The Ercall Forest again

[cmcmck]

This tree lost a big bough and created a cathedral:

 

This is ALL wild garlic and it's just beginning to flower:





This one is called a dryad's saddle. It's about eight inches across but they can be HUGE!



Dog's mercury. Another ancient forest indicator, apparently:



Lichens coming to life:



And nettles.This is one of the dead nettles although I wont know which until it flowers:



Viola or dog's violet:



A little patch in Wenlock's Wood with nettles, lesser celandine, bluebells and wild garlic:



And a patch of wood anemones. Another ancient forest indicator:





The hawthorn is starting to bloom!



I was amused by this sapling finding root in an old stump:



And that was our walk. About eight miles.
 

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

It's fascinating to see how trees reveal their histories.

[cmcmck]

Absolutely!

[chestnut_pod]

Gosh, so lovely.

[cmcmck]

We've had some decent weather for walking at last!

[highlyeccentric]

Lovely :)

[cmcmck]

Glad you enjoyed! :o)

[earthspirits]

Marvelous photos!

[cmcmck]

Thank you! :o)

[biofreak659]

Gorgeous! That sapling growing out of the old stump reminds me of the trees growing at Angkor Wat—all the trailing roots and all.

[cmcmck]

Things like that just fascinate me endlessly.

[pameladean]

I continue to very much appreciate your taking us along on your walks.

The stump or other structure that the lichen is coming to life upon looks startlingly like the skull of some arcane antlered creature.

Is the wild garlic native to Britain?

P.

[cmcmck]

Glad you are enjoying!

It does rather.

Very native indeed- it's one of the indicator plants that denotes ancient woodland by which we are surrounded locally.

[turlough]

All that wild garlic makes it look like the trees are standing in a green pond!

I didn't know wood anemone was a sign of ancient woodland. Very interesting.

[cmcmck]

The more I learn about ancient forest indicators (they can also be fungi, mosses and lichens) the more I realise how ancient the local woodland is. Apparently, wood anemone only spreads at something like six feet a century and we have absolute carpets in some of the forest areas!