Monday 2 January 2012

Summer, autumn or winter?


What a mix of seasons at the moment. If you look at the picture you can see fresh green summery leaves and brown autumn foliage - and officially it's winter! 

The bright green leaves on the left of the picture are bramble. It's usually evergreen but the leaves are often more purply in the winter.

In the centre of the picture we have the dead fronds of last year's bracken.  Bracken is one of the five different ferns found at Filnore Woods.  It is easy to distinguish because it is the only one to have a tall stalk with fronds branching off it.  all the other ferns have their fronds coming directly out of the ground.

The golden brown leaves at the top of the picture are dead leaves clinging on to the lower branches of the oak ree, whose trunk you can see on the right.  Like beech and hornbeam trees, oaks often hang on to to their leaves in the winter, especially young trees.  And this winter has been comparatively mild so far.

Can you make out the nettles beginning to send out fresh green growth and the dead stalks of last summer's hogweed seed heads?



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