POST #13 PATHWAYS TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Nature teaches us to be patient – life unfolds at its own pace. Nature also reminds us how transient life is but there is continuity as one generation creates the conditions for the next. There is also the lesson of diversity – as one species completes its life cycle another species alongside is progressing through its life cycle. In this was there is another sort of continuity in an ecological space.
For several months I watched the Oxeye Daisies grow reaching their prime in early to mid June. During this time they provide an abundant supply of nectar for numerous insect pollinators – bees, wasps, flies, hover flies and beetles and butterflies particularly the Common Blue. Higher up the food chain the feeding insects attract birds and dragon flies.
Nature teaches us to be patient – life unfolds at its own pace. Nature also reminds us how transient life is but there is continuity as one generation creates the conditions for the next. There is also the lesson of diversity – as one species completes its life cycle another species alongside is progressing through its life cycle. In this was there is another sort of continuity in an ecological space.
For several months I watched the Oxeye Daisies grow reaching their prime in early to mid June. During this time they provide an abundant supply of nectar for numerous insect pollinators – bees, wasps, flies, hover flies and beetles and butterflies particularly the Common Blue. Higher up the food chain the feeding insects attract birds and dragon flies.
Towards the end of June the daisies begin to wither and by July 1st most of the daisies have withered and only the seed heads remain ready to shed their load on the ground to begin the life cycle again. This is what continuity means in the world of the Oxeye Daisy.
There are however plenty of other wild flowers in the meadow that persist long after the oxeye daisies have withered like Greater Bird’s-foot- trefoil, Hairy St John’s Wort, Creeping Cinquefoil, and taller Hawkesbeard, Oxford Ragwort, purple Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Veronica, Spear Thistle and Clover and common daisy. These wildflowers persist long after the Oxeye Daisies have gone.
And then there are the purple Orchids. They first appear in June and by the end of June, after the daisies have withered, they are the dominant larger flower. Pyramid Orchid is the overwhelmingly dominant species, sometimes reaching up to 30 plants per square metre. Bee Orchids are much rarer, I found 6 this year along the side of path I had cut through the meadow, but there may have been many more within the meadow. There are also a small number of paler Spotted Orchids near the pond. They prefer shady places and they are more plentiful in the woods.
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