August - Village Voices

More documents

Recommendations

Info

<strong>August</strong> 2011 page 32 www.villagevoices.org.uk
Contributed www.villagevoices.org.uk Autumn in July What’s happening to our conker trees? In recent years, their leaves have taken on a very strange appearance from mid-summer onwards. Blotchy patches of yellow and shades of brown have spread across the leaves until no vestige of their normal green can be seen at all, and eventually, the entire leaf – and the whole tree – becomes a drab The Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner moth brown, instead of the yellow and russet which heralds autumn. It has all happened since a quarter-inch moth arrived in Wimbledon from the continent in 2002. Whichever language you use, it has a long name: it is the Horse Chestnut Leaf-Miner, or Cameraria ohridella, and it lays its eggs on the surface of horse chestnut leaves. When they hatch, the larvae mine into the leaf and begin to eat. They remain invisible to birds so long as they keep inside the tissue of the leaf, which means they are very, very small. Eating steadily, the larvae move Horse Chestnut leaf, with larval mines synthesising work providing food for the tree. It does affect the size of the conkers though. In my youth, small conkers would have been a major concern, but not today. Where did all these moths spring from? They were recorded first in Macedonia in the early 70’s, and described as a new species unknown to science. Austria was next, in 1989, and then the rest of Europe: in England, it has reached Newcastle and is everywhere east of Cardiff. It is almost entirely restricted to mining the leaves of the white-flowered horse chestnut. The tree is a native of the Balkans, where this pretty little moth probably lived un- noticed for centuries until it started to move westwards. Laurie Forsyth through the leaf, creating those distinctive coloured blotches as they go. There may be as many as 100 larvae in each of the five leaflets that comprise the whole leaf. Not surprisingly, the leaf wilts under the onslaught. Thankfully, few trees die, because the damage occurs from mid to late summer, and by then the leaves have done most of their vital photo - <strong>August</strong> 2011 page 33 Contributed
Page 1 and 2: Village Voices The local magazine f
Page 3 and 4: From the Editor Dear friends, I am
Page 5 and 6: Contributed The next stage was long
Page 7 and 8: www.villagevoices.org.uk Super spor
Page 9 and 10: www.villagevoices.org.uk Hollesley
Page 11 and 12: Day Boyton Hollesley Other Places S
Page 13 and 14: Contributed www.villagevoices.org.u
Page 15 and 16: Proud Boyton Voted Best Village! Bo
Page 17 and 18: From Our Country Kitchen The Nordic
Page 19 and 20: Hollesley WI Some of us have been t
Page 21 and 22: a mile. I wasn't in London after al
Page 23 and 24: Angela Lawrence Local MP goes back
Page 25 and 26: www.villagevoices.org.uk August 201
Page 27 and 28: www.villagevoices.org.uk Your Chanc
Page 29 and 30: www.villagevoices.org.uk Fit Villag
Page 31: The removal of the tree canopy in l
Page 35 and 36: From the horse’s mouth Well hello
Page 37 and 38: What a stunner! European Roller on
Page 39: Local Contacts Hollesley Village Ha

August - Village Voices

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?