Botany Outing to Mettray

On Saturday 7 March I participated in a botany outing to the Parc de la Vallée at Mettray, led by Dominique Tessier. He is their biodiversity adviser. Here is a small selection of the 200 photos I took.

 

 Straw Bristle Moss Orthotrichum stramineum.

The Choisille River winds through the park.

Black Stone Flower lichen Parmotrema perlatum (Fr. Fleur de pierre noire) is a widespread species that occurs in temperate climates everywhere. It is used as a spice in India.

A Douglas Fir cone.

An alderfly Sialis sp. Without seeing the abdomen it is not possible to say for sure which species.

Eastern Sycamore Lace Bug Corythucha ciliata (Fr. Tigre du platane). Pick off any piece of London Plane tree bark and you will find one of these non-native bugs lurking on the underside. The species arrived in France in 1975, from America, and is one of the vectors for two deadly fungal diseases of sycamores, to which London Plane Platanus x hispanca is particularly susceptible.

A rosette lichen Physcia sp.

Oakmoss Evernia prunastri, for once not growing on oak, and distinguishable from lookalike species by its mottled white underside. It is best known as being an ingredient for perfumes.

Hooded Tube Lichen Hypogymnia physodes.

Bitter Wart Lichen Lepra amara. I taste tested this patch. Definitely bitter.

The sports club at the main entrance to the park. The junior soccer team were practicing while we were there, and there were quite a few members of the public strolling or dog walking in the park. Several times we were asked about what we were doing and people seemed genuinely interested.

Wrinkled Crust Fungus

Wrinkled Crust Phlebia radiata (Fr. Phlébie rayonnante) is an inedible resupinate* fungus of dead wood in the white rot family. It forms gelatinous lumpy irregular radiating patches about 10 cm across. It can be anything from pale greyish pink to bright orange in colour, depending on age. 

Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere it grows on broadleaf and sometimes conifer trees, especially on oak and beech, and in the case of these photos, taken in the Forest of Preuilly, on birch. It doesn't smell or taste of anything in particular.

*Resupinate means the fungus forms a scab like crust, and is stuck to the wood substrate. It does not have loose or projecting brackets.

La Roche Posay in the Sun

As part of my recovery I'm supposed to be walking 3 kilometres every day, but for the last 6 months that hasn't been possible. It took me ages to recover from radiotherapy, and then we encountered one of the longest unbroken periods of rain on record. And it was winter and grey.

On Sunday I finally managed 3 kilometres, non stop apart from taking photos. It's obvious that spring is here.

Six Snail Secrets

 

1.  The Common Garden Snail is called l'Escargot Petit-gris in French. Its scientific name is Helix conspersa.
2. Snails absorb water through their skin, like a sponge.
3. They don't have a nose. They breath through a hole under their shell.
4. Snails can do 9 metres an hour. Their mucus forms a soft carpet on which they can slide without injuring themselves.
5. Their rasping tongue is covered with thousands of tiny teeth to shred their food into small pieces.
6. Snails sleep all winter in their shells, sealed by a cover of hardened spit.

 

Twenty Years Ago Today

It is twenty years ago today that we made our first home hunting trip to France. This is my report, first blogged in August 2006.

When we decided to actually get serious about France, we started looking in the Charente. We had spent a magic week at Bas' place near Confolens, and naturally this was the first place we looked. Finding a house in our price range wasn't going to be easy though. There were a number of houses shown on the various internet sites, but they were in a condition even more perilous than we were prepared to take on.

Susan at dinner with Bas, Terracher

There were a number of criteria that had to be met. We needed a large garden of at least 2000 square metres for growing our self sufficiency vegetables. It had to have guest accomodation for paying guests. And it had to be in the country, far enough away from a town that it was quiet, but not so far away that the market was inaccessible.

For various reasons, all of them too distant in the past to be able to justify properly, we started looking at a small town called Argenton-Chateau in Deux Sevres. There was a nice large ex-forge overlooking the river which was just about in our price-range. After emailing the immobilier we waited......and waited. After a while, we received an answer, and arranged to see the property. Then 2 days before we were due to leave we received an email saying that it had been sold. We decided to visit Argenton-Chateau anyway, as our flights and accomodation had been booked.

The flight (from Gatwick to Nantes) was delayed by 4 hours and 59 minutes, meaning that we arrived at past 2.00am in France. BA had given us food tokens at Gatwick, but only one restaurant was open (and that soon closed) so I bought about £30 worth of biscuits and bottled water. At Nantes, BA booked us a hotel for free because the car hire place was, understandably, closed.

The house and its view near Thouars

We went to the immobilier in Thouars, who took us to see a couple of properties. The best one was part of a farm complex, the rest of the farm still being in operation . It didn't grab either Susan or myself, even though it wasn't expensive, and the agent said the owners were willing to make a deal. The main problem is both houses were small, and it was out in the sticks. The garden consisted mainly of a huge concrete hardstanding. It had a great view though - a derelict chateau standing (but only just) about 100 metres away. On reflection, we may have been expecting a bit much!

The house at Argenton Chateau

That afternoon, with another agent, we visited a few properties closer to Argenton Chateau. Once again there was no enthusiasm from either of us for any of the properties. I then asked about a property that I had seen advertised, but which filled none of our criteria. It was a house which had been converted into a hairdressers at some time in the past, which stood exactly opposite the church, only 50 metres or so from the Market square.

For some reason this place really appealed. We told the agent we were seriously interested and left for the day. We spent the whole of the next day in and around Argenton Chateau, and on our return to London, decided to make an offer. We rang the agent, decided in consultation with him as to what our offer would be, actually put the offer in - and then the vendor decided not to sell.

This put us both into a bit of a sulk. The next trip was to be more inspiring.

Simon

In hindsight, we are glad we missed out on the house in Argenton. I'm not sure how we would have earned a living, and I suspect the ex-hairdressers was in need of a lot more work than we realised. The other kicker is that Argenton Chateau changed it's name to Argenton-les-Vallées in September 2006, and again to Argentonnay in 2016. I'm not sure I would have kept up.

Foraging for Wild Plants in Spring

With the spring comes the possibility to forage for wild edible plants. This is increasingly trendy and last year's booklet of nature outings published by the Département of Indre et Loire was full of workshops and outings to teach the public how to forage for edible plants and how to prepare them.

 

Autumn Crocus photographed in March.

Part of being able to forage for edible plants is knowing how to correctly identify them and not poison yourself. Between 2020 and 2022 there were 28 cases of poisoning, resulting in four serious cases of liver damage and two deaths, because people mistook toxic Autumn Crocus Colchicum autumnale (Fr. Colchique) leaves for the delicious edible garlic flavoured wild leaf of Ramsons Allium ursinum (Fr. Ail des ours). There is a risk of mistaking Wild Arum and Lily of the Valley for Ramsons too.

People mostly make pesto with Ramsons, but it is also used in salads, sautéed or in quiches. One simple way to tell if you have Ramsons is to rub the leaves between your fingers. This should produce a strong garlic smell. If it doesn't, do not eat your harvest.

 

Ramsons.

Autumn Crocus leaves are stiffer, slightly fleshy, with rounded tips and no stem. Ramsons leaves are pointed ovals, with stems. 

The French Anti Poison Centres recommend the following as best practice:

• make sure you know the plants you harvest well.
• check each leaf for a smell of garlic by rubbing it between your fingers.
• don't cut the leaves in handfuls, to avoid cutting several species at once and mixing the toxic with the edible.
• if you have any doubt about the identification, don't eat it!
• stop eating it immediately if you experience any bitter or unpleasant taste.
• photograph what you pick to facilitate identification in case of poisoning.