Regeneration

Not for the first time but here's another example of something close to my heart and also pertinent following the recent storms.

I remember this toppled hazel  with its root plate  lifted 90 degrees to the ground from a few years ago. Fortunately no one came along to clear it away and evidently enough of its roots remained attached to the ground for it to carry on living.  But with the angle to the ground altered, the new shoots changed direction accordingly and sprang up to create a fan of fresh growth reaching for the light.

Not all fallen trees can be left where they are  of course but even if they are completely severed with no chance of regeneration they become reservoirs of new life forms. On my walk today I found an abundance of dead wood brought down by recent or previous storms, with fungi taking advantage of the remaining nutrients. First extra shows a birch bracket, Piptosporus betulinus,  which has had  a multiplicity of medicinal uses from prehistoric times (see here), and the second is, I think Hydnochaete olivacea,  brown-toothed crust fungus.


It was raining lightly for the entire time we (the dog and I) were out but it didn't diminish our interest in  what was to be found. Her nose and ears, and my eyes, combined to extract the essence of the winter woods: life, death, life after death.

(A few squirrels were chased but all got away.)