The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - Plants & Flowers
Threats to the Honeybee
At the start of the twentieth century, it has been estimated that there were about one million beehives in the U.K. Now the number is about 280,000; there has also been a significant decline in the number of beekeepers. Read more…
National Insect Week 21st / 27th June, 2010.
World wide some million different types of insect have been identified and named, even in the U.K. some 24,000 species can be found. Insects, like bees and bumblebees are economically important in the pollination of many crops (apples etc) and flowers; others like the saproxylic beetles have a role in the recycling of the materials and nutrients from dead and decaying wood. Read more…
Our changing flora
Our changing flora
All of our present plants have arrived in the U.K. since the end of the last Ice Age, about ten to twelve thousand years ago. Plants and animals moved north as the sheets of ice gradually retreated; they were able to do this as ‘we’ were still joined directly to parts of Europe -by a great plain with meandering rivers, so that present-day East Anglia was linked to parts of The Netherlands and North Germany. Read more…
Red Band Needle Blight
This is an interesting and dramatic condition that affects various pines, especially Corsican Pine. Thetford Forest in East Anglia has been severely affected by it. Of the 25,000 hectares of that forest, about 13,000 ha are Corsican Pine. Read more…
International Day for Biological Diversity – 22nd May 2010
The United Nations declared that today, May 22nd, is The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). The aim of the day isto help increase the understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. Sadly, today’s papers are scarcely packed with banner headlines on biodiversity issues. Read more…
Butterflies in peril
Generally speaking, the sight of butterflies marks the return of spring sunshine and the warmth associated with long summer days. However, after three wet summers in a row, some of our rarest butterflies are under threat. The summers of 2007 and 2008 were characterised by very wet weather, and July and August last year were marked by above average rainfall. Butterflies that have been particularly affected by the wet weather are the :- Read more…
Bark Beetles
In and around the Rocky Mountains, the wholesale destruction of vast areas of pine forests is occurring. The annihilation of these forests is due to a beetle – the Bark Beetle, which devours the soft tissues underneath the bark. The beetle is quite small, bit like a grain of rice. Vast tracks of forests have been ‘lost’ to this beetle; it has been estimated that some six million acres have been affected in the United States, and even greater areas in Canada, especially in British Colombia, where many more million of acres may be lost. Read more…
Oak Processionary Moth – a UK health threat?
The eggs of the Oak Processionary Moth (OPM) have just hatched into tiny caterpillars (mid to late April). These caterpillars go around in gangs of about 200 eating oak leaves and they follow each other in long columns – hence the name which is also in the Latin version, Thaumetopoea processionea. Read more…