The Accipiter - Online magazine from The Hawk Conservancy Trust

Meadow Muses - October 2007


Monica	Brigid

Monica Johnson and Brigid Campbell look at the ever-changing flora and fauna in our beautiful wildflower meadow which is named in memory of Reg Smith, founder of the Hawk Conservancy Trust.

Everything's Coming Up Roses - October 2007

Dog Rose Bud

Autumn, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness… the hedges are full of wild fruits and berries, and the birds are going mad for them! The hedgerows of Reg’s Meadow are no exception. But what is notable is that so many of them belong to plants of the same family – and a very interesting one too – the Rose family. We might think of roses just as garden flowers, but actually the Rose family includes many of the most important fruiting plants in Britain.


Blackthorn	Sloes

Let’s start with the trees and shrubs in the meadow. At the beginning of the season, just when the Cowslips are at their best, the hedgerows are bright with white blossom. This is Blackthorn, a common shrub with spiny stems, snowy white flowers and (later) pretty blue sloes – tiny plums which are inedible. In many places blackthorn is preceded by another wild plum, the Cherry-plum which does not grow in the meadow. Cherry-plum is often mistaken for blackthorn, as people don’t know its name. It opens a month before blackthorn.


Hawthorn	Wild Cherry (Gean)	Japanese Cherry

Next comes the Hawthorn or May-blossom with its heavy perfume in spring and haws in autumn. In the copses, there are Japanese flowering cherry and Wild cherry, sometimes called Gean. Its snowy blossom is strung out on the branches, rather than hanging in long-stemmed bunches like the Japanese cherries. This is the wild ancestor of cultivated cherries.


Rowan Blossom	Rowan Berries

Next is Rowan or Mountain Ash, a graceful tree whose bunches of white blossom leave clusters of scarlet berries that birds find irresistible. Indeed its Latin name aucuparia means “bird-catching”.


Dog Rose	Dog Rose Hips

In June comes the meadow’s one and only representative of the genus Rosa itself, the pink-flowered Dog-rose with its fierce thorns and red hips. These delicate roses range in colour from deep pink to a shade so pale that it is almost white and must surely be ranked among the prettiest wild flowers in our hedgerows. The rose hips bring a cheerful splash of colour to the bare hedgerows well into the winter.


Flowering Bramble	Blackberries

Last of the truly wild plants is the Blackberry or Bramble with its pink or white blossoms. Blackberries are a genetic nightmare, which is why the blackberries you pick from adjacent bushes can vary so much in size and flavour. There are said to be 71 micro-species in Hampshire alone! We haven’t even begun to try and identify the species in our Meadow!


Apple Blossom	Wild Apples

Finally, there are even, at various places around three sides of the hedgerows of Reg’s Meadow, some Apple trees which have reverted to something like their wild, Crab-apple ancestor, with pink blossom and tiny, hard, bitter, yellow apples. Some can be seen in the hedge behind the meadow seating area, while the one pictured here is beside the kestrel box on the right hand side.

In the park there are several other trees of the family, as well as the fragrant climbing rose by the white-headed whistling ducks. They all have white flowers and include:

cultivated Apple, Quince and Medlar (all in the area adjacent to the new children’s little owl hide)
a type of early domestic plum called Bullace (above the membership information hut) that produces large orangey fruit. This is a hybrid of blackthorn and cherry-plum and flowers earlier than the blackthorn
the elegant little Willow-leaved Pear with its soft grey leaves (in the lower flying grounds and by the Steller’s Sea Eagle aviary)
two other relatives of the rowan which are both native to the chalk: Whitebeam, which has large downy leaves (several throughout the park), and the rare Wild Service Tree, which has maple-like leaves (near the hospital)
an unusual but very attractive bush with long-flowered white petals in spring, which has the pretty name Snowy Mespil (by the black vultures).

We will look at these trees and others found around the Hawk Conservancy in more detail in a later page.


Agrimony	Salad Burnet

All these trees and shrubs belong to the Rose family, as do the familiar fruit plants Raspberry, Apricot, Strawberry, Almond and Peach. So do some common wild flowers and garden flowers, including Cinquefoils, Spiraeas, Lady’s-mantles, Meadowsweet, and three which are found in our meadow, Salad Burnet, Agrimony and Herb Bennet.

Herb Bennet

So many plants, some of them trees, some shrubs, some soft (herbaceous) and small. So how do we know they are all in the same family? The easy way to recognise plant families is by their flowers. Typical Rose family flowers have five quite big petals, often pink or white. Between the petals are often five pointed sepals, the remains of the outside of the bud. Inside the flower is a conspicuous ring of stamens, often yellow with pollen. Quite a few of the wild flowers on the list have massed heads of tiny flowers which don’t look a bit like roses. Some don’t even have petals. But the rest of the flower is still typical of the rose family, and the resemblance is there under the magnifying lens.
Apples, strawberries, rowans, and the lowly salad burnet – they all look different but they’re all roses under the skin.

Featured Plant – Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus)

The first thing to say about the Guelder Rose is that, despite its name, it is not a rose at all, but is actually a member of the Honeysuckle family! It is a deciduous shrub found growing to around 15-20 feet in hedgerows, scrub and woodland, mainly on chalky soils. Guelder Rose is the wild ancestor of the garden shrub known as “Snowball Tree”. It has lobed, sharply-toothed leaves and produces flat flower heads in June and July. The more showy outer flowers appear first and attract insects, but these outer blooms are infertile. The fertile inner flowers produce nectar and the insects feed on this. The flowers are followed by heavy clusters of waxy berries, turning from orange to red as they ripen in September and October. The leaves also turn a deep scarlet in autumn.

The origin of the scientific name is obscure and it is generally accepted that Viburnum simply comes from the Latin for Wayfaring Tree, while opulus refers to the Latin name for a type of Maple. Alternatively it has been suggested that Viburnum may come from Latin vieo meaning “to tie” or “to weave together”, as the pliable branches of some species were used as binding materials, and the name opulus from Latin opulens, meaning “rich” and referring to the bright colour of the berries. The common name Guelder comes from Gueldersland, a Dutch province where the tree was first cultivated.

Alternative common names include Cramp Bark, King’s Crown, High Cranberry, Red Elder, Rose Elder, May Rose, Whitsun Rose, Dog Rowan Tree, Silver Bells, Whitsun Bosses, Gaitre Berries and Black Haw.

The bark contains a bitter glucoside called Viburnine, as well as tannin, resin and valerianic acid and is the part of the plant most used in traditional medicine. It was said to be beneficial when used to treat nervous complaints and, as the name Cramp Bark suggests, it has also been used to treat cramps and spasms, convulsions, fits and lock-jaw, as well as rheumatism, heart disease and palpitations. It has been widely used in traditional medicine in the USA.

Chaucer recommended the berries as edible, but they are said to be very bitter and disagreeable, though birds and small mammals seem to like them! In Siberia the berries were fermented with flour and distilled into a spirit, while in Norway and Sweden they have been used in flavourings. In Canada they were made into a piquant jelly.

Other uses for the berries include ink-making, as they turn black when dried. The wood, like that of the Spindle Tree and Dogwood, has been used for making skewers.