Tags
Dobgill, Dobgill Wood, foxglove, fungus, heath bedstraw, larch trees, liverwort, moss, Phytophthora ramorum disease, tree-felling, walking, waterfall, wood sorrel
After leaving Elinor in the car to rest (see previous post Thirlmere Reservoir) Richard and I began the steep climb up to see the waterfall.
The sign that was attached to the gate leading into the upper wood.
This is yet another disease that is killing our trees. I have found an interesting and informative article on a Forestry Commission site about Ramorum disease and I include it here. It includes a video in which an expert goes over a diseased tree and points out and explains the symptoms.
Almost the first tree I saw showed symptoms of a bleed.
Tree-felling in Dobgill wood.
I don’t know why the stone wall was here. Perhaps it had been constructed before the trees were planted. Just behind the trees in the photo is a sheer rock face.
There was a marked difference between the wood below the car-park near the lake and this part of the higher wood.
The trees struggle to grow up between boulders. The native deciduous trees have been left standing.
Chewed fungus
This is the steep stony path we took up through the wood.
Dobgill Falls
Dobgill Falls
Dobgill Falls
The climb was very tiring because so steep and rough under-foot and I’m not sure that the falls were really worth the struggle to get to see them. However, Richard and I were very pleased with ourselves at having managed to get to the top. After a short rest to get our breath back we began to walk back down the hill.
Heath Bedstraw (Galium saxatile)
Hypnum cupressiforme moss / Cypress-leaved Plait-moss
I love this moss. It looks as though it is made from plaited silk.
Wood Sorrel leaves (Oxalis acetosella)
Fungus (I think) on dead tree
Not a very clear photo of some liverwort
Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) in Dobgill Wood
I found walking in this upper wood rather a sad experience with disease and death all around. Because most of the trees in this part of the wood are non-native there are fewer insects, birds, wild flowers and plants than in the lower wood. Those non-native trees are now being killed by an incurable disease (also known as Sudden Oak Death). I hope that by destroying these trees the spread of Ramorum can be slowed down and that one day a cure can be discovered. It would be nice to think that the native trees in the wood that are unaffected might now be able to grow and spread and native wildlife might return.
Thanks for visiting!
A Suffolk Lane 
Not the most cheery outing of your holiday.
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A little gloomy I must admit.
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Oh Clare, I had not heard of this larch disease, I’ve just followed your link and will look out for it. Your photo of the steep slope up is a cracking image, I can imagine pushing my hands into my knees to get myself up that. We have some non native woods near here, that are a sterile place, we rarely see birds or insects. I am in a muddle with Sudden Oak Death, I need to read the blurb through properly to understand the extent of it. Thanks for sharing this.
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Thank-you Julie. We first heard of Ramorum when we considered getting a larch tree for our garden. We decided against getting one because of the risk of spreading the disease. I only recently found out that this pathogen causes diseases in so many different trees, shrubs and smaller plants. Sudden Oak Death is causing havoc in the States and the culprit is this same Ramoren disease. So far, our native oaks don’t seem to be affected. Lavinia comments that she can’t grow sage as it is killed off by this pathogen in a couple of years.
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Sometimes I think that it’s a wonder that we have any trees left at all. They seem to have so much going against them at times.
I had to chuckle at your thoughts on the climb to the falls. They never seem to be easy to get to and there’s always a lot of huffing and puffing going on. Quite often I find that it was barely worth the effort.
I think your fungus is a brittle cinder fungus (Kretzschmaria deusta.) It’s a good thing it was on a dead tree because it’s another rot causing fungus.
The liverwort was a great find!
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Thank-you Allen. I am grateful for the fungus ID. It looked as though identification would be easy with it’s grey and white pattern but I couldn’t find it in my books. Yes, our trees are having such a bad time – almost all of them seem to be threatened by one disease or another. I hope cures can be found in time.
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I went through the same thing with trying to identify that fungus. It changes dramatically as it ages.
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No wonder I couldn’t find it! My books are very basic ones and I wasn’t sure where to start when I tried to research on-line.
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We have Phythopthera here too, and it is a real problem for oaks. I did not know it attacked larches, but there are none of those here in my area. We had lots of larches back east. Phytopthera is one of the reasons I cannot grow sage as a perennial here, even though winters tend to be mild. No problem back east, but here the plants die after one or two seasons.
Our hemlocks back east were being killed off by the wooley adelgid.
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Thank-you Lavinia. I had not heard that sage was affected too. In Britain, we are most concerned at the moment with Ash die-back. Most of these problems have been brought about by careless exporting and importing of plants and trees. Why we in Britain should import thousands of Ash trees for example, when we have our own native trees is beyond my comprehension. This is a sad business.
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It’s so sad to see that like humans, trees suffer with disease too…but they don’t have doctors. Speaking of doctors, please be safe on these hikes, Clare. Thank you for the education today. Enjoy your weekend!
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Thank-you Jill. There are plenty of scientists working on cures for these plant diseases but the chances are that the trees will die out first. Richard and I are quite careful on our hikes and plan them well beforehand. Thank-you so much for your concern ❤ Have a lovely weekend too!
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Still lovely photos form a good walk in the forest. here the pine beetles is killing lots of trees. It is hard breaking to watch indeed. I hope Elinor had a good rest? Have a great weekend, Johanna.
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Yes she did! Thank-you Johanna! Enjoy your weekend too xx
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And we have kauri dieback in New Zealand. 😦 http://www.kauridieback.co.nz/kauri-dieback
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Oh Ann, this is so sad! How will we manage without our lovely trees?
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And some of our kauri are so very very old. Reading about the bleeding made me concerned about the bleeding on some of my trees. Apparently that is caused by a borer and is incredibly hard to get rid of. Interestingly the borer only seems to be in the root stock of the tree.
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How strange! Perhaps the root stock hasn’t had resistance to attack bred into it. It probably tastes nicer!
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Yes, probably!
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Your photos were excellent but sorry to read about the tree disease. Phythopthera or dieback is a big problem here in Australia. We have cleaning stations at the entrance points to many of our national parks around here so that our shoes are disinfected before and after walks. It can cause devastation to our native trees. It sounded like a challenging walk. I do hope you weren’t too sore afterwards. The Falls look quite lovely though, Clare. 🙂
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Thank-you Jane. I was really surprised to see that there were no cleansing stations anywhere. These trees are big business but of course the Forestry Commission is government subsidised and they will get financial help (from our taxes!) if it all goes very wrong. When we have had outbreaks of swine flu, bird flu, foot and mouth disease etc there are stringent measures taken to stop the spread of disease. But in these cases it is farmers’ livelihoods at risk and also human lives too. I don’t think our politicians are taking these tree and plant diseases seriously enough. We found the climb quite hard work but it wasn’t a long climb so we didn’t experience any aches and pains afterwards!
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I would say that the views of the falls were worth the hike, but then, I’m not the one who had to climb the rock stairway. 😉
We have a number of different species of trees being killed off by different invasive pests or diseases, mostly hemlock and ash trees, which is a sad thing when you see it. I also hope that they find ways of limiting the damage being done to our forests on both sides of the pond.
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Thank-you Jerry. It seems as though every year we discover yet another plant or tree or creature under threat from some disease or pest. I was surprised to see that despite the warning signs there were no cleansing stations anywhere for shoes etc. I think the authorities need to take this much more seriously than they have done so far.
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Love the photos! And despite tree disease, it looked like a great walk:)
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Thank-you! It was. 🙂
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I loved the photos Clare and it did look like a wonderful walk up to the falls despite the sadness of the tree disease. It’s so interesting to me reading all these comments from all over the world how we all struggle with this. We have beautiful and huge live oaks in Florida and although the disease Oak Wilt is not here yet, it is in many southern states and is a huge concern that it will reach us soon. It would change the landscape here completely, much in the way I remember my childhood landscape in England being completely changed by Dutch Elm.
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Yes I remember England before we lost the elms. We are now threatened with Ash Die-back which they say will wipe out all Ash trees in the next 25 years unless they find an antidote.
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