Red Granite 1

Posted on May 18, 2013 by winderjssc

The Sausage Tree

Posted on May 16, 2013 by winderjssc

What weird fruits! The Sausage Tree [Kigelia africana (Lam.) Benth.] is aptly named. Strangely, the flesh of these seemingly appetising fruits, whether ripened or not, is toxic to humans. The exception is that in real hard times the seeds can be roasted and eaten. Also, the fruits can be dried and fermented along with the bark to provide a flavour enhancer for traditional beers.

However, every other part of the tree can be used in some kind of herbal medicine for conditions such as digestive and respiratory complaints, and for treating infections and wounds. Currently, investigations are being carried out to determine the potential of the tree to provide source materials for use as anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-tumour agents. Extracts from the tree are already being made up into lotions that are commercially available for treating skin disorders.

The photographs in this Post were taken at Cairns Botanical Gardens in Queensland, Australia where this is an introduced tree used for ornamental purposes. The species actually hails from tropical Africa where is grows wild in riverine rainforests, wooded grassland, savannah, and forest margins. In it’s native habitat, the Sausage Tree is considered sacred and is often protected from felling.

The tree can grow from 2.5 to 18 metres high. It has beautiful red tubular flowers with yellow veins. These have a distinct smell described as strongly unpleasant or musky. The flowers only open at night and are pollinated by blossom-feeding bats and hawk moths. The fertilised flowers develop into the sausage-shaped fruits that grow to lengths of between 30 and 90 cm long and to 7.5 to 10 cm in diameter.

By coincidence, 23thorns has also written about the Sausage Tree and it’s magical properties. Do go over and have a look – it is very entertaining.

Reference

Kew Royal Botanic Gardens Website

Natural Rock Patterns: Lithologic Series 1-12

Posted on May 16, 2013 by winderjssc

Patterns of iron-stained calcite deposited on the surface of quarried limestone on the Isle of Portland – which is part of the UK’s Jurassic Coast.

Septarian Nodules at Ringstead

Posted on May 15, 2013 by winderjssc

What is a septarian nodule? Well, basically, it is a big boulder containing a three dimensional jig-saw of smaller angular pieces of the same rock – and all the pieces are bound together with white crystalline calcite. I can’t do better than to quote the definition given in The Oxford Dictionary of Earth Science:

A concretion, roughly spheroidal in shape, usually of clay ironstone, and characterised by an internal structure of angular blocks separated by radiating mineral-filled blocks. The mineral filling the cracks is usually calcite. The structure results from the formation of a hard exterior to the nodule due to the development of an aluminous gell on the exterior, followed by dehydration of the colloidal mass in the interior, leading to cracking and subsequent infilling of the radiating pattern of cracks.

The British Regional Geology Series for the area indicates that the Ringstead Waxy Clays, which are virtually at the top of the Corallian Beds of the Upper Jurassic strata, comprise about 5 metres of clay with thin seams of clay ironstone that are nodular in places. It seems very possible that the septarian nodules are from this source. The Ringstead Waxy Clay is also the deposit in which numerous fossil oysters, Deltoideum (Liostrea) delta, are found [mentioned elsewhere in Jessica's Nature Blog and also on the sister site Oysters etc.]

References

Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences, Edited by Michael Allaby, Oxford University Press, first published 1990, third edition 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-921194-4

The Hampshire Basin and adjoining areas, R. V. Melville and E. C. Freshney (1982), British Regional Geology Series, Fourth Edition, Institute of Geological Sciences, HMSO, ISBN 0-11-884203-x.

Rainforest Fruit Bats

Posted on May 15, 2013 by winderjssc

Images 1-3 show Fruit Bats (Flying Foxes, Pteropus spp.) right in the town centre at Cairns, Queensland, Australia, roosting in trees with traffic and people all around. Images 3-6 show Spectacled Flying Foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus) in the actual rainforest, the Daintree, at Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland. Both colonies might be conspicillatus but shadows obscure the features of the Cairns bats so it is not possible to say with certainty they are Spectacled.

The short videos below show the colonies of bats. The first clip shows bats in Cairns making a hullabaloo as they squabble and jostle for space with the sound of traffic all around. The movie was taken around the middle of the day. I was not only very surprised to find a colony above the busy streets but amazed at the noise they made.

The second and third clips show bats roosting in the Daintree at Cape Tribulation. They are waking up, preening, yawning, and stretching, getting ready for flying out en masse at dusk. Here the setting was more peaceful. However, both colonies of bats made a spectacular cacophonous show as they flew out to forage for food when the sun set. A fantastic show for diners sitting out every evening. [Apologies for the wrong orientation of the clips but you can see the action regardless].

Sea Belt Seaweed or Poor Man’s Weatherglass

Posted on May 14, 2013 by winderjssc

For more information about Sea Belt or Poor Man’s Weatherglass seaweed – Laminaria saccharina (Linnaeus) Lamouroux – see the earlier Postings about this species on Jessica’s Nature Blog.

Strandline Seaweeds at Ringstead Bay

Posted on May 14, 2013 by winderjssc

Many UK shorelines are characterised by the wealth of seaweeds that colonise them. These seaweeds are as often likely to become detached from where they have settled and subsequently wash ashore, sometimes in great profusion and abundance. The textures and colours are varied with representatives of many groups – often with species of brown (Phaeophyceae), green (Chlorophyceae), and red (Rhodophyceae) marine algae. They contribute to a great multi-coloured strandline along the waters’ edge and provide the average beachcomber with an opportunity to discover and appreciate varieties of algae normally well out of reach.