Tag: adventures in time and space

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The Queen of May

May Day is gathered together in Nowhere Wood. The guests are all assembled, having arrived in timely order, ready for the magical day.

First to arrive was the wild garlic, clean and green with the freshness of a memory of good times around the family table.

Wild garlic in Nowhere Wood [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Then the first bluebell opened up to the sky, followed by the others, forming a coloured haze beneath the trees, daring the sky to lose its heavy April clouds to show its true May colours.

A haze of bluebells in Nowhere Wood [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Then the big oaks open their leaves, delicate and shimmering in the sunshine, before they darken and spread a curtain over the wood.

Fresh unfolding oak leaves, translucent in the sunshine. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Oceans of cow parsley flow over the floor of the cleared wood, where tall, sickly, ash trees once stood. This is the First of May, celebrating new starts and the freedom to enjoy the light.

And, finally, the Queen of May, the Hawthorn, blooming proudly here and across the Park.

The hawthorn in May [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Hers is the glory, the scent and the crisp whiteness. Entwined together, the branches strengthen their appeal and magic.

Once in this place, the villagers would plait her blossoms into a crown and choose the fairest maid to be their Queen of the May. This is not a crown of thorns: today it is a crown of promise.

A hawthorn crown [Image by AI]

Then, the village children would dance and twist their maypole ribbons to form a perfect spiral of red and white. This was one day when they could leave the chalky gloom of their school rooms and breathe.

Maypole dancing in Bedfordshire, [Photograph: geograph.org.uk – 3445844.jpg, Creative Commons license]

In the engine room of wood, it is just another working day, the animals are busy with family business, since being and becoming is a lifetime’s quest: nests need to be built up, offspring fed and protected from danger. The real magic is that it all works: the dance of the DNA spiral that continues year after year, in a stately and predictable procession.

But perhaps, the wood also senses that today is a special day.

Happy May Day!

  1. Why do you think it is an advantage for small plants living on the floor of the wood (like bluebells) to flower early, before the tall trees get their new leaves?
  2. Why do you think celebrating May Day was important part of village life in Nowhere?

 

Notes on the story

Being and becoming in Nowhere Wood

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The story of bluebells

Bluebells at Portishead headland.
Bluebells at Goblin Combe [Photograph: Pat Gilbert, Friends of Trendlewood Park]
If primroses and cowslips are our favourite flowers of early Spring, then it is the bluebells that steal our hearts in early Summer. On a sunny day, they dust the floor of the wood in a blue mist.

Many poets have written in wonder of them. Alfred, Lord Tennyson may have walked the bluebell woods above nearby Clevedon Court with his friend Arthur Hallam. Tennyson compared a carpet of bluebells to “the blue sky, breaking up through the earth”.

Bluebells are important plants in woods. About 50% of the world’s population of English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is found in the United Kingdom. This is largely due to the UK’s relatively mild climate and our widespread ancient woodlands, where bluebells thrive.

But all is not as it seems, because the English bluebell is threatened by a rival Spanish bluebell, (Hyacinthoides hispanica), which was introduced in the 17th and 18th Centuries into formal gardens in large country houses.

English bluebell in Nowhere Wood.
English bluebell in Nowhere Wood. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]
 The flowers of English bluebells are deep violet-blue,  bell-shaped tubes with petals that roll upwards.  They are found mostly on one side of a curving stem, so that the flowers droop downwards. Often they have a strong sweet scent.

Spanish bluebell in Nowhere Wood.
Spanish bluebell in Nowhere Wood. [Photograph: Neill Ingram]
The rival Spanish bluebell has paler flowers that are found all round the stem, not just on one side. The petals are not as curved back as the English bluebell. The stems are thicker and more upright and the leaves are much broader than the English bluebell.

Spanish bluebells
Spanish bluebells. [photograph: Neil Ingram, Nowhere Wood]
These two species are closely related and can breed together to produce plants that can breed with each other and with both parents. These are the hybrids. So, what we find is that in  most English woods we get a range of bluebells, some of which resemble the English and Spanish types as well as many plants that have characteristics of both types.

Recent research suggests that most of the bluebells in UK woods are hybrids and the pure English forms are restricted to very old woodlands that have little human interference. Certainly the ones bought from garden centres are probably hybrids.

However, the good news is that the English bluebell is thriving in these remote woodlands and is likely to survive, as long  as we leave them alone!

  1. Does it matter if the traditional population of English bluebells is gradually replaced by a hybrid form of English-Spanish bluebell. What do you think?

 

Notes on the story

A tale of two butterflies