The Curse of the Black Spot

 

The curse of the black spot! Tar spot fungus Rhytisma acerinum, that disfigures sycamore leaves in summer, continues to develop on its dead, decaying foliage in the leaf litter. The black spots become increasingly wrinkly as winter progress, then hundreds of asci - microscopically small flasks filled with needle-shaped spores - develop along the ridges. When spring arrives the spores are released into the air, just in time for them to infect a new crop of sycamore leaves, where they germinate and invade through the breathing pores (stomata) in the leaf surface.

Tar spot fungus is less common on urban sycamores that on trees in rural areas and it used to be thought that this was because the fungus was susceptible to sulphur dioxide in polluted city air. A more likely explanation could be that the fungus is less common on city sycamores because their fallen autumn leaves tend to be removed by councils from public places, so the annual cycle of reinfection from dead infected leaves is broken.

The long journey of the Weeping willow

 

A weeping willow on the bank of the river Wear below Durham cathedral, glowing in early afternoon winter sunshine. An idyllic spot for a riverbank picnic in summer, watching the boats on the river.

The true weeping willow Salix babylonica, of willow pattern ceramics fame, came to England from China and was carried by traders along the Silk Road to Aleppo in Syria, from whence it was brought to England in 1730. 

All the original introductions here were female trees and had to be propagated from cuttings, but these were not fully hardy in our climate and pure-line S. babylonica trees are now thought to be extinct here. Fortunately they hybridised easily with native willow species and have persisted as hybrids of unknown male parentage, although frequently-planted Salix x sepulcralis is thought to be a hybrid with white willow Salix alba. It came from a nursery in Berlin, sometime around 1888.

Willow species in general are notoriously prone to forming hybrids and can be hard to identify with certainty, without scrutinising bark, buds, leaves, flowers and general habit of the tree throughout the growing season.

Judging a book by its cover - and by its contents

 

Edwardian publishers certainly knew how to produce exquisite book covers. I found this charming, gilded, art nouveau example in a second-hand bookshop a few years ago. I was beguiled by the cover, but even more enchanted by the contents.

The cover illustration, and others inside, was painted by artist/illustrator William Bennett Robinson (1870-1915).

The text is by Thomas W. Hoare, Teacher of Nature Study, about whom there seems to be very little information, although I did find one reference that suggests he might have died in 1939.

The book is an omnibus edition of seven books of practical nature study, in the Look About You series published from 1904 onwards. I’m guessing that this de lux edition, which must have been quite expensive, might have been published around 1914. The publisher, T.C. & E.C. Jack, was taken over by another Scottish publisher, Nelson, in 1915.

Here’s Hoare’s preface, setting out his intentions, using the study of nature close to home as a gateway to a broader education based on a child’s natural curiosity. It seems to have been intended as a structured guide to educating children at home.

Each of the seven books is composed of lessons in the form of a conversation between a family member and the children, sometimes with experiments they performed together, and at the end of every lesson there are four questions or tasks for the children to address. At the end of every book there are teachers’ notes, which strongly emphasise the need for kindness and compassion for animals and the need to exercise care and restraint in collecting and keeping living organisms.

Harvest time. The period illustrations capture a lost rural world, of farming with heavy horses and hard manual labour.

Aeronautics, before powered flight became commonplace. The book teaches scientific concepts like cloud formation, rising air currents and air density, by referencing familiar everyday phenomena, from condensed steam from boiling kettles to intrepid balloonists.

Colour plates for insect identification

Wild flowers, butterflies and moths

And when lessons are over, letting off steam by chucking snowballs at a snowman effigy of teacher.

And finally, something else about the Look-About-You series that distinguished them from contemporary early 20th.century outdoors natural history manuals that were mostly written for boys; this series was for the edification of sons and daughters.

You can download free digitised copies of some of the series from the Project Gutenberg website

 

Velvet shank

 

Autumn is the main toadstool season but some hardy fungi produce theirs in the depths of winter, even during periods of frost and snow. This is velvet shanks Flammulina velutipes on the trunk of an old lime tree on the bank of the river Wear in Durham city. On mild, wet days the cap is smooth and shiny. The pale stem (stipe) darkens as it matures, developing a velvety texture.

Books say this species is edible when cooked. John Wright, the The River Cottage Mushroom Handbook described the flavour as ‘unusual ….. distinctly sweet and malty’ and the texture ‘pleasantly chewy’ but cautions against mistaking it for sulphur tuft (gastrointestinal devastation) or the funeral bell (the essential caution is implicit in the name). Velvet shank differs from both in having white spores.