32 rowan, willow and silver birch, healthy and well established - lost a few, but more than happy with the survivors! First planting November 2015.
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It has always been an ambition of mine to plant a sequoia, that most magnificent of trees - but I have always resisted it, in favour of native species. However, Scotland's climate could be conducive to their growth, and the following argument is persuasive: “Coast redwoods and giant sequoia capture CO2 ten times faster than any other species. “If everyone in Scotland planted one giant sequoia or redwood, they would pay their climate change debt for life.” (David Milarch, of the Michigan-based Archangel Ancient Tree Archive)
In America, where more than 95% of the country’s magnificent redwoods have been lost - the same proportion of Scotland's ancient forest that has been lost. “Because of climate change, all the sequoias in California are going to die eventually, it’s getting too hot and too dry.” There's a connection with naturalist John Muir - the giant sequoia tree lovingly planted in the grounds of his California home in Martinez has stood as a living link with the father of America’s national parks for 130 years. Carried from the mountains of Sierra Nevada as a small sapling wrapped in the pioneering Scot’s dampened handkerchief, in the right conditions it could have lived for 3000 years and soar to 300ft tall. Instead, a fatal combination of the wrong soil, unsuitable climate and a vicious fungal disease clogging its arteries, has sent it into its death throes. Worse still, while efforts to throw it a lifeline by using modern technology to clone it were successful, plans to plant its offspring in the shadow of Muir’s tree were met with silence. “We could create a forest of redwoods in Scotland that would last forever,” said Mr Milarch. Mr Milarch also wants to use his laboratory’s technology to capture the genetic material of some of Scotland’s oldest and most iconic trees – such as the Fortingall Yew in Perthshire, thought to be at least 3,000 years old. I think I might yet fulfil my ambition to plant one - should I? A reminder that many good things come from allotments!
The hive is teeming with all frames full of bees - and brood in all stages (you can see eggs, larvae and capped brood in one of the photos). The new Queen is laying well and there is plenty of pollen and nectar coming in! One super has been added and it will take about 4 or 5 weeks for the newly emerged bees to draw out the comb ready to be filled up with honey. Arriving in November. The allotment is chock-a-block, so October is going to be busy with replanting!
3 wee Scots pines rescued from the midden at Dundreggan in March are doing fine at the allotment!
I had booked to go back up to Glen Affric in October, but it's been cancelled. If considered singular entities, the largest organisms are clonal colonies which can spread over large areas.
Pando, a clonal colony of the quaking aspen tree, is widely considered to be the largest such organism by mass. Even if such colonies are excluded, trees retain their dominance of this listing, with the giant sequoia being the most massive tree. In 2006 a huge clonal colony of Posidonia oceanica was discovered south of the island of Ibiza. At 8 kilometres (5 mi) across, and estimated at around 100,000 years old, it may be one of the largest and oldest clonal colonies on Earth.[ |
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