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December 2024 Ramsbury Nature Notes by Peter Marren


The autumn, though very wet during September and October, remained more or less frost-free before mid November, and so many tall trees retained their foliage. When the sun deigned to shine, Savernake Forest was a wonderful sight, with copper oaks, yellow maples, and beech in the range of colours including russet, tawny, and what I call old gold (they glint like gold when caught by the low afternoon sun). A few oaks and beeches retain their leaves well into the winter in a phenomenon known as markescence. This is presumably a genetic adaptation, and one could imagine reasons why it could help the tree. More leaves mean better protection of the buds from air frosts. It might put off the squirrels, for these late leaves are full of tannins and taste bitter. Or it might be that a slow but steady fall of leaves near the roots will recycle nutrients to the tree’s advantage. Whether all that is enough to offset the energy costs in maintaining a leafy canopy through the winter is uncertain; probably not or more trees would do it!


This has been perhaps the worst year ever for fungi that grow among fallen leaves on the forest floor. There has been some spectacular sprouting of bracket fungi on logs and stumps, sometimes arranged artistically and a delight to the eye. But otherwise, why there hasn’t there been a fungal feast to match the unprecedented rainfall? My best guess is that it has been too wet. Wet soil is cold soil, and fungi need warmth as well as damp to put on a spurt of rapid growth resulting in the bodies we know as mushrooms and toadstools. If you have an old lawn, you might have seen some little yellow matchstick-sized bodies in the grass. These are fungi known as fairy clubs and are quite harmless. There are similar ones that come in a variety of other colours: pure-white, buff, apricot, rose, even purple. Grassland fungi are often in bright colours, in contrast to the beiges and browns of many woodland species. Why the bright colours? I don’t think anyone knows, but it certainly brightens up the grass once the flowers are over.




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