We associate fungi with autumn, but early spring has some too, especially jelly-fungi, named from their jelly-like texture, and cup-fungi, which are shaped like little ‘fairy bowls’. On a walk on February 22nd we found the bright red Scarlet Elf-cup growing at ground level on mossy twigs, and also a bright yellow jellyfungus called Yellow Brain. This one grows on twigs too, but it feeds not on rotten wood but on another fungus, called Rosy Crust (yes, it’s a crust, and its rosy-coloured). All three seem to be quite common in the hazel woods up on the downs.
My first butterfly sighting of the year was on 19th February, and as usual it was a bright yellow male Brimstone. These are in surprisingly fresh condition, considering that the butterfly is already six months old and has spent the winter asleep among dense ivy. I saw my first bumblebee a few days earlier, a queen bufftail. Frogs were spawning early in the village by late February, though I have yet to see any spawn in my ditch.
Here's a puzzle. Hazel produces two kinds of flowers, the familiar yellow lamb’s-tail catkins, which are male and pollen-producing, and the much less conspicuous female flowers which look a bit like little red spiders emerging from a bud. The puzzle is that while the male catkins are out in January, most female flowers open weeks later, and there are fewer of them. The reason seems to be that, although hazel is mainly windpollinated, it is also visited by bees for the pollen. But there are no bees about in mid-winter, and so hazel preserves some of its pollen for later, when more bees are about. That’s probably why the female flower is bright red: to advertise their presence for bees which doubtless get a sugary reward for their trouble.
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