The yearly cycle of the meadow is drawing to a close by mid-November. Almost

Musk Mallow Filigree

everything has finished flowering in the main part of the field, with just a handful of plants taking advantage of the mild days of this autumn to send up a few late blooms.

Grass seed head & spiders' webs	Morning dew

The meadow is full of dead stems and fallen leaves, but when seen close up these have their own kind of beauty. It is all about texture and the variety of different shapes and colours that make up the many individual species we are lucky enough to have in our meadow. On a bright, sunny morning, following one of the first nights of frost this autumn, everything is glistening with moisture.

 

Frosted leaf

The sun stays quite low in the sky now and in the shadow of the hedgerow in Huckle’s Copse the frost remains well into the day, edging the plants and fallen leaves with silvery-white crystals.

Log art	Log pile and fungus

Log piles placed in the copses provide food and shelter for a wide variety of insects but also add to the patterns and texture of the meadow. The damp log pile in Patrick’s Wood has produced a particularly fine large white mushroom fungus.

Many of the leaves have already fallen from the hedgerows but there are still patches of yellow foliage and bright red berries. The low sun shining through the leaves makes the colours glow even more brightly.

Guelder Rose fruit	Spindle fruit and seeds	Lichen

The pink Spindle Tree berries have a last surprise for us, splitting open to reveal bright orange seeds, proving that even Nature can produce the occasional serious colour clash! Berries are ripening on the ivy and the holly leaves in the hedgerow are fresh and glossy. Bright golden-yellow lichen is now visible where the leaves have fallen to reveal bare branches and stems.

Before mowing	One man went to mow
During mowing	After mowing

The meadow was mowed on November 14th in order to remove dead foliage, help to distribute the seed and open up the ground ready for winter. The cut foliage will be left on the ground for a few days and then removed. This prevents over-enrichment of the soil, which is important because chalk wild flower meadows prefer a soil that is sparse in nutrients.

Once the cut foliage has been taken away the cycle of the meadow will be complete. By the end of December the hedgerows will be bare, except for a few lingering berries providing food for birds and small mammals. The seeds set by this year’s plants are already starting their

Sunset heron

germination process beneath the soil, ready to provide us with what we hope will be an even better display next year.

At the end of the day the mowing has been completed and all is peaceful once more. The herons have gathered to watch a spectacular sunset, with one bird claiming the grandstand seat on top of the mound, as the sun goes down on Reg’s Meadow for 2005.

 

Featured Plants – The Holly and the Ivy

Holly - (Ilex aquifolium)

Holly

A native, slow-growing shrub, growing to a maximum of 30-40 feet. It has small, white flowers in May and female trees produce bright red berries in autumn and early winter. The leaves are glossy, mostly dark green, with sharp prickles on lower leaves but often none higher up. The wood is very hard and compact and is much prized by wood-turners. It is greenish when cut but turns very white when dried. It is used in inlay work and for making mathematical instruments.

Alternative names include Hulver, Holm, Hulm, Christ’s Tree and Holy Tree.
The name Ilex comes from the Latin for a prickly shrub and aquifolium means “with pointed (or needle-like) leaves”. These other words for holly appear quite often in place names such as Hulver in Suffolk and Holmstone in Kent.

Holly was an important plant in ancient beliefs and folklore. To pagans it was a symbol of everlasting life, used in celebrating the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest point before being reborn to a new seasonal cycle. It also represented strength and masculinity. It has traditionally been thought that the plant had the power to keep away witches, evil spirits and trolls (Scandinavia), give power over horses, so it was used for making whips, deter lightning if planted either side of a building, and to prevent ringworm if hung near farm animals. The wood was thought to be powerful for making runes but it was important to ask the tree for permission before doing so and to give the tree a gift in return.

Cutting down holly trees was believed to bring bad luck or to allow the approach of witches, but it was all right to cut branches for decoration or other uses, such as making brushes to sweep chimneys. From ancient times until the 18th century the leaves were sometimes used as food for livestock and are said to have a high calorific content and to be rich in nutrients.

Medicinally the leaves have been used in treating broken bones, catarrh, pleurisy, smallpox, fevers, rheumatism and jaundice and the berries to treat dropsy, stop bleeding or act as a purgative.

Ivy - (Hedera helix)

Ivy flowers and berries

A woody evergreen climber, which attaches itself to trees or walls by means of short stem roots. It has round clusters of green and yellow flowers in autumn and produces berries which ripen to become purplish-black by early spring. It is an important food plant for insects and birds, providing a late supply of nectar in autumn and berries during hard winters when food may be scarce. Ivy also provides good cover for nesting and roosting birds. The wood is very soft and porous and has not been popular for use in England. In southern Europe it is sometimes used by wood turners or cut into thin slices to be made into filters.

No alternative names are known. The name Hedera is used in Latin to refer to ivy shaped leaves and helix means “spiral” or “twisted”, possibly referring to the way the plant often twists around stems as it grows. The common English name “Ivy” comes from the Anglo-Saxon ifig but its origin is not known.

Ivy has been held in high esteem throughout recorded history. Priests in ancient Greece gave wreaths of ivy to newly married couples, as the plant was considered to be an emblem of fidelity. Its leaves were used for poets’ crowns and also by the Romans for wreaths in depictions of Bacchus, to whom the plant was dedicated. It was thought that binding the brow with Ivy, or drinking wine in which its leaves had been boiled, would prevent or cure intoxication! Goblets were even made from the wood in the hope of achieving this. In England “ale-stakes” of Ivy-covered poles were erected outside taverns as innkeepers vied to have the biggest advertisement for the quality of their ale. This competition was obviously getting out of hand, as an act of Parliament was passed in 1375, restricting the height of these poles to seven feet!
In folklore it was believed to be a plant of protection, keeping away the Devil and evil spirits and for charming away warts. In the Highlands and Islands of Scotland it was used with Rowan and Honeysuckle to make a charm for keeping evil spirits away from milk and butter making in the dairy.

One of the earliest medicinal uses appeared in the Old English “Leechbook of Bald”, recommending boiling tender twigs in butter and using as an ointment on the face for the removal of sunburn! Ivy has also been used to treat coughs and bronchitis, in homeopathy for over-active thyroid, gallbladder problems and asthma, and as a poultice to ease neuralgia, rheumatism and sciatica.

Current Christmas Tradition

The use of Holly and Ivy as seasonal decoration has crossed over from pagan to Christian tradition and they have now become very much a part of our traditional Christmas scene. They were sometimes banned from use in Christian churches, because of the pagan background, but a Christian emphasis was given to their use by likening the Holly berries to the blood of Jesus and the prickles to the crown of thorns worn at the Crucifixion.

Holly was considered to be a masculine plant and Ivy a feminine one. Although it was thought to be unlucky to bring Ivy into the house at other times, it was allowed at Christmas, as a bringing together of male and female attributes in harmony. But be warned – it is said that if you bring prickly-leaved Holly into the house for Christmas the husband will rule the household for the coming year, and if the Holly is smooth-leaved it will be the wife – perhaps it would be safer to bring in a little of each!

Happy Christmas!