Some of the splendid trees at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery displaying their glorious autumn colours. Better in person, obviously, but I hope you enjoy these magnificent trees as much as I did.
Autumn at the cemetery
07 Sunday Nov 2021
Tag Archives: Cathays Cemetery
173/365 Orange hawkweed
22 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, British wildflowers, Cathays Cemetery, Fox and cubs, Grim the collier, orange hawkweed, wildflowers
The Orange hawkweed (also known as Fox-and-cubs and Grim the collier) was putting on a magnificent display in Cathays Cemetery today.
So, I thought I’d better grab some photos because this is a cemetery that is (mis)managed by the ‘neat and tidy’ brigade, those who place value in strimming everything to within an inch of its life rather than in the beauty of the wildflowers and the food they provide to insects.
159/365 On the wings of the storm
08 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly migration, Cathays Cemetery, Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui
There are two good things about the drenching and battering we’ve just suffered at the hands of the Spanish Storm Miguel: the first is that we really did need the rain, as the ground is already dry and cracked in places, and the second is that the strong winds may well be responsible for this glorious little lady I discovered at Cathays Cemetery today.
She (or, in fact, it may be a he) is a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), a butterfly which, according to the Butterfly Conservation website, ‘Each year … spreads northwards from the desert fringes of North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia, recolonising mainland Europe and reaching Britain and Ireland.’ And s/he’s still looking quite pristine, despite that long journey.
Wild Christmas, day 3
27 Thursday Dec 2018
Tags
bracket fungus, Cathays Cemetery, Clitocybe fungi, club fungus, coral fungus, earthstar, fungi foray, fungus, inkcap, mushroom, Redlead roundhead, waxcaps
I’m currently taking part in the local Wildlife Trusts’ #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge. This ‘is a week-long challenge to do one wild thing a day from the 25th to the 31st of December’. For me a challenge like this is easy peasy ’cause I try to live my whole life as one long wild challenge but I like to support these initiatives to help to inspire other people to put more Nature and wildness in their lives. Believe me, in a world as crazy as ours currently is, you will feel better for it.
For today’s challenge I spent about four hours at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery, hunting for fungi to photograph (not forage) in both the old and new sections of the cemetery. I figured that, after all the rain we’ve had recently, I should be able to find one or two nice things. I wasn’t disappointed.
Earpick fungus
09 Friday Nov 2018
Tags
Auriscalpium vulgare, British fungi, Cathays Cemetery, Earpick fungus, fungi on conifer cones, fungi on pine cones, rare fungi
During a wander around Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery last Friday, I found my first Earpick fungi (Auriscalpium vulgare).
Now, you might think Earpick is a very odd name for a fungus – you certainly wouldn’t want to use them to clean your ears out! – but it’s actually quite logical. Auriscalpium is a combination of the Latin words auris, meaning ear, and scalpare, the verb ‘to scratch’. The stem of the fungus certainly does look quite scratchy, as does the underside of the cap, with its mass of tiny cone-shaped rods. And it’s those rods that are the connection to the word ‘ear’ in the fungi’s name – have you ever seen a magnified photo of the sensory hair cells of the human inner ear?
Vulgare just means common, though this fungus is certainly not that – when I checked the biological database for Wales, I found only 10 previous recorded sightings.
These fungi were growing at the base of a conifer but I didn’t realise until I started reading up about them when I got home that the fungi nearly always grow on the rotting cones of pines and other conifers. I didn’t notice any cones but they must have been there, under the moss and grass. Fascinating!
Fair-handed Spring
23 Friday Feb 2018
Posted in flowers, nature, plants, spring, wildflowers
Along these blushing borders bright with dew,
And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers,
Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace –
Throws out the snowdrop and the crocus first
~ James Thomson, ‘Spring’, The Seasons
Collared earthstars
24 Friday Nov 2017
You can’t have a blog named Earthstar without including, every now and then, a few photos of the Earthstar fungi for which it was named. I was pleased to see this little colony of Collared earthstars (Geastrum triplex) in Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery is still thriving.
It’s Fungi Friday!
17 Friday Nov 2017
Tags
#FungiFriday, Apricot Club, Candlesnuff fungi, Cathays Cemetery, Clouded funnel, club fungi, Cortinarius, fungi, fungus, Heath Park, Stump puffballs, Trooping funnel
I needed a fungi fix so went for a wander around a couple of my old haunts, Heath Park and Cathays Cemetery, both in Cardiff. Here’s what I found …
It’s waxcap time!
10 Friday Nov 2017
Look what I found hiding in the grass at Cathays Cemetery during a recent walk around: gorgeous fungal gems!
Autumn in Cardiff: Cathays Cemetery
17 Thursday Nov 2016
I sure am glad I had a wander around my beautiful local cemetery yesterday, getting these photos, as today is cold and wet, with strong blustery winds, so I imagine most of the leaves will have been blown off their trees by tomorrow. I’ve blogged about the diversity of flora and fauna at this cemetery many times before but, in autumn, its huge variety of tree species becomes very apparent through the enormous range of shades to be seen in the dying leaves. Who would’ve thought there could be such beauty in death?
earthstar 
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