National Tree week - the willow and bumblebees

It is National Tree week in the UK from from 25th November - 3rd December 2023 so I have decided to blog about some of my favourite trees telling some of the stories attached to them. This is a blog about a willow tree that I was attracted to from the moment I visited the wood. This week I will publish blogs about the three mature oaks at the wood, a hawthorn I know as Agnes, in praise of gorse and recognise the hard working yews. Check back in to see the other blogs which celebrate trees during Tree Week.

https://treecouncil.org.uk/seasonal-campaigns/national-tree-week/

This particular tree at Bel's Wood I  loved at first sight. When I first was getting to know the site this tree stood out - tall, symmetrical, elegant and did I say tall?



I soon found that I could sit in her and watch birds and wildlife. I wasn't sure what tree she was but took many photographs. 


She woke up that first spring in mid March with this pussy willow emerging so suddenly the the sunshine. I gave her the name Willowmena.

 






    

My best guess from using various apps and books is that Willowmena is a Goat Willow with a more oval shaped leaf than most other willow trees.

This wonderful flowering so early in the year attracted the newly emerging queen bumblebees for their first feeds. Through a neighbour I was introduced to the extraordinary life cycle of the bumblebee and read 'A Sting in the Tale' by David Goulson which I recommend to anyone whether interested in bumblebees or not. I discovered that queen bees from the summer hibernate on their own over winter then emerge to find a nest for their offspring. They make pods from pollen for the fertilized eggs which she sits on until they hatch. She also makes a cup for nectar that she has collected so she can survive during this period as she cannot leave the nest. It is an amazing story. It is exciting to hear the first buzz of the year as the queens fly around the tree. The fact that you don't hear that sound all winter has been forgotten and then there it is in late February early March each year.


One of the goals for planting Bel's Wood it to support and broaden biodiversity. Cultivating nectar producing trees across the longest season should support this and I will be planting 210 willow saplings in this area of the wood which is boggy which willows like. 

There was another fine specimen close to Willowmena which had been showing some signs of aging with horses hoof fungus growing on its trunk. When Storm Arwen arrived in November 2021 it completely exploded with branches laid 360ยบ around the stump. As other storms have arrived more of the remain trunk has been blown off. 






This gives another example of the concept of a 'senile wood'. The land has fine mature specimens but there is no natural regeneration occurring. Excluded the grazing animals both domestic and wild will support natural regeneration while protecting the planted saplings. While those saplings are growing I shall continue to value the fine specimens including Willowmena.


Full harvest moon rising





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