{"id":3921,"date":"2020-11-14T09:14:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T09:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3921"},"modified":"2020-11-18T09:15:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T09:15:30","slug":"the-case-of-the-silent-witnesses-and-the-lawyers-wig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3921","title":{"rendered":"The case of the silent witnesses and the lawyer’s wig"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently my island of green which lies off the coast of the Wakefield city centre has been transformed.\u00a0 Trees have released their leafy loads from the summer skies to form a mosaic of colours and shapes on the landing fields of autumn.\u00a0 Together with being a visual treat there are also the unmistakable sounds, which keep in step as we walk through deep layers of fallen leaves.\u00a0 This year this is amplified by a mass percussion section of snapping and crunching acorns under foot.\u00a0 Many will be taken by jays and other wildlife.\u00a0 Some will soon start to germinate to provide future generations of the nation\u2019s favourite tree the oak.\u00a0 The leaves will be collected by a silent army of worms and other allies.\u00a0 Taken to underground bunkers to help form and improve tomorrow\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n

Another silent witness is the field maple, which has suddenly come forward to show its autumn glories. \u00a0In summer the leaves get their colour from a green pigment called chlorophyll.\u00a0 In autumn as the leaves die the chemical balance of this and other pigments changes to expose the beautiful yellows and golds. \u00a0The attached photo shows a single leaf still attached to a tree at Brandy Carr. \u00a0A small to medium size tree and hedgerow shrub the field maple is our only native maple.\u00a0 It is a most valuable landscape and wildlife tree. The early flowers are a timely source of nectar and pollen for insects.\u00a0 Aphids feed on the leaves that in turn attract bluetits and other birds, together with insects such as hoverflies and ladybirds. \u00a0In addition the seeds are eaten by small mammals.\u00a0 Also, the timber is prized by wood-turners and carvers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

field maple at Brandy Carr<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday during my local walk I noticed my silent witnesses have coincidentally arrived with the emergence of a fungus called Lawyer\u2019s Wig. \u00a0In part this may be because when young the shaggy white scales on the cap of the fungus may resemble a lawyer\u2019s wig .\u00a0 Also, it is perhaps more commonly known as shaggy ink cap and the attached photo show the fungus growing in a grass verge at Carr Gate.\u00a0 It shows the cap of the fruiting body is beginning to self-digest quickly dissolving into a blacky inky slime.\u00a0 Indeed, during the 17th<\/sup> and 18th<\/sup> centuries it is believed the liquid may have been used for making legal documents and bank notes, because the lack of any fungal spores may otherwise have suggested a forgery.<\/p>\n

\"shaggy<\/a>

shaggy ink cap at Carr Gate<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently my island of green which lies off the coast of the Wakefield city centre has been transformed.\u00a0 Trees have released their leafy loads from the summer skies to form a mosaic of colours and shapes on the landing fields … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,18],"tags":[445,57,455],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3924,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions\/3924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}