Purple Toothwort

What is it ... purple under the poplars?


A mass of flowers amongst last year’s fallen leaves. It is the Purple Toothwort (Lathraea clandestina). A parasite living on the roots of poplar trees.















It is an underground plant, you see only flowers and, sometimes, the ends of branches coming above ground. Flower buds appear from between white scales.

Pine Processionary

Now the Pine processionaries (Thaumetopoea pytiocampa) get wanderlust. They leave the cotton candy, high up in a pine tree, where they have lived all winter, and descend to the wood floor, linked together, one after another.
 

Slowly the procession moves forward until it reaches a place where the earth is loose and warmed by the sun. There the caterpillars get together and dig in with rythmic movements, and start pupating underground.











Do you need to be an intelligent insect to show social behaviour like this? Not if you follow some simple rules of thumb. Like:

(1) When the days get longer and warmer, leave your nest and head for downwards.
(2) Cling to the tail of a colleague.
(3) If you can’t find a free tail, walk to a place where the earth smells better because it is warm and loose.
(4) If you cannot find a better smelling place, stop walking and start making rythmic lateral movements.
(5) If you discover a colleague that makes rythmic lateral movements, do the same, as close to him/her as you can, even if that means you have to release the tail you followed.
(6) If it gets dark (because you are covered with earth, or because the sun has set), stop moving.

No need to think, no need for a leader, no management problems...

Lesser Celandine

We need some spring ...


... and here's the Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria)!