Thematic Photography - Many, many things

I can only drool over the many, many things in Carmi's photo this week and keep my eye on more mundane sights.

A chattering of starlings

You can hear them from some distance away.

This is the time of year when many berries appear.

Many, many elderberries from just one flower head

The oak trees have many clusters of acorns like this - before the squirrels start to stash them away.

August acorns

The rattling of some seed heads may catch your attention.

Many, many seed heads - but count the seeds and there's even more.

Some trees have already begun dropping their fruit.

Beech mast on the footpath

I guess you could say that that would have qualified for the 'floored' theme last week as could - 

Many, many pebbles in our drive.

But how did those two weeds get there?

You may dip into many, many scrumptious things at Thematic-photographic-421.

A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wildflowers 'Q'

My theme this year is wild flowers. Most of us will be aware of the flowers that grow in our gardens but what surprises me is how few wild flowers that I know.

I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.

'Q' - Queen Anne's Lace, Quercus Robur

I predicted quite correctly when I wrote about cow parsley under 'C' that I would regret not saving it for 'Q' under its other name.

Queen Anne's Lace

I always thought that I could rely on the flowers from a tree whose Latin name is 'quercus robur'  before it dawned on me that I had no idea what they looked like.

Quercus robur is the tree that has the status of a national emblem - the English oak. I also learned that it is also called the common or pedunculate or French oak despite it receiving the 'title' of Royal Oak for harbouring Charles II when he was escaping Cromwell's Roundheads during the Civil War.

Hopefully by the time this post is published I shall have obtained a photo of the quercus robur that I pass every day and the flowers (or catkins) that it carries.

Oak leaves and flowers (male catkins) in Osgodby Coppice

I understand that the female catkins are smaller, but it's these that produce the 'nuts' that squirrels love.

Acorns

Acorns are also known as mast, from the Scandinavian word 'mat' meaning food. Acorn is derived from Scandinavian too, 'ek korn' meaning oak corn seed. They were once served extensively as winter fodder to pigs that were allowed to roam the woods in places like the New Forest.

For years I believed that the tree grew apples like this.

Oak apple

But this is not an apple at all but rather oak apple gall a swelling caused by larvae of the gall wasp burrowing into the leaf buds as they form.

There are more species of oak trees' The Holm oak is an evergreen and is one I have still to see.

Holm oak catkins 

Some oaks have male and female catkins, others one or the other.

I have still to find out which have which.

Attributions:

• Oak leaves & flowers, Osgodby Coppice - 18 April 2007, ex geograph.org,uk, by Kate Jewell - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic
• Holm oak catkins - 2 june 2006, ex geograph.org.uk, by Penny Mayes CC BY-SA 2.0 generic

A-Z Challenge - 'Q'

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

Q – Quail, Quercus

It’s queer that I quailed when I came to ‘Q’ as although I could find no connection in my garden, I remembered the one British bird that qualifies.

 

Quail (A Pet!)

I wandered out one rainy day
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise,

The quail is not a common bird but it often appears, and so do its eggs, on restaurant menus. In many countries it is still hunted which led me to this verse:

I remember we used to have quails here,

Whose peaceful morning calls would evoke

From me a childish bout of smiling and giggling,

And just to be polite, I'd return the call.

If you are wondering about what Quercus stands for then perhaps this photo will help you make the connection.

Oak Trees (Growing at field boundaries)

  Live thy Life,

Young and old,

Like yon oak,

Bright in spring,

Living gold;

There is a small wood that I pass most days of the week and it contains a number of oak (Quercus) trees. As they are not readily accessible I have a limited numbers of photos of them and then not the whole of the tree.

Oak Tree Leaves (April 2007)

I don’t seem to have visited the wood in time to get a picture of the acorns.

 

Quercus robur - foliage and acorns

However in November 2007 I did find these:

 

Oak Apples

Oak apple is the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on many species of oak. Oak apples range in size from 2–5 cm in diameter and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall wasp. They are formed after the female wasp lays its eggs in developing leaf buds and are a source of food for the wasp’s larva.

Poems:

• Quail’s Nest – John Clare http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/quail-s-nest/
• Quails – Michael Aliester Smith
• The Oak – Alfred Lord Tennyson http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-oak-2/

Photos:

• Quail (pet) – Samar; CC BY-SA 3.0
• Oak Trees – Evelyn Simak; Geograph project collection; CC BY-SA 2.0
• Oak foliage and acorns – Wikipedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0