8 Comments
Sep 29, 2023Liked by Paul Wood

Of all the crap things that are happening to nature, this has hit home more than anything else recently. I lived on Tyneside for 15 years and walked parts of Hadrian's Wall regularly and had the pleasure of meeting this tree about half a dozen times and was hoping to do so again. I can't get my head around why someone would deliberately do this but they have and it hurts.

I like sycamores, they were one of the first trees my parents told me about when I was a child (along with horse chestnut and beech). To see spinng jennies helicoptering to the ground in autumn is still a joyful thing.

Expand full comment
author

I love that you call the samaras 'Spinning Jennies' Phil, I'd not heard that description before. They will be missed on Hadrian's Wall this year...

Expand full comment
Oct 1, 2023Liked by Paul Wood

I didn't realise that Spinning Jennies wasn't "the" common name Paul. It's in common use in my part of Lancashire/Greater Manchester but I suppose it makes sense that there would be regional names for samaras like there are for all sorts of things.

Expand full comment
author

Connected to the region's industrial and textile past perhaps?

Expand full comment
Oct 6, 2023Liked by Paul Wood

That was my thought. There is a Spinning Jenny Way in the nearby town of Leigh that commemorates the industrial past but I'm not sure if there are many or any sycamores by the road but I'll go and look next time I visit.

Expand full comment

This is such sad news, it’s a gut punch in a week of gut punches (rose bank)

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
author

I'm very fond of sycamores, and the lack of biodiversity is a myth, it's true they don't support very many specific species that must have sycamore, but they do support an abundance of more generalist bats, insects, birds, lichens, mosses and fungi. The non-native thing is effectively a slur, as while they do not occur in the post glacial pollen record, they act like natives.

Expand full comment

He had a 60yo "helper" - the police have both in for discussions. I think charges have been laid.

Expand full comment