Blog - flora locale

emergent seedling

Trees, seeds and the Millennium Seed Bank.

by Chris, 2 December, 2016, 1 comments

Plants are vital to all food chains, to our existence. They provide foods (rice, wheat, peas, beans), building materials (timber), fibres for clothing (cotton), medicines (aspirin, quinine etc) and fuel (oils, biomass). However, habitats are being rapidly destroyed by activities such as agriculture, deforestation, road building and urban developments. This habitat loss is happening rapidly and conserving plants within threatened habitats is not always possible. Collecting seeds and preserving them ex situ (away from their natural habitat) offers a cost effective way to save seeds and keep them for posterity. Later, and if, required they can be germinated (hopefully) and reintroduced to the wild, or used in scientific research. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) - which is based at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, Read more...

The anatomy of a hedge

The anatomy of a hedge

by Lewis, 30 September, 2016, 2 comments

A hedge or hedgerow is made up of a number of parts or habitats. It may offer the main bulk of the hedge - that is the trees and shrubs the bottom or base of the hedge - which is a strip of land with its own species, a mix of annuals and perennials, some herbaceous others more woody. The base of the hedge can be quite variable, sometimes being narrow and light, or wide and dark (perhaps, supporting a badger or rabbit run) a bank that supports the hedge and there may even be an associated ditch (a different habitat in itself) a border or verge - an area of adjacent land which may be arable, pastoral or man-made in nature e.g. highway or managed in some way - mowed, grazed or sprayed. Read more...

What are resilient woodlands?

What are resilient woodlands?

by Angus, 30 October, 2015, 5 comments

Making woods resilient has become the latest fashion in forestry as illustrated by the RFS conference being organised with the Woodland Trust in Birmingham at the start of October.ˇ Resilience in this context means resilient both to diseases and to climate change effects. Much of the thinking is based on the 2015 British Woodlands Resilience Survey which has been organised by the Sylva Foundation and sponsored by Oxford University, the RFS and the Woodland Trust.ˇ There have also been useful presentations on the subject such as the one given at the CONFOR Show (Confederation of Forest industries) show at Longleat, Wiltshire in early September 2015. Read more...

Hedges revisited .......

Hedges revisited …….

by Chris, 2 May, 2013, 2 comments

The work of Max Hooper established that not all hedges are ‘equal’ – they vary considerably in terms of their age and composition. Many thought of hedges as products of the Enclosure Acts of the C18th and C19th, that is, they were added to the landscape in these times - but many hedges / hedgerows (representing various boundaries) date back many centuries. There are significant differences between truly ‘ancient’ hedges and those established in more recent times. Ancient hedges are generally species rich – in terms of the species in the herb, shrub and tree layers, and consequently rich in associated birds and insects. Ancient hedges are often associated with natural features or boundaries Read more...

Wild Flower Guide

Badger

Read our guide to wild flowers of woodland and hedgerow

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