Blossom

 Beautiful Blossom


Here is a picture of just one of the many tree species sporting some beautiful blossom brightening up the campus.

The spectacle of trees blossoming is celebrated throughout many countries and cultures, most well-known being the cherry blossom so cherished in Japan, but it is also a significant sight here in the UK as well. But not is all well with Britain's blossoming...

B-Loss-om


Areas of traditional orchards, and with them their blossom, have declined significantly since 1900, with research carried out by the National Trust using AI to analyse historical and modern maps identifying a 50% decline in orchards in England and Wales. Interestingly though, they extended their research to investigate the link between the loss of our blossoming trees and the impact on local communities through the facet of place names. They found that despite the decline in blossom, blossom-related place names have doubled in the past century. For example, in the East of England, the most common blossom-related term used for place names is cherry. However, accompanying this rise is also an increase in the 'genericness' of these place names, and a loss of regional specificity. This can say a lot about the declining importance of particular species of blossom to particular local areas as our traditional orchards are lost. Sadly, 52% of such places named after orchards have actually lost any of the orchards they were nearby originally. Another vital source of blossom, hedgerows, has also seen severe declines of around half, and is particularly bad in areas such as Norfolk in the East of England.

Brilliant Blossom

This decline has such important repercussions for both nature and humans too. Hedgerows in particular are vital in providing wildlife highways to allow animals to navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape, and the all-important blossom is a nourishing nectar source for many insect pollinator species. This blossom then later develops into fruits in the autumn which feed a multitude of bird species. But the loss of blossom also undoubtedly affects our communities too, with their strong cultural significance meaning their decline can affect local sense of belonging, and the loss of the colour and joy that blossom brings to our landscapes, especially urban ones, meaning we're missing out on yet another easy way to connect to nature and improve our mental wellbeing.

Bring Back Blossom

Following this startling research and dire consequences, the National Trust have started a project to bring blossoming trees back across the UK, committing to planting 4 million blossoming trees, especially native and also historic varieties which are the most threatened. This includes planting traditional orchards and also restoring native hedgerows across their land, having already planted 220km of hedgerows and planning to establish a further 125km! Into the future, they plan to focus increasingly on bringing blossom back to our cities and urban areas, supporting beleaguered urban wildlife populations but equally importantly having a positive effect on the quality of life for cities' human populations. Here's to allowing our countryside and cities to blossom once again!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winterton Dunes NNR

Image
Wonderful Winterton Winterton is a National Nature Reserve on Norfolk's east coast, comprising acidic sand dune and dune heath ecosystems. The dunes demonstrate ecological succession, with a largely bare sand and shingle beach, gradually becoming colonised by grasses in the sand dunes and developing into heathland with scattered, shrubby areas, and wetter dune slacks. The dunes are home to many migrant and nesting birds, natterjack toads, and insects such as sand wasps, butterflies, and odonata species. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/norfolks-national-nature-reserves/norfolks-national-nature-reserves#winterton-dunes A view of Winterton sand dunes During our field trip here, we spent the morning exploring various patterns attributed to this succession, by walking a transect from the sea inland through the dunes. We threw quadrats randomly at regular intervals, and recorded the percentage vegetation cover, the number of plant species, and the maximum vegetation height. As...
Read more

Ashwellthorpe Woods

Image
 Our most recent field trip was to Ashwellthorpe Woods , a Norfolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve. This beautiful ancient woodland is noted for its large oak trees and stunning carpet of bluebells followed by wild garlic on the forest floor in the spring. Just some of the wild garlic carpeting the woodland floor The wood is also home to many other plant species which we observed, such as bugle and lesser celandine. These ground plants thrive here thanks to coppicing, the management practice employed by the NWT, involving cutting back young growth of trees to near the ground, allowing light in and a flush of fresh growth on the forest floor. The coppicing also supports many breeding birds, many of which we heard while on breeding bird survey transects, such as robin, wren, blackbird and blackcap. Some of the plants here are particularly special as they are ancient woodland indicators. These species require really healthy, old wooded areas to survive, and so their presence is in an in...
Read more

Jenny Wrens

Image
Wren ( Troglodytes troglodytes ) ( RSPB ) Wrens are the commonest breeding bird in the UK (with a staggering 8.6 million breeding pairs), yet also one of the smallest, hence why they aren't seen as often as many other garden and woodland birds. These guys may be little but they have VERY SHOUTY VOICES! Their  noisy rattling call  and  loud trilling song  help attract attention and make up for their diminutive size, and alerted me to the presence of several wrens in a patch of woodland next to the UEA Broad. With several individuals singing and calling along the stretch of trees, its likely that these were male wrens, defending their territories for the upcoming breeding season which they establish in early spring. In fact, I observed one wren starting to build its nest! Wrens typically build their nests in sheltered spots such as bushes and crevices, and unsurprisingly this one seemed to be frequenting a crevice in the remains of this tree trunk.... He was flying in ...
Read more