What habitat is this?

Did you know you can tell the type of habitat you are in by identifying the plants you see around you? Certain plants grow only in certain places, these are called indicator species. Other plants are not fussy in where they grow, they grow in a lot of places.

Here are some examples of habitats and what species typically grow there:

Acidic soil/bog-land: Heath milkwort, heather, heath, cat’s ear, gorse

Grassland: Yarrow, clover, buttercup, lesser trefoil, a lot of types of grass, daisy

Grassland habitat with plantain, grass and buttercups

Hedgerow: Traveller’s joy, honeysuckle, elder, brambles, cleavers.

Sandy soils: Wild carrot, lady’s bedstraw, Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Common Restharrow.

Near the sea: Sea-rocket, buckhorn plantain, wild carrot, Spear-leaved Orache, Sea Mayweed, Sea beet.

Sandy seaside habitat with sea mayweed and seabeet in the background

On footpaths: Pineappleweed, plantain, groundsel

On walls: A variety of ferns, ivy leaved toadflax, pellitory-of-the-wall.

Plants growing on a wall on a bridge in Milltown. Ivy, ivy-leaved toadflax and red valerian

Of course this is only a general indication. Everything in science has its exceptions. For example, I have only ever found wild carrot near the sea in Ireland. This is because this is the most common sandy area in Ireland. When I was on holidays in The Netherlands I saw wild carrot everywhere. This is because a lot of the soils there are sandy. I had never realised this before, I thought it was an indicator species for seaside, but it is actually one for sandy soils.

Roadside verge in the my hometown in The Netherlands. Lots of sandy soil indicator species.

So if you find 3 or more ‘indicator species’ you can generally tell what habitat you are in. I did so when I was giving my last walk on Roche’s Hill, Killiney. The upper part contained species like cat’s ear, gorse, bell heather, sheep’s bit and bracken. From this I concluded the soil must be acidic.

Roche’s Hill with gorse

Roche’s Hill. Bracken along a path

I would love for you to have a go at this and let me know how you get on.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)

Blackthorn flowers

For me Blackthorn flowering marks the start of spring time. The five-petalled bright white flowers against the dark leafless stems brightens up the countryside between March and April. But why am I talking about spring time on this bleak autumn day? Because in Autumn time the Blackthorn produces dark blue/black berries covered in a white bloom (a powder on the surface of the berries). These berries are called sloes. If you have ever tried eating the sloes straight off the tree you will know they are very bitter. I tried this yesterday for the first time and it tasted like eating a lemon! It might be surprising then to know that they are the ancestors of plums. There a few different ways sloes can be used. It makes a lovely jelly, but the most well known use for sloes is making sloe gin.

Sloe

I found a recipe below in the book ‘Food for Free’ by Richard Mabey:

Pick a pound (or half a kg) of sloes. They are best picked after the first frost. If there hasn’t been any frost, pierce the skin of each sloe a few times. Add a quarter of the weight of the berries in sugar and mix. Half fill bottles with the mixture, pour gin into the bottles until it is nearly full. Seal tightly, store for at least 2 months, shake occasionally (whenever you remember) to dissolve and disperse the sugar. The result is a pink liquor which is sour-sweet in taste and very very strong (I’m speaking from experience here). Don’t forget to eat the berries, which will be much sweeter now, and soaking in gin :). If you don’t like gin, you can replace it with brandy.

On a little side note, you might need gloves and hardy skin when picking sloes, as blackthorn has very sharp spines.

Traditionally blackthorn wood has been known to be very hard. For this reason the traditional Shillelagh (walking sticks) were made from blackthorn. They were coated in butter and cured in the chimney, giving them the distinctive black colour.

Traditionally a blackthorn stick was thought to provide protection from harm to the person carrying it, especially from ‘the fairies’ due to their high regard for it. However, in England blackthorn is seen as an evil plant (this might have to do with its thorns). It is also considered bad luck to bring blackthorn blossom indoors.

Legends surrounding the blackthorn tree often involve wartime and combat and it also has an association with witches.

There’s a great story from Donegal involving blackthorn sticks, which I found in ‘Ireland’s Trees myths and legends’ by Niall Mac Coitir. There’s a dangerous stretch of sea just off the coast called Béal an Bharra. It used to be a stretch of land protected from the sea by 3 rods of blackthorn. If the rods were cut the houses and land would be drowned. After a disagreement two local women decided to go cut the rods. On the way they met a third woman who wanted to be part of this, but could not keep up with them, as they were in such a hurry. The rods were cuts, the land and houses flooded and the women drowned. The third woman lived to tell the tale. The story ends by stating that the local women can never be trusted again.

I hope, like me you will now think of blackthorn as not ‘just another hedgerow tree with thorns’, but as a tree with lovely white flowers and useful fruit.

Dog rose- Rosa canina

Autumn is a time when a lot of plants have stopped flowering and are starting to set seed or fruit. This is why I thought I’d start my blog with a plant which bears both lovely flowers and edible fruit.

The flowers and fruit of the Dog Rose.

A lot of plants have more than one common name. The names often describe what people use them for. In the case of the dog rose, kids used to throw the very itchy seeds of the hips down the back of their friends’ t-shirts and they are really really itchy once they hit your skin. Hence the name itchy backs (used in Cork) and Itchy-berries (used in Ulster) was given to them. Luckily this hasn’t happened to me :). The Irish name ‘muc-chaor’ meaning ‘pig berry’, describes the bristly seeds, which resemble pig’s hairs. Even the name dog rose describes the plant in a round-about way. The root was once used to prepare a cure against mad dog bites, but could also come from the word ‘dag’, meaning dagger, referring to the thorns. The word ‘dog’ in a plant names was often used, meaning ‘not the real’ plant. Therefore this was not the ‘real’ rose i.e. the garden variety was seen as the ‘real’ rose.

Dog roses have been used for a long time in all sorts of ways:

• leaves as a coffee/tea substitute leaves as an ingredient in herbal tobacco.
• pickled rosebuds. This was very popular in the 17th century.
• petals in salads
• petal vinegar.
• petals for rose water for delicate skin.
• Rose petal jam, made in the Middle East, often eaten with yoghurt
• petals in salads . (Pick petals in late July off roses which have already shed a petal or two, don’t interfere with the rose hips at this stage.)
• Turkish delight.
• There are many more uses, as the rose petals are used as a general fragrance improver.

Rose hips have a lot of uses as well. This was mainly due to the high vitamin C content found in the hips. This is 4 times as high as in blackcurrant juice and 20 times that of oranges.

Rose hips!!!

During second world war in England rosehips were gathered on a commercial basis for vitamin C and made into rosehip syrup which was distributed in shops. Mothers and babies allowed larger quantities and reduced prices. Other uses of rosehips include eating them with meat and in tarts (with the seeds removed first) or making them into a soup or wine.

Dog roses are associated with  a few myths and legends. One of the Greek myths was that roses were white until dyed with the blood of Venus. She was coming to the rescue of her lover Mars who had just killed Adonis (who she was in love with), she caught herself on the thorns and sprinkled roses with her blood.
Another states that roses were thornless until the spirit of evil appeared (Iranian prophet Zoroaster).

In England it was believed that – the gall of wild rose said to cure whooping cough or toothache. In Wales they believed that if you put a gall under your pillow guarantees a good night’s sleep.

Now, you migth be wondering, what is a gall? It is a gall wasp (in this case the dog rose gall wasp) which lays its eggs in the leaf buds in spring, as the leaves unfurl, they do not turn into leaves but into bright red galls, which are basically red lumps/bumps. It is quiet common to see these on wild roses, keep an eye out for them and let me know when you see them.

Some other fun facts relating to roses:

• The name Róisin means ‘little rose’.
• the flower opens only for 3 days and closes at night and during the rain

Now for the more morbid facts. In England there is a superstition that if a person is holding a rose and the petals suddenly all fell off, the person is going to die soon.

And the gross fact of the day: the wood of dog rose was used to make ‘clams’ for use in castration of animals…  and on that note….

If you would like to know more on how to identify this and other plants, why come along to one of my walks. The details can be found on my Facebook page.

If you can think of any more uses for rose hips or petals, if you have any recipes or questions please leave a comment below.