Country diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: Spurge laurel's crepuscular clientele

Wolsingham, Weardale: Its nectaries, at the end of a narrow tubular corolla, can be reached by moths at dusk as well as by long-tongued bumblebees during the dayMarch is a tantalising month for a botanist in the northern counties. While reports of primroses and sweet violets filter up from the south, such delights are still clenched inside tight buds here. Even after a mild winter, lesser celandines and coltsfoot are still struggling into bloom. Only snowdrops, whose displays have been exceptionally fine this year, provide some compensation. But today we had come to look for a single plant that can be relied upon to put on a show at this time of year.As soon as we turned the corner we began to feel a sense of foreboding. A tractor with a hedge cutter had passed this way, leaving a trail of broken twigs beside the hawthorns that overhung the track. Fortunately the damage to the solitary spurge laurel bush, which we first found here 35 years ago, was minor. Most of its branches had been low enough to escape decapitation, tangled behind brambles and briars. Just a few severed ends of stems lay on the ground.It's a rare plant hereabouts, but one of the landmarks on our annual "beating the bounds" walks, searching for reassuring early signs of spring. For most of the year its shiny rhododendron-like leaves, hidden in the shade of the hedge, hardly merit a second glance, but in early March precocious clusters of lime green, star-shaped flowers radiate a sense of optimism. They open...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Biology Rural affairs Features UK news Plants Environment Science Source Type: news