Cafe Scientifique

In the light of the recent reporting of Ash Dieback Disease by the Yorkshire Naturalists Union, who saw it on one of their field trips near Scarborough, this is a very current topic.

To make it clear to visitors to this blog, Cafe Scientifique is an international movement, unconnected with Halifax Scientific Society, but Dean Clough who host Cafe Scientifique in Halifax, are very supportive of the Society, and several of our members attend these lectures. You need to get there early to get a seat; it's sometimes standing room only at the back.

A CaféScientifique presentation and debate:

Fungi: Friend or Foe?

With Dr. Robin Sen, Manchester Metropolitan University

Wednesday March 11th 2015 at 7:30 pm

The Cooking School Café, Dean Clough, Halifax HX3 5AX

The recent arrival of ash dieback disease caused by a fungus, Chalara fraxinea, has undoubtedly raised public awareness to the destructiveness of members of the fungal kingdom. Agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries have spent large fortunes developing fungicides and fungal antibiotics to protect crop plants, livestock and ourselves from soil borne fungal diseases. Yet these broad-spectrum antifungals lose efficacy over time and are highly toxic to non-target animals and humans because of close inter-kingdom ties between fungi and animals that share a common eukaryotic cell physiology.

I will argue for the need to take a more pro-fungal stance – to fight fire with fire, if you will. The weapon of my choice, among a massive arsenal of beneficial soil fungi, is a fungal group that was not only instrumental in the establishment of land plants over 400 million years ago but now holds urgent promise in driving a new ‘sustainable’ agricultural revolution.

Cafe Scientifique is part of a national array of voluntary talks and debates based on scientific themes to which EVERYONE is welcomed. There is no admission fee, although donations towards the speaker's expenses are requested at the end of the evening.

Café Scientifique: evening event menu

Food served 6.00 to 7.00pm. Pre-order on 01422 366516  to avoid disappointment or via info@thechefsschool.co.uk

Ciabatta Pizzas with mixed salad

Choose from:

• Roasted vegetables and halloumi cheese topped with mozzarella – £6.50

• Slow roasted pulled pork with BBQ sauce, peppers and topped with mozzarella – £6.50

• Spanish chorizo, salami, red onion with mozzarella and black olives – £6.75

Chicken Korma Curry

Served on a bed of boiled rice, accompanied with warm pitta bread and homemade chutneys – £ 7.50

Vegetable Rogan Josh Curry

Served on a bed of boiled rice, with warm Pitta bread and homemade chutneys – £ 7.50

Sharing Platter for two

Onion bhajis, vegetable samosas, lamb koftas, naan bread, olives with mixed salad and fresh yogurt dip – £9.50

Dr. Robin Sen is Reader in Soil Microbial Ecology and Biotechnology at Manchester Metropolitan University. His scientific career began at Rothamsted Experimental Station (now Rothamsted Research) in 1978 he worked with pioneers in soil microbial ecology and plant growth promoting root symbiotic mycorrhizal ecophysiology of crops. From 1987 to 2003, he worked at the University of Helsinki, Finland gaining a Ph.D and Docentship in forest soil microbiology. He went on to establish a forest microbiology research group at the Viikki Biocentre and was later awarded a 5-year Senior Research Fellowship (Academy of Finland). Between 2004-2005, he worked at the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen as a Senior Scientist on forest soil food-web microbiology before taking up a Senior lectureship at MMU.

The next Cafe Scientifique will be on 8^th April 2015 at 7:30 pm

Stephen Andrews: “The Science of Arson”

More information on www.cafescihalifax.org

Toads on the Roads

Yes, Spring is nearly here and the toads will soon be on the move.

 

Every year in Calderdale, thousands of toads make their perilous journeys to their historic breeding ponds. Last year, hundreds of toads were saved by volunteers carrying the toads across the road in buckets, before releasing them safely. If you would like to help please contact countryside@calderdale.gov.uk , ring 01422 28 4430 or attend the toad evening to be held on 3^rd March, 7:30pm at Queens Hotel, Todmorden.

 

Hugh 

 

 

Alternate-leaved Golden Saxifrage

 Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage is very common hereabouts in damp woodland

but Alternate-leaved is rare.

 Here you can see an image of the Chrysosplenium alternifolium found yesterday.

Looking at the single large leaf you can see how the leaf edge cuts in,

forming lobes, and the base is heart shaped. (Above)

In contrast the leaves of Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

have a wavy edge and the base tapers into the stem. (Below)

Chrysosplenium alternifolium has leaves branching off alternately (below).

Whereas Chrysosplenium oppositifolium bears leaves in opposite pairs.

Walk this Wednesday and March Meetings

Meet at the New Lodge Fisheries on the middle road of Savile Park Moor, Halifax at 10.00am on Weds 25th Feb for a walk in

                                  HARDCASTLE CRAGS

To share cars as much as possible.  I have three seats spare in mine as I write. The walk will be about 3 hours. Bring packed lunch and something waterproof to sit on.

Ring or text Mobile 0771 500 5379 to confirm meeting place at Hardcastle Crags. (Either Midgehole or Widdop Road.)

Snow is forecast for today Sunday, so it may still be lying on Wednesday, which always makes the Crags a wonderful place for scenery.

                     

     Hardcastle Crags - Slurring Rock Trail in April.

The Slurring Rock is the big sloping one which  it is said children used to be able to slide down when they wore metal-shod clogs. You can see the worn slope, and it is just about possible to slide down it with modern boots using leaf-litter on a dry day..

                                              ________________________

Report on the walk above: Five people walked from Midgehole up the river path to Gibson Mill, up the track to the calcareous rock outcrop, left down the narrow track to the top footbridge in the Crags (where we picnicked, then back to the mill down the river path. On reaching the mill we took the main track back to the car park.

A GREAT FIND !

We looked at the main known botanical hot-spots. A brilliant find was when I pointed out where the elusive Alternate-leaved Golden Saxifrage
was once known, but for many years and for many eyes it has been unfindable.

Peachysteve bent down and immediately found a plant, and we confirmed there is a quantity of it, lurking among the ubiquitous Opposite-leaved species.

We were back in Halifax by 3.00pm.

                                           ___________________________

During the coming month, Halifax Scientific Society is proud to bring

                                 TIM MELLING   of the RSPB to the town on 10th March.

He will be giving a presentation on NATURE IN THE PENNINES at 7.15 in the comfortable downstairs meeting room of the Halifax Central Library. A lift gives access to this floor with the help of the caretaker.

This is the monthly meeting of the HALIFAX Scientific Society
                                                            WILDLIFE GROUP to which all members of the public are welcome. There is no charge, but donations are welcome to help pay for room hire.

Members of the public can enroll to be members of the society at these meetings, which is one of the ways to join, Otherwise you can start attending walks which take place once or twice a month. There are phone numbers behind the "Joining & Walks and Talks" tab at the top of this blog with more details of the whole year to come.

The walk arranged for March is to Cromwell Bottom on 28th March with practical explanation of how to survey for amphibians. Meet at 10.30 for 10.45 at the Anglers' Car park. (Look for the brown nature reserve sign.) Bring packed lunch and something waterproof to sit on at lunch time

.

Shibden Park today

Greylag Goose obviously used to being near people
Three Mute Swans inc one juv.
c. 100 Black Headed Gulls inc one with it head black already
2 Coot
8 Moorhens including 4 on the pond up at the Hall
Strange variety of hybrid ducks inc one like a monster Ring-necked about 50% too big!

Greylag Goose

Hybrid duck  - with Ring Necked blood maybe . . .

At home among the Jackdaws is this one with white primaries. I've had other distinctive ones including one with an overgrown lower mandible. It could feed from the ground only by putting its head on the side. I recently had a variegated one on the roof, about 50% white, very like one I saw in Halifax town centre last year. 

Mistle Thrushes

In eight years never had one in the garden ...

Then two come along together.

Helleborus foetidus and early daffodils

I was surprised to find this in Mytholmroyd on 25.1.15. It is a group that doesn't have a common name, only "Hellebore". Chris JB reminds me this one is called "Stinking Hellebore."

H.foetidus is a very rare plant in Yorkshire, usually growing on lime. This is probably self-seeded from a garden plant, or a thrown-out plant, as it is growing on a demolition site.

It's not in Murgatroyd (1994).

These daffodils were blooming by a pond at Mytholmroyd on Sunday 25.1.15
Whilst there are some daffodils from abroad that flower in mid-winter, these look not that far removed from the native species, just a little larger.

Sparrowhawk Selfie

This Sparrowhawk flew into our window today and become somewhat immobile. I soon brought it round. The First Aid course some of us did in December came in very useful although CPR was rather a delicate task!   I had forgotten how sharp their talons are and she held onto my finger until she had a selfie taken with me. She few off later non the worse.

That expression reminds me of some of my friends after a few glasses of wine.

She has my finger - ouch! The glove was on the wrong hand - silly me.

In leaf already

There is a young Hawthorn in Todmorden that has had twigs in full green leaf since Jan 1st. But this early leafing may be caused by planting of European stock from different climate zones.

It is well recognised that most 'native' tree and hedge planting was done (and still is) using imported saplings. There was a good article in the Botanical Soc of Britain and Ireland magazine on 'Look-alikes', where many of the 'native' wildflower plantings were found to be imported. They were the same species but subtly different in size of plant, time of flowering etc. 

Records of 1st flowering may be influenced by these 'Look-alikes'.

Saturday's (short) Walk.

The plan is to go and see the site of the former Halifax Zoo at Exley, on Saturday 24th January.
The walk follows on from the fascinating talk and presentation by David Glover at the last indoor meeting. I certainly learned a lot more about the history of the Zoo and Amusement Park.

Meet at Stainland Rd. - Just after the mini-roundabout there is a lay-bye for users of the canal bank.
My car won't be there to allow more space. I'll be walking down Bankhouse Wood from Dudwell Lane.
Leaving All Saints Church at Dudwell Lane at 10.15. if anyone wants to meet me there.
Leaving the lay-bye in Stainland Rd at 10.45 to go on the canal bank towards Elland, crossing the canal on the footbridge, following the Calderdale Way across the bye-pass (there is a pedestrian refuge in the middle,) up the wood (where the escaped bear was recaptured) to the Zoo site, and back by a different route, either short or longer, depending on everyone's preferences.  Total 1.5 to 2.5 hours. As this walk is a bit shorter than the usual, we won't be stopping for a picnic.

There is a short but not dangerous scramble up the last few yards to the Zoo site.

We might have time to cross Stainland Road to see the colourful Scarlet Elf Cup fungus Sarcoscypha austriaca that Michael found near the confluence of the Calder and Hebble rivers. It's just starting to appear for the winter.

If you need more detail please feel free to contact me (before 8.00pm if possible please.)               Mobile 0771 500 5379

Scarlet Elf Cap

Sarcoscypha austriaca

Calder and Hebble 19.1.15

Meeting with two speakers at Blackshaw Head BEAT Group

Olivia Walter, Wildlife Vets International, www.wildlifevetsinternational.org will be speaking on The Role of Zoos in conservation.

As wild lands are under ever increasing pressure, the boundary between wild and captivity diminishes and faces new threats. “Zoos” play an important role in saving endangered species in multiuse landscapes.

And the other speaker is yours truly on the plant I wrote the booklet about, after seven years research with other members of the HSS. - the Autumn Crocus.

This event is at Blackshaw Head Community Chapel on 27th January at 7.30pm.

This Tuesday's Guest Speaker at the Library, a good fern find and second site for Winter Heliotrope.

I saw for myself the Hard Shield Fern Polystichum aculeatum at Cromwell Bottom LNR yesterday.
Yorkshire Naturalist Union had recorded here on their recent visit and I was unaware of it. It is a really rare fern in Calderdale, and it looks like this is a fairly new colony of about ten plants near the Hawthorn Alley growing in the fly-ash banking.

Patch of Winter Heliotrope Petasites fragrans c.5m across, flowering on 10.1.15.

Later I was doing the recce for the walk to the former Halifax Zoo site to follow on from David Glover's talk this Tuesday. There is a patch of the Winter Heliotrope Petasites fragrans just outside the boundary fence in the wood above the Elland Byepass. We used to call this Elland Wood Bottom when I lived in Siddal.

The only other record in Calderdale is at King Cross Cemetery, across the road from the Fire Station.
It is an invasive garden discard, and very extensive in some parts of the country.

David is a Courier columnist and his anecdotes will no doubt include the time one of the bears escaped into the woods.

European Brown Bear (Stock picture.)

Happy New Walking Year !

My page in the Wildside Booklet . . . .

A regular count over the same walk builds up into a snapshot of birdlife in our time. In future those who look back may notice differences, or similarities.

This year (2014) the New Year Bird Count over this walk gave us 18 species : -

1.1.14

Clay House - through North Dean Woods and across Norland Moor to the Ladstone, and back.

Caol Tit

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Jackdaw

Blackbird

Carrion Crow

Magpie

Feral Pigeon

Black-headed Gull

Woodpigeon

Jay

Robin

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Treecreeper

Common Gull

Chaffinch 

Grey Wagtail

Dunnock

There were five walkers plus two dogs. (Room for plenty more this time.)

Bring a packed lunch. It can be muddy in the woods and windy on the moor.

Contact me if you're on your way and can't find Clay House at West Vale.

07715005379

Report on the Walk 1.1.15:

Eleven people turned up to my surprise, a good number. Some old friends and new.

The first part, through North Dean Woods, it was dry but overcast, and we were taking layers off - it was so warm.

We noticed the extensive thinning that has been going on near to Clay House. This might bring some summer migrants back, after the understorey has re-developed in the sunshine, like warblers and the two species of flycatchers which disappeared from there some time ago. 

The most prominent fungus was the Birch Polypore as usual, being big and noticeable to the non-mycologists on the walk. I also noticed a dog-chewed stick shot through with the turquoise of the Green Elf Cap fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens; the one that stains the timber and makes it valuable to marquetry workers. (I searched for "fungus Tunbridge ware" and found illustrations of the work.)

At the disused church at Copley we noticed on the outer wall by the Lych-gate a luxuriant specimen of Hart's Tongue Fern, and beside it several plants of a corrugated form of it. One frond has a forked midrib.

We had all together 21 species of bird, three up on last year, despite missing out the Norland Moor section, due to a strong squall of wind and rain blowing up as we reached the top of Norland Clough.

Two grey squirrels were the only wild mammals seen.

Birds Seen:

(Some on way there.)

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Woodpigeon

Collared Dove

Blackbird

House Sparrow

Magpie

Robin

Dunnock

Great Tit

Goldfinch c.8

Chaffinch

Carrion Crow

Jackdaw

Fieldfare (2)

Large Gull - unidentified

Kestrel

Feral Pigeon

Mistle Thrush (2)

Redwing (1)

Black-headed Gull

Saturday Walk

We have in the programme an informal walk marked  for tomorrow 27th December.

How about going to Mixenden Reservoir and the mixed conifer/broadleaved plantation around it?

The walk can be lengthened if everyone is in agreement, up towards Ogden.

Meet 10.30 for 10.45 leaving from the fish shop area in the middle of Saville Park Moor, Halifax, or meet on the road below the Res, but let me know if meeting there as I may not come if no-one turns up.

This used to be a favourite walk of the HSS.

Saturday Evening 27.12.14:

Pictures from the walk:

Mixenden Reservoir

A Great Northern Diver was staying there. My pictures were poor, but some good ones are over on Calderdale Birds Blog. We bumped into Dave Sutcliffe, the original finder of the Diver. He had been caught with his family in the Sheffield Gridlock yesterday evening!

We set off to the next Reservoir, Ogden Water

We saw no other walkers until we got to Ogden Water

the smudges are dust in my camera

Crossing the polar ice-cap of Ogden Golf Course, we found the snow littered with conifer seeds drifting from the plantation. I think they were larch seeds.

We had company as we stopped for lunch. (A Carrion Crow and scores of people plus their dogs doing the circuit of the reservoir.)

The variety of ice formations is amazing. You could call this one  "Lace- ice"

We returned via the lanes of Ogden which were nice and almost traffic-free for a change

Returning through Mixenden Plantation

Frank Murgatroyd once saw a Woodcock on its nest here. He said the first thing he noticed was its eye looking at him. Our bird list today is below. (Three of us were on the walk.)

Great Northern Diver

Common Gulls

Black-headed Gulls

Woodpigeons (few)

Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies

Robin

Wren

Snipe (7 together)

Meadow Pipits (13 together)

Lapwings (20)

Pied Wagtail

Kestrel

And we watched a Roe Deer bounding through the snow in the fields. It stopped to look at us for a moment.

Decorative Lichens

Growing on a sandstone wall above Todmorden where the builder has cut nearly every stone using a portable stone saw - an unusual  technique.

So it's quite a young community of lichens . . .

They looked like the work of an inspired textile designer . . .

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Appreciating natural things for me starts with simple enjoyment. It's not necessary to know the names of the species straight away. 

Lichens, especially the foliose (leafy) types can be extra plump and bright in the wet of winter, and are worth stopping to look at when there are fewer birds, insects, fungi and flowers distract.

The ones above are growing out in the open in full sun and the wind. Foliose types tend to grow on wall-tops under trees; sometimes on the twigs themselves

Last Saturday's Walk to Pudsey Clough and upcoming Christmas Social

For those who like to keep their feet on dry carpet - this is a scene from the walk. It wasn't all hunching round tiny fungi in the grass - it also included agility-testing bog hopping and slippery stile climbing. My favourite spare time activities ! There was low cloud blanketing the moor above Burnley Old Road, unfortunately, so we didn't get to Hoofstone Height.

Birds we saw included Kestrel, Mistle Thrush and Raven, and fungi included beautiful Heath Waxcap, Meadow Waxcap and Crimson Waxcap  Also Amber Jelly growing all over the twigs high in willow trees, which looked like some kind of secondary re-emergence of leaves or fruit, with the light shining through them. A new fungus to me, pointed out and identified by Peachysteve.

Some of the other images that stick in my mind are of the gushing streams and waterfalls, made visible below the paths since the oaks have shed their leaves.

Christmas Social.

The equally important dry carpet aspects of the HSS's activities continue with the Christmas Social, which is on December 9th. 7.15 - 9.15 at our usual rooms in the Halifax Central Library.  This year, apart from eating cake and drinking cuppas, I have suggested we assemble our favourite fossils from home collections to talk about, photograph, and make a document of.

                   It's the last meeting of our 140th Celebration Year.

          And the programme for 2015, already at the printers, should be ready.

Saturday, 29th November Walk (see above)

As the forecast is for fog, I'll have to decide when reaching Burnley Old Road whether to venture onto the moor above. I could use a compass, but the views may be non-existent when we get to the Hoofstone.

From high up in Pudsey Clough

Anyway, if it's not too foggy, the views in Pudsey Clough and its dramatic cliffs, waterfalls and woods will be enhanced by the sfumato effect; an opportunity for photography, and it's going to be quite mild.

I've checked with Sutcliffe Furniture, and their big carpark next to the Waggon and Horses Pub at Cornholme is freely available.

See you all about 10.30 for 10.45 setting off.

                               -----------------------------------------------------------------------

There's one more walk in 2014, on Dec. 27th, to be confirmed. Then the New Year Bird Count on 1st Jan. 2015 at 10.30-10.45 meets at Clay House West Vale to go through North Dean Woods NR and across Norland Moor to the Ladstone.(In the Wildside Programme.)

Amazing re-encounter with a bird by a ringer, from an email from BTO Demography Unit

4 NOVEMBER 2014

Ringer migration confirmed by a Blackcap

Back in September, we posted about the large numbers of Blackcaps that were moving through the central and western parts of the country. We were contacted recently with a fantastic story of a chance re-encounter between a member of the Brewood Ringing Group and one of these migrants.

Colin McShane writes:

Over the last 8 years I have been leading an Autumn ringing trip to the Parque Ambientale, in Vilamoura, Portugal with support from Vitor Encarnacao who heads up the Portuguese Ringing Scheme. Our trips have been successful on several levels and many British ringers have joined us over the years to expand their experience.

We have also controlled a number of birds from northern Europe, including Reed Warblers from Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden, and Bluethroats from France. On 06 October 2014 during this year’s trip, I extracted a male Blackcap from one of our standard mist nets and was very pleased, although not too surprised, to find that it was carrying a BTO ring. Back at the processing station, Dave Clifton (who has been an ever-present fixture on these trips) was doing his stint as the scribe. Having announced to the group what I had extracted, I began to process the bird - first reading out the ring number several times for accuracy.

Dave went quiet. He quickly got onto the phone to his wife, who checked in his ringing book back home. Hey Presto!! The bird was indeed one (of only two Blackcaps ringed at the site) he had ringed at Duckley Plantation, on the north shore of Blithfield Reservoir, Staffordshire on 11th September 2014 - only a few weeks before we had left for Portugal!!

Aerial roots on grass

Steve in his comments on my pollard item mentioned aerial roots on young Ash saplings.

Below are photos of this also happening on Reed Canary grass - Phalaris arundinaceae. These roots appeared on an upper node on the stem but only on those stems that were bending low towards the damp ground. It as though the grass is anticipating contact with the ground.

I cut off this stem just below the aerial roots and grew it on and the last photo shows how it has formed a new plant with good fibrous roots.

Some grasses also modify their spikelets and instead of the usual 'flower' structure they produce modified leaves. Cocksfoot is a good example, particularly if flowering very late in the year due to warm weather; where you will often see proliferation of the spikelet in the form of odd shaped little leaves.

I think the theory is that grass flowers are in evolutionary terms just modified leaves, so in the case of proliferation they are remembering where they came from.

Water Shrew

Could not find the Black Redstart today but we did have another Water Shrew in the same tributary of Strines Beck as in May 2011.

Oak Tree Pollards

Here are 2 photos of Oak trees that have been pollarded at some stage in their life,

The first one is a lapsed pollard found in Centre Vale Park Todmorden, which has suffered greatly from the shading of self-seeded trees close by. Oaks need plenty of light and space.

This Oak would have been in the open when it was younger and is a good indicator of what the landscape was like before woodland arrived. It is full of character and one can look at it for ages trying to work out how it got those bulges and folds on the trunk.

The second Oak is in a nearby wood but is not subject to as much shade. It has been re-pollarded and shows the fresh spring of new shoots. These new shoots can be allowed to grow for any number of years before being re-cut but 10 to 20 years gives good sizes for lots of uses.

There are plenty of lapsed pollards of many species in the Calder Valley and it can be fun trying to spot them. Because of this method of management, the trees as they age create many more niches for wildlife than a 'woodland' tree.

Autumn Crocus in Calderdale

I was asked to contribute a small piece about the Autumn Crocus to BEAT (Balckshaw Head Environmental Action Trust,) so I thought I would let blog visitors read it.

The Autumn Crocus Crocus nudiflorus in Calderdale                Steve Blacksmith November 2014

The Autumn Crocus  flowers appear between mid- September and  mid-October, and come up in the grass, or the leaf mould under trees  with none of their leaves, hence nudiflorus. They are a strong purple, with, if you’re lucky to catch them in warm sun, prominent golden yellow stamens. Their “stem” is a long white corolla tube which Crocus have instead of a conventional stem.  The ovary remains underground. The leaves can start appearing as early as November, but are at their full length in spring. They make swards of greenery, looking like grass, because they come up from a dense underground mat of rhizomes and corms.

In Victorian times Halifax was a destination to see the “Halifax Crocus” as it was dubbed, with botanists taking advantage of the new railways and plentiful branch lines to get to the Crocus fields, where they could apparently stretch for miles, for example in one field after another in the Ovenden Valley up towards Bradshaw.  The easiest site to direct you to nowadays is at Cold Edge, on the way up to Ovenden Wind Farm, a field on the left, in front of the cream-painted house has a large colony visible without getting out of the car. SE046306

Some sites we have lost or not relocated are at Great House, Todmorden;  another at Hubberton;  and the third was said to be on the left bank of the Calder, above the bridge at Brearley.

It is not a native plant, but was introduced probably from SW France in the Middle Ages. It is said to occur in Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire. There is much confusion among non-botanists with another superficially similar plant, Colchicum autumnale, which garden centres insist on wrongly labelling “Autumn Crocus.”

Confusion is compounded by the common name for Colchicum, Meadow Saffron. The spice only comes from crocus species. All parts of Colchicum are strongly toxic, though it is being investigated for medicinal uses. Saffron, once the most expensive spice, was used in medicine, dye, ink for manuscripts, and later as a food colourant/flavouring. The use of our local Crocus as a source of saffron is conjectural, though it was obviously cultivated in fields for some reason.

C.nudiflorus is a true crocus, with three, not six stamens as Colchicum has, and is one among a handful of species that flower solely or partly in autumn.  In the 1950s there were 23 sites known, but the Halifax Scientific Society surveyed  from 2003 to 2009 and increased the recorded sites to about 37.

The earliest record is in James Bolton’s Flora of Halifax, when in 1775 he noted a patch in Well Head Fields, which remained as fields up to the 1990s. They are now in someone’s back garden, and I don’t know how they are faring. This is opposite the Shay Football Ground in Halifax.

The survey culminated in a booket “The Mystery of the Autumn Crocus” which I produced with a grant from the Green Business Network. This included some practical conservation work as well. Some of the old colonies have been broken up into smaller ones, but we did add some more colonies to arrive at the increased total. The combined number of blooms, though, must be greatly reduced from the 19thC, and even the 1950s, so it is definitely a plant of conservation concern.

The20 page booklet with colour photos is available from Halifax Scientific Society price £5.00, all of which goes to the Society. Or by post, see our blog at Calderdale-wildlife.bogspot. It is free to members of Halifax Scientific Society.

The picture is of them in their wild state in SW France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, south of Foix in the Ariege district. Cattle and horses graze free range around them but avoid them.

With thanks to all who helped with the survey, especially Linda Kingsnorth, who took the picture.

I am constantly finding out new things about them, for instance this year the leaves have started growing in November, when we always thought of them as being up in February to May. It was a very early year for the blooms as well.