The changing nature of our countryside?

It isn't directly linked to horticultural gardening, but it is indirectly.

I was looking through some old photos of the local area a few days ago and noticed how much everything has changed, maybe for a few different reasons, the two main ones being a general increasing temperature, and a wider availability of plants.

30-40 years ago if you walked down a path in a woodland area around here you would see lots of oak, birch, ash and sycamore trees, with generally nothing else in woodland. In winter it would be truly deciduous, there would perhaps be the odd Hedera helix (Common Ivy) climbing or sprawling along the ground or on walls, some clumps of Rhododendron on estates and some widespread colonisation of Ulex (Gorse) around coasts, but nothing much.

Now if you fast forward 40 years, now you have evergreen trees, Hedera hibernica which have adapted to a Winter growth season. Holly has increased massively with swathes of countryside now populated with Holly and Rhododendron woodland. You then have fairly new (but small at this current time) populations of Prunus laurocerasus (Cherry Laurel), and Quercus ilex (Evergreen Oak) from the Mediterranean regions.

Indeed where I live I have seen the introduction of species which are starting to take hold.. the most recent and rampant introduction is Berberis darwinii which is beginning to take hold in heathland fringes and stone walls.

Other exotic plants that would not have stood a chance of naturalising in most places 30 years ago but are found in certain situations include Laurus nobilis (Bay Laurel), Viburnum tinus, Arbutus unedo, Escallonia rubra and Aucuba japonica, Fatsia japonica, and surprisingly Cordyline australis. Surprisingly these have self seeded into areas outside of gardens by natural means (ie not having been planted by man). There are countless other perennials etc which have naturalised as well, having been introduced by man (Buddleia, Himalayan Balsam etc etc)

Does this set a future president for the shape of our woodland with a increasingly warming trend in general (of course taking into account the odd spell of severe cold which cannot be discounted)?

It seems to me that our countryside is changing, and our gardens have a lot to do with it, this change is most obvious in suburban parkland at the moment, but this is a trend that is spreading into the countryside.. at least around here. What would be interesting is whether this is a general evolution of plant types .. a kind of successional change if you like, which may easily be halted by a cooling trend.

Photos below showing how Hedera hibernica (Irish Ivy), which was largely absent from around here, has changed our woodland areas to one of a more verdent winter landscape, decorating the bare deciduous trees having spread from Southwest England and Ireland:

 

Interesting idea Stephen, but to me it hasn't really got anything to do with a warming trend, its more about the availability of plants to gardeners that then escape and naturalise.

I can remember years ago, 30 or more, trying to track down Yucca species, most garden centres didn't stock them, they were specialist plants that the ordinary bloke down the road didn't grow.

Palms and cordylines were almost impossible to find, and most books told you they were tender with winter minimums of 5C.

Olive was non existent in ordinary gardens.

I tend to think your part of the country has always had milder winters than we get down here.

 

Yes I think availability is the main reason, it's fascinating to see nevertheless, and our generally mild climate supports it. When I think of the plants that have very recently starting naturalising around the area(s), I notice that it has done whereas they didn't previously. Still that maybe because more varieties are being introduced, that are hardier and more tolerant of our inclement climate.

Still in one sense it's nice to see, in the other hand, someone who prefers a completely British countryside look may not be so accepting.

 

The evolution of countryside thing really fascinates me too.

There are many factors that influence the countryside. Some obvious, some less so.

An obvious one is land management. If you cut down a mature pine for timber for example, you let a lot of sunlight through for plants that previously struggled. Also if a farmer fertilises his land, then the rain washes half that fertiliser away, it has to go somewhere and may well increase the fertility of a patch of countryside, making it hospitable to plants that would otherwise not thrive. Then as we pour more and more tarmac and concrete everywhere, rain water has to go somewhere, so maybe previously relatively dry areas become wetter, changing the range of plants that thrive.

Then there's natural evolution. Notof a species, but of the land itself. Near me there is an expanse of sand dunes. I can clearly remember when I was a kid, they were mostly just sand and a few patches of coarse grass and little else. Now the whole area is barely recognisable as sand dunes, because it's covered in different grasses and wild flowers, and even shrubs and small trees in places. Nobody planted it up. If they had, their efforts would have failed utterly, being planted in loose bone dry sand, permanently shifting with the wind, and routinely battered by every storm coming in off the sea. But what happens is those few patches of coarse grass that I remember from my childhood live out their life cycle, then die. The roots and foliage of those 'pioneer' plants decompose, adding bulky organic matter to the loose sand. Slowly, the sand becomes sandy soil at the top few millimetres, and then seeds carried on the wind or by the birds might grow. Then you get the dandelions and trefoils and other tough characters. The new flowers bring in more insects, which the birds hunt, thus bringing in more birds, which means more bird poo with undigested seeds in it. Then slowly, but not that slowly, the sand becomes sandy soil becomes rich fertile ground. WhenI was little the dunes were fun for playing in, but quite barren.Now, at any time other than winter it is on my top 5 most beautiful places list. It is like the garden of Eden. Rich and diverse with flowers and birds and insects.

Such evolution of land happens everywhere. Perhaps willow and reeds take over a soggy patch, slowly drying it. Perhaps a blackthorn thicket strangles itself off in the centre, leaving a protected area where other trees can establish without being bothered by deer. Perhaps some brambles colonise a river bank, binding it up so other plants can take hold without being washed away next time the river swells.

Then there's natural plant evolution. I've seen it happen in my own garden in a very short time (in evolutionary terms). I bought a packet of nasturtium seeds about 10 or 15 years ago. The plants that grew were utterly destroyed by the first mild frost. But I kept seeds off them, and then off the next generation and so on. Now I have nasturtium, descendants of that packet I bought years ago, that survive fairly hard frosts. I'm pretty sure the same is true of other plants, in that even without human intervention, natural selection favours the plant that fairs best in its environment. I'm not denying climate change, but while the climate is changing in a way that favours certain plants, so the plants are changing in a way that suits the environment.

Then of course there's the obvious human influence. But are we meddling? Or are we simply doing as nature intended? We're not clever enough to know for certain, but if we accept that we are just animals, and the look at how other animals influence their environment, we have to consider the possibility that we're just part of the machine. Way before humans evolved, plants have beenadapting to propagate and increase their area of coverage by any means they can. Some pack their seeds in sweet food so that the birds carry their seeds. Some put parachutes on their seeds so they blow on the wind. Some cast off near water courses so their seeds travel on the water. Some have exploding seed pods. Some take advantage of ground cleared by fire, some are programmed to wait several years while a tough shell decomposes, so that conditions might be right when they germinate. Some take advantage of the fact that squirrels will carry off and then bury their seeds. I wonder, is it illogical to assume that nature would not similarly take advantage of a monkey that climbed down from the trees and developed an interest in global migration ?

 

We have very few ash trees because of the emerald ash borer imported from...

We have very few elm trees because 50 years ago we went through a siege of dutch elm disease

We still have lots of native vegetation left but it is getting challenged by things like giant hogweed

It is not global warming, it is migration, at least that is how I see it.

Would be interesting to know what plant everyone has in common. Probably something horrible like poison ivy!

 

I read somewhere that in Australia they have a problem with gorse, after British colonists took it there to serve as a drought tolerant hedgerow shrub.

I doubt if there's an invasive plant that we all have in common, simply because plants are mostly matched to an environment, and globally there is so much diversity of conditions.

 

Dandelions????

 

Dandelions

I have a Kindle Gardening book
It advises "Americans" how to cultivate Dandelions, what feed, when to harvest lol
excellent for Salads both flower and Leaf

Jack McH

 

We don't have Dandelions here ... or they are a rarity. You can buy seeds for them however to cultivate as Jack says.