THE FRIENDS OF TREBORTH

BOTANIC GARDEN

CYFEILLION GARDD FOTANEG TREBORTH

NEWSLETTER CYLCHLYTHYR

Number / Rhif 47 May/ Mai 2013

COMMITTEE

Judith Hughes ([email protected]) Chairman Dr David Shaw ([email protected]) Vice-Chair Sarah Edgar ([email protected]) Secretary Cathy Dixon ([email protected]) Treasurer Nigel Brown ([email protected]) Curator Rosie Barratt ([email protected]) Horticulturist Angela Thompson ([email protected]) Membership Secretary Dr John Gorham ([email protected]) Events Secretary Enid Griffith Committee Member Tom Cockbill ([email protected]) Committee Member David Evans ([email protected]) Committee Member James Stroud ([email protected]) Committee Member Ann Illsley ([email protected]) Committee Member Berta Rosen ([email protected]) Committee Member James Balfour ([email protected]) Committee Member Natalie Chivers ([email protected]) STAG Representative Matt Kent ([email protected]) STAG Representative

NEWSLETTER TEAM

John Gorham, Tom Cockbill (formatting, photos) email as above Grace Gibson (adverts, articles) [email protected] Angela Thompson (commissioning articles, email as above planning, editing)

Cover Photos

Front: Melliodendron xylocarpum (Styracaceae, China) flowers (Erle Randall) [p. 17]

Back: Anthony Pigott hard at work botanising in Iceland (taken on the summit of Valahnúkur by Amy Davidson ) [p. 15]

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are copyright of the article author [page numbers in square brackets refer to the start of the relevant article]

Images between articles are of the new wooden Garden area signs made by Peter Boyd

Issue No. 47 May 2013 CONTENTS

Chair’s Introduction 3

News in Brief 3

Friends Membership Subscription and Gift Aid 4

Curator’s Report 5

Weather and Wildlife 7

Scilly Weeds 9

A Postcard from Iceland 15

Two Botanic Gardens in British Columbia. Part 1 17

Renovation of the Rock Garden at Treborth 20

Taxonomy and Botanical Latin. Part 2 22

A Fossil Garden 26

Orchids at Treborth 28

New Hoyas and Haworthias 30

A Victim of its own Beauty?The Xaté Palm 34

A Moth Monitoring Year 38

Wild Science Day, March 2013 40

A Diary from the Garden of England 41

Moelyci Fruit Field 46

2 Chair’s Introduction

When you read this newsletter in warm and sunny May, I hope the weather we had in late March will be a distant, unpleasant memory, and nature will be catching up with the season in hand, late spring. As I write this piece, my study is bathed in warm sunshine, but outside, the biting easterly wind and occasional flurry of snow tell a different story. The ground is held in an iron grip, seeds are still either in packets or reluctant to germinate, and those that have are very slow even under glass.

This edition is full of interesting articles and I hope you enjoy reading it. The newsletter team has changed: we now have Tom Cockbill and John Gorham doing the overall formatting and photographs in place of Pete Wieland. We thank Pete very much for all his valuable work on the newsletter and wish him well in the future. Our newsletter is the showcase and shop window for Treborth, and our thanks must go to all those involved in its production.

Judith Hughes And… News in Brief Donations: Many thanks to Gwenda Lucas-Jones for her donation to the Garden’s funds. Wollemia germination by Ann Wood: You may have heard of the discovery of the ‘fossil’ Wollemi Pine in Australia. It is a conifer but not a pine, so it’s better to refer to it by its scientific name, Wollemia nobilis. Wollemia was only known through fossil records until the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in 1994 in the temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges. It is critically endangered: fewer than a hundred trees are known to be growing wild, in three localities not far apart. A propagation programme made Wollemia specimens available to botanical gardens, first in Australia in 2006 and subsequently throughout the world. Treborth has two specimens: one is planted in the Garden at the foot of the rockery and the other is in a pot under glass in a ‘safe’ place. Last September, it was noticed that the outside plant had produced female cones which appeared to have seeds, although it was difficult to sort them out from scale tissue. This material was at first stored away and then, following advice from Crug Farm Nurseries, it was decided to try to get the seeds to germinate. Our volunteer, Ann Wood, was tasked with this operation. They were stratified in compost (perlite, New Horizon compost, John Innes seed compost, 1:1:1) in a fridge for 6 weeks, then brought out to a warm bench and covered with polythene to retain moisture. Two weeks later, there were signs of

3 activity! At regular intervals, 6 seedlings appeared, but unfortunately, only one now remains. It still has only two cotyledons (seed leaves) with a very tiny shoot in the middle, but, of course, it is pampered since we can claim to have the only home- grown Wollemia in Wales! Ann is now attempting to germinate another batch, so fingers crossed… And lastly, bees, although they should be first and foremost. So many species of bees, including bumblebees, are threatened in their natural environment, mainly from habitat destruction. But the honeybee is having a really tough time of it, with mysterious colony collapse disorder and the varroa mite spreading lethal viruses. Now there is mounting evidence that new nerve-agent pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, aimed at recognised agricultural pests, are killing bees. Since bees and other insects pollinate about three quarters of our food, it is vital that we protect them, and various pressure groups such as 38 Degrees and environmental organisations like Buglife are pressing the UK government and the EU to ban their use. By the time you read this newsletter, the major decisions regarding this will have been taken, but this is an issue that will rumble on, and the vested interests of the vastly rich and huge agri-chemical industry will be shouting very loudly to allow these compounds. So please, if you see campaigns aimed at protecting the honeybee, do support them! Angela Thompson, Committee

Friends’ Membership Subscriptions and Gift Aid

Many of you have kindly stated on your membership forms that you wish your subscriptions to the Friends to be treated as donations as part of the HMRC’s Gift Aid scheme. This enables us to reclaim currently 25p in every pound of your subs for use in the Garden at no extra cost to yourselves if you pay income tax and /or capital gains tax at least equal to the tax we can reclaim each year. This is a really useful amount of money for our ongoing work here. But sometimes it is not clear on the forms, especially in the case of joint membership, just who is paying the tax! In addition, people who joined the Friends before we became a charity will not have completed a Gift Aid declaration and will need to do so now. Therefore, could everybody who is a taxpayer (except those of you with single membership and who have joined in the last two years) please fill in the enclosed form and return it to Treborth. We shall be putting this form on our website for those members who access the newsletter online. With clearer records, this could well increase our income from this source. Thank you! Angela Thompson, Membership Secretary 4 Curator’s Report: December 2012 – March 2013

It is pleasing to report that Bangor University will be offering a brand new MSc course from September 2013 – in Plant Conservation – and that Treborth Botanic Garden will be an essential element of the academic and practical contents of the course, which will be of interest to graduates in a variety of subjects including biology, ecology, and horticulture. I am thrilled that as well as attracting wide- scale support from my colleagues in the University, especially the School of Environment and Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGY), the new MSc will also benefit from the active participation of a number of outside agencies including Kew, the National Botanic Garden of Wales and Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Although the first year’s intake will be a modest sized cohort of mainly Wales’ based graduates, recruitment is planned to go global in September 2014. I look forward to closely involving the Friends with this new postgraduate course which should strengthen the academic standing of Treborth well into the future and help train a new generation of plant conservationists in the theory and practice of plant conservation biology. It is also pleasing to report that the so-called Cool House has been renovated and is now fit for use as a teaching and events space. Almost immediately, it proved invaluable during Wild Science Day (see James Balfour’s report). One of the main attractions of Treborth is the ability to teach on site - the old ‘lab’ has performed this function admirably since 1979 but is sometimes stretched to cope with demand. The Cool House will now take some of the pressure off the ‘lab’ and allow the Botanic Garden to cater for not only more visitors at a time but offer a wider variety of activities. Visitors will notice that the roof panes have been replaced with a tough but flexible laminate which is safer. The adjacent ‘Small House’ is scheduled for demolition in the very near future due to concerns over its safety and will not be immediately replaced until overall plans for that area have been finalised. The winter has seen the refurbishment of a much-needed section of path linking the coast path to the playing fields at the western extremity of the Ancient Woodland – my thanks to Paul Hibbert, Tom Cockbill and Gerry Downing for the very professional execution of this project which was grant aided by Better Woodlands for Wales. On the botanical front, the germination of Wales’ first Wollemi seeds was a great achievement for which we have our expert propagator, Ann Wood, to thank - see ‘News in Brief’. Rosie Barratt continues to exert her benign influence and energy on every aspect of the Garden’s life. She works three days a week at Treborth, and her contract with the University has been extended until the end of June. She is ably

5 assisted by Friends and students who have amassed over 1500 volunteer hours already this year – thank you to all our volunteers who have given time and energy during what has been a challenging winter. The effort is never easy, the rewards rarely glamorous, but the overall results are certainly quite remarkable – between you all you actually run a university botanic garden! I cannot end without thanking all involved with a very successful Wild Science Day, especially this year’s organiser, James Balfour. Now in its third year, this is becoming one of the Garden’s most successful and enjoyable events. It is freely open to the public and is becoming especially appealing to youngsters. Similar events are planned later this year, eg Fascination of Plants Day on May 18 in association with the Plant Sale, as well as a celebration of fungi on 13 October as part of UK Fungus Day. Nigel Brown

ABERCONWY NURSERY The Welsh Alpine Plant Specialists

Interesting home grown alpine plants, including dionysia, androsace, saxifrage, gentians and dwarf ericaceous subjects as well as other choice plants all grown on our attractive hillside nursery in the Conwy Valley, overlooking the Carneddau

On a minor road just off the A470, about 2 miles north of Bodnant Gardens we’re open in the Spring, Summer and early Autumn but never on a Monday.

Graig, Glan Conwy, LL28 5TL. Tel. (01492) 580875

6 Weather and Wildlife December 2012 – March 2013

Month Rainfall Temperature oC. Number of Days Frost mm inches Max. Min. Rain Snow air ground ≥5oC ≥10oC December 212.0 8.3 12.5 -3.5 26 0 5 8 27 7 January 74.0 2.9 12.5 -1.25 21 4 5 16 24 11 February 76.8 3.0 11.25 -2.25 15 0 4 12 24 2 March 57.3 2.3 12.5 -2.0 11 0 7 20 23 3

2012 proved to be the second wettest year since our records commenced in 1988, totalling almost 1400mm (55 inches), though significantly below the record-breaking 60 inches in 2000. The really disappointing feature of 2012 was the fact that from June onwards every month accumulated over 100mm (c.4 inches) of rain; contrast that with a total of just 340mm (13.4 inches) for the first five months of 2012. Also disappointingly, sunshine hours during the summer of 2012 were significantly lower than average, and on only 13 days during the year did temperatures rise above 20 degrees centigrade. It is hardly surprising that nationally, butterfly and moths are reported to have suffered during 2012. Butterfly Conservation claim that ‘it was the worst year for UK butterflies since records began, with 52 out of the 56 species monitored suffering declines.’ Certainly it was a poor year for butterflies here at Treborth but interestingly the moth catch (macro-moths) annual total of 14,590 is not significantly different from the 10 year mean of 15,814 (range 12,439-21,948). The total number of macro-moth species caught in 2012 was 238, again not significantly different from the 10 year mean of 245 (range 224-266). The 2012 total was helped by good catches of spring moths. 2013 has started in similar fashion to the two previous years – relatively dry. Indeed a run of 20 consecutive days without precipitation between 14 February and 5 March (apart from some minor snow flurries on 23 Feb) proved to be the driest continuous spell since April 2007 when we registered 22 consecutive dry days. But this particular drought raised no concerns for water shortages as temperatures remained stubbornly low. The high pressure block which brought such warmth in 2012 (19 degrees on 24 March 2012), in 2013 paved the way for persistent cold air (just 2.5 degrees on the same date in 2013) even though the wind direction was the same as 2012, easterly. As a result this has been the coldest March since our records began with a mean maximum temperature of just 6.9 degrees and a mean minimum of 1.9; on seven days the temperature failed to reach 5 degrees. Not surprisingly, spring activity has been delayed. For example, it’s the first time I have NOT heard the distinctive song of Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) before the end of March. These leaf warblers usually arrive back at Treborth from their winter

7 quarters in southern Europe and north and west Africa by mid-March. Moth numbers have been well down with just 124 individuals caught in March 2013, for example, compared to 1806 in March last year. January and February provided a record run of 26 consecutive ‘mothless’ nights between 13 Jan and 7 Feb. I have no reports of butterflies on the wing in this period and amphibian spawn is reduced. Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) eventually commenced flowering in the third week of March. Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa) has managed a handful of flowers by the last day of March. Generally the pre-vernal flush of woodland flowers now looks as if it will be a month late. Despite these negative effects, there have been some welcome reports. For example, a male Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) displayed on January 18 high above the Rock Garden, performing its roller-coaster courtship routine fully three months before any egg-laying by its mate. Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) fed by the Curator’s house on a number of dates in January, and Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) flighted over the same locality at dusk on 8 January. There has been some fine bird song, especially at dawn with 8 species in action during the first week of the New Year. Chaffinch (F. coelebs) joined in the chorus on 20 January and there were no fewer than 3 Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) in action by mid-February. Great Northern Diver (Gavia immer) has frequented the Swellies regularly overwinter just as last year, most likely the same individual. Raven (Corvus corax) has made a welcome return with a pair courting in the arboretum! They frequent a tall Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and spend much time calling to one another in what seems to be a simple duet of yelps and croaks. One morning I heard one ‘popping’ – a comical outburst of repeated pops delivered from the apex of the fir. By -mid March, their calls have become omnipresent and I suspect breeding in one of the pines on the other side of the railway track. Buzzards (Buteo buteo) once again prove that they are very adaptable and opportunist when it comes to food: one wily individual stalks amphibians by the old pond, dropping on emergent adult frogs and toads from a low perch in a nearby Acer capillipes. This species also loiters around the pigeon loft after tardy birds arriving back tired from a flight. Two buzzards have been seen using low branches of some of the specimen trees in the parkland areas from which they mount flights in tandem designed perhaps to flush unsuspecting rabbits. The daily presence of a raptorial bird contributes so much energy and interest to Treborth. Jays (Garrulus glandarius) continue to do well at Treborth and, as last year, engage in very entertaining, noisy gatherings of up to 6 birds, usually in low bushes in various parts of the Garden. In a previous newsletter I described these encounters as leks but Geoff Gibbs has written to correct me on this point as leks are restricted to a handful of species (eg Black Grouse and Ruff) using carefully

8 delimited, traditional areas, resulting directly in mate acquisition (which I have not yet witnessed with the Jays’ behaviour) and involving no further engagement by the males in the nesting process (which is not the case in Jay where the male bird is fully involved with nesting). So I am left wondering what all this fuss is about! I shall continue to watch their behaviour with interest and report back. For further information Geoff recommends ‘Birds of the Western Palearctic, volume VIII, p17, where this puzzling behaviour is described, though not fully explained, and termed a Spring Gathering. There are now thought to be up to 6 Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) within the wider compass of Treborth Botanic Garden, and only a handful of Grey Squirrel (S. carolinensis) thanks to continued humane culling on the mainland side of the Menai Strait by the Friends of the Anglesey Red Squirrels. An adult Stoat (Mustela erminea) was spotted running across the drive at lunch time on 20 February. And during quite heavy snow on 18 February, Fox (Vulpes vulpes) was tracked foraging across the Rock Garden, down into the woodland and then back up into the main Garden. That same evening while removing snow from the weighed down shoots of Phyllostachys bamboo I disturbed a number of roosting Blackbirds (Turdus merula) – they didn’t appreciate me removing such a warm blanket! Nigel Brown

Scilly Weeds

The term weed is defined as 'A plant of any kind that is growing in the wrong place' (Adams et al. 2008) and is therefore a subjective classification. Deciding what is a weed and what is not can depend on the location of the plant and the opinion of the individual charged with the management of an area. This could be you at home in your garden, battling with dandelion, ground elder or bindweed. It could be a farmer trying to maximise his crop yield for harvest, attempting to control dock and creeping thistle, or a woodland manager stumbling across new shoots of rhododendron. For an ecologist set with the task of designing or monitoring a wildlife area, a native plant, which would often be classed as a weed in the garden, is in fact the desired plant. In this situation, it is often introduced garden escapees such as Buddleia or Himalayan balsam that would be labelled as weeds. As an ecologist turned horticulturalist, my perception of weeds has changed dramatically over the last few years. Nowhere I have worked before has magnified my interest and respect for weeds as my time spent at Tresco Abbey Gardens where I was lucky enough to undertake a year’s studentship. Here are a few of my favourite weeds that I worked with/against in that year, many of which

9 may not be widely considered weeds in gardens across the UK. Agapanthus praecox - Agapanthaceae Agapanthus praecox is found on the Eastern Cape in South Africa where there is frequent rain and hot summers. This South African bulb flowers from December to February. The poor soils, large volumes of rainfall and hot sunny summers on Tresco make it a very similar climate to the Agapanthus natural range which enables it to thrive and self-seed profusely within the Gardens and elsewhere on the island. The name Agapanthus is thought to be derived from the Greek word 'agape' which means love and 'anthos' meaning flower, or possibly from the verb 'agapeo' which means to be well content with. The species name 'praecox' translates as precocious and so this species roughly translates as 'the precocious flower of love'. Many cultivars are available of this species, varying in flower colour from light to deep blue and even white. Agapanthus requires full sun for good flowering and can be grown in the garden or in pots or tubs. A. praecox can survive mild frosts which occasionally occur on Tresco but will be killed if the temperature drops below -1°C for more than a few days. Echium pininana – Boraginaceae Echium pininana is a biennial or sometimes triennial sub-shrub native to La Palma, Canary Islands but can be found naturalised in mild coastal areas of the UK and Ireland. Ideal conditions would include shelter from strong winds, in a position with full sun and with a well-drained substrate, all which we can provide at the Abbey Gardens. This highly decorative plant is valued for its single spike of purple or pink flowers that can grow between 1 and 6 m in height. E. pininana requires cross- pollination and can then produce over 200,000 seeds per plant, of which I am sure the majority germinate in Tresco Abbey Gardens! These seeds will germinate even following temperatures below -6°C which will kill off the seedlings and adult plants. Recent research has therefore predicted that over time more cold hardy varieties of E. pininana will be bred in British gardens through natural selection. Aeonium cuneatum - Crassulaceae Aeonium cuneatum, known locally as the Scilly cabbage, is a succulent biennial that on Tresco can be seen growing along shed roofs, in guttering, over walls and everywhere else imaginable. This is due to its ability to survive with very little organic matter within the substrate and also due to how rapidly it can propagate. A. cuneatum can spread through vegetative propagation, by sending out offshoots, but will also send up yellow flower spikes from which seed is produced. The foliage comprises of a large rosette of wedge shaped leaves from which it gets its species name, 'cuneatum' - wedge shaped.

10 Senecio glastifolius – Asteraceae Senecio glastifolius is in the daisy family and is native across the Cape region of South Africa. Each ‘flower’ is in fact an inflorescence of many tiny flowers (or florets). The central florets (disc florets) are yellow and the outer florets (ray florets) are, unusually for a member of the ragwort genus, purple. S. glastifolius has been included on a list published by the Australian government of 28 highly invasive non-native weeds that threaten biodiversity and cause other environmental damage in Australia. I have witnessed the vigour with which these plants grow and the speed at which they set seed and reproduce. I can see how, if left unchecked, these plants could dominate the under storey and open areas of the Abbey Gardens. Luma apiculata (Syn. Myrtus luma) – Myrtaceae On Tresco, within a circumference of around 10m from the base of the mature Luma apiculata specimens, the woodland floor is littered with tiny seedlings. This shrub or tree is native to Chile and Argentina and is commonly known as the Chilean myrtle. With small glossy oval leaves, pinkish/white fragrant flowers, blue berries in autumn and striking orange and red bark, this specimen can offer interest in the garden all year around but can only withstand temperatures down to -5°C. L. apiculata can grow between 10 and 20m in the wild where some trees have been estimated at 650+ years old. In Tresco Abbey Gardens, specimens reach a height of around 15m and some are over 150 years old. I was told that when you touch the trunk of a mature tree in the Abbey Gardens, it is a few degrees colder than the surrounding air temperature and I am inclined to agree. If you are visiting you must try it for yourself. Metrosideros excelsa – Myrtaceae Metrosideros excelsa is native to the North Island of New Zealand and is commonly known as the New Zealand Christmas tree or Pohutukawa, which is a Maori word meaning drenched with mist. The Latin name derives from the Greek word ‘metra’ - heartwood and ‘sideron’ - iron. The seedlings of Metrosideros often germinate in the crevices between branches, sending the roots down to the ground. They will eventually engulf whatever tree has nurtured them through adolescence. The roots form a tangled mass that descend from the branches and shoot downward, generating new trunks and enabling the trees to spread through the forests. The mass of visible red flowers that bloom between November to January (hence New Zealand Christmas tree) are actually made up of thousands of stamens. Sadly, in its native New Zealand, pastoral farming and introduced pests such as the brush-tailed possum has resulted in the reduction of natural Metrosideros excelsa forests by over 90% before the 1990s. At the last count, there were 85 large M. excelsa trees within the Abbey Gardens. They are very useful for protecting more

11 tender areas from the gale force winds and salt spray that plague Tresco from time to time. It is not only M. excelsa that self-seeds all around the island but M. robusta as well. Weeds and design When weeding a bed at Tresco Abbey Gardens, it is vitally important to consider the placement, final size, shape and colour of the plant in question. For example, an Echium pininana seedling that can eventually reach up to 5-6m should be weeded out if it is growing across a path or at the front of a border. If a clump of Echium seedlings are discovered towards the back of a border, where, on maturity, they will not be blocking any sight lines, they would be thinned and then left. The effect that 20 6m blue flowering spikes can have is incredible and becomes afocal point for visitors to the Gardens during the summer. With Metrosideros excelsa, the seeds which have self-set within the shelter belts or on the margins of the Gardens are often left, but within the Gardens the seedlings are weeded out to prevent the Gardens becoming a forest. Weeding affects the look and feel of every area of the Gardens and using foresight can make an amazing difference to the overall impression of many of the beds. Weeding is therefore seen as one of the most important jobs at the Abbey Gardens. Rosie Barratt, Treborth Horticulturist

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. Anon

The more one gardens, the more one learns; and the more one learns, the more one realizes how little one knows. I suppose the whole of life is like that. Vita Sackville-West

Occasional drama is what you want in an herbaceous border, to wake up the sleepy hordes of daisies and well-bred bellflowers. Anna Pavord

12

Top Left: Senecio glastifolius in flower on Tresco (©Mike Nelhams) [p. 9] Top Middle: Echium pininana in flower on the top terrace at Tresco Abbey [p. 9] Top Right: Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala) in Iceland [p. 9] Bottom:A view of the valley where Anthony Pigott was botanising in Iceland [p. 15]

13

Top Left: Garry Oak Meadow in British Columbia Botanic Gar- den [p. 17] Top Right: Plant Sales, British Columbia Botanical Garden [p.17] Middle Left: Protective cage and Saxifraga oppositifolia in the Rock Garden [p. 20] Bottom:Overview of part of the Rock Garden [p. 20] Middle Right: Italian visitors at Moelyci [p. 46] 14 A Postcard from Iceland.

The Newsletter now regularly features articles of the botanical adventures that the Friends get up to and it is evident that we are a well-travelled bunch of people. In an effort to keep the ball rolling, here is a brief account of a trip I made to Iceland early in 2012. I had always wanted to travel to Iceland; it is a country that holds a certain appeal to me, with its Norse mythology, its status as one of the world’s oldest democracies, and for me, with my aversion to hot weather, its high latitudes. So when I saw an opportunity to join a conservation team working to repair paths in an area of southern Iceland, I jumped at the chance. Not least because I would be able to do a fair bit of botanising whilst there. For me, part of the joy of travelling is in the planning, so before flying out across the North Atlantic, I bought a copy of Hörður Kristinsson’s Flowering Plants and Ferns of Iceland. Initially I had difficultly taking the book seriously; the flora is arranged according to flower colour and as a taxonomist I admit to feeling abit snooty towards anything that isn’t arranged according to family. However as the Icelandic flora isn’t very large, it proved to be as useful a way as any other of quickly looking things up in the field by using the handily coloured page tops as a guide. A flick through the book with a pre-flight drink highlighted some of the botanical delights I might come across in the south of the island. The first thing I noticed when flying into Keflavik airport is just how much lava there was. It appears as a barren wasteland stretching to the snow-capped mountains on the horizon. But then I noticed that the lava fields had a blue tint. How odd. Upon landing I had the first botanical record of my trip, with the Nootka Lupin (Lupinus nootkaensis), the source of the lava fields’ blue rinse. This legume was introduced to Iceland from North America as a soil stabiliser and enricher, but has since become an invasive problem on a par with our own rhododendron issues. Lupin-bashing was often mentioned at the conservationist camp as one of the major jobs that volunteers like myself were put to, but luckily there wasn’t a great deal of it where I was staying. My base for the two weeks that I’d be staying in Iceland was Langidalur, in an area known as Þorsmörk (the Þ symbol is pronounced like th, as in father), home of the Norse god of thunder Þor. This area is managed by the Icelandic Forestry Service, and whilst it is not a national park, it is afforded a high amount of protection. It is popular as a summer vacation destination for Icelanders, who it seems are a very outdoorsy people in general. To get there, one has to take a swish, modern bus from Reykjavík along the Icelandic ring road (the one main road that encircles the island) and then change to a somewhat more rugged bus for the bone-rattling journey up the valley and through the icy torrents of the ever- moving

15 glacial meltwater streams to the camp. Evening entertainment at Langidalur was watching to see if the tourist buses made it across the river, and the ranger would frequently have to take a tractor out to a stricken vehicle. Other entertainment was provided by a feisty pair of resident arctic fox cubs (Vulpes lagopus) that were being cared for at the ranger’s station. Þórsmörk is simply stunning, and I was able to explore it from top to bottom when not repairing heavily used trails, recording plants as I went. The wide, flat valley that has been carved out by the very glaciers that still exist at its head, and harbours such botanical spectacles as the showy willowherb arctic riverbeauty (Chamerion latifolium), and the starry flowers of hairy stonecrop (Sedum villosum). The view here is a moonscape of black volcanic ash, mostly produced by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of aeroplane-free skies fame, cut by fast-flowing, and startlingly blue rivers from the same glacier. By the way, the pronunciation of that particular glacier (the volcano underneath which produced all the chaos does not have a name) should be pretty easy for anyone who is familiar with Welsh, with the double-l sounding pretty much the same in both languages. Hence: Ah-ya-Fya-Lla- Yok-ullt! No? Never mind. Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) nest on the sheer cliffs of the valley, well inland from the sea, and ravens (Corvus corax) are a frequent sight in these parts. The ridge of mountains that run between the two main valleys are covered in their lower parts by an extraordinary birchwood, composed primarily of a low canopy of boreal downy birch (Betula pubescens ssp. tortuosa), elegant tea- leaved willow (Salix phylicifolia) and occasional woolly willow (S. lanata). Both the willow species are ones that you can only really see in a few highland areas of Scotland here in Britain, but these grew at a fairly low elevation, and in real abundance. Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) are common here, and are remarkably tame, and the Icelandic subspecies of wren (Troglodytes troglodytes ssp. islandicus) sings from the dense scrub with its noticeably sweeter song than the British version. The ground flora is dominated by a colourful display of purple and yellow from wood cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum) and meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), with nearly all of the few species of orchid native to Iceland present (try as I might, I could not find common twayblade (Listera ovata), which is on the Icelandic protected species list, which interestingly also includes wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)!). Higher up the hills, the trees give way to an alpine meadow flora, with such treats as cobalt-blue alpine gentian (Gentiana nivalis) and the national flower of Iceland, mountain avens (Dryas octopetala). Higher up still, on the east side of the valley from Langidalur and where I saw a spectacular male snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) singing his heart out in the clear mountain air, were patches of alpine meadow-rue (Thalictrum alpinum), mountain sorrel (Oxyria digyna) and other arctic-alpine species that are all native to Britain as well, but only to those few high places in Scotland, and not nearly in as much profusion. Higher again is the barren plateau of Morinsheiði, where at first it looks as though nothing grows, but

16 where tiny pink cushions of thrift (Armeria maritima) and moss campion (Silene acaulis) persist in the desert-like dryness and bitingly cold winds that come in off of the glaciers above. Above this plateau the ice begins, and I had thought that the botanising would have to stop, but surprisingly plants still survive up here. One such example is in the form of “glacier mice”. These are bits of debris, loose in the wind, upon which certain species of moss grow around into a globe, which then rolls around like tiny bits of tumbleweed, happily photosynthesising in the perpetual summer sunshine and providing unexpected joy to passing botanists in what must be one of the harshest environments going! Iceland’s most recent volcano, Magni, can also be found up here, where the ground is so hot in places that one’s boots start to melt if one stands in the same spot for too long. But even here, where the earth is still cooling, I found a plucky little tuft of thrift. My plant recording was successful in one respect as I found two species for which there were no records in Þórsmörk according to Kristinsson’s book. They were both species of moonwort, small ferns neither of which are found in Britain. One, the glossy moonwort (Botrychium simplex) is on the protected species list so was a significant find for the area. Upon my return I sent my records to the Icelandic Natural History Institute, where the author of the book I was at first so critical of responded very graciously, and kindly informed me that since the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, and the resulting ash deposition, this species had expanded its range, and was being recorded in quite a few new locations. So next time you’re sat in an airport for days on end whilst an Icelandic volcano fills the air with ash and clears it of planes, just think what a good thing it is for Iceland’s rare ferns! Anthony ‘Badger’ Pigott, Bangor University graduate, former volunteer.

Two Botanic Gardens in British Columbia Part 1 : University of British Columbia Botanical Garden The main campus of UBC is situated on a ridge of higher ground between the Fraser River and English Bay a few miles west of central Vancouver. The Botanic Garden lies on the southern edge of this on a south-west facing slope at a height of 75m. The annual rainfall is about 1200mm but 70% of this falls in the winter months giving the Garden a cool oceanic dry summer climate. The Garden covers about 30 hectares and is divided by the main Marine Drive around the headland. The day we had chosen for our visit was by chance the annual Plant Sale organised by the FOGS (Friends of the Garden) and the car park was packed. We were about to be directed back on to a side road which led down to the shore where we were told we might find a space within walking distance, when the very

17 friendly volunteer spotted a car about to leave and, fending off another driver who, being closer, thought she would dive in, directed us into a space only yards from the entrance. We were relieved as it was a warm, sunny day and we had done a lot of walking in the city the day before. Just inside the entrance was an information tent where I went to find out more about the FOGS. When they heard our accents, the Membership Secretary was quickly found and she was very happy to explain their role. It is quite a select group, a maximum of 160 at any one time, and they have to commit to 150 hours a year. They also have to attend, and pay for, a training course. They do not do any horticultural work on the garden proper but have their own garden where they propagate plants for sale. Their main tasks are supportive, fund raising, guiding and educational events. There is also a permanent shop which sells plants and garden-related craft- work. They run three main events during the year, the plant sale in spring, an Apple Fest in October, to which up to 20,000 people come, and a Christmas Fair which is stocked with decorations and presents created with material harvested in the garden. If you are unable to commit to the hours you can become a volunteer or just a member. This last comes with different benefits depending on the subscription, ranging from $150 to $1500 with additional benefits for those giving more than $2500! After promising we would let them have a photograph of ourselves in the Garden for their Newsletter, we turned our attention to the plant stalls. Those selling shrubs and herbaceous plants were spread out across the lawns with fruit, vegetables and tender plants on the decking surrounding the shop and reception centre. I did not see many outstanding plants but to be fair the sale had been going for some hours before we arrived and, no doubt, the gems had already been snapped up. There weren’t any bulbous plants and my son was disappointed not to find more native alpines as the Lohbrunner Alpine Garden is one of the main attractions of the Garden. It was probably a good thing as his garden is already pretty full and it has to be shared with two very active children. I bought several packets of seed collected in the Garden and would like to think that some plants may appear in our sales in the future – but don’t hold your breath! Plant prices started at $3.00 for a tomato plant upwards to more than $20 for some of the fruit trees. The lower western part of the site is taken up by the David C Lam Asian Garden, 17 hectares of mainly native conifers under-planted with rhododendron, hydrangeas, ferns and many other Asian genera. Maybe it was a bit late in the season but the rhodos were nothing like as spectacular as Bodnant, although the new growth on Rhododendron asterochnoum did make me wish for more space and suitable soil in my garden. What did catch the eye was a lovely Melliodendron xylocarpum in full flower, a new species for me. Also impressive were the huge examples of Hydrangea anomala and Schizophragma hydrangeiodes which have been allowed free rein up the trees. We noticed several specimens had large labels which drew attention to the

18 fact that they had been the subject of a special propagation initiative and examples were available at the shop. This seemed a good idea as it gives the purchaser a good idea of the eventual size and possible siting. We were being firmly led by our ten year old grand-daughter to the Greenheart Canopy Walkway as a test for our nerves. This is much more exciting than the one at Kew as it is suspended from the trees by cables rising to more than 17m above the ground. Our experience was not enhanced by a small boy, nothing to do with us, who hung behind his parents in order to bounce up and down at the other end of the span we were crossing. As the surrounding trees are all conifers, there is less seasonal variety in the view but it is still a worthwhile experience. We were not able to explore this area as much as I would have liked as we had a ferry to catch and there was much to see in the other half of the Garden. To move from one half of the Garden to the other, you have to pass under the Marine Drive via a tunnel, the entrance of which is a handsome moon-gate, a traditional feature of Chinese gardens. As you emerge on the other side, the first thing you see is the Garry Oak meadow, a long bank planted with native grassland species typical of a now rapidly vanishing ecosystem which occurred in the rain shadow areas mainly on Vancouver Island. This day it was ablaze with pink Plectritis congesta studded with blue Camassia esculenta. The path leads up to the formal Food Garden, the produce from which is harvested by the Friends and distributed to the needy in down-town Vancouver. The most notable feature here was the surrounding espaliered apple trees in full flower demonstrating the wide range of forms that can be achieved. These are about 30 years old now and beautifully cared for, although we were disappointed not see them labelled with their varieties. Dotted among them is a demonstration of home composting in a variety of containers. Close by on a sunny bank are a few bee hives carefully sited to be easily viewed but not readily accessible to visitors. Along the side adjoining the main road is a young arboretum planted with trees and shrubs from eastern North America. There are groupings dedicated to the discoveries of individual collectors and botanists. In some cases, the groups have been funded by individuals or families and this is recognised on the signage. As is common in this part of the world, much use is made of copious bark and wood litter mulching but I was rather meanly relieved to see that even here they find it difficult to keep ahead of the weeds. My son had already moved to the E.H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden, one of the largest in North America. It was a little late in the season for most of the plants but there was nonetheless a lot to look at. Notable were 2 large specimens of contour hugging plants, Picea abies “Little Gem” and even more spectacular a huge expanse of Azorella bifurcata. I was very taken by Petunia patagonica, so different from the lank, floppy-leaved things from the garden centres. I am on the lookout for seed of this although I suspect it would be a struggle to keep it in north Wales. Google images do

19 show a prizewinning pan from an Alpine Garden Society show but that is a different world! As Vancouver is much wetter than either the rainshadow areas or the true desert of the Okanagan, a small open glasshouse has been fitted into the rock formation of the Garden to provide the necessary aridity. In a bed along side this was an extensive donated collection of Sempervivum spp. We reluctantly tore ourselves away from here and moved on to the Native Garden but as we have over the years seen most of these plants in the wild, we did not spend too much time here or in the Herbaceous Borders which are very European in design and plant selection. The Physic Garden is beautifully laid out and tended and the labelling an object lesson in clarity and context. This was one of the most impressive features of the whole Garden for me. Overall, this is a beautiful horticultural show-piece but what was missing for me was access to any greenhouses or signs of the academic research. For this, one has to search through the websites of the Garden and department although there is a program of lectures and workshops. Recently the University has introduced a program for professional horticultural training as they discovered that this was not being taught any longer in the community colleges in Mainland B.C. and they were finding it difficult to employ suitably skilled staff. On Vancouver Island there is still provision of training and in the 2nd part of this article I will describe my visit to one of the sites where it takes place. For more information on UBC Botanical Garden visit www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca Erle Randall, Volunteer

Renovation of the Rock Garden at Treborth Regular visitors to the Botanic Garden may have noticed some changes taking place in the rock garden over the last year. These have not been radical or dramatic so far but we hope that the overall appearance of the rock garden is already improving over and above the general maintenance of weeding, leaf clearing, dead heading etc. There are several elements to the renovation. Work on the existing planting includes removal of dead or diseased plants and plants that have grown too big for remedial pruning or that are inappropriate for the garden or their position in it; remedial pruning to improve the shape and health of some

20 of the larger shrubs, for example the various Rhododendrons and Azaleas. In some cases such as the Salix lapponum, the specimen had grown too large and was not well placed so all the secondary root stocks have been removed and some potted up to allow replanting in more appropriate places elsewhere in the main Garden and the remaining stock has been cut back and will now be coppiced on an annual basis to maintain an appropriate size. The very large willow at the edge of the limestone rockery, Salix hastata “Wehrhahnii”, has been carefully pruned into a better shape and many of the straggly branches on the ground removed in order to facilitate weeding and to give the ground flora a chance to thrive. At the southern end of the garden in the limestone rockery, the invasive and painful-to-deal-with Rosa spinosissima has been completely removed (we hope!) along with some other inappropriate planting to free up some four or five square metres of limestone rockery for new planting relating to the new Great Orme Project. At the other end of the rockery, there has been some limited new planting of dwarf Acer palmatum dissectum specimens to introduce additional colour and more three dimensional form, and a rare Sequoia sempervirens prostrata has been planted in the centre section of the rockery. We are hoping to implement new planting in the limestone rockery to create more three dimensional and winter interest. This end of the rockery is stunning in summer but rather bleak in winter and contrasts rather unfavorably with the acid, sandstone rockery which is full of winter interest. Throughout the rockery, we hope to increase planting to represent native British and particularly Welsh alpine flora. An ongoing project is the installation of lawn edging round the whole perimeter of the rockery. This will make mowing easier, will inhibit the invasion of lawn grass into the rockery gravel and limit the leakage of gravel on the down-slope side of the rockery into the grass which creates a problem for mowing. We hope to complete this work by mid summer. In the past there has been a serious problem with rabbits which has necessitated all the small, and not so small, wire cages over vulnerable plants. As those plants become established and more resilient to rabbit attack, we are reducing the number of cages in order to improve the aesthetic appearance of the rock garden. In the medium- to long-term, we hope to establish an area of alpine meadow plants in the lawn below the limestone rockery in order to create a more complete representation of the varied environments of alpine flora. This renovation and redesigning is very much work in progress and much of the work is fiddly and labour intensive, and, regrettably that progress has been rather slow, largely due to the poor weather conditions last year, but Derek Norton and I hope that the general perception is that the Rock Garden is beginning to look a bit more loved! Derek Norton and Berta Rosen, Volunteers 21 Taxonomy and Botanical Latin- Part 2 In this part, the second of two articles, we will begin with a brief explanation of the most basic grammatical rules needed to understand Botanical Latin. It is useful to remember that the study of grammar helps us identify rules but also exceptions to the rule. Whilst Classical Latin has quite a logical grammar, my caveat to the reader is that the language also has its idiosyncrasies and irregularities - too numerous to list here - which must be borne in mind when confronted by a name that defies the information given below. We will end by briefly acknowledging the variety of sources that contribute to the meaning of plant names. Before we take a look at the grammar, let us remind ourselves of the basic unit of a botanical taxonomic nomenclature - the species name, such as Rosa multiflora. This is comprised of the genus name - Rosa - and a specific (ie species- related) epithet - multiflora. Both components are fundamentally descriptive, but it would perhaps help to consider the genus name as a noun (Rosa - a rose) and the specific epithet as adjectival in that it adds a further layer of description to the genus, i.e. it specifies which plant within the genus. As such, the grammar that applies to genera and specific epithets is that which applies to nouns and adjectives in classical Latin. Grammar There are two areas of interest to us in understanding botanical nomenclature - the gender and case of a word, both of which are indicated by specific endings. Let us begin with gender. Latin, like many of its Indo-European cousins, attributed genders to its nouns - masculine, feminine and neuter. Botanical Latin derives its lexicon from many Indo-European (IE) and non-IE languages alike, but in Botanical Latin the three genders of Classical Latin are applied nonetheless. The important rule to remember with regard to gender is that when the form of the specific epithet is capable of displaying gender, it must agree with the gender of the genus. It is the genus name which governs the gender of the species name overall. The most obvious exception to this rule is for trees, however. The Romans considered trees to be feminine and this is reflected in the specific epithet of all trees irrespective of the ending of the genus name, as in Quercus pedunculata. Where the gender of a genus is apparent in the source language, such as Greek, the word will sometimes take the Greek form appropriate for that particular gender (Table 1). The corresponding specific epithet may or may not use the appropriate Greek ending, however. These three endings apply to the vast majority of botanical names, but not to all of them. Below are listed some endings and their associated genders not included above which, (Table 2) although not rare, are less frequently seen.

22 Table 1. Gender-Specific Endings.

Gender Latin (Greek) Ending Example of agreement

Masculine -us (-os) Pterocactus tuberosus (Oxycoccos macrocarpus)

Feminine -a (-e) Potentilla aurea (Astilbe japonica)

Neuter -um (-on) Sedum album (Aichryson dichotomum)

The second grammatical feature we need to consider is the case system, which imparts a meaning to a word by changing its form. English is one of the few IE languages to have mostly done away with the case system, although remnants are to be seen in the who/whom distinction. For the purposes of botanical nomenclature, however, we need only concern ourselves with two of the six Latin cases - the nominative and the genitive. The nominative is essentially the original, unadulterated form of the word and the case in which all genus names appear. The genitive form of a word, seen only in the specific epithet, simply implies possession, ownership or some other form of attribution. Take, for example, Nerine bowdenii. This simply means 'Bowden’s Nerine', named after an early cultivator of the plant. The ending is formed by first latinizing Bowden's surname to bowdenius, to which the genitive masculine -i ending is then applied (bowdeni-i). Notice how the latinized name refers to his gender. We also see the feminine genitive used in Cereus macdonaldiae, named after a Mrs Macdonald. Her latinized name is macdonaldia (note the feminine -a ending), to which the feminine genitive -ae is applied (macdonaldi-ae). Had it referred to a Mr Macdonald, we would find macdonaldii instead. Etymology It is both helpful and interesting to acknowledge the etymology, or origin and meaning, of a plant’s name. It can tell us something about the plant that we might not otherwise know. Whilst there was never any formal way of selecting which features to use in the naming process, the information we are given can often be helpful for both understanding and remembering a plant.

23 Table 2. Genus Endings

Genus Ending Gender(s) Example -a Neuter Aglaonema pictum -as Feminine Helonias bullata -es Feminine Heteromeles arbutifolia Neuter Aerides crispum -er Masculine Aster alpinus -is Masculine Caryopteris mastacanthus Feminine Amaryllis belladonna Neuter Anacharis alsinastrum -ns Feminine Juglans regia -o Feminine Tussilago farfara -ops Masculine Echinops bannaticus -os Feminine Cocos nucifera -x Masculine Atriplex halimus Feminine Carex pendula Neuter Ilex aquifolium -ys Feminine Ophrys apifera

There are broad etymological categories within which most names can be included, listed below with examples. 1. Geographical - referring to a place or country of origin, as in the genera Arabis (of Arabia), Iberis (from the Iberian peninsula). We see it also in specific epithets, such as chinense (Chinese) and canadensis (Canadian). Here the genitive is frequently used to mean ‘of such a country’, such as Acaena novae-zealandiae (of New Zealand) and Aster novi-belgii (of New Belgium, an old name for New York). 2. Commemorative - referring to an individual (real or mythical) who may or may not have a direct association with the plant but after whom the plant has been named, as in the genus Banksia (after Joseph Banks) and the specific epithet Pinus balfouriana (after Balfour). 3. Morphological - referring to a physical feature of the plant, such as the genus Astrophytum (from the Greek Aster [star] and phytos [plant] referring to the star shape of the plant itself) and the specific epithet macrorhiza,

24 meaning ‘long-rooted’. In this category we could also include descriptions of colour, such as argenteus (silvery - think of the French word for money - ‘argent’) or atropurpureum (where the atro means ‘deep’ or ‘dark’, connected to the word ‘atrocious’, and the purpureum is obviously ‘purple’). Texture, number, size, shape and pattern would all feature within this category. 4. Habit - referring to the growth habit of a plant. The genus Abies is thought to derive from the Latin abire (to depart), referring to the height of the tree ‘departing’ from the ground. Plants with a creeping habit, for example, could carry the specific epithet repens or perhaps patens (spreading). 5. Descriptive - referring to a feature of the plant that is not otherwise addressed by the other categories, for example Hamamelis (from the Greek hama, ‘together’ and mela, ‘fruit’, referring to the fact that the flowers and fruit are borne simultaneously). 6. Habitat - referring to the location in which the plant grows, such as Elodea, from the Greek elodes, ‘marsh’, or littoralis, from the Latin litus, ‘seashore, beach’. 7. Functional - referring to an historical use for the plant, including the specific epithets emeticus from the Latin emere, ‘to vomit’ in which case the plant was used to induce vomiting, and tinctorius, from the Latin tingere, ‘to dip, moisten or immerse’ where the plant was used to dye fabrics. 8. Native name - there are many plants whose etymologies are unknown for the simple fact that they are the product of either ancient or indigenous languages. The Latin Quercus, ‘oak’ does not have a definite etymology, although some scholars suggest a relationship with the ancient, continental Celtic words quer, ‘fine’ and cuez, ‘tree’, which makes sense given the esteem with which the Druids held the oak. When the Portuguese and Spanish first made contact with Africa and the Americas, they discovered entirely new floras. Many of the local tribes had names for the plants and a few of these have remained, although the indigenous meaning has not been passed down to us. One example is the genus Cabomba from Guinea. It is impossible to give a thorough description of a topic to which whole books are devoted in an article of this length. For those interested in learning more, I recommend the following two books for a more detailed treatment of the subject:

Johnson AT and Smith HA, 2008. Plant Names Simplified: their pronunciation, derivation and meaning. Ipswich: Old Pond

Gordon, S and Hillier Nurseries, 2005. Plant Names Explained: botanical terms and their meaning. Newton Abbot: David and Charles

James Balfour, Friends’ Committee

25 A Fossil Garden

At about the age of 5 my family moved into my Grandmother’s house. It was a very large house with an extensive garden that was dominated by a huge monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). The tree stood taller than the house and caused a large area of the garden to be much too dry to grow anything. The area under the tree was a bare patch of ground and the privet hedge around the perimeter of the garden had a huge gap where it ran alongside the tree. Unfortunately, the tree also had a tree preservation order which meant that my parents were totally unable to do anything about the ‘nuisance’ tree. I loved the monkey puzzle. It was right outside my bedroom window and it was home to multiple pairs of collared doves which I could watch rearing their young. Another tree came into my life as I grew up, a huge tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera). It was as tall as the church by which it grew and was my favourite tree to climb. I dubbed it ‘the lookout tree’ as I could watch the goings on in all of the surrounding gardens from a comfortable spot about half way up. The tulip tree flowered with its extravagant magnolid blooms every year. These flowers and its strange leaves prompted my inquisitive mind to find out more about the tree I loved so much. As a budding naturalist, my research led me to learn more about the monkey puzzle too. You can imagine, when I discovered that both trees had been around at the time of the dinosaurs, my interest only increased. So, that’s how it all started. Whilst my brothers looked at books about dinosaurs and could tell you all their names, I looked at the plants the artist had depicted in the background and was able to tell what each and every one was. A collection of ferns and other prehistoric oddities was started. I would preserve the horsetails (Equisetum arvense) growing through the cracks in the patio at all costs (much to my mother’s annoyance) and a pond was built so that I could have water lilies (Nympaea spp). Life went on, I grew up, I moved house and the ferns came too. Fast forward now to two years ago - my partner and I had just bought a house in Llanberis and we had a blank canvas of lawn for a garden. It was time for the ferns to finally have a permanent home. I hadn’t really envisaged having a prehistoric garden (although my interest still burned) but on the day we got the keys to the house we went to buy some plants for a hanging basket at the front door and came back with a 5’ tall Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis). So we hardly had any choice: our fossil garden was born.

26 All the plants have to be members of families that were around at the time of the dinosaurs or before, so we work between 400 and 66 million years ago. It is surprising the variety of genera of plants that have been around for that period of time and have a fossil record. It isn’t all ferns, cycads and pines either. We have plenty of flowering plants in the garden too. We have many of the basal angiosperms (flowering plants) such as Schisandra, Illicium, Kadsura and magnolias (including my much-loved Liriodendron tulipifera and its Asian counterpart, L. chinense). Many early divergent monocots (plants with a single seed leaf) such as Acorus and arums feature - we even grow (with a 70 million year old fossil record) a Swiss Cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa), outside. Most notable among the flowering plants in our garden is our collection of the early eudicots (2 seed leaves), the Proteaceae. A star plant in our garden is our King protea (Protea cynaroides) that has flowered regularly, a silky oak (Grevillea robusta) noted for having the highest levels of natural cyanide of any plant and 3 different species of Banksia. In total we have 20 different members of the Proteaceae and that number is growing all the time. We have a good collection of ferns (some the plants of my childhood), totalling 80+ species and cultivars. The garden is dominated by a Dicksonia antarctica that provides shade and shelter for many others including Cyathea australis, Blechnum nudum, Dicksonia fibrosa and a very good form of Woodwardia unigemata. We have climbing ferns, aquatic ferns, epiphytic ferns and filmy ferns. The non-flowering gymnosperms, of course, feature heavily in the garden. Among their ranks are Cycas revoluta (it lives outside all year), Ephedra nevadensis (a Gnetale once thought to be a stepping stone between gymnosperms and angiosperms), 4 different Araucarias and a handful of podocarps. As time goes on and the garden gets fuller, we have had to become very restrained as to what more we are able to add. I regularly have to stop myself from getting any more ‘big trees’. The types of plants we would like to be able to grow are increasingly difficult to come by: it’s a good job I work for a plant hunter. There are some very interesting things in the propagator at the moment including the yellow lotus (Nelumbo lutea) and lizard tail plants (Saururus cernuus) and some even more interesting seed yet to be sown. As time goes on no doubt more prehistoric oddities will be added. We open the garden by appointment to interested individuals and small groups. Robbie Blackhall-Miles

27

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Thomas Jefferson

Orchids at Treborth

(Our orchid collection supremo, Simon Retallick, occasionally sends out a report to interested parties on the state of the Garden’s orchids. His information indicates the hands-on nature of his care for the plants and may be useful for individuals growing orchids in their homes. Here is his most recent one, dated 8 March 2013.) 1. Managed a number of tidy up jobs over the last few weeks in preparation for the Wild Science Day (Sunday 17 March 10:00 to 14:00). Hope to see some of you there all being well. I spent some time on Friday staking up the numerous Cymbidi- um spikes in the link corridor to the Orchid House, and rearranging the pots. 2. TEMP. & HUMIDITY in the Orchid House sections, and the teaching lab. Max and minima of the week previous to the 8th. It’s all good.

oC %RH cool 11.5 to 20.5 70 to 95 intermediate 14.9 to 25.5 71 to 98 warm 18.2 to 24.9 50 to 85 lab 18.8 to 22.3 24 to 43

28 3. The last few weeks we have had a small unnamed species flowering in the warm section of the Orchid House. It has flowered a few times over the years since being donated in 2005, but I have not been able to find a name for it until now. Close ex- amination made me convinced it was from the genus Coelogyne, and a scan through Google Images eventually came up with the answer. I then checked it out with the Kew Monocots online checklist to confirm details. Our little beauty is from Southern India (presumably the mountains of Kerala) and Sri Lanka, and is called Coelogyne breviscapa Lindl. (1854). As you can see, it has grown well for us on a cork slab with very little humus or moss. The close-up photo clearly shows the persistant bracts; most other Coelo- gyne spp. lose theirs at bud burst. It gets watered every day and fed well in summer with a foliar feed (Orchid Focus Bloom and SuperDrive "Growth Technology Ltd"). Cultural advice from various sources on the web suggest this uncommon spe- cies is normally cool growing, but I am loathe to change its position considering it has flowered every year for several years now. "Leave well alone", as they say. In any case, many species grow in a range of altitudes and it depends where they were collected as to their temperature requirements. Distinct ecotypes for temperature requirements are known in a number of montane species. A few species are broad- ly tolerant of temperatures and adapt to what you give them (within reason), others have very specific requirements for vegetative growth and winter temperature drops to induce flowering. Many Coeolgyne require a winter rest of watering, but this one has done well with daily deluges, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day in summer. Best wishes, and happy springtime gardening. Simon Retallick, Volunteer

29 New Hoyas and Haworthias

One aspect of a botanical garden that does not always receive as much attention as it should is the maintenance of collections of plants of known geographical origin for research, propagation and conservation. When I was asked to look after the Treborth succulent collection a few years ago, I found an assortment of plants of varied (and mainly unknown) origin. These were moved from pots in the Maize House to raised beds in the Temperate House (Gorham, 2008), where most have flourished. Some of the South African leaf succulents (mainly Haworthia and Gasteria accessions) have proved difficult to identify precisely, and it is my intention to gradually replace these with fully identified and documented plants. The various species of Haworthia are particularly useful for demonstrating the evolution of leaf adaptations in dry environments. In August 2012, an opportunity arose to obtain succulents of known provenance at the National Show of the British Cactus and Succulent Society. This event is held every four years at Wood Green Animal Shelter near Godmanchester, and is attended by a large number of specialist succulent nurseries and growers. In addition to looking for Haworthias, I was also hoping to purchase some Bulbine and Bulbinella species, since Pauline Perry is an expert in these genera (Perry, 1999). Unfortunately, not even the more common Bulbines were available, and so I came away with a number of unusual Hoya plants instead. Hoya (Named after Thomas Hoy, 1750-1822, gardener to the Duke of Northumberland at Syon House) is a genus of 200 to 300 species of Asian and South Pacific latex-producing climbers belonging to the milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae, now included in the Apocynaceae). The most familiar are the house plants known as waxflowers (H. carnosa and H. bella) with umbels of white or pink, waxy-looking, scented flowers, often seen with drops of nectar hanging from them. Some species have quite succulent leaves, and some are known to perform Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM), so just about earn their place in a succulent plant collection. The ones I purchased are all from the nursery of Paul Shirley and have his ‘GPS’ collection numbers. H. brevialata from Sulawesi was first described by Kleijn & Donkelaar in 2001 along with H. pallilimba, and may be a form of H. incurvula. H. rumphii was described in 1826 from Indonesia, and our accession comes from the island of Sumatra. Our sample of H. excavata, described from a specimen from Borneo in 1863, was collected from Penataran in Java. H. dykiae had me fooled for a while. It turns out to be H. deykei, one of the thicker-leaved species with pale flowers, described by Green in 2000. New Hoya species appear regularly, although often in obscure or region-specific journals. Writing this paragraph has taught me two things – that Hoya is a genus in need of taxonomic revision (Meve, 2002), and to double check information supplied by even specialist growers!

30 The Haworthia species come from Succulent Tissue Culture (STC), a company started in the Netherlands in 1995 by Robert and Teresa Wellens. It specialises in the propagation of rare and endangered succulents and the production of variegated cultivars. The taxonomy of Haworthia is challenging, to say the least. The latest checklist by Bayer and Manning (2012) confines the huge variation in the genus within about 60 species, compared with the 368 species recognised by Ingo Breuer in 2010. The problems were explained concisely in the Introduction to John Pilbeam’s 1983 book ‘Haworthia and Astroloba, A Collectors Guide’, in the Appendix to Rudolf Schulz’s 2009 book, and in Bruce Bayer’s recent article in CactusWorld (Bayer, 2012). Historically, species were often described from limited material, sometimes without experience of the plants in the field. Indeed, the variation observed in the field, together with the existence of natural hybrids, challenges our concept of neatly defined species – hence some Haworthias have been shuffled from species to species several times. The advent of evolutionary molecular phylogeny should help sort some things out, but also adds to the confusion in some cases – and there are suggestions of radical changes at the genus level (such as including everything within Aloe!). For the sake of consistency, I am going to use Bayer and Manning’s 2012 nomenclature, although this is not without its problems (a comprehensive index of synonyms in their checklist would have helped!). The plants that I acquired in August 2012 belong to the four sections within the subgenus Haworthia. Two plants fall within Bayer’s H. arachnoidea, var. arachnoidea (bought as H. helmiae) and the much more impressive var. setata (H. tretyrensis) with long white teeth on the leaf margins and a compact growth habit. H. floribunda (Section Loratae) is the least succulent species with narrow leaves possessing minute teeth at the margins. Four plants come within Bayer’s H. mirabilis in the section Retusae. These are var. magnifica (H. magnifica var. major), var. maraisii (H. maraisii var. maraisii and H. schuldtiana) and var. splendens (H. magnifica var. splendens). This section has transparent windows in the ends of the leaves, which are flattened to lie level with the ground. Most of the plant is buried in the soil to reduce transpirational water loss. In the final section, Fenestratae, the leaves are truncated and windowed, with the truncated face uppermost (see illustration). This section includes two morphologically distinct examples of H. truncata from different locations, identified by both a location name and afield collector’s number (these are often used to specify distinct populations, particularly of succulent plants). Both the Hoyas and the Haworthias have been clonally propagated (cuttings and tissue culture) and thus each accession represents only one clone from within a population which may itself only represent one geographical variant of a species or variety. Ideally, we would like more, but different, examples of each taxon for seed production and to conserve at least some of the genetic variation

31 that each taxon represents – hence the decision to focus on a group of dwarf Haworthia species. In contrast, our examples of Aloe polyphylla show considerable variation between individuals and were raised from two (as far as we know) independent batches of seeds. I hope my experience with these plants helps to emphasize the need for full (or as full as possible) documentation of the material in our collections, especially if it is variable and/or endangered in the wild. References: Bayer, M.B. (2012) Just what do we do with names for Haworthia. CactusWorld 30: 211-214. Bayer, M.B. (2012) The Haworthia Nomenclator: A List of Accepted Species with Some Guidelines for Infraspecific Names. Special edition of Haworthiad. ISSN 1359-1614. The Haworthia Society. Breuer, I. (2010) The Genus Haworthia. Books 1 and 2. Alsterworthia International, Preston. Gorham, J. (2008) A Mound of Cacti (And Other Succulents). FTBG Newsletter 33: 13-17. Green T. (2000) Hoya deykei Green sp. n. (Asclepiadaceae). Fraterna 13: 15-16. Kleijn, D. & Donkelaar, R. (2001) Notes on the Taxonomy and Ecology of the Genus Hoya (Asclepiadaceae) in Central Sulawesi. Blumea 46: 457-483. Meve, U. (2002) Species Numbers and Progress in Asclepiad Taxonomy. Kew Bulletin 57: 459-464. Perry, P.L. (1999) Bulbinella in South Africa. National Botanical Institute. 78 pp. Pilbeam, J. (1983) Haworthia and Astroloba. A Collector’s Guide. Batsford. 167 pp. Schulz, R. (2009) Haworthia for the Collector. Schulz Publishing, San Bruno, CA. 240 pp. John Gorham, Friends’ Committee

Hoya carnosa

32

Haworthia truncata

Haworthia magnifica var. splendens 33 A Victim of its own Beauty? The Xaté Palm of Central America

Introduction The palm family (Arecaceae) contains over 2500 species and is a group of globally important plants. Many palms have a high economic value because of the wide variety of useful material they provide. For example, palms produce material that is useful for building, thatching, food and drink. In addition, many palm species are attractive to the horticultural industry because of their beautiful foliage. Over the last three years I have been studying one particular palm species that is important to the horticultural industry - Chamaedorea ernesti-augusti, commonly known as xaté. My research has focused on the over-harvesting of this species used widely in flower arrangements and bouquets. My study site encompasses the border region of Belize and Guatemala (see map opposite). In this short article, I aim to discuss the over-harvesting of the species and highlight some potential conservation approaches currently been explored to reduce the pressure on wild xaté populations. The Chamaedorea floristry industry Chamaedorea is the largest genus of palms in the neotropics, with many species of high socioeconomic importance (Hodel 1992). My study species, xaté (C. ernesti-augusti), is distributed in the seasonal forests of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. The large, elegant, heart shaped leaves of xaté are exported from Guatemala, Belize and Mexico, and are ideal for use in flower arranging and bouquets as they remain green for up to a month after harvesting. The annual value of exports from Guatemala alone is estimated to be US $4 million. This small understory palm has on average 5 leaves per plant and it is suggested that a maximum of two leaves per plant should be harvested per year. However, it is thought that harvesters (locally known as xatéros) often take more than this. The leaves are taken in large bundles to processing factories where they are sorted before export. Leaves which have a rip or blemish are discarded before export and my estimates suggest around 60% of the leaves are thrown away. The packaged leaves are then flown in a refrigerated airplane to Miami or Amsterdam where they are then distributed to florists across the USA and Europe. Illegal xaté harvesting In Guatemala, harvesting of wild xaté is only legal when carried out within a licensed forest concession or from licensed cultivated xaté. Large scale illegal harvesting is carried out in both Guatemala and Belize, and this illegal industry is an important income source for many communities. I interviewed hundreds of people in Guatemala and Belize and found it is often the poorest, landless households that are dependent on xaté as a primary source of income, in particular communities in Guatemala located close to the border of Belize. Xaté has declined sharply in

34

Top Left: Large xaté leaves can reach over 30cm/15ins [p. 34] Top Right: Xaté leaves cut and bundled ready for export [p. 34] Left: Xaté is abundant in the Greater Maya Mountains and people cross the border from Guatemala to illegally harvest in Be- lize. [p. 34] Above: Liriodendron tulipifera [p.26]

35

Top Left: Coelogyne breviscapa Lindl. [p. 28] Top Right: Green-brindled crescent moth—before it loses its colour [p. 38] Bottom Left:Garden tiger moth—increasingly scarce in our gardens [p. 38] Bottom Right:Angle shades moth—showing its clever mimicry of a dead leaf [p. 38]

36 Guatemala and people from the border villages often illegally cross into Belize’s pristine forest to harvest in the Greater Maya Mountains. Xaté leaves are often sold in bundles of 40, locally known as ‘gruesa’, and harvesters will receive around 7 pence per bundle. Har- vesters will spend up to two weeks on a harvesting trip in the forest and can harvest around 1000 leaves per day. As alternative employment is rare in rural Guatemala, the annual income for a xaté harvester is often higher than that of people not willing to take the risk of crossing the border. Irrespective of legality, there are now concerns about the sustainability of extraction. Cultivation as a conservation strategy As part of a Darwin Initiative Project (UK government funding), Belize Botanic Garden prepared a xaté cultivation training programme which was delivered to 50 farm- ers from four villages in 2005. The programme provided participants with xaté seedlings and the botanic garden planted a demonstration plot to encourage xaté cultivation. How- ever, this project was aimed at farmers in Belize, people whom are not dependent on wild harvesting of xaté. Cultivation of xaté has also been encouraged in Guatemala by local non-governmental organisations. These initiatives have created opportunities for people to diversify their livelihoods but whether it has helped to reduce pressure on the wild populations is yet to be seen. My research suggests that cultivation is unlikely to resolve the problem. It is possible that Fair Trade certification of cultivated leaf may encourage some to adopt xaté cultivation. However, to become an economically viable enterprise, the price per leaf would need to increase drastically or people would need to plant large areas of xaté. Furthermore, the illegal xaté harvesters tend to be those without land and so are unable to invest in cultivation. Certification also requires monitoring to ensure wild harvested leaves are not laundered through the plantation and thus exacerbate the cur- rent over-exploitation. It is possible that increasing land ownership would encourage households to initiate small plantations; however land reform is well known to be a diffi- cult process. Unfortunately, my research has led me to believe that cultivation is unlikely to be an effective conservation strategy. The future for xaté The demand for xaté leaf has continued to remain high and stable for the last thirty years. Potentially, with increased land ownership for the xaté harvesters and a pre- mium price through certification, cultivation may help to reduce wild harvesting pressure. However, the situation is a complex mix of ecology, politics and socio economics and it is unlikely that cultivation is a simple conservation strategy. Is the xaté palm a victim of its own beauty or could its beauty be its saviour? Perhaps the conservation of this species relies upon a greater awareness amongst florists and consumers of the over-extraction. By demanding sustainably sourced xaté, it may be possible to secure the future of this species, without compromising the livelihoods of the people currently dependent on xaté harvesting. Sophie Williams, PhD Bangor, Founder of STAG

37 A Moth Monitoring Year

I monitored butterflies on Newborough Warren for 28 years until the Countryside Council for Wales had a change of priorities and my transect route was broken up by new fencing in 2011. I very much regretted this loss and I sought to replace it in some way. I was aware that a number of people were monitoring moths locally and I asked around regarding the loan of a moth trap. The equipment is expensive; I felt sure that someone, somewhere, had a trap lurking at the back of a garage unused, as these enthusiasms wax and wane! And sure enough, Gerry Downing came up with a square, wooden Skinner-type trap for me. I would monitor the moths in my garden – a habitat over which I had complete control, and its management was entirely my responsibility. I live just above Newborough Warren and on my butterfly walks, I was aware of the day- flying moths and their caterpillars, which were always more conspicuous than butterfly caterpillars. And in the summer months I always have at least two bats which patrol my garden, no doubt finding moths to eat (how will I feel about them now?). My garden has mostly native plants and wild areas – hedges are mixed but mainly hawthorns and Prunus, which, I was to discover, are ideal food plants for many moth species. I began in March 2012, encouraged by favourable weather – warm, dry, still nights with little or no moon. I was to discover that, as a beginner, starting this venture at a less productive time of year was wise because having to identify each moth individually takes time. My first ‘catch’ produced an encouraging mixture of the families Noctuidae (Hebrew Character, Quaker, Early Grey) and Geometridae (Early Thorn, Dotted Border). I had placed the trap by white walls and a glass porch. The light had attracted seven early thorns, all of which were outside the trap on the walls and glass. I thought I had caught butterflies, since these moths rest with their wings held vertically unlike most other moths! What a beginning! I then realised that familiarising myself with 23 species of butterflies on the Warren was easy in comparison with the number of possibilities of moths, of which there are 2500 species in Great Britain. Finding my way around the book takes time, and after my first year, the ‘Field Guide to the Macro-Moths of Great Britain and Ireland’ was looking extremely worn. Correct identification takes time and experience. All moths age quickly and what is illustrated as a ‘Green Marbled Carpet’ soon loses its green. Also, some species are very variable in pattern and colour. I have been greatly assisted with identification by Nigel and Ian Sims. Then there are moths not to be found in this book – the so-called micro- moths (some of which are not ’micro’). These require a further book!

38 Numbers increased as spring became summer. Still unsure of my identification skills with some moths, I had to examine each one in my porch. Some stay docile as they are programmed to do in daylight, but some fly at the least disturbance. Removing spiders was essential as they are faster than me. A mid-August count produced 56 different species and a total of 347 moths. This catch took me 10 hours to deal with! As you can guess, by now I was hooked. Such amazing variety, such amazing names, all to be found in my small garden. Like butterflies, some moths have more than one generation a year. What I identify as a spring moth can reappear in September. And there are even moths whose flight period comes with the cold weather months – the aptly named Winter and December moths. When I have identified the moths, I have the problem of when/where to release them. I have a shrewd robin that waits while I decide. If I leave the box outside, the robin has attempted to enter the box and has certainly taken any insect on the outside. It will follow me around the garden if I put them on vegetation. If I leave the box in the porch, there is always the spider I have failed to spot. Leave them in the glass tube and they deposit their eggs. I now eye my foraging blue tits with suspicion – should I continue to feed the birds? And what about my prunings – how many moth eggs will be consumed by fire? So many conflicts… In my first year, trapping only in favourable weather in a year of unfavourable weather, I identified at least 170 species of moth and released a number of moths which were too difficult for me to identify. How will I cope in a favourable year! [Note – according to the charity Butterfly Conservation in their report ‘The State of Britain’s Larger Moths 2013’, 61 species have declined by 75% or more over the past 40 years. Of these 61 species, I have identified 17 in my garden.]

Val Lane, Volunteer

39 Wild Science Day, March 2013

On 17 March, Treborth opened its glass doors once again for its third annual Wild Science day, part of the Bangor Science Festival. Building on the success of last year’s event, Wild Science attracted a good number of people despite the somewhat inclement weather. This year the event was opened Dr Trevor Dines, Conservation Manager at Plantlife Cymru and star of the recently aired ‘Wild Things’ on Channel 4. Trevor is an alumnus of the University as well as a past chairman of the Friends of Treborth, and it was a pleasure to welcome him back to talk about his work and the production of the series. This year, the event explored the breadth of subjects available to the natural historian. The animal kingdom was represented by the reptiles and insects of the Welsh Mountain Zoo and Pili Palas, as well as the characterful owls of the North Wales Bird Trust and the spectacular flight displays given by North Wales Birds of Prey. The British Trust for Ornithology made another welcome appearance to gently catch and tag some of the Garden’s birds. Children were fascinated (and parents somewhat less keen) to see James Atherton (BSc Zoology, Year 3) allowing Madagascar hissing cockroaches to crawl over his body, and our much-anticipated chameleon made a fleeting visit to inspect her new lodgings in the Tropical House. We were fortunate enough to be joined by representatives of Geo Môn, who were able to talk about Anglesey’s exceptional geology, whilst matters marine were covered by the University’s School of Ocean Sciences (SOS) and their research on the long-lived clam Arctica islandica, from whose shell climate models spanning the last 400 years can be made. This being a botanic garden, however, means that it would be difficult to let the day go by without shining a light on botany. Of particular note was the striking array of blooms on show in the Orchid House. Together with Plantlife, we were joined by the Botanical Society of the British Isles (who demonstrated some of the skills needed to identify plants), the Woodland Trust (focussing on Ash Dieback - Chalara fraxinea), the North Wales Wildlife Trust (seed sowing), and Bangor Forest Garden (children’s activities). The Rhizotron was manned by Adam Cross, who guided visitors through the microscopic world of root structure, as well as exploring the link between plants and climate change. We were particularly fortunate to be able to house a small exhibition of botanical art, with works by the Edwardian Mas- sey sisters of Anglesey kindly lent to us by Oriel Môn as well as prints by Kay Rees- Davies. Last but by no means least (and for some the only reason to come at all) was the excellent selection of cakes and other treats provided and served by our ever-reliable volunteers. The newly renovated Cool House housed both the catering and the seating, and proved an effective and versatile venue for future events. James Balfour, Volunteer

40 A Diary from the Garden of England.

Well, what a mad few years! When Paul and I decided to move to Kent, it was with heavy hearts as we would be leaving behind our beloved Treborth, the rugged beauty of north Wales and all our wonderful friends with whom we had made so many memories. But nothing stays the same and we had finally decided on some goals for our future and had devised a plan for trying to achieve them. The economic climate was deteriorating rapidly in 2011 and affording to live in north Wales with dwindling job prospects for us was becoming a serious worry. Our move to Kent had two initial goals; to save money (by living with my mother!) and to plan our next move while doing so. We had mixed fortunes in the first year, which held plans up a bit! Nevertheless, I was able to work for Kent Wildlife Trust for a while in a Community Garden in Romney Marsh on the east coast of Kent. It was a great job but the travelling became a big problem so I started to look for something else - that’s when the job with Plantlife came along. I had always admired Plantlife’s work and didn’t imagine for a moment I would be good enough to join them. I put in an application anyway and then fell over when they in invited me for interview. When they actually offered me the job I was so excited and could not believe they really wanted me! One year along the line and I am the busiest I’ve ever been! My role is as Community Outreach Officer on a Heritage Lottery Funded project (HLF) aimed at breaking down access issues to Ranscombe Farm Reserve by the local community, designing events and projects to inspire local people to visit, enjoy and respect Ranscombe. If you have ever been to Ranscombe then you know how special it is and if you haven’t then please put it on your ‘to do’ list if ever you visit the south east. It really is an oasis of wild flowers in the very congested north of Kent. It is best known for its arable farming weeds (or wild flowers!); common poppy, field pansy and field madder amongst the more common, but rarer species include corncockle (at probably the only remaining UK wild site), rough poppy and the narrow fruited cornsalad. Our tenant farmer manages the arable fields to encourage plants such as a nationally important population of broad-leaved cudweed. You can also find the rare blue pimpernel: I was very lucky to have found this last year, a real beauty. Ranscombe is a 650 acre site with a geology that varies from chalk to clay to sandy gravels. We have large swathes of sweet chestnut coppice woodlands on the sand and gravels where you will find bluebells and the less common lily of the valley. Some the woodland is on chalk, and here you can find fly and lady orchids, white helleborine under the beech trees, columbine, wild liquorice, marsh thistle and rosebay willowherb. Part of the HLF project is the continued conservation of patches of old chalk grassland where you will find common rockrose, horseshoe vetch and, a rare plant in Kent, the clustered bellflower. Another of the specialities at Ranscombe is

41 meadow clary which, due to new management, is thriving at the same site where it was first recorded in 1699. There are many, many more wild flowers to be found at Ranscombe and I have to admit to ‘lifting’ most of this information from the website so do visit www.plantlife.org.uk/ranscombe to read more about it and see some pictures. Most of what you read on the website was written by my wonderful Project Officer, Richard Moyse, who incidentally studied botany at Bangor and was taught by your marvellous curator Mr Nigel Brown - no wonder I enjoy working with such a well-trained and informed person as Richard! Richard worked for the Kent Wildlife Trust for many years before taking on this role at Plantlife, and what an asset he is - a brilliant botanist and naturalist, public speaker and educator. He is also incredibly organised! When we joined the project over a year ago there was only one member of staff at Ranscombe and that was Ben Sweeney. He had worked at Ranscombe for many years as part of different organisations and projects, and with a merry band of volunteers (average age 60), he manages the site for wild life, wild flowers, public access, coppicing and much more! When Richard and I joined, the HLF project was a little behind schedule and over the last 12 months we have generated enormous amounts of work - in 3 days a week, we have organised the production of new family activities including wild flower geo-cache, school resources including a teachers’ guide and activities for KS 1 & 2. We are also about to launch a postcard design competition with free workshops throughout the summer and we are going out to schools doing workshops to promote this too! One of the entrances to Ranscombe is a very grotty underpass for the A2/M2 in desperate need of cheering up, so we are working with a community mural and graffiti company to develop a project with the local community of Strood to design and paint a mural that hopefully will encourage more people to brave the short walk into Ranscombe, which opens up like Narnia once you get through the underpass and over the bridge which crosses the channel tunnel link. All this runs alongside a jam-packed events schedule which includes a wildflower ID course which has proved to be so popular that we had to put on extra sessions! You can find all our events at: www.plantlife.org.uk/ranscombe and click on ‘what’s on’. On the schedule we have walks, orchid survey days, open days, art workshops, and awood craft skills course. We have a series of forest school style days over the summer that I am very excited about. We are currently working with a local forest school training centre to offer Ranscombe as a site where groups and trainers can come and run their sessions. All this in 3 days a week!! It keeps me extremely busy, but last autumn I took on another part-time job to try and get our earnings up so that we could save some money. Once again, I was incredibly lucky to find a super project run by Groundwork Kent and Medway. They took me on as a Community ‘Grower. Now most of you who know me, will know that my ‘growing’ skills were very limited if not in fact virtually non-existent, so I was even more surprised when they took me

42 on. I think they wanted my community development skills the most (that’s what I keep telling myself). Now I have to say that whilst Groundwork is responsible for some wonderful projects, they are positively ‘shabby’ in organisation compared to the fantastic Plantlife! So I am a little more autonomous in my role. It’s a lottery funded project called Movable Feasts, a community-led, organic market garden. It is a wonderful project using urban sites to grow food involving the community. It has been dogged with problems including soil contamination of the majority of the site at a social education centre for adults with learning and physical disabilities. Before I joined, the project had taken on this substantial site to grow produce but when they tested the soil it was discovered that it had been a barracks hospital in a previous life and they hadn’t been too careful with their hospital waste!! So we have finally had the site excavated and all the soil has been replaced and we are now allowed to start growing in the huge raised beds we have created. It’s an excellent project and I work with lots of different people of varying abilities to get them growing. Oh yes, me and growing.....well when we first arrived here in Kent I put my name on the allotment list and to my amazement got offered a site within months. I grabbed it, gave Paul a fork and got digging!! We have spent lots of lovely time on our plot and last year more through luck than design (even though I also now have my RHS level 2 practical gardening certificate) I grew tomatoes, broad beans, salads, kale, raspberries, kohl rabi, and beetroot all surrounded by wild flowers and herbs - I love it!! This year I have amassed a ridiculous amount of seeds of huge variety. My only problem so far this year is the awfully protracted winter. It has been weeks and weeks since we have seen double figures down here. Hopefully by the time you read this we will have broken into spring at last! Never mind, I do have onions, garlic and some peas riding out the weather so there is something growing!! When we got to Kent, our first priority was to get Paul’s business launched. We pounded the streets with flyers, put ads in the local paper and shops and had a stall at several local shows. It was a difficult year for everyone economically and here in the south we had the wettest drought for decades!! Despite all this Paul did get some great jobs that helped build up his portfolio which some of you will know from his website: www.dragonflydesignsuk.co.uk. One of his best jobs came courtesy of my mother who had seen his planting schemes - I’ll hand you over to Paul to describe what he did next. When we first moved to Kent in June 2011, one of my first jobs was to transform a large L-shaped raised bed (25M x 2.5 M) at the front of Jackie’s Mum’s house, which we had moved into. The existing bed contained around a dozen large conifers, a few heathers and some struggling alpines. The conifers were sucking up all the moisture from the soil and were also shading out the few plants clinging to

43 survival. In amongst the conifers and plants were many variously sized lumps of ragstone, which is a Kent limestone. A plan was hatched to create a large raised bed rock garden. This was a huge project which involved tree surgery contractors and a man with a JCB! All of the old soil was removed, along with the stumps of the conifers and 20 tonnes of a new topsoil/sand/compost mix was delivered along with 6 tonnes of 6mm limestone chippings. Almost two years on the alpine bed has been a great success and losses have been minimal. There are over two hundred different alpine plants and around 670 bulbs. Following on from this project, I also created another raised bed at the house along with an alpine crevice garden. This work took me up to the end of autumn but unfortunately it was difficult picking up further work despite the aforementioned advertising. It was going to be a long winter! Spring 2012 bought some new clients, including a full rear garden redesign for a couple who lived in a village in the North Downs. This turned out to be a very large project that amounted to around twelve weeks work. During the summer of 2012 I picked up further new clients and quite a lot of maintenance work. Growing plants and visiting plant fairs and shows also added to the income for Dragonfly Designs. However 2012 was a less than vintage year for weather, and the cool and wet summer definitely impacted upon people’s desire for gardening and plants. My final project of the year was a garden pond restoration to replace a leaking pond liner and to revamp the pond. This was completed just in time for Christmas, despite plummeting temperatures! Since January 2013, Dragonfly Designs has taken a back seat and I have taken on full-time employment with Groundwork UK as a Green Doctor Advisor. Given the enduring winter and extended chill (coldest March for 50 years), it was an essential move on my part, yet I hope to become part -time in the near future, so that I can continue to develop Dragonfly Designs. In conjunction with the Kent Alpine Garden Society group, I will be attending the Kent Garden Show at the end of May 2013 and with a footfall of 30,000 people this should hopefully bring some garden design business my way. July also brings the opportunity for me to achieve one of my lifetime ambitions, with a visit to Switzerland to see alpine plants growing in their natural environment in the Alps. Two of our best friends Rob and Katie Mills are living and working in Lausanne and we are very excited about visiting them! September brings another trip overseas on a joint holiday/research mission to south west France! 2013 is going to be a very busy year indeed. The future… After a year or so of clinging on financially in the face of a deepening recession, we have now reached a point where we are both earning well and able to save. We are still living at my Mum’s so costs are low for the time being and we

44 have hatched a plan. We went round and round in circles trying to work out how we were going to afford to have the sort of business that we so wanted. Many of you would have listened to us chewing over our ideas. We definitely wanted something that would combine our natural talents with our love of all things plants and environment. It also needed to be green, sustainable and of course keep us in pocket money! We visited some areas in the UK where we might think of moving to next but land and property is so expensive that we realised we could never achieve our dream of an eco smallholding/plant nursery/display garden anywhere in the UK (with a reasonable climate). A chance meeting at Ranscombe with a walker set my mind racing. Part of my job there is to talk to people, find out what they do there and what they like at the site, and as I chatted with this chap, it transpired that he was just passing through and had looked up somewhere in the area to go for a long walk to relieve the stress of driving to see his relatives. It turned out he had driven up from France where he had lived for 20 years. He lived in south west France and couldn’t speak more highly of the area near the Dordogne where the pace of life was slow, the weather (largely) benign, and generally the quality of life unsurpassed. It set us on a journey to look at France as a place where we could afford to do what we wanted. We did lots of research, spent two days at the France Show talking to estate agents, expats and small businesses based in France and became more and more convinced that this was a real option. So after lots of consideration (and an awful lot more research and business planning still to do) we are convinced that this is where we could find a niche for ourselves. We discovered that France still has good value farmsteads with acres of land, in areas on good tourist paths with fantastic transport links and the whole green movement yet to be explored! Our idea so far consists of buying a small farmhouse with a few acres of land, possibly with outbuildings for conversion that we can turn into ‘eco-gites’. To help keep a steady income, we will rent these out to holidaymakers. We plan to develop the site as a showcase garden for Paul’s talents as a landscaper with an emphasis on ‘green gardening’. In addition we will look to develop courses so that people can come to visit and learn about gardening for wildlife/growing their own etc. We would like to look at offering themed holidays, perhaps with WWOOFing opportunities and even a small scale plant nursery. Watch this space! Lots of love to all our friends at Treborth. Jackie Read and Paul Lewis, former Volunteers

45 Moelyci Fruit Field

The Fruit Field at Moelyci is a polyculture land use system designed to provide multiple benefits for the farm. It is an adaptation of the Agroforestry systems which are widely used in the tropics. In these cases, a widely spaced tree component is intercropped with food crops. The trees can stabilise soils prone to erosion and provide fuel. The food crops provide income and lessen the pressure to fell undisturbed forests. In the case of Moelyci, the tree component has been replaced with soft fruit bushes to provide income. The food intercrop has been replaced by seed crops for overwintering birds which is supported by the Welsh government’s agrienvironmental scheme Tir Gofal. The problems inherent in temperate agroforestry systems (and forest gardens) of light and water competition, which are not limiting factors in tropical systems, are avoided by the relatively uncompetitive nature of the soft fruit canopy and root system, when compared with tree component of traditional agroforestry systems. The seed crops are supported in Wales as there is little cereal farming in the country now, and where it does occur, the seed-rich stubbles are ploughed in the autumn. The system seems to have produced some positive results, despite no presystem data gathering due to the lack of resources at the time. Our environmental manager has been impressed with the range of bird species present on the site over the past couple of years. There has been marked small mammal activity within the fruit rows which has attracted a range of raptors. This would not be the case in a monoculture seed crop. The lack of baseline data makes it impossible to quantify how successful the system has been over its monoculture alternatives. A small wish would be to find the funding for a site where we could collect baseline environmental data at Moelyci or locally, possibly replicate this at a number of sites across Wales or the UK, put the the system into place, monitor the environmental changes over a five year period, publish the results and disseminate them in both popular and academic literature. Despite this lack of data to prove our point, we feel we have created a system which is providing both environmental and economic benefits. This was severely tested last year by the atrocious weather. Not only were our berry crops virtually wiped out by the weather at harvest time, our normally bombproof currant crops were devastated at flowering time by the lack of pollinators and as a consequence yields were down by about ninety percent. Despite these problems, hope returns as winter turns to spring, and one sets out on another season of seed sowing and planting. Can 2013 be any worse than 2012? A hive of bees is due to arrive at the end of March to help ameliorate

46 last year’s pollination problems. We have a long-term contract with Lush to supply them with soft fruit for their toiletries, and juice and jam-making are also feasible with some excellent local facilities. So what would we like from you good people at Treborth? Please tell all your family, friends and contacts about us. We will be open for business when summer occurs. This has ranged from mid-June in 2011, the second week of July in 2012 and 2010. You can buy the fruit at the Moelyci shop (which also sells our organically grown vegetables), come to the field and pick your own (while admiring the splendid views) or order through the Bangor fruit co-operative held at Maes Glas on Friday afternoons. Our range of fruit is fairly compehensive and tasty. We have a hardy variety of Scottish strawberry in addition to the traditional Cambridge Favourite, the newer Korona and a variety of unknown provenance from the Moelyci allotments which is large and luscious. These are complemented on the berry front by loganberries (high pectin jam-makers) and the less productive tayberries which produce a glistening fruit that is good for cake decoration. There are some gooseberries (Hinnomaki red) and a developing couple of rows of blueberries. My personal favourites are the currants, due to their taste and weather resistance. The blackcurrants are Ben Lomond which I have watched children eating raw due to their inherent sweetness. I have fond memories of redcurrants as a child and the early season Jonnekar van Tets are now maturing nicely. The newer main season Rovada should also produce well this year. Our plantings from two years ago should finally produce a crop of Zitavia whitecurrants which I have heard described as champagne on a plate. In four years of pick-your-own, prices have been held at £1.50/250g for berries and £1.80/250g for currants. Given the economic recession and difficult financial circumstances facing many, I see no reason to inrease prices. We are a community resource and should be financially accesible to all. We look forward to seeing you in what will be a few short weeks after this newsletter appears.

Rob Willis, Moelyci

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48 Greenwood Gates / Giatiau Glasgoed

Rustic gates, fencing and furniture Hand made to order from local, sustainably sourced hardwoods Giatiau, ffensiau a ddodrefn rystig Eu gwneud i archeb, â llaw, allan o brennau caled lleol a chynaliadwy

www.robstarbuck.co.uk 07969 689284

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