A water plantain growing in the canal at Wightwick. I took these pictures from the same spot as the one of the canalside ribwort plantain (yesterday’s post).
Water plantains and ribwort plantains are not actually closely related. Water plantains were given the epithet because their leaves are somewhat similar to those of the others.
A green shield bug, its predominant colour an almost perfect match for the leaf it was resting on.
A ribwort plantain growing by the canal, its long stem and distinctive flower almost overhanging the water.
I first took a few pictures of this small cluster of lurid boletes about four weeks earlier than this set. At that time, the mushrooms must have only recently emerged. Passing them again, their surfaces were more or less completely covered with a mould, or perhaps a fungus, living on them. Do the changes of colour perhaps show that there is more than one species of parasite present.
Judas tree seed pods turning delicate colours as they begin to ripen. These were on the tree next to the West Park Conservatory.
Red squirrels have been edged out of most of Britain, displaced by greys originally from north America. They are still in Scotland, on Brownsea Island in Portland bay, on the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly. And, of course, on mainland Europe.
That’s where we saw this one, in the gardens of the Alhambra Palace in Granada (a long time ago). It was yet another squirrel which was used to being fed, and came closer rather than fleeing when people were around.