15 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in trees
≈ Comments Off on Flowers and catkins
On most of the Hazels I’ve checked, the male catkins look almost fully formed but are still tightly closed and the female flowers are mere buds but, during Friday’s meander, I found one Hazel that’s ahead of the rest in its development. The male catkins were open and shedding cloud-like bursts of yellow pollen when the wind caught them, and the tiny crimson-pink female flowers, looking for all the world like miniscule sea anemones, were open and receptive. Hazel nuts in the making!
30 Sunday Jan 2022
Posted in trees
≈ Comments Off on Furry flowers
Tags
Alder, Alder catkins, British trees, catkins, female Alder flowers, female Hazel flowers, Hazel, Hazel catkins
The catkins of Hazel (left) and Alder (right) are now swinging from their respective tree branches like furry pussycats’ tails – the male catkins, that is.
The female flowers are rather different, the Hazel females (left) totally different, that startlingly hot pink, and the Alder flowers (right) a little catkin-ish but much smaller (my last photo shows both male and female Alder to show the size comparison).
13 Friday Dec 2019
As I always do when I need to be ‘soothed and healed’, I went for a long walk with Nature as soon as I could get away today. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing but I was well wrapped up and, to my delight, I found a few wildflowers still in bloom, fed sunflower hearts to the hungry small birds, and then, much to my surprise, found some Hazel catkins out already – and not just the male catkins, but several of the tiny pink female flowers, which seems quite early.
