927 8 dog rose

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265/365 Black bryony

22 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, nature, plants

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, Black bryony, red berries

190922 sweet bryony (1)

Draping and dangling, twisting and tangling, Black bryony’s luscious red berries can be found hanging from fences, winding in hedges, looping over bushes, climbing up trees. One of Autumn’s finest treasures. 

190922 sweet bryony (2)
190922 sweet bryony (3)

190922 sweet bryony (4)

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254/365 The bramble lovers

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature, plants

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, autumn fruit, blackberries, bramble, British butterflies, butterfly, Red Admiral, Red admiral on bramble

190911 red admiral (1)

I think everyone would agree that blackberries, the fruit of the bramble bush, are delicious. I’m not one of those people who risks the almost obligatory scratches to go blackberrying at this time of year – I prefer to leave them to the birds and minibeasts. But, at Cosmeston yesterday, I’d been walking longer than I anticipated and my stomach was rumbling so I thought I’d grab a few to keep me going.

190911 red admiral (2)

Well, if looks could kill, I would never have made it home because these Red admiral butterflies were absolutely certain the blackberries belonged to them. And they weren’t going to relent, letting me get my hand really close to them without moving a millimetre. One even flew out and ‘buzzed’ me before re-settling on its chosen fruit. I got the message and left them to their feast.

190911 red admiral (3)

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Psychedelic seeds

14 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds, nature, trees

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

autumn colour, autumn fruit, autumn seeds, Euonymus europaea, fruit, orange seeds, pink fruit, seeds, Spindle

I’m still pretty useless at identifying native British trees: I can get most of the more common big species, like Oak and Ash and Beech, but I probably couldn’t identify a Spindle if you paid me … except at this time of year. Because in the autumn, the Spindle (Euonymus europaea) lights up in psychedelic colours that remind me of a dress I had in the ’70s (yes, I am that old!).

171014 spindle seeds (1)

The Spindle (so named because its wood was used to make the spindles used to hold wool and in spinning) has fruits that are hot pink. And not only that … when those fruits open up, the seed inside is bright orange. It’s such an outrageous colour combination that it makes me wonder why it’s so very bright … and I haven’t found the answer. I thought perhaps the orange was a way to attract birds and many websites say the seeds are eaten by small birds like Robins and Tits but, when I google images, I can’t find any showing birds actually eating them. The other alternative is that the colour is a ‘don’t touch me I’m poisonous’ warning – and certainly the fruits are poisonous to humans but to birds? If anyone has any information about this eye-popping colour combination, I’d love to hear it. Meantime, put on your shades and check out these psychedelics, man.

171014 spindle seeds (2)
171014 spindle seeds (3)
171014 spindle seeds (4)
171014 spindle seeds (5)
171014 spindle seeds (6)
171014 spindle seeds (7)

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Where the fruits were jewels …

29 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in autumn, nature, plants

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn fruit, berries, fruit, haws, hips, rose hips, wild fruit

‘On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung
like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels …’
~ Charles Dickens, Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, chapter 2

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Bramble or blackberry?

26 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

autumn fruit, blackberry, bramble, Rubus fruticosus agg, Rubus species, wild fruit

First, the glorious flowers: some look like crushed paper tissue, others like crinkled pieces of silk. They range in colour from bleached white through parchment with the merest blush of pink to a pink that reminds me of the sticky candyfloss I ate as a child at the local fair.

160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (1)
160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (2)
160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (3)
160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (4)
160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (5)
160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (6)

Once the busy little pollinators have done their work, the fruit begins to develop and my taste buds start to stir as I look forward to the delicious juicy treats to come. First, the clusters of little green globes and then, as they ripen in the summer sun, the tinges of red appear, hinting at the lusciousness to come.

160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (7)
160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (8)

And then one day, when I’m out on one of my wanders, I spot it, the very first black berry. Will it still be a little sour and will it flood my mouth with those delectable full fruit flavours of perfect ripeness?

160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (9)

Here in Britain they are called brambles, in my New Zealand homeland we called them blackberries and, in scientific terms, they are all grouped together under the unprepossessing name of Rubus fruticosus agg. Agg stands for aggregate, as in a grouping together of a range of very closely related biological organisms, because Rubus fruticosus includes a myriad of hybridisations. But, whatever you call them, for me they are one of the things I most love about late summer and, yes, I have already eaten my first yummy blackberries of 2016.

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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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