A Glimpse of the Mersey Valley 50 Years Ago - Hilda Broady's Journal

19th June, 1959

It was a cool sunny evening when I visited the plot, with a slight breeze blowing.
There were many small insects hovering round the small Sycamore trees, and also in the stream bed which was completely dry. Pleurococcus was seen on the bank where the bed of the stream disappears.

Two moths were caught for identification.

The flowers of the snake weed [Bistort = Persicaria bistorta, Ed.] have now died off, and a number of the leaves are turning an orange-red colour; specimens were taken.

It was difficult to walk on the plot as there are many dips in the ground which are obscured by the long grass.

Willow herb had started to flower (Rose-Bay - Chamaenerion angustifolium)


Posted by Dave Bishop, 19th June, 2009

Network Rail and Environmental Destruction

You may remember the article that I posted on here, on 15/05/09, entitled 'Why is Springtime the Killing Time Around Here?' Well, the continuing destruction of wildlife by contractors, employed by big organisations, has now reached the national press. Network Rail has been removing trees from their embankments all over the country. Locally, this has happened at Heaton Chapel in Stockport, where, based on a BBC local TV report, I believe that the contractors added to the distress of local residents by working through the night by the light of floodlights!

The full story is in the following article in the online version of the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/5468283/ Network-Rail-cuts-down-trees-to-prevent-leaves-on-the-line.html

(you'll probably have to cut and paste this link into your browser).

Note, that no-one is disputing the 'right' of Network Rail to remove trees - it's the unthinking brutality of the action that is criticised - and the fact that it has been done at the wrong time of year. As usual Network Rail claim all sorts of 'green credentials' but if they were really as green as they claim they would have a proper management plan for their embankments, which would mean that trees were only cut in the winter on some sort of rotation basis; such 'linear coppices' would actually be beneficial to wildlife.

I am convinced that one of the reasons why we are losing so much biodiversity in this country is because of the actions of such 'licensed eco-vandals' as Network Rail and their contractors. It's time that they started re-thinking their operations so as to enhance biodiversity rather than just mindlessly destroying it. It wouldn't take much - and probably would cost very little. All it would take would be some elementary environmental knowledge, a respect for the natural world and the requisite will.

Dave Bishop, June 2009

Rushes

Rushes may not be such spectacular plants as orchids but they played a part in the lives of our ancestors which would be almost unimaginable today.

There are numerous species of Rush but three of the larger species are very common throughout the UK (and the Mersey Valley) and tend to grow in either shallow water or where the ground is poorly drained. These three species are: Soft Rush (Juncus effusus), Compact Rush (J. conglomeratus) and Hard Rush (J. inflexus).
These all form large clumps composed of numerous cylindrical stems. Each stem tapers to a point at the top. The flower-head appear to erupt from the side of the stem about three-quarters of the way up.

In the Soft Rush (top picture) the stem is smooth and a uniform glossy green. If the stem is split open it is found to contains a uniform, white pith (a bit like a solidified, dense foam). The flower-head (i.e. the ‘inflorescence’) consists of many tiny, yellowish brown flowers. When examined with a hand lens each flower is seen to be rather lily-like with six petal-like structures (‘tepals’), six stamens (male, pollen producing organs) and three stigmas (female parts); these flowers are wind-pollinated.
In the Compact Rush (middle picture) the stem is ridged, rather greyish-green in colour and not glossy. The stem contains a continuous, white pith. The inflorescence is very compact with the flowers jammed close together and close to the stem.
In Hard Rush (bottom picture) the stem is ridged and is a noticeably dull, glaucous, greyish-green colour. The pith inside the stem is chambered and not continuous. The inflorescence is considerably more diffuse than those of Soft Rush and Compact Rush.

In the Middle Ages rushes were used as floor covering. In those days poor people lived in hovels with beaten earth floors and the rich lived in castles and manor houses with stone floors. Strewn rushes were found to be a cheap and effective way of softening such harsh surfaces and in keeping them clean. According to the historian, Dorothy Hartley (1), “In the feudal system there would be special official rushcutters. Rushes were cut, drained and loaded into great deep baskets, carried shoulder high between two men, to be delivered to the ‘rush women’, who did the strewing and were supposed to clean out the old rushes before they put down the fresh.”

Rushes were also used for lighting purposes. It’s difficult to imagine, now, what life was like before electric lighting. In the summer people often went to bed when it got dark and got up when the sun returned in the morning. But coping with long, dark winter nights must have been a trial. The rich used candles – but these were expensive and, from the beginning of the 18th century on, were even taxed. The poor used ‘rush lights’. These were made by peeling the stems of Soft Rushes until only a long thin strip of outer skin was left to act as a support. The pith was then soaked in animal fat. The fat loaded taper thus produced was held in a spring loaded clamp and could be burned to produce (what must have been) a rather dim, smoky light.

The great 18th century, Hampshire naturalist, Gilbert White (2) gives more detail: “[The] rushes are in best condition at the height of summer; but may be gathered, so as to serve the purpose well, quite on to autumn. It would be needless to add that the largest and longest are best. Decayed labourers, women and children make it their business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut they must be flung into water, and kept there; for otherwise they will dry and shrink and the peel will not run. At first a person would find it no easy matter to divest a rush of its peel or rind, so as to have one regular, narrow, even rib from top to bottom that may support the pith: but this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children ... When these junci are thus prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and take dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun.
Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the scalding fat or grease; but this knack also is to be attained by practice.”

He goes on to relate how bacon fat was often used for the purpose of dipping the rushes but how this could be improved upon by adding beeswax or mutton suet. He found that a “good rush” measuring, “two feet four inches and a half” burnt for, “only three minutes short of an hour”. He estimated that a poor family could purchase five and a half hours of, “comfortable light” for a farthing (a quarter of an old penny).
Give me electric lights any day!

Dave Bishop, June 2009

References:

1. ‘The Land of England’ by Dorothy Hartley, Macdonald and Jane’s, 1979.

2. ‘The Natural History of Selborne’ by Gilbert White, Penguin Books Edition, 1977 (first pub. 1788 – 9).

Alex Krause

Alex Krause is leaving the Mersey Valley Countryside Warden Service (MVCWS) and taking up a new post at Reddish Vale.

Alex has occupied the post of MVCWS Ecology Warden for the last five years and has been FoCM contact within the Warden Service for the last two or three years. We owe her a great deal. She has worked incredibly hard on our behalf, put together some interesting and challenging programmes and given us lots of support.

Alex has an MSc in Ecology and has worked in Tropical Ecology and Environmental Education. Her homeland is Brazil and she tells me that it was a bit of a shock coming to a temperate country with actual seasons! It took her a while to become familiar with our local wildlife but she also tells me that she has had a lot of support from local naturalists, who have helped her a great deal, and to whom she is very grateful.

We wish her the very best of luck in her new job.

Having said all that we will not be losing touch with her completely as she will still be living in Chorlton and has expressed an interest in becoming an ‘ordinary’ member of the group (oh, alright then, Alex – we’ll let you join!).

Our new contact within MVCWS will be Education Warden, Andy Martin. I hope to be posting a profile of Andy in due course – although I haven’t asked him yet!

Dave Bishop, June 2009

Marsh Orchids

If you’ve been walking in the Mersey Valley in the last couple of weeks you may well have encountered some very attractive plants with pink or magenta flower spikes. These plants are probably Marsh Orchids.

There are a number of species of Marsh Orchid in the UK but the commonest are Southern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa), Northern Marsh Orchid (D. purpurella) and Early Marsh Orchid (D. incarnata). As the common names of the first two species suggest they tend to occur in southern and northern Britain respectively. Thus if you live in Berkshire or Cumbria (for example) you can be fairly certain about the identity of your local Marsh Orchids. But in some areas, particularly Lancashire (including Greater Manchester), Derbyshire and parts of Wales the distributions of the two species overlap; this means that in the Mersey Valley we’ve got both and they often grow together.

Telling the two apart around here is not easy - I keep finding plants which appear to have some of the characteristics of both species. And then there are the plants which look a bit like Early Marsh Orchid ... but not quite enough to be sure. And the best examples have always been half eaten by slugs or snails. Oh dear!

Are we dealing with hybrids here? That’s the usual explanation in cases like this. Unfortunately, one of the latest books on the subject, ‘Orchids of Britain and Ireland’ by Anne and Simon Harrap (1) tells us that Northern and Southern Marsh Orchids are not as closely related as their common names suggest, and hybrids are, “surprisingly scarce”. Not only that, but the book also states that the hybrid between Early and Northern Marsh is “scarce” whilst the hybrid with Southern Marsh is “rare”.

But it gets worse (or, possibly, better)! There is another species involved: the Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii). This starts flowering towards the end of the Marsh Orchid season – but it is very ‘promiscuous’ and seems to hybridise with everything. For example, it hybridises with Northern Marsh Orchid and the hybrid, “can be common”. It is partially fertile and can back-cross with either parent to form a “hybrid swarm”. It also hybridises with Southern Marsh Orchid and can back-cross with both parents. The Harraps tell us that this hybrid is, “probably the most common orchid hybrid in southern Britain.” Finally, the sterile hybrid with Early Marsh Orchid, “has been found scattered throughout Britain and Ireland”. At least some of these hybrids can display ‘hybrid vigour’, i.e. they are much bigger than the parent plants (I have heard them described as, “bottle-brush orchids”).

So the reason why I have so much difficulty in putting names to our Mersey Valley plants may be because they are hybrids, and even complex back-crosses, and it seems reasonable to hypothesise that many plants may well contain D. fuchsii genes. I think that our local Marsh Orchid plants may well repay closer study by an orchid expert.

The pictures above show a possible Northern Marsh Orchid (top), a possible Southern Marsh Orchid (middle) and a strange, but rather beautiful, plant that might involve Early Marsh Orchid (bottom) ... or possibly not ... Oh, I’m so confused! Help!

Dave Bishop, June 2009

Reference:

‘Orchids of Britain and Ireland: A Field and Site Guides’ by Anne and Simon Harrap, A&C Black, 2005.

A Glimpse of the Mersey Valley 50 Years Ago - Hilda Broady's Journal

10th June, 1959

It was a beautiful warm, sunny evening, with a blue sky and a few cumulus clouds. The plot looked very fresh and green, but there were many flies and gnats hovering in the undergrowth. There was quite a lot of cuckoo spit on the long blades of grass and on other plants. A number of different grasses were collected for identification.

Bittersweet was found growing among the small Sycamores.

Some of the Sycamore leaves were found to be covered with a red spotty growth, other of the leaves were covered with white spots - specimens were collected.

Bittersweet - Solanum Dulcamara

Yorkshire Fog - Holcus Lanatus (this is a grass species, Ed.)


Posted by Dave Bishop, 10th June, 2009.

Banded Demoiselles

Out walking in the valley earlier this week I was cheered to see an insect I always associate with those first really warm days of the year: the banded demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens). Banded demoiselles are damselflies, smaller and more slender than their robust cousins dragonflies and hawkers, but one of the first of this group of insects to be seen each year. The clue to identifying them is in the name as banded demoiselles are easily identified by a dark blue thumbprint shaped band on otherwise translucent wings which in flight gives the impression of an almost butterfly like flitting flight.

Banded demoiselles emerge in mid May and can continue through to September although in the Mersey Valley I only ever seem to see them in May and June. Perhaps due to the relentless mowing of the river banks. What I always find fascinating about damselflies and dragonflies is that they only emerge as adults for a relatively short period of their life cycle. If you see damselflies flying around bonded together it is because they are mating. Once mated the male stays attached to the female until she has deposited her eggs by dipping her abdomen into the water and attaching the eggs to vegetation in the river. The eggs hatch after a few weeks, but it is then the larval stage which can last several years. Banded demoiselle larvae live in muddy bottomed rivers and canals for 2 years until they crawl out of the water and across ground, up to 100m, to scrub or woodland habitat where upon the adult will emerge from the larval case.

My book tells me that "this species is very sensitive to pollution and needs healthy emergent plants for perches and egg-laying" so I'm interested to know from people who have lived near the valley longer than I have when banded demoiselles first became one of the wildlife stars of Mersey Valley.1

Richard Gardner, June 2009

1 Brooks, S. 2005. Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland. Gillingham: British Wildlife Publishing.