Reg’s Meadow - August 2008
Field of Gold
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Golden Meadow |
Lady's Bedstraw |
The meadow as I am writing this in July needs no special topic to recommend it, but simply flaunts itself in its full summer glory. It is a vivid and sensual experience, a riot of colour and intoxicating scent, which will hopefully still be there to experience as you read this at the beginning of August. The scent comes mainly from the Lady’s Bedstraw, rampaging everywhere in a froth of yellow blossom. Adding to the yellow palette there are large clumps of St. John’s Wort, several patches of Tall Melilot and a scattering of Bird’s Foot Trefoil still in bloom as well as the scattered hairy stems of Rough Hawkbit, each topped with a single yellow flower. But it is the bedstraw which has control of the meadow at the moment. On sunny days the light glows through the yellow, while even on dull days the brightness of the bedstraw might almost persuade you that the sun is shining. July and August are the best possible time to experience the meadow’s flowers, insects and scents.
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Happy Musk Mallow |
Wet Pheasant |
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Very wet Bumble Bee |
Not happy! |
However, the sun doesn’t always shine on the Hawk Conservancy and we have already had our share of wet days this year. The flowers love it and drink up the moisture, growing strongly in the periods when there is plenty of water in the chalky soil. Visitors who have to run for shelter from the 2.00 demonstration are not so pleased and the meadow wildlife sometimes suffers as well. Neither visitors nor wildlife always make it to shelter in time and on one day of sudden torrential downpours I saw a rather damp male pheasant and the wettest, unhappiest bumble bee I have ever seen.
On warm sunny days in July the meadow wildlife is much more content and there is a busy summer buzz all around. Bumble bees, honey bees and tiny brightly patterned hover flies are everywhere in the flowers, collecting nectar and picking up the pollen as they go. Although the yellow flowers seem to cover the whole meadow, there are plenty of pinks and purples in evidence as well, which seem very attractive to the insects.
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Bumble Bee |
Honey Bee |
Hover Fly in Mallow |
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Go Away! |
I'm Not Here! |
As you move among the foliage tiny moths flutter up from around your feet and grasshoppers and crickets make a constant background noise as they leap from stem to stem to escape you. Meadow grasshoppers watch cautiously as you approach, then move round to the back of the grass stems, believing that if they can’t see you, you don’t know they’re there!
A lot smaller, but very much in evidence at the moment are the familiar tiny beetles found each year in the meadow. The one you are most likely to see in July and into August is the orange Soldier Beetle Rhagonycha fulva, conspicuous by the bright “military” coat that gives it its common name. If you look at the flowers anywhere along the meadow paths you cannot fail to see one of these, or quite often two together, mating. Smaller and more difficult to spot, but worth the effort of trying, is the pretty green Flower Beetle Oedemera nobilis, the male of which has large swellings on its hind legs. Often you will first notice that there is something small and dark on a flower and when you look more closely you will find these little beetles. They stand out well on the brighter, lighter flowers such as white yarrow and pinkish-purple creeping thistle.
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Soldier Beetle on Thistle |
Soldier Beetle on Bedstraw |
Oedemera nobilis on Yarrow |
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Gatekeeper |
As the sun comes out, so do the butterflies, which love the warmth. On most of the days we have walked the meadow this month it has not been especially warm so we have not seen as many as usual. The various Browns are the most frequent, flitting about busily even on cooler days and there are usually Marbled Whites to be seen, as well as an occasional Skipper when it is warmer. One advantage of approaching butterflies on cooler days is that they are not quite so active and will allow you to get quite near when you spot them at rest. On a cool evening I managed to get fairly close to photograph this Gatekeeper, while the Marbled White, sitting with its wings closed, allowed me to almost touch it with the camera, then spread out its wings to give a beautiful top view, and finally a full frontal!
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Marbled White – Closed Wings |
Open Wings |
Full Frontal! |
Featured Flower – Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis)
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We hope we may be forgiven for featuring a plant this month which is not actually growing in Reg’s Meadow, but which is so exciting that we wanted to tell you about it. The plant is actually growing just the other side of the mound, in the long grass at the bottom of the Lower Flying Ground, and our hope is that it may at some future time spread into the meadow itself.
Pyramidal Orchid is, not surprisingly, a member of the Orchid family and is an erect perennial growing up to 16 inches (40cm), flowering from June to August. It has unspotted leaves, growing mainly near the base of the stem and a flower head in the shape of a dense, purplish-pink rounded pyramid. It grows in sunny positions on open scrub and grassland, dry banks and sand-dunes, especially on lime-rich soils, but it can also tolerate alkaline soils. It grows throughout central and southern Europe, where it varies in colour through a range of pinks and purples, or very occasionally white. In Britain it is found from the south of England, where it occurs in large numbers, as far north as the Outer Hebrides and throughout Ireland, and is the national flower of the Isle of Wight. It is described as having a smell similar to vanilla during the day, which attracts butterflies and moths, its main pollinators, while in the evening, when wet with dew, the smell is less pleasantly described as “foxy” or “goat-like”.
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Alternative names include Salep, Saloop, Sahlep, Satyrion and Levant Salep, all these names being applied to a range of different orchids. These orchids have tuberous roots containing a starch-like substance called Bassorin, which has been extracted over the centuries in areas such as Turkey and Persia and exported under the name of Sahlep. This word, of Arabian origin, became “Saloop” or “Salep” in England. The popularity of the substance in Turkey resulted in a serious decline in wild orchids there. The starchy substance was used in the production of breads, cereals and sweets and also made into a very nutritious drink, with the same name, that was sold on stalls in the London streets, until it was supplanted by coffee at a later date. It was highly regarded in herbal medicine at that time, being used as a strengthening agent, and was produced from plants grown in Oxfordshire, though mostly imported from the East. Charles Lamb is quoted as saying that a basin full of Salep and a slice of bread and butter was an ideal breakfast for a chimney-sweep! The drink was used in the diet of children and convalescents as a strengthening medicine, sometimes mixed with cloves, cinnamon or ginger, and to treat diarrhoea and bilious fevers. It was also taken on board sailing ships as a standard part of the food stores for long voyages, where it was said that an ounce, dissolved in 2 quarts of boiling water, provided a subsistence diet for each man if food supplies ran short.
There are a number of folklore associations with various orchids, but I have not found any specifically relating to Pyramidal Orchids.
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A small fence was erected around the plants to protect them from strimming or any other damage and we hope we will have this beautiful little flower with us again next year and for many years to come. It would be particularly satisfying if it were to find its way into the meadow itself – we would be delighted to add it into our list of species!
