Nature Happenings #4
Star filled woodlands
Hello! Emma here again with this week’s nature happening.
We’ve been delighted to see one of our all time favourites appearing in the wood the last week or so, the wood anemone. As the name suggests, this is a flower at home in the woods and is a good indicator of ancient woodland. They flower before the trees are in full leaf to maximise exposure to sunlight, often flowering at the same time as bluebells, appearing like stars amongst the carpet of blue.
Also known as windflower, patches of wood anemones can often be spotted bobbing their heads in the slightest breeze. During the night and on cloudy days, their flowers remain closed and drooped, only opening when the warm sun appears and coaxes them into action, the flowers then open up and turn their heads to track the path of the sun as it moves overhead throughout the day.
Wood anemones also have a fascinating mutualistic relationship with ants, who play a major role in their seed dispersal. Wood anemone seeds have a fatty attachment (elaiosome) which ants feed to their larvae. The ants take the seeds back to their nests where the larvae consume the elaiosome, the remaining seed is then taken to the waste disposal part of the nest, where it can germinate (for those who enjoy fancy words, seed dispersal by ants is known as myrmecochory). Thus, it takes a long time for wood anemones to spread and despite them also using underground rhizomes (creeping off shoots from the main root) to grow, progress is still slow. Something to consider next time you are in a woodland full of them.
Wood anemones have also always been one of Benji’s favourites and they remind us of happy times living in the woods. They have a lovely scientific name which Benji has known since being a toddler. Each year he would shout “ANEMONE NEMOROSA!” upon seeing one for the first time. We’ve been happy to find them close to our new home in a favourite spot by the river, old friends in new places.
Let us know if you see any where you are!