I photographed the vegetable garden and orchard on 3 June.
Dog Sick Slime Mould Mucilago crustacea.
This is probably the commonest slime mould of all and I see it frequently in the orchard. Within a day or two it turns black.
Splendour Beetle Ptosima undecimmaculata.
This is the first Bupestrid (Jewel) beetle I have ever recorded in the orchard and I have always been surprised not to see them, since they are wood borers. This one is a known pest of cherries and I found it under a cherry tree.
Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae and the hover fly Eupeodes luniger on
Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis.
The Pyramidal Orchids are sprinkling themselves over the orchard and vegetable garden. All sorts of insects love them. They must offer a lot of nectar.
Pyramdal Orchids.
The Pyramidal Orchids are also providing a rich hunting ground for at least one crab spider Misumena vatia. Can you see her with her hover fly prey?
The vegetable garden.
As you can see there isn't much sign of vegetables, but the phacelia and the poppies are magnificent. It has been too wet and not warm enough to plant anything out.
7 comments:
Is "Dog Sick" your name or the common name?
We get loads in the verger, too!!
No Pyramids for us this year...some bleedin' limace ate the flower stalks... but the bee orchids... wow!
And I think we've now got a Broad-leaved Helleborine....
big rounded leaves [most flat at the tip...mowed] and purpley stems...now around 40cm tall and still growing... the flowerhead on the longest is just beginning to be visible...still within a large rosette of leaves still to come!!
We managed to get the potager tidy at last yesterday...
we'ze knackked!
Dog Sick Slime Mould is the widely used English name. Fingers crossed for Epipactis helleborine!
Well, that is nice, I now have a name for the ghastly looking stuff...although, to me, it looks like the biblical "manna from heaven".... but, having had dawgz and cleared up sick...it will always be "Dog Sick Slime Mould".
It will go very well with that translucent green fungus that comes out of the path... "Green Wibbly-bit Fungus".... so named because it matches exactly the bits of vole inside that Baron leaves by the front door...or in the middle of the floor if we've been so crass as to leave one or both doors open!!
Just to have a drive that was different, we went via Humeau on the way back from The Rich Posers yesterday...
never been along there, slowly, in June...
marvellous showing of Fragrants and a 16 flower Red Helleborine by the "widest horizontal walnut in the world"... and another beside the 2nd bat cave. Both right near the road!!
I have never seen the dog slick mould before, but we got it for the first time the other day, on some succulents in a stone trough. Quite unmistakable. Down here in the Charente Maritime after a hot week the vegetables have suddenly taken off; Finally! They are so late this year. Join me on a tour of my garden on my blog this afternoon.
Green Wibbly-bit Fungus is actually an algae isn't it?
Good to hear the Red Helleborines are out along there. I haven't been for a week or so. The Kew guys had a great time while they were here but we didn't need to use that site.
I thought you must have a blog, but there is no link to it on your blogger profile, so I had to do a search for 'our french oasis'. That revealed that you are another Susan :-)
We finally got our plants set out in the garden last week, just before the current round of rain and chilly weather. Let's hope for the best. It's hard to believe that this is mid-June.
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