Goat's-rue

Goat’s-rue (Galega officinalis) is widely found on damp and waste ground in Great Britain. The alternative name of French lilac comes from the belief that the plant was introduced from France as an ornamental flowering plant but then escaped into the wild. Its origins actually lie in eastern and southern Europe, where it is grown as a fodder crop. 

It is often seen in derelict gardens where it swamps smaller plants and forms big bushy domes covered with white or lilac flowers. 

Goat’s-rue is an upright bushy plant that grows to between 24 and 57 inches (60-145 cm) in height. 

The leaves comprise stems with 4 to 12 pairs of leaflets with a single leaflet at the tip. In June and July the flowers appear, these being on upright spikes and lilac, pale pink or white in colour. The petals have a narrow, elongated base. 

The pods of the fruiting head are about one inch long, straight and smoothly rounded. There are several seeds to each pod.

© John Welford

We're just like ants!

John Lubbock was a naturalist who was at work during the late 19th century.

He undertook a special study of ants, and during one of his experiments he intoxicated some of them with alcohol and waited to see how their group behaviour was affected when the ants were at a distance from their nest. He noticed that if the drunk ants were from the same nest as the sober ones, the latter would help the former to get home safely. However, if a "stranger" ant came across a drunk ant it would be quite likely to push it into the nearest ditch!

Are humans any better in their behaviour?

© John Welford

Common bird's-foot-trefoil

Common bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is found in all parts of the British Isles in pastures, dry grasslands and on roadsides.

It has many alternative names, including “God Almighty’s thumb and finger”, “crow-toes” and “lady’s shoes and stockings” – indeed more than 70 folk names have been recorded for this plant, most of them referring to specific features of its appearance, such as the shoe-like flowers and the seed pods that resemble fingers or claws. The official name also refers to the pod shape and the division of the leaves into three leaflets, although there are also two other leaflets that grow close to the stem.

Common bird’s-foot-trefoil grows to a height of between 4 and 16 inches (10-40 cm). The upright stems grow from a solid woody stem that trails along the ground. The plant flowers from June to September.

The yellow flowers sometimes have red flushes or streaks that give rise to another of the 70 folk names, “bacon and eggs”. Butterflies are attracted to the flowers for nectar, but it is heavier insects such as bees and wasps that are responsible for pollination. Their weight forces pollen to be deposited on their bodies by the flower’s stamen and for pollen from a visit to another flower to be gathered by the stigma.

The butterflies mentioned above may well be those of the green hairstreak and dingy skipper, for both of which the common bird’s-foot-trefoil is a food plant for their caterpillars.

When the seed pods are ripe they twist and split – looking particularly claw-like – to release their seeds, several to each pod.

© John Welford

Baobab trees in trouble

Baobabs are remarkable trees. There are nine species of baobab, most of which are found in arid areas of southern Africa and Madagascar. The typical baobab has a thick truck that only supports branches high off the ground, which can make a baobab look like a fat man waving his arms in the air.

This feature may be one reason why village communities have high regard for their baobab trees – a belief that a baobab contains the spirit of a remote ancestor or is some sort of “guardian angel” – but there are more practical reasons for revering a baobab. This is that the tree has a remarkable capacity for storing water, each one holding thousands of gallons in its swollen trunk that can be tapped in times of drought. It also has edible leaves and fruit and the fibres from its bark and roots can be used to make ropes and clothes. Several bird species regularly nest in baobabs.

Baobabs are extremely long-lived, with some known to be more than 2000 years old.

However, Africa’s baobabs are in trouble. Many trees have died in recent years, some of them suddenly and with little warning. This has included not only ancient trees but others that are much younger. Disease outbreaks have been blamed in some areas, but that cannot be the whole story because many deaths have been of trees that were otherwise perfectly healthy.

The prime cause appears to be climate change, because what baobabs depend on is stability in terms of temperature, rainfall, etc, and recent changes in weather patterns, with more intense droughts and floods, have interrupted that stability.

The natural regeneration of baobabs in southern Africa involves elephants which eat the fruit and deposit seeds in their droppings, which provide an immediate source of fertilizer as the seeds germinate. However, there are now far fewer elephants in these regions than there once were, especially outside official nature reserves.

The good news is that baobabs grow fast and artificial plantings of saplings, if properly tended, could develop into mature trees relatively quickly. The long-term survival of the baobab does, however, depend on mankind being able to get climate change under control.

© John Welford

Horseshoe vetch

Horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) is commonly found on downland turf, favouring chalky or limestone soils. It is widespread in all parts of Great Britain except the far north.

The woody rootstock produces many trailing stems that turn up to produce the flower-heads (from May to August). It grows from 4 to 16 inches high (10-40 cms). Each leaf has two rows of leaflets with a terminal singleton.

The yellow flowers have evolved a subtle means of ensuring the production of fertile seed. The most common pollinators are heavy insects such as bumble and honey bees. The petals are so shaped that when a bee lands on the lower petal the stamens force a string of pollen through a hole at the end of the petal and onto the bee. At the same time the stigma touches the underside of the bee where there may be pollen gathered from visiting another flower.

The ripe pods break up into three to six horseshoe-shaped segments, thus giving the plant both its familiar and botanical name – hippocrepis is Greek for horseshoe.

© John Welford

Oceanic whitetip shark

The oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) is one of several species of shark that are on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as being under threat in the wild. This particular species is listed as “vulnerable”, which is one step below “endangered” but is reserved for species that are still regarded as being at high risk of extinction in the foreseeable future.

The oceanic whitetip is a medium-sized shark that is generally around three metres (9.8 feet) long. It weighs around 170 kilograms (370 pounds). The most distinctive feature of the species is its fins, both dorsal and pectoral, that are rounded and are considerably larger than those of other shark species. The fins and nose have white tips (hence the shark’s name) and the underside is also white.

The oceanic whitetip is found in the tropical and subtropical zones of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. It does not often come close to shore, preferring to stay in the open ocean where it preys on fish such as tuna, barracuda and mackerel, as well as cephalopods (e.g. squid and octopus), turtles and crustaceans. Oceanic whitetips are usually solitary, but groups will gather when a large amount of food is available and they may form feeding frenzies.

Oceanic whitetips can be dangerous to humans under certain circumstances, such as after a disaster at sea. It is believed that up to 600 of the sailors lost when USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in 1945 were killed by oceanic whitetip sharks.

Decline in numbers

Oceanic whitetips have seen a severe decline in numbers in recent years, although the exact rate of decline is not easy to measure given the shark’s migratory behaviour as it follows food sources across large distances of ocean. However, some estimates put the decline at around 70% over the past 50 years.

A major reason for numbers falling has been over-fishing in certain areas, given that the fins of the oceanic whitetip are used to make shark fin soup, which is a highly prized delicacy in parts of Asia. Many have also been lost due to being caught by nets that were set to catch shoals of fish that the sharks were following.

Although the oceanic whitetip has been declared to be a vulnerable species in general terms, it has been classed as critically endangered (the final stage before “extinct” in the IUCN scale) in areas of the central Atlantic Ocean, due almost entirely to losses from “by-catch” in tuna fishing nets. There is therefore considerable pressure on the fishing industry to adopt fishing methods that are less harmful to oceanic whitetips and other shark species.

© John Welford

Hare's-foot clover

Hare’s-foot clover (Trifolium arvense) grows in dry, grassy places throughout Great Britain. It prefers sandy soils and is often found near the sea. The name “arvense” means “of arable land”, which suggests a somewhat different habitat – this is true in other European countries, Asia and North Africa, but in Britain hare’s-foot clover has largely been cleared from farmland.

It is an upright plant that grows about 4-8 inches (10-20 cms) tall.

The leaves are divided into three leaflets. The name clover comes from the Latin “clava”, meaning club, and it is thought that clover was so named because the leaf shape resembled the three-lobed club supposedly carried by Hercules. This is also the reason why the club symbol on playing cards has three lobes, although the leaflets on hare’s-foot clover are much more pointed than on playing card clubs.

Hare’s-foot clover flowers from June to September. The tiny flowers are borne in cylindrical heads up to one inch (2.5 cms) long, on stalks that are longer than the leaves. The flowers are cream in colour with a pink tinge caused by the reddish pointed teeth of the sepals. The soft, downy flowerheads are the reason why the name hare’s-foot was given to this particular clover. An alternative name is rabbit’s-foot clover.

© John Welford