Wall flowers in Weardale

Dry stone walls, and old stone walls held together with mortar, acquire a flora of resilient species that thrive in their damp crevices. In Weardale these vertical gardens are at their best from mid-May to early June, before conditions become too dry.

This beautiful display, with yellow Alyssum saxatile in the foreground, cascades down a wall in Stanhope, Weardale

Fairy foxglove Erinus alpinus covers large areas of old walls in Stanhope.

Ferns colonise walls too, but usually on the side that's shaded from the sun. This is brittle bladder fern Cystopteris fragilis, growing  in the wall around St. John's Chapel churchyard in Weardale.

Wall rue Asplenium ruta-muraria and maidenhair spleenwort Asplenium  trichomanes sharing the same crevice in a wall at Eggleston in Teesdale

Aubretia and dandelions in a retaining wall near Daddry Shield in Weardale.

Yellow Alyssum saxatile clinging to the narrowest of crevices in Stanhope.

Wallflower Cheiranthus cheiri, living up to its name in Stanhope.

Fairy foxglove Erinus alpinus, on a wall in Stanhope.

Snow-in-summer Cerastium tomentosum on a wall in Stanhope.

Spring Stirring?

Teesdale: Goat willow bud scales beginning to lose their grip ........

Ryton Willows Nature Reserve, Newburn, Tyne Valley: reedmace seed heads breaking up and sheding seeds

Our garden, Co. Durham: First lesser celandine bloomed today

Teesdale: Hedge sparrow singing, volume turned up to 11, in foul weather

Teesdale: New fronds unfurling on maidenhair spleenwort fern

Hawthorn Dene, Durham coast: Fabulous display of snowdrops today

Wall ferns

Three tough fern species that remain green throughout the winter and survive all-year-round in a very inhospitable habitat. First up, wall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) thrives in the mortar of old walls and walls made of limestone. There are often fine displays on the shady side of churchyard walls and it often turns up on old masonry in the heart of cities.

 

Maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) is an exceptionally graceful species and is also a lime-lover, so thrives in crumbling mortar wherever there is some shade and humidity.

Polypody fern (Polypodium vulgare) is an epiphyte – a plant that grows on other plants – and its natural habitat is on moss-covered branches of trees but in Weardale it often makes itself at home in between the capstones of drystone walls. It’s an evergreen fern and if you turn the fronds over even this late in the year you’ll often get a surprise – bright yellow clusters of sporangia on the underside of the fronds.

For a closer look at these hop over to http://beyondthehumaneye.blogspot.com/2009/11/polypody-fern-with-golden-sporangia.html