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Tag Archives: #WildWords

67/366 Wild word : dioecious

07 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, trees

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#WildWords, Dioecious, male yew flowers, Taxus baccata, yew tree, Yew tree flowers

Dioecious: adjective; (of a plant or invertebrate animal) having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals (Oxford Dictionary).

200307 Yew male flowers (1)

My example today is the Yew tree (Taxus baccata), which has male and female flowers on separate trees. The male flowers are out now on a couple of trees in my local park – the female flowers may also be out but I didn’t look for them. The males are rather more showy and obvious, especially when they’re not soaking wet and their yellow pollen is blowing in the wind.

200307 Yew male flowers (2)

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Wild word: root

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in nature

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#WildWords, plant roots, root, roots, tree roots, wild words

Root: noun; ‘The part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically underground, conveying water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibres.’ (Oxford Dictionary).

181205 roots (1)

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Wild word: Dew

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by sconzani in autumn, nature, weather

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#WildWords, dew, dew on dandelion seedhead, dew on grass, wild words

Dew: Noun; tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night, when atmospheric vapour condenses (Oxford Dictionary).

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Wild word: feather

05 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

#WildWords, bird feathers, birding, birdwatching, British birds, feather, wild words

Feather: Noun; any of the flat appendages growing from a bird’s skin and forming its plumage, consisting of a partly hollow horny shaft fringed with vanes of barbs (Oxford Dictionary).

180905 feather (1)

I often come across discarded feathers when I’m out walking and try to guess which birds they’ve come from, though, unless they’re very distinctively patterned, that can be virtually impossible. Sometimes the feather just has to come home with me … like these three below. I think the bottom one’s probably from a Pheasant – not sure about the other two.

180905 feather (3)
180905 feather (4)

180905 feather (5)

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Wild word: cocoon

29 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 5 Comments

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#WildWords, 5-spot Burnet, 6-spot Burnet, British moths, Burnet moth cocoon, cocoon, Five-spot Burnet moth, moth cocoon, Six-spot Burnet moth, wild words

Cocoon: Noun; A silky case spun by the larvae of many insects for protection as pupae (Oxford Dictionary).
The cocoons in my photos are those of Burnet moths, both 5-spot (below left) and 6-spot (below right): you can’t tell the difference in the cocoons from the outside – I just know which moths were present in the locations where I took my photos.

180828 5-spot burnet moth
180828 6-spot burnet moth

After hatching from their eggs, the caterpillars/larvae of both moths feed on plants from the pea family; the 6-spot burnet is particularly partial to Common bird’s-foot trefoil, which is why I see a lot of these moths at Cosmeston.

180828 occupied 5-spot pupa
180828 occupied 6-spot pupa

When they’re ready to pupate, the caterpillars find themselves a suitable location, often high up on a sturdy grass stem (though I have seen them on other plants), and spin an oval-shaped cocoon. The cocoons pictured above are still occupied by caterpillars in the throes of metamorphosing into moths, a process which takes about two weeks.

180828 empty cocoon (2)
180828 empty cocoon (1)

These are the empty cocoons that remain once the adult moths have emerged (with the remains of the larvae’s pupae cases poking out the tops). The cocoons are quite sturdy: their yellowish-white papery structures often seem to last for a month or more after the adults have departed or even until the grasses themselves collapse with the coming of the wild winds and chilly days of autumn.

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Wild word: fasciated

11 Wednesday Jul 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#WildWords, fasciated, fasciated thistle, fasciation, thistle, wild words

Fasciated: Adjective; (Botany) Showing abnormal fusion of parts or organs, resulting in a flattened ribbon-like structure (Oxford Dictionary).

The thistle in my photo is an example; instead of developing in the circular shape that is usual for this plant, the flower has, for some unknown reason, become distorted into a flattened and elongated, almost oblong shape.

180711 fasciated

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Wild word: mnemonic

23 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#WildWords, birding, birdwatching, British birds, mnemonic, mnemonic for bird song, ways to remember bird songs, wild words

Mnemonic: Noun; a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something; from the Greek mnēmonikos, from mnēmōn, meaning ‘mindful’ (Oxford Dictionary).

I’ve found mnemonics particularly useful when trying to remember bird songs. Apart from the very obvious sounds, where the bird is, in fact, named for its song – I’m thinking here of the Chiffchaff and the Kittiwake – there are also some well-known phrases that many birders know, like ‘a little bit of bread and no cheeeeese’ for the song of the Yellowhammer, ‘chissick’ for the Pied wagtail, and ‘teacher, teacher’ for the Great tit. Do you have any bird song mnemonics you can share?

yellowhammer

The yellowhammer: ‘a little bit of bread and no cheeeeese’

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Wild word: ornithomancy

16 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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#WildWords, augury, divination using birds, ornithomancy, wild words

180416 ornithomancy (1)

Ornithomancy: Noun; rarely used; divination by means of the flight and cries of birds; augury. From Byzantine Greek ὀρνιθομαντεία divination from birds, augury from ancient Greek ὀρνιθο- + μαντεία (Oxford Dictionary).

I predict that the person who eats fish and chips at the seaside will be attacked by gulls and is likely also to get pooped upon!

180416 ornithomancy (2)

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Wild word: binomial

09 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in nature

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#WildWords, binomial, genus and epithet, Latin names for creatures, wild words

Binomial: noun; a two-part name, especially the Latin name of a species of living organism (consisting of the genus followed by the specific epithet) (Oxford Dictionary). I have just finished reading John Wright’s book about binomials, The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names (Bloomsbury, 2014), and it’s surprisingly entertaining. I’m not going to start doing book reviews on here but I thought I’d just share a tiny sample of the weird and wonderful binomials John writes about and, if that tempts you to read the book, then all well and good.

180509 Naming of the ShrewSenecio squalidus (Oxford ragwort) translates as ‘dirty old man’ and Primula vulgaris (Primrose) is ‘first common girl’. There are names derived from fiction: Yoda purpurata, a genus of deep-sea acorn worms, is so named because the large lips on the sides of its head are reminiscent of Yoda’s ears; and, under the influence of the Harry Potter books, a dragon-like dinosaur is named Dracorex hogwartsia, dragon king of Hogwarts. There’s a midge named after a rock band: Dicrotendipes thanatogratus translates to Grateful Dead; and a land snail named after Australian zookeeper and conservationist Steven Irwin: Crikey steveirwini. There are carabid beetles named Agra vate and Agra vation (say them out loud), and there’s a horsefly with ‘a perfectly round and golden rear end’ called Scaptia beyonceae. Enough … check out the book for more.

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Wild word: phototaxis

02 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

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#WildWords, attracted to light, British insects, Chironomidae species, non-biting midge, phototaxis, repelled by light, wild words

Phototaxis: noun; biology; the bodily movement of a motile organism in response to light, either towards the source of light (positive phototaxis) or away from it (negative phototaxis) (Oxford Dictionary).
I hadn’t realised that some creatures suffer from negative phototaxis but, apparently, cockroaches are repelled by light – I thought they were just scurrying away from the humans who want to kill them. The example of positive phototaxis (i.e. an attraction to a light source) that immediately springs to mind is the moth – I’m sure we’ve all noticed them fluttering around a bright light at night – though there are many other examples. One of these is the insect in my photos: it’s one of the large family of non-biting midges (Chironomidae species). I found perhaps 30 of them on a wall near a street light recently.

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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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