Helictotrichon pubescens - Downy Oat-grass

Grass of the Month for May 2011                


Downy Oat-grass is one of my favourite grasses

• It flowers early in the year, in early May - two weeks before its relative, Meadow Oat-grass
• It has big shiny spikelets
• It is easy to identify vegetatively because it is one of only two "ordinary" medium/large grasses which have newest leaf folded and have hairy leaves.
• The other grass is Bromopsis erecta - but Bromopsis has long tapering points to the blades, whereas Helictotrichon has parallel sided blades with blunt, hooded (boat shaped) tips
• Its leaves feel soft and downy
• The base of the blade is as wider or wider than the middle of the blade
• It grows on base rich soils so can be found with other interesting plants
• the vegetative shoots can have red stripes on their shoots a little like Holcus - but Helictotrichon has folded leaves.

The other "ordinary grass" with folded leaves is Upright brome - Bromopsis erecta. Helictotrichon has very blunt  leaf tips - shown here - whereas Bromopsis has very gently tapering leaves.

Helictotrichon vegetative leaves have short ligule (shown at top) -but the culm leaves have longer ligules as you go up the stem.

Helictotrichon pubescens has two or three florets per spikelet, hence two or three awns per spikelet.
Helictotrochon pratense has three to six florets per spikelet.  This is very helpful except when you find a plant with three florets per spikelet.

(for links to other grasses through 2010 and 2011 see Grasses Page)

Hordelymus europaeus - Wood Barley

Grass of the Month for April

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This is a rare woodland grass. ( BSBI Map )

Hordelymus euroapeaus has vegetative features very similar to Bromopsis ramosa (Hairy Brome) i.e.

1. Tufted
2. Grows in basic woods
3. Hairy - long hairs
4. Dark green
5. Blades widest in the middle (as for nearly all woodland grasses)
6. Big auricles

(These are distinguishable from the other big inland grasses with auricles:-  Couch grass - which has rhizomes,  and Wall Barley which has very big clasping auricles and the blades are very floppy, and it is an annual)

In the pictures below where there are two grasses, the Hordelymus is on the left of the picture and the Bromopsis on the right.

Vegetave differences include:

1. Hordelymus has a ligule < 1mm long, Bomopsis usually > 2mm
2. Hordelymus auricles are more horizontal and clasping, brompsis point more downwards at 45 degrees
3. The collar edges "pull back2 and stick out more in Hordelymus, perhaps resulting in the more horizontal auricles
4. The hairs on the Bromopsis blade edge and sheath are very regular and parallel to each other, they are more untidy on the Horelymus
   
5. Bromopsis has deep red colour in the basal sheaths, whereas Hordelymus is pale brown.

Hordelymus on left of picture, Bromopsis on right

The short ligule and auricles on Hordelymus europaeus

£1 a day for food

So how is my living off £1-00 a day for food going?
http://www.livebelowtheline.org.uk/
Here is the food I bought for five days:-

2   500g bag lentils at £1-00 each
1  750g packet quick oat porridge at 95p
1   2.5 kilo packet potatoes at £1-00
portion of butter                         £0.30
2 tblspoons brown sugar             0.10
portion of salt                             0.10
1/20th bottle Cool Earth coffee    0.15
portion of nutmeg                        0.10
portion of barbecue flavouring       .10
1/2 a fudge bar given to me            .15
2 cups of tea given to me  friends   .10
1 slice white bread given                .10
Total: -                                        £5-15 - (but I will have some oats left over and maybe some potatoes)

Good Points:


I find I am saving time by not nipping down to the Coop garage or Booths in the evening to see if there are any bargains for sale.

There is much less washing up than usual.

I abandoned using the nutmeg flavouring for the porridge after the first day - I didn't like it.

The butter and the salt even though in small quantities make the microwaved potatoes delicious.

The barbecue flavouring was good but finished quickly.

I still haven't been out to collect leaves of ground elder to boil.. I really ought to....

I quite enjoy the "homeopathic" coffee - about 8 grains of coffee per mug of hot water.

Bad points:-

I did not wash the lentils as was written on the package the first two days. and although I scrub the potatoes I wonder if there are chemicals left on them - they are not organic. - If I had this diet for four weeks on the go I would wonder if I was getting pesticide chemicals from the food and would be be missing my "Five veg" a day, and wonder about my calcium intake.

Spring Plants

I went for a walk/jog beside the River Ribble down to the Locks and up to Stainforth Foss. there is some hawthorn coming out below my house, but above it it is still on bud or just about to burst through. In the field over the river the cows have hammered the Ladies Smock but left the vegetation on the steep riverbank and also next to the wood where the white wild garlic is spilling though and growing well in the grass of the field. There is Greater Stitchwort on the bank in the field to the south.

At Stainforth Foss and just south of it there are lots of bluebells in the grass - Maybe the drought is holding up the grass, and the bluebells show better.  The water level in the river is ever so low. There are minnows in the river. Children from the caravan club are pond dipping.  Town Hall clock grows on the roadside going up from the packhorse bridge.

As I return through the field above the main road towards the Hoffman Kiln I note that the Ash trees are still almost as bare as in winter - the leaves are just beginning to show on some trees - whilst the sycamore is fully out.  the black plastic bags of silage which were dumped there about twenty years ago are still there.

There is a laburnum tree in full yellow flower near the exit to the kiln area.

The Royal Wedding - William and Catherine

Every Newspaper has featured the royal wedding - so here is this blog editor's contribution.

 Settle got bedecked ready to have a street party on the Friday- but I would be en route to Box Hill on the wedding day, ready for my Grasses course. Here are two pictures of Settle on the day before.





I caught the 7.30 train from Settle, noting that the Hawthorn was not out in Settle, was coming out in Skipton and going south of Leeds was fully out.

On the tube from Kings Cross to Victoria  they announced at the station before Green Park that "Green Park" was closed because it was full so anyone wishing to see the wedding should get out now and go to Embankment. .. my geography and knowledge of London is not good, so I stayed on to Victoria. Here I surfaced and made my way past cordons and police towards Buckingham Palace - well, the back of Buckingham Palace, along with hundreds of others to mill around, knowing there was no way we could get to the front where the royal pair would be going after their service.

A Spanish lady interviewer was being filmed interviewing any group she could find who would speak Spanish so I photographed people photographing the cameraman filming her.  People were wearing Catherine and William masks. A young man in shorts with an eastern European accent was selling cake stands that would fold up and go in a box.

Suddenly two horses and a carriage came out of the back gates of the palace with smartly dressed riders, followed by more empty carriages and beautiful horses.

So we were rewarded! we had seen something. 

Settle sparkles with blue and red bunting for the wedding.

Today is very sunny. Settle market place is looking great with the blue red and white union jack bunting out.

More Early Flowering Grasses and Flowers

Tomorrow I am travelling by train down to Juniper Hall near Box Hill to teach a Grasses Identification Weekend.

So today I went to near the Layby on Bucker (Buck Haw?) Brow to collect some plants to show them - Blue Moor-grass, (in flower of course).

But I was amazed to find Meadow Oat-grass in flower - I had gone to collect vegetative shoots of that because they are "More Poa-like" than the Poas.  I found Smooth Meadow-grass in flower and Sheep's Fescue. At the bypass junction the Compressed Meadow-grass was not out, nor the Squirrel-tail Barley nor the  Reflexed Saltmarsh grass..

The ground is Oh, so dry.

More First Flowering Times April 27th

I saw a couple of hawthorn trees on Skipton Bypass out -- then nothing much till Ripon bypass where there were a lot of hawthorn trees in blume. There were wonderful sheets of Red Campions on Skipton bypass. the lilac and Sweet cicily were both fully out at Grassington. At Yarnbury there were lots of yellow mountain pansies and the spring sandwort.

At the summit of the Airton Settle road the wavy hairgrass was almost out but no yet. Two days ago at Malham the hare's-tail cotton-grass was in flower but not with big white cottony heads yet.

Early Flowering Times This Spring

Around here the day that the trees start to show green (so I tell people) is 17th April and the day that they are fully green is 17th May (or 17th-26th May)

Here, for the records, are notes on what I have seen in flowers and in leaf. Many plants are three weeks ahead of what we had last year.

This year by the 17th April the trees were definitely just starting to go green - maybe I should have looked harder on the 15th April. I will put in some photos that I took then, later. 

But by 24th April the sycamore trees were almost fully out (though still light green). A view towards sycamore trees looked almost like mid summer. But a view towards ash and oak still looked like winter!

Today at the Ash and Oak tree next to Miss Hilary's cottage (Sandhills) the oak tree was definitely coming into leaf whilst the ash was still only flowering. (So we are going to get dry weather)

By 24th April the lilac was just coming out, and horse-chestnut were in full bloom as are apple trees and bird cherry. Usually they don't come out till May

The beech and birch are half way out.

On Sun 24th I went to look at the Spring Cinquefoil which is fully out and doing well on the limestone grassland - though the grassland looks very dry. The Tormentil is not yet out.  I have pictures from mid May last year of us looking at the Spring Cinquefoil. There was lots of cowslips out but I did not notice Early purple orchids

The Purple Saxifrage was out in mid-March this year on Pen y Ghent (I am told). By 9th April it was certainly over, as I noticed on the BBS moss trip.

The Yellow Mountain-pansies are out, and Violets (Viola riviniana), in a field above Stainforth.

I noticed some Cuckoo flower out in the Middle school Playing field on our Lichens Day.. very early. there has been a lot since then in the field opposite me - two weeks ago - presumably no grazing.

Early Scurvy grass (Cochlearia danica) has been out for over a month but there is lots of it now. It is spreading along the road on the road path opposite the ex-Youth Hostel (where is has been for several years) to the path at almost to Stainforth Car Park (where I have not seen it before.)

Today 26 April I have seen Mountain Aven in flower, (and one Tormentil flower), lots of Bird's-eye Primrose, Primroses and Cowslips and Pyrenean Scurvey grass. 

At Malham Tarn Lawn there were lots of Early Purple Orchids. the Marsh Valerian and Bog bean were in bud but not quite out. the Globe flowers were just coming out (I usually tell people mid-May for these). 

The road verges have Sweet Cicely coming out. There are also a few plants of Cow Parsley which are just coming out but not as obvious as the former. The Sloe is going over. Apple blossom and Cherry and Bird cherry is out. Red Campion is out. 

Fibrous Tussock-sedge is in flower as is Spring Sedge, and several other sedges the flowers are emerging. The Brown sedge was not in flower.

On the Fen there was Cuckoo -flower but no Greater Bittercress yet. It was easy to see the fen mosses as the sedges and other fen plants are not too dense. We heard Willow Warbler and saw Swallows.  But not Sedge warbler or Reed bunding - but we did not go everywhere on the fen.  On the tarn we saw two Greylag geese and a Canada- goose. We watched pondskaters on the pools pounce after insects that landed. The Cranberry was in bud. The Marsh Violet was in full flower on tussocks in the fen. Goldilocks was just coming out.

There were lots of Water Crowfoot leaves but no flowers in the side stream that flows into the inflow stream.

In the afternoon I drove to Airedale and noticed one hawthorn tree in flower and one in bud. That's all.  In general Hawthorn is not in flower.

The weather has gone cold today so maybe it will hold things up, and let us stay in this delicious "Just coming out stage" for a while longer.

I have seen Meadow Foxtail flowers for about two weeks - but not noticed any other grasses yet (apart from Blue Moor-grass of course.

I stopped at the garden centre with my neighbour but she said "I never buy plants till the end of May - there is lots of time for frost yet!" So we just enjoyed looking. We had a rain shower for half an hour - that is not enough to replenish the water in the ground!

The Daffodils by the roadside are mostly dead, thought there are still a few white Narcissus type ones left.

Dandelions have been lining the road verges for about two weeks now. 

Wood Anemones have been out for three weeks. I noticed a few Bluebells at Bolton Abbey Woods on 12 April - I do not expect to see them till May.  The Lily of the Valley in my garden box is just coming out.

Well that's enough notes for now.

£1 a day for food for 5 days - Live Below the Line Challenge

Could you live off just £1 a day for five days? 

Join the livebelowtheline challenge - 2-6 May (Find out more)

Become aware of how much we consume unnecessarily - and how difficult it is for poor people to survive on £1-00

I  am going to join the challenge.

I shall donate the money I save from not spending more on food to the Rainforest Fund. 

And I shall get sponsored for Methodist Relief and Development Fund which does support some ecologically orientated projects. Would you like to sponsor me?- Just click here  

Would you like to take part?  There are a variety of partner charities you can support - Christian Aid, Salvation Army, 

Just think, nearly a quarter of the people in the world have to survive off less than £1-00 a day - and that's for everything, not just food.


I first read about this project when I heard that Alison Tomlin,  President of Methodist conference is taking part. Read more

Settle Passion Play - Journey to the Cross - on Good Friday

 Pictures from the Passion Play "Journey to the cross" at Settle this Good Friday morning.

Singing the final hymn

BBS British Bryological Society - Mosses Week 7-13 April

The British Bryological Society are meeting this week based at Scargill House, Kettlewell 7-13 April. I am going out with them most days. Great. Here we are in Raisgill in Upper Wharfedale, near Yockenthwaite.

Below is Leucondon sciuroides on a rock.

 And here on another rock is Orthotrichum anomalum - you can see the setae (capsule stalks) - on many other species of Orthotricum the setae are shorter so the capsule is almost immersed in the leaves.

Well, I'd like to tell you about Friday and Saturday but they will have to wait.

Opal Lichens Settle

I ran a lichens morning for Craven Conservation Group today (2nd April). After saying for a year "We must record some trees for the Opal Lichens Survey" we finally did it! and I have data for two more trees to enter... Which will show that we have nitrogenous pollution here

 Here is some Xanthoria parietina - which likes high nutrients - sometimes called Bird-perch lichen

 The lichens "walk" appeared in the Flowers of the Dales booklet and four people came as a result of that, including one man from near Burnley. One lady came as a result of my "Events emails" - and the others three were Craven  Conservation Group people.

I had asked permission from the Settle Middle School to use their edge land and trees, which was given (apart from the steep slopes and the nature area). The walls turned out to be interesting because they are built out of a variety of stone.- the side of the valley are carboniferous limestone, but the soil in the floor is made from glacial deposits and then alluvial deposits and the glacier cut through a who variety of rocks.

 On the acid greywacke/slate there was Map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum) -flourescent yellow green with a black margin. On the grit there was Candelariella vitellina  a conglomeration of orange blobs with orange apothecia.
On the limestone were huge white patches of Aspicillia calcarea and small black patches of Verrucaria nigrescens and orange patches of Caloplaca flavescens 

When we returned to the trees near the car park and school the buds were unfolding... it seemed some had opened in the two hours we had been away from them.

This branch had a good variety of lichens. If you click on the picture below you will get an enlarged view.

From left to right

Melanelixia (I think) -dark khaki green

Physcia tenella (tiny grey but leafy, with eyelash extensions underneath)

Xanthoria parietina (yellow)

More bits of Physcia

Parmelia saxatile (blue grey, leafy, )

Leconora chlarotera (grey crustose with pinkish apothecia) - far right.

Motives for Environmental Care

Today I attended a conference in Leeds organised by WYSOCS (West Yorkshire School of Christian Studies): the Gospel's Green Light: Motives for environmental care - A day conference exploring Christian Environmentalism in theory and practice. It was Held at Oxford Place centre at Leeds. Here are some pictures. It will take a while to write it up. It was excellent. Here we are discussing the lectures over lunch

You can see me showing Rev Peter Harris the Giggleswick Mosses book. Peter Harris spoke about A Rocha . He is founder and President of A Rocha Interantional.  (Giggleswick Church supports A Rocha and had five copies of their latest magazine in their bookstand).

I sold £26 worth of greetings cards..

Peter is holding his book: Kingfisher's Fire: A Story of Hope for God's Earth

Mosses-3 of Giggleswick Churchyard

On Thursday 24 March I went round to Giggleswick Church to make an exhibition of the photos I had taken at the Mosses Day on 12th March. You can see it at the front of the church (back of the picture) at the left.

I pinned up the booklet I have made describing 16 of the mosses.
You can see some of the pictures here, where I describe the original day.

Church volunteers were having a spring clean and churchyard maintenance day.. so I joined them for coffee and showed them Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus - Springy Turf Moss

End of Life Issues - The Hospice Movement

Churches Together in Settle and District have organised a series of Talks on Wednesday evenings during Lent. entitled "Facing up to End of Life Issues - Practicalities". The first was held on Wednesday 16 March and was on Legal Issues. We held it in the Primary Room of the Church Hall - and just squeezed a record(?) 48 people in. We had excellent talks by the local solicitor and a consultant at Airedale hospital.

So the following week we held the talk in the church itself. The talk was on the Hospice movement. That was useful because Tom Keating, the speaker from St Gemma's Hospice, had brought some powerpoint slides.
We had scones and coffee both before and after the talk.

Next week  (Wed 30th) the talk is "Care and Support for the Terminally Ill at Home" - Come at 7.15 for scones before the talk at 7.30pm

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