By-The-Wind-Sailor strandings

Fierce storms brought plenty of visitors to the Isle of Wight at the end of November and during the first week of December. However, these will not feature within Tourist Board statistics!

This interesting lifeform is currently quite frequent around the coast of the Island. It floats like a Portugese Man-of-War, stings like a Jellyfish and looks a bit like delaminating plastic. Dr Roger Herbert describes the recent observations here.

Parkhurst Forest fungus foray

Members of the Fungi Group who came on the foray in Parkhurst Forest on 11th November were privileged to see the fungal find of the season. A magnificent clump of Hericium cirrhatum, one of the tooth fungi, was seen growing on a dead beech tree at the northern end of the forest. This is a rare fungus, listed as a Red Data Book species, which is more or less confined to old growth beech woods, having its headquarters in the New Forest and Windsor Old Park.

Seahorse

A Long-snouted Seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) has been found in a fisherman's net on October the 15th, in the Medina Estuary 1.5 miles upstream from Cowes.

Fungus foray in Firestone Copse

Some quite spectacular species were found in the copse this year. Pictured right is Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria). This beautiful but poisonous fungus was found growing under birch trees.

The exotic trees of Osborne House

Wellingtonias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) planted in the same year, one by Prince Albert and the other by Queen Victoria, were measured during the Botany Group’s meeting at Osborne House in September. Albert planted his in an area close to the potting shed but Victoria wanted hers to be in a place where she could see it growing so it was planted at the edge of the lawn, visible from her sitting room. This location was also rather more exposed to the wind. Albert’s tree has now reached a height of approximately 36m (118 ft) whereas Victoria’s is about 24m (78 ft), presumably as a consequence of its location.

Hummingbird Hawk Moths

Kris Codd and Pete Bradley sent us this :-
"We must tell you of a very exciting visitor on August 25th in Buckingham Road, Ryde. Our attention was caught by a small hovering creature feeding on Valerian. It looked liked a hummingbird with all the hummingbird characteristics but was more like a bee or moth. We have now established with confidence it was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth!
We would be very pleased to hear of anyone else seeing such a delightful creature and how common are these moths? With Climate warming an issue are we now seeing creatures that would not otherwise be here or are Hummingbird moths a fairly common occurrence?"

Find out more here

A Horntail

Sometimes known as the Wood Wasp, this sawfly grows up to 40mm long , and is found in pine trees, but does turn up in modern housing estates when the larva emerges from building timbers! Although fearsome in appearance the insect is quite harmless.

Return of the Frog Orchid and... an Amazing Find!

Until recently the Frog orchid (Coeloglossum viride) has been feared lost, the last sighting being by Reg Kettell in 1992 on the north side of Afton Down, a site which had diminished from several hundred plants to very few by that time. This July more than fifty plants were counted by the Botany Group, spaced at intervals along the Down.

Frog Orchids are usually quite inconspicuous with greenish flowers, though occasionally they are flushed pink. They are one of the species classed as 'vulnerable', considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

Surprise!

The Botany Group were amazed to be told about Paul Stanley's discovery of Dwarf Sedge (Carex humilis) on the Down earlier in the year. This is one of those native species with a very restricted distribution in Britain and it has never, before now, been seen on the Island or even near to it!

It is an inconspicuous low-growing plant which has short flowering stems hidden at the base of the leaves and forms patches in grazed downland turf. In its mainland sites it is associated with other scarce and rare plants, like Field Fleawort (Tephroseris integrifolia) and Burnt-tip Orchid (Orchis ustulata) and grows where sheep-grazing is maintained, often around ancient earthworks, on the Wiltshire Downs and in Dorset.

Golden ringed Dragonfly

Two specimens of the Golden ringed Dragonfly were seen in the Eastern Yar valley near Horringford on July 6th 2006, and two days later the Hoverfly (Helophilum trivittatus) was found there in damp grassland on 08/07/06, looking very natty in a striped waistcoat.

Purple Clematis discovered.

Purple Clematis (Clematis viticella) was found by Hilary Higgins in 2005, at Hamstead Point, and this year she went and took some photographs. From these our botany recorder, Colin Pope, was able to confirm the identification. This is the first record of it being found on the Isle of Wight.

This is a handsome species from southern Europe which is very occasionally naturalised in southern England. As Hilary comments, it is so well established it has clearly been here for a few years.

Cornflowers in the Wilderness

At the moment (mid-June) fields of Cornflowers can be seen from the road along Bleak Down. These fields are one of only two sites in the country where persistent populations survive. Cornflowers (Centauria cyanus) used to be a widespread arable weed but are now very scarce.

The expression 'cornflower blue' means little to us now but the colour itself is just as startling as ever.