There are several buddleia shrubs growing around the village and their large lilac/purple flowers attract so many butterflies and moths that its common name is ‘butterfly bush’. I was very lucky to find a couple of butterflies perched on one of the flowers feeding on nectar, they were a small tortoiseshell and a painted lady so I photographed them together and thought ‘how lucky’. Butterfly bushes were introduced from China as a garden bush and naturally soon escaped into the wild where it grows on waste ground and alongside roads and railway embankments.
Ragwort is another plant I saw growing on hedges and attracting bees, butterflies and hover flies to take pollen from their wide yellow blooms. So named for its ragged leaves, ragwort can grow to more than one and half metres high and is poisonous to cattle and horses, although they avoid it when it is growing. However, if a grass field with ragwort growing on it is cut for hay and baled up these animals would unknowingly eat it with the dried grass.
Aphids extract liquid food from ragwort leaves and ladybirds lay their eggs on them, so when the larvae hatch from these eggs they, in turn, feed on the aphids. Back in my schooldays at Landrake we boys would pull up any ragwort growing on the hedges and lay them in the road to be flattened by cars and lorries. Back then of course, cattle would be driven on the road if they had to be moved from field to field or even to another farm. They are moved by lorry nowadays, by law, I think.
As per usual I always walk around the corn stubble after the field had been harvested. My main interest is the beautiful field pansy that comes into bloom when the corn has gone and it can enjoy the sunlight. I cannot work out how the field will soon be ploughed and cultivated and then re-sown with another crop, but the pansies will appear again next year. How do the seeds survive all that? The same could be said about the dames violets that also spring up every year.
We walked on the road near Trehunsey Cross and I spotted some small amber fungi growing on a dead sycamore branch in among the brambles. I pulled it out and photographed them but I have so far failed to identify them even though I have half a dozen books on mushrooms and other fungi. The largest were no more than 8mm wide and their caps had round patterns on them. I would like to hear from any reader who can identify them.
At this time of the year all the Lords and Ladies plants are showing off their stems that are topped with red berries. These berries are poisonous, fatally to children, and I have never seen a bird eating them. The one I photographed has been growing in the corner of our garden for years and I have no idea how the original plant got there.
Also in the garden beneath the eves of my tool shed I noticed a spider wrapping up its lunch. I think it was a Dysdera crocata that although having no English name it appears to be quite common in this country. What it was actually wrapping up was a mystery as the size and number of legs made it look like another spider, although it could have been a large black fly.
