Small ermine moth

Small ermine moths usually feed on bird cherry leaves, hereabouts, enclosing whole shoots and even branches in a silken tent, so they can feed safely inside

For the last two years they have fed on spindle bushes in my garden. Spindle Euonymus europaeus is a native hedgerow small tree in Britain, but is rare in the wild here in North East England. It is often grown in gardens, for its attractive seed capsules and vibrant autumn colour.

When the caterpillars are fully fed they crawl down to ground level and spin a silken cocoon on the ground, where they pupate.

They started hatching in my garden in the third week of July.

And here is the newly emerged moth, clad in copy of the ermine trimmed robes worn by their Lordships in the House of Lords.

Psychedelic Spindle

I was a teenager in the 1960s, so inevitably the vibrant colours of these spindle Euonymus europaeus fruits remind me of the colours used in psychedelic art during the period. This must surely be our most colourful hedgerow tree, not least because its foliage also turns crimson in October.

When the fruit splits open it reveals the seeds, which are covered in an extra fleshy orange layer known as the aril, which makes them attractive to birds. Very few British native plants have seeds with arils, although they are common in the tropical flora - the fleshy edible part of a lychee is an aril.

Sadly, spindle is now an uncommon hedgerow tree through much of its range because in winter it's the alternative host of black bean aphid that infests bean crops in summer, so it has been deliberately eradicated in some arable-growing areas. 

A Tree-Spotter's Guide to Flowers: 6

The tiny green flowers of Spindle Euonymus europaeus are some of the least impressive of any British native tree but they go on to become one of the most eye-catching fruits. The flowers are pollinated by small flies, which also perform the same service for....

.........holly. There's an old country saying that a good holly berry crop indicates a hard winter on the way - in reality, it's the result of a warm spring when weather conditions during the flowering period in May were good for the flies.

A Tree-Spotter's Guide to Fruits and Seeds: Part 1

Surely the most gaudy tree in the British flora - spindle Euonymus europaeus. Spindle has been eradicated from hedgerows in some parts of the country because it acts as a winter host for the black bean aphids that infect field bean crops. That's a pity, because I can think of no other hedgerow  tree that presents such a colourful sight in autumn, when the leaves turn crimson and it produces these dangling shocking pink fruits that split open to reveal vivid orange seed. That soft orange outer layer is an aril - an extra seed coat layer that has evolved to attract birds that eat them and void the undigested hard seed seed through their gut. Arils are quite common in tropical fruits (the edible part of a lychee is an aril) but are uncommon in temperate floras.

Catkins of silver birch Betula pendula seeds ripen in late summer and begin to break up now - as these are doing - sending down showers of tiny winged seeds. Silver birch seed is a key food source for many finches in winter, including siskins and redpolls. The seeds can be produced in vast quantities - I was recently sent some samples to identify by a train company whose trains were breaking down because of overheating caused by engine air intakes becoming blocked by seeds from lineside birch trees. 

Indisputably a hawthorn - but which species? Common hawthorn Crataegus monogyna or Midland hawthorn C. laevigata? Now's the time to find out, by splitting open the fruit (which in botanical terns is a drupe, not a true berry). If there's one seed inside it's common hawthorn, if there are two then it's the midland hawthorn. This one had one-seeded fruits, so it's common hawthorn.

The powdery bloom on the outside of a sloe Prunus spinosa is a natural wild yeast that feeds on sugars that are produced in the fruit - although you'd be hard-pressed to detect any sweetness in the flesh of these incredibly bitter drupes. These two, and a couple of hundred others like them, are now bottled in gin in the cupboard under our stairs - and the resulting sloe gin should be ready for Christmas.

Hornbeam Carpinus betulus, famous for the hardness of its timber that was once used to make rake teeth and other similarly durable wooden items, bears these little pagodas of fruits that turn bright yellow with the foliage in autumn but remain on the tree for a while after the leaves drop, creating an effect a little like Christmas tree decorations. 

The hard seeds are nutlets, each attached to its own three-lobed bract that spins to the ground when it's released from the cluster.

For a Tree-Spotter's Guide to Buds, visit http://cabinetofcuriosities-greenfingers.blogspot.com/2009/11/tree-spotters-guide-to-buds-part-1.html

For more posts on tree ID click here