Blossom and bumbles

22 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, spring, trees

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British bumblebees, Buff-tailed bumblebee, Cherry blossom, Spring blossom

At this time of year the ornamental cherry tree outside my flat is awash with blossom, of a warm white shade flushed with the merest tinge of pink.

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It looks glorious, especially on sunny days, and, at a time when there are few flowers in bloom, it’s a magnet for newly emerging, hungry insects of the flying kind.

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Yesterday, as well as a few Honey bees, I spotted half a dozen, all Buff-tailed, bumblebees doddering from one flower to the next, before lurching haphazardly to the next branch, dislodging the delicate petals as they passed.

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First Blackthorn blossom

16 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in spring, trees

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blackthorn, Blackthorn blossom, Spring blossom, spring is coming

My first sighting of Blackthorn blossom for 2021 has happened a bit later than last year – is that because the flowers are later or my lack of attention? I can’t tell but whichever, it’s another sign that spring is on its way!

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112/366 The May tree

21 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, trees

≈ 4 Comments

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British trees, Hawthorn, Hawthorn blossom, May-tree, Spring blossom

It’s that time of year again, when the Hawthorn blossom scents the air with its distinctive perfume and carpets the ground with its snow-like blossom.

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My Flora Britannica reminds me that Hawthorn, also known as the May tree, was ‘the ancestor of the Maypole, the source of May Day garlands … and one of the models for the foliage which wreathes the faces of Green Men carved in churches and inns.’

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For lots more fascinating information on the Hawthorn, check out my previous post here.

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40/366 In bloom this week

09 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 9 Comments

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Alexanders, British wildflowers, Cherry plum blossom, crocus, Dog's mercury, Lesser Celandine, snowdrop, Spring blossom

This week’s wanderings produced sightings of two new wildflowers for the year, Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis), thriving under a hedgerow, and Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum), an exceedingly common plant along the local coastal path.

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I’d seen Crocuses already but this swathe, growing on a small green in the village of Michaelston-le-Pit, was a lilac delight.

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Not a wildflower, but the local Cherry plum trees have burst into bloom this week. They say Spring to me!

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Snowdrops are out en masse now, and more and more bursts of bright yellow Lesser celandines can be found, sprinkled along paths and in the local woodlands. So cheery!

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28/366 Blossoming Blackthorn

28 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, winter

≈ 4 Comments

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blackthorn, Blackthorn blossom, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Spring blossom

Despite being caught twice in freezing hail showers, I had a lovely walk today, and part of the reason is because I saw my first Blackthorn blossoms for 2020. As Blackthorn flowers appear before the leaves (in contrast to Hawthorn, where the leaves appear first), this hedge along the roadside at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park still looks lifeless and barren.

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In fact, the brown branches and twigs were dotted here and there with white buds and occasional fully open blossoms. Spring is coming!

47/365 Cherry blossom

16 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, spring, trees

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#365DaysWild, blossom, Cherry blossom, Cherry tree, Spring blossom

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Today was a chores day so I just had a little tootle around my local haunts. But my photo was taken right outside my house. As a first-floor-flat dweller, I don’t have a garden but the tiny stone-filled front yard of my building has a magnificent Cherry tree, which fills half the view from my living room window and brings me great joy throughout the year. I have been watching its buds swell fatter and fatter until, finally, today the first several of its blossoms have opened.

Cherry plum or Blackthorn?

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, trees

≈ 8 Comments

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blackthorn, blossom, Cherry plum, Prunus cerasifera, prunus species, Prunus spinosa, spring, Spring blossom

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Being a relative newbie to Britain, I’m still very much a learner when it comes to identifying plants (and everything else, to be honest), so I was pleased recently to learn how to tell Cherry plum blossom from Blackthorn.

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It’s partly in the timing – Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) usually flowers first, apparently – and also in the growth pattern, but a sure-fire way to tell whether the gorgeous blossom you’re puzzling over is this or Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), which flowers soon afterwards, is to look at the back of the flower.

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In the Blackthorn the sepals (those leaf-like bits that originally enclose the flower but split apart when the flower opens) lay flat along the backs of the flower petals, or between them when fully open (photos above), whereas in the Cherry plum, the sepals are folded back (photos below).

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Bute blossom

02 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, parks, trees

≈ 2 Comments

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blossom, Bute Park, Cardiff parks, cherry trees, Spring blossom, Spring colour

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‘Blossom by blossom the spring begins.’ ~ Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), ‘Atalanta in Calydon’, Collected Poetical Works (1924), vol. ii, ‘Chorus’, p.250. My blossom photographs were taken on a very grey day in Cardiff’s magnificent Bute Park.