8th September 2011

The moth trap is working again! Unfortunately, a couple of wild, wet and windy nights have reduced moth numbers to a handful with just a few Large Yellow Underwings, a Svenssons Copper Underwing and a Heart and Dart. Walking round campus you notice that it has been a good year for tree fruits; the oaks in particular have a lot of acorns.
This one is our English or Pedunculate Oak. English because it is the tree that would once have covered much of lowland England. Pedunculate because of the long stalk or peduncle that attaches the acorn to the branch - looks like an old clay pipe. The other thing you notice is that the leaf has little or no stalk.

This is the Sessile Oak - the oak that is found on more upland areas - the Welsh hillsides for example. The acorns here have no stalks hence the name Sessile which means stalkless. Also, you can see that the leaves have a distinct stalk unlike the English Oak.


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