Many organisms help to disperse seeds in woodlands or forests, from squirrels, birds, bears, foxes, rabbits.  The fruits / seeds may be eaten and pass through the gut of the animal or may be caught in their fur, or stuck to them (like the seeds of mistletoe or cleavers).  However, there is another 'army of helpers'  - ANTS.  Ants may disperse seeds in two distinct ways.  The first way is  through the activity of harvester ants.  Like squirrels and other ‘gatherers’, harvester ants move through the wood or forest gathering seeds and transporting them back to their colonies.  As they transport the seeds, some get dropped or lost on the way.  Others may be ‘cached’ / stored,  in or near the colony for later consumption, but then are ‘forgotten’.  Such seeds may later germinate and establish themselves somewhere away from the parent plant.  This accidental dispersal is sometimes referred to  as  ‘seed predation’. a second method of seed dispersal by ants involves a more intimate association between particular plants and specific ant species.Some plants, when they form the seed, produce an 'extra structure', attached to the seed; an ELAIOSOME or fat / oil body.  This elaiosome lures or attracts ants to the seed.  Wood anemone and cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense) seeds have an elaiosome. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="512"] cow wheat ; thanks to Kristian Peters -- Fabelfroh 09:39, 3 October 2006 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Ants need some fat, and fat-rich food is hard to come by in the woodland setting.  The ant carries off the seed to the colony, where the fat body is eaten (often by the ant larvae).   The seed is then left and can later germinate. This interaction between plant and ant is termed  MYRMECOCHORY. It is a form of mutualism, as there are benefits to this arrangement for both ‘partners’. The seeds of the plant are ‘protected’ from seed predation by birds and rodents.   The seed is dispersed from the parent plant, ants bearing a seed for some 70 metres have been recorded.  The seed is then (often) deposited in a nutrient rich microhabitat. The ant gains a ‘tailor made’ food material rich in fat, an energy rich material.  In some areas, such as Australia, the seed may be protected from fire as it is buried at some depth. Myrmecochory is seen in many species in north eastern America, but also Europe, Australia and Africa. wood ants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVGcl4Om-C8&t=40s    

Flowers of the woodland floor. Some woodland flowers enjoy the dappled light of the woodland floor beneath the canopy.  They grow in relatively shady, cool and damp conditions in the humus-rich soils.  Polish scientists at the Nicolaus Copernicus University have been studying four species that often grow together in European woodlands - namely Wood anemone Yellow anemone Lily of the valley Common may lily These are perennial plants that ‘come to life’ in Spring, producing a carpet  of flowers across the woodland floor.  However, as much as they share a liking for the shady, cool and moist conditions found there, they differ in their sensitivity / tolerance to rainfall / moisture levels in the summer months: which may change their distribution as summers become warmer and longer.  The team modelled various warming scenarios which suggested that the ranges of these species may change / contract with hotter and drier summers.  The common may lily is one that may be particularly affected and no longer share the same range or woodlands as the others studied.  If climate change takes a hold, it may be that ‘assisted migration’ may be needed to help such plants to find suitable ‘climatic refugia’. more on plant migration ...... With climate change, both plants and animals need to adapt.  With increasing warmth, many species may ‘need’ to move towards cooler latitudes.  Whilst many animals are mobile, they may be able [over time] to access new suitable areas, plants on the other hand are dependent on the dispersal of their fruits / seeds.  Fruit and seed dispersal may involve various animals, including birds.  If the birds are resident or non-migrating species, then it is probable that they will only disperse seeds over relatively short distances.   Migratory birds however travel great distances but often in the wrong direction.  Many birds that migrate at the end of the summer, travel south to warmer climes.  Work at the University of Exeter has studied a number of woodlands across Europe and bird species that feed on the fruits of 81 plants species (and help disperse their seeds).  They found that only about a third of the plants had fruits (seeds) that might be dispersed northwards by birds.  To benefit from this northward dispersal, the plants needed to either have a very long fruiting period (eg.holly, juniper) or a very late fruiting period (eg. Ivy). Full details of this study here Food production and food waste. As Sir David Attenborough has pointed out in a recent episode of Planet Earth III, producing food to feed the world comes at significant environmental cost.  Natural ecosystems are often burned (forests) or drained (peatlands) and then turned over to agriculture to produce crops or farm animals. The forests of the Amazon have been significantly affected by burning and logging,  with the concomitant loss of biodiversity.  But they are not alone. In Mexico, forests are being lost as the land is being turned over to avocado production.  Mexico’s neighbour, the USA has a voracious appetite for this fruit.  The forests are being turned into ‘avocado orchards’.  Avocado trees are ‘thirsty’, they need a generous supply of water.  They consume much more water than the natural species [eg. oyamel), so that natural aquifers are being depleted.  This affects local farmers growing crops such as tomatoes and corn. One particularly sad aspect of food production is that much of the food is wasted. Some is lost between harvest and reaching the retail sector, and then more is ‘lost’ in the home. Food may not be used, or not used in time so it starts to rot, become rancid etc.  A lot of food goes to land fill, where it may generate methane - a potent greenhouse gas. Sprouting sequoias. In recent times, there have been many images of the fires ravaging the forests of the west coast of the States.  Many thousands of hectares and millions of trees have been lost, including many of the giant redwoods.  However, recent studies have found that some of the burned Sequoias are producing new growth.  They are sprouting from roots and trunks, from dormant buds that have lain hidden under the thick bark for decades, this despite the loss of the canopies of the trees.  To fuel this growth, the trees are using reserve materials that have been stored for 50+ years.

Certain woodland plants are found in the understory.  Plants like wood anemones, woodruff and lungwort bloom early in the year. These plants make use of a ‘window of opportunity’ when the light levels are good as the tree canopy has not developed, the leaves have not yet expanded. They use this ‘window of light ‘ to flower.   However, climate change is affecting many ecosystems - including woodlands.  With warmer temperatures, leaf buds tend to open earlier and the leaves begin to expand.  If the window for growth is reduced, how can the wood anemones and others cope ? [caption id="attachment_38093" align="aligncenter" width="700"] wood anemone[/caption] To investigate this question, scientists based the Universities of Tübingen and Frankfurt examined thousands of preserved herbarium specimens of early flowering plants, dating back over a hundred years.  The sheets not only hold specimens collected when they were flowering but also have  information on ‘when and where collected’.  Each sheet is a a moment in time from over a century ago.  Collectively, the 6000+ sheets allowed the scientists to establish historic flowering times of woodland plants over large areas of Europe. [caption id="attachment_38094" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Woodruff[/caption] The information extracted from the herbarium records revealed that plants like wild garlic and wood sorrel now bloom some six days early than at the beginning of the twentieth century.  For each 1oc rise in (Spring) temperature, their lowering has advanced by more than 3 days.  This means that they have gained time in the light - in an open canopy.  Whilst they may have gained time,  these early flowering plants are at greater risk of frosts.  It may also be that their pollinating agents may not be around - unless they too have brought forward their development / life cycle. There is some evidence that such changes are taking place.  Recent work at Wytham Wood (outside Oxford) has shown that blue tits have moved forward their egg laying to 'match' the development of the oak canopy, and the appearance of caterpillars (on which the young are fed).  Essentially, the timing of the food chain has changed..  Hopefully, such changes will occur in different ecosystems across the country.

In autumn 2016 my wife and I visited a small wood for sale on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. We had seen a few other sites but this held more promise as it was part moorland, part regenerating ex-forestry land.  The three things that made it of particularly interest to us were that: it was only twenty minutes away from home; it had a small natural pond; and it had some open space for planting new trees.  As a green person at heart, I often pick up acorns on walks and pop them in a pot.  I was however running short of space and needed somewhere to plant them! Dan, from Woodlands.co.uk, met us on site and explained that the management plan favoured planting oak trees so that made it ideal for us. After a few months of paperwork, we received the key to the padlock of the woodland gate just before Christmas. A nicer present could not have been had. Read more...

Spring brings a variety of blue flowered plants such as bluebells, hyacinths and squills in our woodlands, parks and gardens.  Bluebells are ‘easily’ recognisable. However, there are different types of bluebells. The bluebell that is native to the UK has the Latin or Linnaean name of Hyacinthoides non scripta.  The Spanish bluebell (H. hispanica) is also to be found, and this hybridises with the native form,  giving rise to intermediate types. The native bluebell has deep blue and scented flowers that hang from an elegantly arching stem. It is found in abundance in many deciduous woodlands and hedgerows across the UK, though it is unusual or rarer in parts of East Anglia and Scotland.  The capacity of the Spanish Bluebell to hybridise with the native form has been seen as a threat to the native Bluebell - but now another concern has been ‘identified’. Read more...

Much has been written about the loss of hedges / hedgerows over the last fifty to seventy years; one important work was   “Hedges’ (1974) in the New Naturalist Series by Pollard, Hooper and Moore.  They suggested that hedgerows were lost perhaps at a rate of some 3,000 miles per year in the immediate post-war period (1946 - 63).   In the 1950’s, the Forestry Commission suggested that there was one million kilometres of hedgerow (in the U.K).   In 2007, The Countryside Commission Survey estimated that there was some 477,00 kilometres of hedgerow -  suggesting that there had been a halving of hedgerows in the countryside.  Read more...

The pasqueflower is not a woodland plant, but more one of open grassland (on chalk or limestone), sometimes growing with upright brome and tor grass  However, it is a particularly beautiful and rare flower - having deep purple petals, that surround the many vibrant yellow stamens.  The flowers usually appear in mid-April when the daytime temperatures have risen into double figures; it is often associated with Easter, and is,  otherwise known as easter flower, meadow anemone or dane’s blood.   The flowering period of the pasqueflower is quite long, lasting for some 4 – 6 weeks.  The pasqueflower is a member of the 'buttercup' family - the Ranunculaceae, like the wood anemone and traveller's joy The flowers are protogynous – that is the flower has a separate male and female phases, with the yellow stigmas (female structures) maturing first.  Protogyny, or indeed protandry, are mechanisms that some plants use to promote the exchange of pollen between different plants – i.e. cross-fertilisation / outbreeding .  The plant is covered with many silky hairs – these are present on the leaves, stem and flowers (see the various images in the gallery below). Read more...

That seeds are dispersed by animals is well known; most elementary texts on biology are littered with a variety of examples. Fruits (and their seeds) attract animals with the edible parts; from fleshy fruits - plums, mangoes, berries,  cherries etc for frugivores, to various nuts.  As the animal searches for and collects the fruits (monkeys in the forests, squirrels in the woodlands), some may be lost or discarded on the journey ‘home’.  Other fruits / seeds cling to an animals by attaching to their fur / clothing using various hooks or barbs – a classic example being cleavers or goosegrass. Some seeds are dispersed incidentally; they may be lurking in muddy soil and adhere to the hoof or foot of an animal, bird or human, or be carried some distance by car or tractor tyres. However, many species of plants have an ‘unseen’ army of helpers – ANTS.  Ants disperse seeds in two distinct ways.  Read more...