Photos from walk on Thursday 18th August from Streatley Ridgeway to Aldworth via the golf club & The Holies

This week’s word: dryad. If you don’t know what dryads are, read carefully, the answer is here somewhere.

The climb up Goring and Streatley golf course.

Polyporus squamosus, commonly referred to as Dryad’s Saddle, grows in overlapping clusters and tiers on broad-leaved trees. (A dryad is a mythical wood-nymph.) The fruit bodies appear in summer and autumn. Insects quickly devour these large brackets, and in warm weather they can decay from full splendour to almost nothing in just a few days.

Climbing nightshade in the hedge. Eating not advised.

Solanum dulcamara is a species of vine in the genus Solanum (which also includes the potato and the tomato) of the family Solanaceae. Common names include bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade. (so now you know)

Blackberries. Probably okay to eat.

To the Bell.

After the Bell

There’s no name for this landmark stand of trees (that I can find)

The field on the right, beside the walkers, was bare soil, with lots of these plants: Musk mallow, which has pretty pink flowers that can be seen along roadside verges, hedgerows and field margins in summer. It lives up to its name, producing a delicate, musky smell that increases indoors. They also seemed to be attracting lots of bees.