Exploring Worcester Woods

Nick Cripps

A Hint of Spring

MAY

MAY the warming, optimistic month, is a time of fertility and growth. The woodland floor is a patchwork-quilt of colours and overhead in the tree canopy birds are rearing young. The word May most likely came from the Sanskrit word ‘mah’ meaning to grow.

FLOWERS

Ramsons are not called Wood Garlic without reason! The brilliant white, star-shaped flowers thrive in Perry Wood's damp entrenchment. Visit the area and smell the pungent garlic-infused atmosphere they produce.

Wood Spurge is a sturdy woodland plant. The stem of the spurge when cut, will exude an irritant milky latex that burns the skin. In the past this latex was used for removing stubborn warts.

Two uncommon flowers of the Woods are Bugle an upright, deep-lilac flower and Three-cornered Leek, sometimes called Triangular-stemmed garlic. Easily mis-taken for a 'white bluebell', the three-cornered leek usually flowers after the bluebell has died back. Look for the leek along the interior paths of Nunnery Wood.

Lords and Ladies is a distinctive native perennial that produces arrow-shaped leaves, and a spathe that looks like a miniature bulrush! The plant has numerous nicknames including, Cuckoo Pint, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Washerwoman's Hands. In Elizabethan times the starch-rich plant root was used to stiffen the showy collars and ruffs worn by the nobility.

Herb Robert, the garden weed, produces its cheery, reddish-pink flowers all over the wood. The yellow-petalled flower Wood Avens, also known as Herb Bennet, is another lover of damp places. Its roots give off the smell of cloves, and the Romans used it medicinally as a substitute for quinine. In autumn the clustered seeds of the wood avens form barbed hooks which are dislodged and dispersed by passing animals.

There are numerous colourful vetches in the woods and meadows. The purple-blue Bush Vetch and the multicolored Bitter Vetch both occur inside the wood. Amongst the meadow grasses the Common Vetch is prevalent, so too, the delicate Smooth Tare with its wispy, white flowers which grow in knotted bundles. Birds-foot Trefoil is also common. Birdsfoot is often called Eggs and Bacon because its flower starts life pink in colour before turning egg-yoke-yellow!

Clover, Daisies, and Plantain are all meadow regulars, so too, are dandelion clocks which never seem to go out of fashion with children. Look further for the tiny, blue flowers of the Speedwell and the yellow-petaled flowers of the Bulbous Buttercup. The Hawthorn hedgerows and Elder are both laden with white blossom. Elder flowers are a favourite ingredient of the wine-maker - as are its autumn berries!

BIRDS

This is a busy time for bird families. Higher temperatures mean higher populations of insect food. Caterpillars are in big demand and this is where the agile tit family has the advantage. Using their persistence and skill, they forage from dawn 'till dusk on Oak Roller and Tortrix moth caterpillars.

May is the main breeding month of the year. Resident species will be feeding their young, or raising a second brood. Summer visitors will be nest building and incubating eggs. The last three summer migrants to arrive are: in the sky, the screaming Swift; in the tall hedges, the Turtle Dove; and at the wood edge, the squeaking Spotted Flycatcher.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker, a shy bird, with a distinctive ‘kick’ call, has little problem breeding in Worcester's well-trodden woods. The habitual Green Woodpecker is frequently found feeding on ants in the rough grassy meadows.

BUTTERFLIES

The Orange Tip butterfly frequents the damp meadows and woodland edge, wherever its food plant garlic mustard occurs. Only the male of the species has the distinctive orange-tipped wings, the females’ are tipped black.

The Large White, or Cabbage White butterfly, emerges in May much to the annoyance of gardeners! The Wall, a tan-coloured butterfly with dark markings may be spotted, although sightings have been rare in recent years. Very active in sunshine it favours sheltered spots such as walls and pathways, settling only briefly, with wings open, before commencing its characteristic zigzag flight.

The Common Blue will be flying over the meadows, amongst the yellow flowers of the birds-foot trefoil. A small brown butterfly visiting the knapweed and thistles may be the Small Heath. This species is found in Nunnery but easily overlooked. The last species to emerge is the solitary Small Copper - a small yet strikingly coloured butterfly, with bright copper wings edged with black markings.

INSECTS

manage to live and breed in the most inhospitable and unlikely places - hence their success. They are also responsible for galls, those peculiar growths that disfigure otherwise healthy leaves and plants. Galls will form on any part of a plant at the site where an insect has laid an egg - on the roots, bark, stem, or leaves. They manifest themselves in all manners of shapes and sizes.

The Oak-apple is a gall of the oak tree. Crab apple-like in appearance, and pinkish in colour, it grows on the budded ends of oak twigs. Marble galls look like marbles. Coloured red and green in the spring, they gradually fade a dull autumn brown. The tiny Spangle gall occurs in bead-like clusters on the underside of oak leaves.

The dog rose plays host to a fascinating, hairy gall known as Robin's Pin Cushion. Look for this green and red gall which can grow to the size of a tennis ball!

The Green Shield Bug is common to gardens and woods alike. The size of a finger-nail, the shield bug is protected by green wing-cases that blend deftly with gorse and bracken. The Hawthorn Shield Bug, a more colourful reddish-green bug, is also found in small numbers.

Cuckoo spit, that strange frothy phenomenon on plant stems, is the home of the Froghopper nymph. The froghopper is a small brown jumping bug, and its offspring live inside the moist, spittle cocoon. Thus, the froghopper is fondly known as the spittle-bug!

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