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THE FRIENDS OF TREBORTH BOTANIC GARDEN CYFEILLION GARDD FOTANEG TREBORTH NEWSLETTER CYLCHLYTHYR Number / Rhif 64 January/Ionawr 2019 Fig. 1. Smaller bee boles with small straw skep [p. 5]. Fig 2. Ulva intestinalis on the shore of Treborth Botanic Garden [p. 15] 2 COMMITTEE Sarah Edgar ([email protected]) Chair Angela Thompson ([email protected]) Vice Chair, Joint Membership Sec Cath Dixon Treasurer Natalie Chivers ([email protected]) Curator Rosie Kressman ([email protected]) Horticulturist Cherry Bartlett ([email protected]) Events Secretary Teri Shaw Joint Membership Sec Dr John Gorham Committee Member Dr David Shaw Committee Member Tom Cockbill Committee Member Dr Ann Illsley Committee Member Dr James Stroud Committee Member Jen Towill Committee Member Tom Morrisey STAG Representative Newsletter Team John Gorham (layout, photos) Grace Gibson (adverts, articles) Angela Thompson email as above (commissioning articles, planning, editing) Cover Photos: Front:: Treborth trees in Winter [p. 13] © Rosie Kressman Back: (top) Llyn Clywedog panorama [p. 11] © Jon Keymer (bottom) Panorama in Torres del Paine, Chile [p. 24] © Richard Birch Unless otherwise stated, all contributions to the newsletter are copyright of the author. For more information about The Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, please visit our website: www.friendsoftreborthbotanicgarden.org or write to: The Chair, Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, Treborth, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2RQ, UK Issue No. 64 January 2019 Contents Chair’s Introduction, January 2019 3 Curator’s Report: September— December 2018 6 A day in the Life of a Treborth Volunteer Gardener 8 Ornamental Plants: Our Future Invaders? 9 A Tour de Wales 11 Surviving Winter…...In the Garden 13 The Marine Botany of the Shoreline at Treborth Botanic Garden 15 Two European Gardens: Puerto de la Cruz Botanic Gardens (Tenerife) And Vallon du Stang Alar, Brest (Brittany) 17 An Update on the Life and Story of Your Slug-Obsessed 2016 Intern 23 Into Chile: A Journey in Two Parts—Part 2 24 The Tea Horse Road 28 New Zealand: Bike, Boots, Beeches and Beaches 35 If possible, please access the online version of the Newsletter to save paper and printing costs, and tell Angela Thompson ([email protected]) that you do not require a printed copy. 2 Chair’s Introduction, January 2019 Sarah Edgar We make no apologies for taking you away from north Wales for a while with this newsletter. Our members have been travelling the world (including Wales) in 2018: from China to Chile, from Tenerife to Tenby, and from Brittany to the Blue Lake in New Zealand. They share their botanising, birding and other adventures with you. Jen Towill writes about cycling and walking in the South Island of New Zealand a year ago where she experienced beautiful woodlands, stunning views – and sand flies. Richard Birch continues his travels in Chile, this time in the far south; amongst the many interesting plants he saw there was the Magellanic sedge, which I was fascinated to learn has managed to get itself (unaided by human intervention) over here to the Migneint. You will have heard about the Silk Road, but were you aware of the Tea Horse Road from China to Tibet and then to India? John Gorham writes about the history of this trade route and his travels there. Nearer to home, you will be tempt- ed to visit the gardens of Tenerife and Brest after reading Angela Thompson’s arti- cle. You may also be tempted to get out your bicycle next summer and follow Jon Keymer’s route through Wales down to Llanelli (or perhaps, like me, you will be happy just to read about it – there really is no way to avoid those mountains!). For news of what is going on at Treborth, read Natalie Chivers’ report about the many events - and challenging weather conditions - that have been occurring in the Garden. Rosie Kressman explains how Treborth plants demonstrate adaptabil- ity to their environment. And what do our volunteers do in the Garden? See Chris Howard’s article to find out what she gets up to on a Wednesday. One of the many pleasures about coming to Treborth is meeting the stu- dents who are carrying out research work, and also hearing about how they are taking their interests on to further research elsewhere. Kerry McDonald did a pro- ject at Treborth about the control of slugs (a subject close to many of our hearts) through parasites and is now starting a PhD in Liverpool John Moores University on that subject. Tomos Jones has worked at Treborth for several years, where of course he was looking after many non-native species, and he is now doing a PhD at Reading University on how increased temperatures could turn what are currently well-behaved non-native species into invasive weeds. Treborth is fortunate in hav- ing a marine boundary, and if you have ever ventured down to the shoreline you will have seen the variety of seaweeds there, and you can read about these in the report of the survey work undertaken by Beth Scrutton and David Cheshire-Beeson. 3 Finally, please can I make an appeal to anyone who has a bit of greenhouse space, or a good bright window-sill, to grow a few plants for our plant sales? One of our growers is not able to do it next year, and, even with the new poly tunnel we do not have the space at Treborth to grow the range of seedlings, particularly vegeta- bles, that are such an important feature of our plant sales. We will provide all the seeds, compost, pots etc, and advice, if you need it, on how to sow and look after them. If you want to offer, or just have a (no commitment) chat about what it in- volves, please contact us. News in Brief Donations The following people have very generously donated funds to the Friends for the benefit of the Garden: Jenny Rickards and John Evans (£528 from plant sales at NGS Open Day July 18), Diana Boaler, Helen Hughes, Hazel Cave, Brian Ayers, John and Sian Turner, Marga- ret Walton, Tim Clark, Barrie Buels, Jane Rees, Sheila Hargreaves, Mr and Mrs M Stammers, and David Hill and Vanessa Griffiths. Natural Plant Dyes, Lichens and Yeasts (with thanks to Hilary Miller) Many plant-derived natural dyes (from roots, berries, bark, leaves, wood and other biological sources such as fungi) have been used to colour wool, cotton and other textiles for centuries – many shades of red, orange, yellow, brown, blue, purple and green are possible. Synthetic dyes were not developed until the mid-19th century. Many people today still utilise these natural dyes in traditional processes, and the Gwynedd Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers organises workshops at Treborth on their use. Some lichens are also used in dyeing. A lichen is not a single organism; it is composed of a single type of fungus, usually belonging to the Ascomycetes group, and algae and/or cyanobacteria living together for mutual benefit. Yeasts are also fungi, usually of the Basidiomycetes group, and they have, for the first time, recent- ly been found in some large leafy and branching ascomycete lichens, but their pres- ence there is not obvious. Natural dyes do not always produce the expected colour, and in the case of lichens that may contain yeasts, does this help to explain the different dyeing properties of lichens that look the same but are in fact biologically different? Perhaps the ‘wrong’ type has been collected… 4 Bee Boles (continued…) Following the article in the September 18 issue of the newsletter about the bee boles at Adlington Hall, Friends of Treborth, Fred and Alison Whowell, got in touch with Treborth to tell us about the 2 sets of bee boles in the walls of their old farm- house. I contacted Fred and went to have a look. Their house is on the outskirts of Bangor and was built in the mid-1700s. One set of boles are about 2.5 m from ground level in an old wall that was possibly once an exterior wall to an out-building (Figure 3). There are 5 of them, each about 30 cm². The 3 boles in the other row were smaller and built into an old external wall near the house about 1 m from the ground; one contained a very small traditional straw skep (Figure 1). A rather nice touch, I thought… Fred Whowell Since writing my small piece on the bee boles at Fred’s farmhouse, Nigel Brown has informed us that Fred sadly died at the age of 91 early in December. He and his wife Alison had been long-time members of the Friends and were very supportive when the Garden was seriously under threat in the past. We send our sincere con- dolences to Alison and the family. Owing to printing deadlines, we are unable to provide more details in this issue of the newsletter but Nigel plans to write an appreciation of Fred's support for Treborth in the May 2019 issue. Angela Thompson Fig. 3. Larger bee boles at the Whowell farmhouse. [p. 5]. 5 Curator’s Report: September – December 2018 Natalie Chivers As the year draws to a close, I am grateful for the resilience of the Garden. I am writing this as the wind is whistling through the building and the leaves are swirling around in a vortex, fighting to get through the door. We have battled gale-force winds that have torn through the greenhouses, enjoyed an indoor swimming pool for a week that erupted on the lab floor, and transformed the little, green truck into a fire engine to water the borders during the summer drought.