Dorset Surprises And Delights

Having visited the Dorset coast regularly over the last few years you begin to think that you've probably seen all the Monkey Puzzles there are to see, except of course any newly planted ones. However, such complacency was blown away on me and Nat's recent visit! What was really surprising was that all of the trees we saw were on roads we have driven on many times before on our visits, covering the stretch from Weymouth via Portland to Bridport.

Portland Road- Weymouth

Lanehouse Rocks Road -  Weymouth

Buxton Road - Weymouth

Garston Hill - Chickerell

West Street - Chickerell

The only down side of the trip was discovering the beautiful tree in Wool (post here) close to Monkey World had sadly died. The whole tree had turned brown and was clearly dead.

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 576

Two More Trees - One Has Been 'Decapitated'

Another drive to just get out and about during the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in 2 new Monkey Puzzle trees being spotted. Both being close together on Friern Barnet Lane, North London. However, as is clear in the photo below the first one we spotted had a large part of its growth drastically cut at the top. This is not the first time we'd seen this type of awful vandalism by people, these 2 trees in Camarthen and this 1 in Ruislip. being earlier examples. The interesting thing about this latest tree was that despite its poor treatment it still had managed to produce a female (seed) cone! This led to me and Nat thinking that the cutting of the tree must have been recent. However, checking later on Google Maps Street View resulted in the surprise discovery that the tree was in the exact same stage of growth, with the top removed, back in 2008. Not only that but in 2019 there was a large number of seed cones present! So now I have a big question to find an answer to, can a Monkey Puzzle carry on living despite such vandalism or is it just a very slow death and the cones are the tree's last gasp at spreading its genetic material before it finally gives up the ghost? If I find an answer I'll post it on the blog.

The other tree as can be seen looks healthy and growing unmolested as all trees should, whether they're a Monkey Puzzle or any other species of tree.

151a Friern Barnet Ln

95 Friern Barnet Ln

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 571

A Lockdown Monkey Puzzle Tree

As we were finally permitted to travel further afield during the Covid-19 pandemic me and Nathalie decided to spend the afternoon walking in Epping Forest. As wed rove back we came across this lovely Monkey Puzzle tree in Grange Park.

Old Park Ridings
Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 569

Another Tree For Devon

A wonderful holiday in Dorset was topped off when a quick trip across the 'border' to Devon led to the spotting of this tree in Sidmouth.

Sidmouth

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 568

(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea!

Reading The Guardians' article about what the new trends are at this year's Chelsea Flower Show I was delighted to read:

"In years past, a single tree has dominated Chelsea, from the multi-stemmed birch to the gnarled olive. It seems 2019 is the year of the monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana), which showed up in Jonathan Snow’s Undiscovered Latin America garden, and Sarah Eberle’s Resilience garden for the Forestry Commission."

Sadly I will not be visiting the show (no ticket/not that interested) so will not get to see them except maybe on TV, however as the trees are not permanent they would not count towards my total so it's not that bad. Having said that it is great to see the Monkey Puzzle making such a comeback and hopefully will help see a resurgence in its use throughout the UK.

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 567

We're All Going To The Zoo Tomorrow...

Truth be told I didn't actually go to the Zoo or indeed am not planning to go tomorrow or any other day, there's something about caging wild animals that doesn't really appeal to me. I'd much rather support those who rescue animals and try to give them some kind of 'normal' life, like the incredible Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, but out and out Zoos really aren't my thing. However, as I was walking around Regents Park the other day with Nat I happened to spy over the fence 5 well established Monkey Puzzles that I managed to snap and add to my collection!

London Zoo 1

London Zoo 2

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 567