The pasqueflower is not a woodland plant, but more one of open grassland (on chalk or limestone), sometimes growing with upright brome and tor grass  However, it is a particularly beautiful and rare flower - having deep purple petals, that surround the many vibrant yellow stamens.  The flowers usually appear in mid-April when the daytime temperatures have risen into double figures; it is often associated with Easter, and is,  otherwise known as easter flower, meadow anemone or dane’s blood.   The flowering period of the pasqueflower is quite long, lasting for some 4 – 6 weeks.  The pasqueflower is a member of the 'buttercup' family - the Ranunculaceae, like the wood anemone and traveller's joy The flowers are protogynous – that is the flower has a separate male and female phases, with the yellow stigmas (female structures) maturing first.  Protogyny, or indeed protandry, are mechanisms that some plants use to promote the exchange of pollen between different plants – i.e. cross-fertilisation / outbreeding .  The plant is covered with many silky hairs – these are present on the leaves, stem and flowers (see the various images in the gallery below). Read more...

Monterey Pine or Radiata Pine (Pinus radiata) is found naturally in the coastal area around Monterey in California.  There, it is under threat from Pine Pitch Canker (a fungal disease), which makes them liable to attack by bark beetles.  Monterey pine is to be found growing in milder parts of the UK (where it grows faster than in its native habitat), and in coastal areas as it is resistant to salt spray. The pine is extensively and intensively used in forestry, especially in countries like New Zealand (like the Kaingaroa Forest on the North Island).  The monterey pine can be used for erosion control on steep slopes - as it has a widespread and fast growing root system The growth form of the tree is conic at first, but as the tree ages it becomes dome shaped with heavily, twisted branches. Read more...

Tilhill UPM manage many large private forestry estates and produce an excellent annual report on the state of the market both for the land itself and forestry products.  Some time back, I  went to the presentation of Tilhill's 2011 Forest Market Report which was surprisingly upbeat.  The main message was that land values are strongly up, forest product prices are strongly up and volumes of land sold, measured by value, are at historically high levels.  Property values have increased about 15% in the year to the end of September 2011, according to Crispin Golding of Tilhill UPM, mainly because:  there is increased demand for land from investors who are tax-driven or who are looking for safe havens for cash, or both; timber prices have gone up principally because of high oil prices and the devaluation of the pound (making UK timber forestry output more competitive with foreign countries including the Baltic States who are enormous timber exporters). Read more...

The second instalment to "my wood" has, like Spring,  this year - sprung rather too soon. I’ve been away for most of the last week starting work on a new area of woodland in Norfolk that I hope to be able to bring to market in the early summer. So after nearly a week of absence , I hurried across the field as the light rose on Saturday morning accompanied by Stig who seemed even happier than me, tail wagging frantically in the bitter frost. Despite some savagely cold dawns, a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather has transformed the woodland.  It has been more of a boom than a Spring bloom this year. My hornbeam is in leaf, the hawthorn is in blossom, Read more...

Wild boar became extinct in the U.K. in the thirteenth century –so we have been ‘boar free’ for circa 700 years.  However, towards the end of the last century commercial pig farming developed; seemingly some escaped and have established free living and breeding populations. Attitudes to these pigs / boars fall into two broad categories : those who welcome the return / reintroduction of a missing species and its ecological impact those who have a more negative perception of the boar – in that, they do damage, have the potential to harbour disease and can cause direct damage to people. Read more...

People respond emotionally to wind turbines but seem happy to see their neighbours installing solar panels. This acceptance of solar made me keen to install solar panels at home, which we have just done. The process has taught me a lot, not least because it showed me how ignorant I was about the economics of domestic energy use - whilst we all know the cost of petrol few of us are aware of the price of a unit of domestic electricity - maybe physical volumes are easier to understand than something that goes down wires and is measured in confusing units. Our 19 solar panels produce about 3.5 kilowatts, so if our annual production is about 1,000 hours we should produce 3,500 kwH of energy which turns out to be a high proportion of our domestic useage. Many British homes consume about this amount each year, so if I am able keep our consumption down we might even become net exporters. Read more...

I am currently studying for a Foundation Degree in Forestry and Woodland Management at Plumpton College in East Sussex and am preparing a dissertation on dead wood in coppice woodlands. Coppicing is a well-known silvicultural practice, carried out in the UK for the purpose of habitat and wildlife conservation, and for sustainable timber production / products. It is widely accepted that, whilst coppicing has many benefits for conservation, ‘woodland historically managed as coppice is generally lacking in dead wood’  (FC 2002). Earlier literature such as Buckley (1992) and Kimmins (1997), supports the view that there is a general lack of dead wood presence within actively managed coppice woodlands. Read more...