The little heatwave at the start of September in Wales seems a long time ago now. In Newborough Forest the heat brought the beautiful flowers of blue fleabane (Erigeron acer) from bud to seedhead within just a few hours.
Blue fleabane (Erigeron acer) flowers opening
As the weather was still and dry, it let the seedheads stand in full fluffiness, looking just as beautiful, and more striking, than the actual flowers.
Blue fleabane flowers and seedheadsBlue fleabane seedheads with a late evening primroseA drift of Erigeron seedheads looking like white flowers
Blue fleabane is more a plant of southern England and Wales, becoming less common to the north and west. So, once again, it’s something we’re lucky to have here. Blue fleabane likes dry conditions and especially likes the edges of the forest roads and rides.
In the damper areas around the forest and on the warren there is also common fleabane – which is larger, has yellow flowers, and is, as the name suggests, more “common”, both locally and nationally.
Newborough: a forest of many trees; and many flowers too:-)
There are a few different species of oak tree in Newborough Forest; one of them is the holm oak (Quercus ilex). I think this is the rarest oak in the forest, I can only think of a handful of them.
The holm oak is an evergreen, it’s sometimes called that – the evergreen oak; it’s also known as the holly oak, because its leaves look a bit like holly leaves. And although holm usually means an island in Wales, like Flat Holm and Skokholm, in the case of the holm oak, it means holly. So, holm oak and holly oak mean exactly the same; as does the scientific name Quercus (oak) ilex (holly).
In winter the holm oaks at Newborough are quite easy to spot – because they keep their leaves on. They look a little bit like a willow tree. Well, actually, they’re not easy to spot because there are so few of them! But if you do find a willow-like tree in the middle of winter with its leaves on, it could be a holm oak. (But it could also be a cotoneaster…a bit of a “baddy”, but quite easily distinguishable up close.)
A young holm oak in Newborough Forest, 2013The same tree 10 years later
Holm oaks are slow growing, so, although a tree you find might be small, it might also be old. They are known to live for more than a thousand years.
In a good year for flowers, they are quite noticeable in June and July with long, dangling, golden catkins (the male flowers). The female flowers are quite discreet, tucked into the angle of the new leaves’ stems.
Holm oak catkins, catching the sunlight, Newborough Forest – the dangling catkins are the male flowers
At Newborough, the holm oak acorns never seem to amount to much. Perhaps because the trees are relatively young – some people say that a holm oak won’t even begin to bear acorns until it is more than 50 years old.
Leaf buds and catkins before they fully openTiny holm oak acorns forming
As is the case with the conker trees, holm oaks are considered “neophytes”: they are known to have been brought to the UK in the 16th Century, but they may also have been here prior to that. They are now “naturalised” in the UK. In Wales, you are most likely to see them growing in church yards and as street or park trees, so having them “wild” in the forest is quite special.
Two of the holm oaks at Newborough are within the area along the postman’s path that Natural Resources Wales is going to be clearing of trees and scrub (again) in the coming months. Hopefully the holm oaks will be spared.
Update October 2023 I’m happy to say that the Sands of Life team have protected the holm oaks during the ongoing clearance works and they have been spared. Although the devastation to such an environmentally sensitive and unique area is extensive, sparing the holm oaks is a small consolation anyway.
Tamarisks were first introduced to the UK in the Sixteenth Century for use by physicians. They have become naturalised, particularly around the south-west coasts of the UK. There are a few “wild” tamarisks in Newborough Forest: they are very beautiful when they flower.
A tamarisk in flower
Tamarisks have sprays of palest pink flowers and little bobble shaped flower buds
In some areas tamarisks are considered a noxious, invasive species, but in Wales, at the limit of their ecological range, they are scarce and untroublesome.
You’d be hard pressed to miss the big, almost luminous yellow flowers of evening primrose throughout Newborough Forest. From June until September they’ll be in flower and then their seed heads will stand well into next year’s flowering season too.
Evening primrose – Oenothera spp. I think it is the large flowered Oenothera glazioviana.
The Evening Primroses are biennial plants: during their first year, they just grow leaves and then in the second year they flower and set seeds. But even the leaves are distinctive and noticeable with their bright red tips contrasting with the green leaf parts.
First year leaves of Evening Primrose
Evening Primrose is an incomer from the United States. It flowers and seeds prolifically and spreads easily on light, sandy soils.
One of the commonest plants on the dunes at Newborough is the sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias). If you see it early in the year, before it forms flowers, it looks more like a sprawling kind of stonecrop than a spurge.
Sea spurge in April
But once the flowers have formed, it’s unmistakably spurge-like.
Sea spurge in flower: like many Euphorbias, it has no petals or sepals.
Newborough Anglesey 