CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

  Low Barns is Durham Wildlife Trust’s largest wetland reserve and the commonest trees there are alders, whose leaves are currently being c...

  It's hard to over-estimate how important alder seeds are as food for small finches in winter. Siskins love them, but so do goldfinches...

A second day of New Year Plant Hunting, this time along the banks of the river Wear and along woodland edges and hedges. Nineteen species i...

There isn't a lot of colour in the countryside at the moment but this brightly coloured alder timber, in a smal...

Many trees produce their flowers in elongated catkins in spring, often before the foliage expands. Most - but not all - catkin-bearing tree...

The grey-brown bark of alder Alnus glutinosa isn't particular distinctive - unlike the wood within. Freshly-felled alder wood turns ...

This little huddle of 7-spot ladybirds, apparently settling down for communal hibernation, were a bit premature in their choice of these ...

By this time of year many trees are showing signs of fungal attack. This strange growth on a developing alder cone is caused by a gall-formi...

White poplar Populus alba winter buds are covered in a dense felt of fine white hairs that, from a distance, make the twig look as though ...