WILDMONTH

Golden leaves, delicate fungi and migrant wildfowl in all their finery – it’s time to embrace autumn.

- Ben Hoare

1 | SILVER BIRCH

Lady of the woods

Among our native trees, the silver birch puts on one of the most spectacular autumn displays. Golden leaves provide a beautiful contrast with pale, peeling bark, enhanced by the dappled effect created by the tree’s naturally open and airy structure. In a breeze, the burnished foliage dances and shimmers. Birch was known as the ‘lady of the woods’ in Irish Gaelic poetry, and more recently, in Coleridge’s romantic poems.

This isn’t a large or long-lived tree. Many birches don’t see out a century; some will already show signs of rot and decay in their sixth decade. Their importance to the landscape comes not through longevity, but as environmental pioneers: birch saplings are often the first trees to colonise open areas. In the distant past, birch forest sprang up across the British Isles as the ice sheets retreated. Nowadays, this pioneering role is reprised as birches quickly take advantage of new road verges, railway cuttings and brownfield sites. They also march up hillsides, taking over from other trees as the ground gets steeper and more exposed – and were it not for the browsing of sheep would grow higher still.

In autumn, the branches of birch trees are full of dark red mature female catkins packed with tiny seeds. These attract roving flocks of finches, especially redpolls and siskins.

2 | BALLERINA WAXCAP

Pretty in pink