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THE 2 EUREKA EFFECT PAGES FOR UNDERSTANDING SOIL AND HOW PLANTS INTERACT WITH IT OUT OF 17,000:-
Explanation of Structure of this Website with User Guidelines Page for those photo galleries with Photos (of either ones I have taken myself or others which have been loaned only for use on this website from external sources) |
HOME PAGES Welcome - Ivydene Gardens informs you how to design, construct and maintain your private garden using organic methods and companion planting. Sub Menu to each Page of this Topic of the HOME PAGES, with normally a * after Page you are viewing.
Damage to Tree Trunks 1, 2, 3, 4 caused by people, Camera Photo Galleries:- Will visitors to Madeira worry about having branches or trees in public places fall on them? No; according to Engineer Francisco Pedro Freitas Andrade of Est. Marmeleiros, No 1, Jardins & Espaces Verdes who is Chef de Diviso Câmara Municipal do Funchal; Departamento de Ciência e de Recursos Naturais; Divisão de Jardins e Espaços Verdes Urbanos in charge of the trees within the pavements within the area controlled by Funchal Municipality - See Monitoring of Trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira from September 2019 to February 2010 1, 2 pages by his department. PROBLEMS WITH TREES IN PAVEMENTS IN ST. PETER PORT, GUERNSEY IN SEPTEMBER 2019 |
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Every one of the 166 trees with problems in this Funchal Cathedral to the Forum Shopping Centre main road pavements can be repaired and the trees health vastly improved with minimal cost instead of cutting them all down.
Instead of chopping down the tree down, follow
Madeira has invented a new game to rival Russian Roulette and it is called Maderian Tree Roulette, as can be shown below:-
Since we have not see the remaining trees out of the trees noted within the pavements between Funchal Cathedral and the Forum Shopping Centre with damage out of the other trees in the same pavements that are mostly suffering from lack of water etc, perhaps I need to create some more pages on "Damage to Tree Trunks in Madeira caused by People". |
The information following is from the Soil Formation - What is Soil Structure? Page in the Soil Topic, where it shows that for soil to continue as soil it needs a continuing supply of organic matter, otherwise it returns to simply being, sand, silt or clay - HOW MANY OF YOUR TREES IN THE PAVEMENTS IN FUNCHAL ARE SIMPLY SITTING INSIDE VOLCANIC SAND AND SILT AND NOT IN SOIL AT ALL, BECAUSE YOU WILL NEITHER IRRIGATE NOR FEED THEM ORGANIC MATTER LIKE CRUSHED SEAWEED IN WATER?:- "Soil Structure This describes the way in which sand, silt and clay particles are bonded together in larger units called ‘aggregates’. These are formed when the soil is subjected to shrinking and swelling, plant-root penetration or freezing. All these processes tend to break the soil into discrete units. Aggregates are said to be stable when they are able to resist pressures caused by processes such as compaction and sudden wetting. Rapid wetting is a process in breaking up unstable aggregates, because when dry aggregates are suddenly exposed to water, pores near the surface of the aggregate become filled with water, trapping air inside the aggregate; the resulting pressure can sometimes be enough to break the aggregate apart, and this is called ‘slaking’. Aggregates are divided into microaggregates (less than 250 millionths of a metre) and macroaggregates (greater than 250 millionths of a metre). Before microaggregates can form, microscopic clay minerals need to be grouped together in small stacks called ‘domains’. When clays are bonded together in this way, they are termed ‘flocculated’. The most important factor influencing flocculation is the presence of ions with more than 1 charge. When clay minerals are covered with singly charged ions they disperse and become deflocculated (i.e. they will absorb a great deal of water without it draining).
However, not all ions carry only 1 charge. For example, calcium (Ca2+) in lime or chalk, Magnesium (Mg2+) and aluminium (Al3+) are 3 very common ions in soils. Ions with multiple charges allow clay minerals to bond together to form domains. Once clay minerals are stacked together to form domains, they can then bond with organic matter to form microaggregates. The interaction between clay domains, organic matter, silt and sand particles diagram.
Once microaggregates have formed, they can then coalesce to form macroaggregates. In soils that have low concentrations of clay, macroaggregate stability is highly dependent on organic matter. The type of organic matter associated with macroaggregates is slightly different from the persistent organic material found in microaggregates. Type one are those stabilising agents that are referred to as ‘temporary’. These consist of microbial and plant by-products, the most important of which are the ‘polysaccharide gums’ that are simply long chains of sugar molecules. Secondly, there are ‘transient’ stabilising agents, which include the fine plant roots and fungal hyphae. Both stabilising compounds are vulnerable to microbial attack so need to be replenished continuously through inputs of fresh soil organic matter.
If microaggregates do not have a continuing supply of organic matter, then they will break up so that soil particles simply return to being sand, silt or clay. |
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Photo 1 - tree 1 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6126.JPG Cut Branch rotted into trunk. How far down is the rot? Photo 2 - tree 1 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6131.JPG Cut branch of same tree above rotted into trunk. How far down is the rot? Photo 3 - tree 2 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6135.JPG This removal of the bark may be due to a knife being used and resulting section of bark being removed. You can see the splits in the trunk, where rainwater will get in followed by rot of this section of the trunk. Photo 4 - tree 2 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6135.JPG Possible knife scoring and when the piece of bark was removed from the left to the right, then this was one of the sections broken off from the original scored piece. If a thin section of the bark is removed round the whole trunk/branch, then the remaining part of that trunk or branch will die off. |
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Photo 5 - tree 2 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6136.JPG Position of damage shown in photos 3 and 4 Photo 6 - tree 3 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6137.JPG Freshly sawn off branch. This area should be painted twice with black water-based masonry paint to seal the cut with an overlap of 1 inch (2.5 cms) to prevent water/pest ingress from the edge of the cut, immediately after the branch has been cut off. Any cut exceeding 1 inch (2.5 cms) should be painted, since mature trees may be able to callus over the cut area. Water-based masonry paint in the UK is plastic based and thus provides a flexible rainproof cover and perhaps fools the tree that there is no damage here and therefore no requirement to produce adventitious shoots - ie. watersprouts. Photo 7 - tree 4 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6138.JPG Cut branch area is now rotting into the trunk, so apply both sections of the repair procedure above. |
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Photo 8 - tree 5 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6140.JPG Sawn off branch from some years ago where the callus has not managed to cover the wound. The heartwood has split and that split is now rotting. Use repair procedure section 2 after high pressure hosing the exposed heartwood area. Photo 9 - tree 5 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6140.JPG This photo indicates where this tree is. |
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Photo 10 - tree 6 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6143.JPG I wonder what caused this damage, since the exposed heartwood does not appear to have chainsaw cuts on it? Are the black edges of the bark due to being burnt or black paint? Burning the heartwood of a rotten section of heartwood appears to be a practice in Madeira as shown in the photo below, which further weakens the tree and does not stop it from continuing to rot. |
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tree 21 forum end of 2 road junction with hole through trunk opposite enotel IMG_0206 This row is taken from Death of Tree Trunks/Branches Madeira caused by people Page |
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Photo 11 - tree 15 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6184.JPG Another wounded tree burnt? Perhaps this branch was torn off by a storm. |
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Photo 12 - tree 94 from pestana promenade to forum hollow trunk IMG_6035.JPG You could say that there is a big hole in this tree, so we will burn its inside heartwood, and to make it better to look at without it being used as a rubbish bin we will attach a metal mesh to cover the hole. Photo 13 - tree 94 from pestana promenade to forum hollow trunk IMG_6038.JPG Then, we will ignore the problem until all the heartwood in this section of the tree has rotted and tree breaks in a storm due to its high tonnage above this rotten trunk being too much weight for this fulcrum part of the tree. It is also noted that the pavement comes up to the trunk and where there is a gap, that people have so kindly filled that in with concrete. Since the green foliage between the pavers is growing so well, one would assume that there is only earth under these pavers and there is absolutely no reason for this tree's roots to receive water and nutrients or be able to breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide - as we all know that trees only need sunshine to grow. |
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It is a pity that these 166 damaged trees in this road from Funchal Cathedral to the Forum Shopping Centre are mostly likely to either fall down or be cut down during the next few years leaving the population and us visitors to admire the thousands of tons of painted concrete lining this length of street and for us to be overcome by the heat. Then, it would look like any other concreted city in the world. As visitors we do not know that we playing this game invented for us as further entertainment called Maderian Tree Roulette. Why not follow the repair procedure detailed at the top of the page for the damage in the trunk.
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Photo 14 - tree 95 from pestana promenade to forum hollow trunk IMG_6041.JPG I wonder if the plant growing further up this tree has its roots down to the hole in the trunk at ground level?
Photo 15 - tree 95 from pestana promenade to forum hollow trunk IMG_6040.JPG I wonder how deep is this hole in the same trunk as in Photo 14? |
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Photo 16 - tree 96 from pestana promenade to forum roots between pavers IMG_6045.JPG How deep is this rot in the trunk? Does it join up with the rot at the bottom of the tree?
Photo 17 - tree 96 from pestana promenade to forum roots between pavers IMG_6044.JPG How deep is the rot in the black areas of this hole in the trunk? |
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Photo 18 - tree 96 from pestana promenade to forum roots between pavers IMG_6044.JPG Lateral roots of this tree have grown between the concrete pavers. Part of the original concrete path is still embedded in the tree on the right hand side. Please VERY CAREFULLY remove the surrounding paving and then this concrete without a cold chisel /2lb hammer or Jackhammer, but only a handfork and small trowel without further damaging that section of the trunk. It would be kind to replace the pavers in this pavement with the CORE TRP SYSTEM detailed above. It would appear that some of these pavers were cut to fit round the roots/trunk of this tree. Would that paving installer place a heavy duty metal shackle round each of his/hers baby daughter's feet and allow her to never form a proper shape to her feet and make them too weak to support her in later life? The daughter might find it uncomfortable as her leg tries to grow over the shackle and incorporate it into her leg.
I tried in February 2018 to inform the necessary authorities over my amateur concerns concerning these pavement trees and then putting the section on my Welcome Page to prevent more deaths as occurred when 1 fell on a religious gathering, but it would appear to have fallen on deaf ears and blind eyes. I wonder if I provide photographic evidence of the damage to 166 trees in these pages during February 2019 will it make any difference, and whether any more trees are going to fall down onto people during the next year, because of continuing inaction. Cheapest solution is to cut them all down and replace them with lighting supports for the grand display of lights at Easter and Christmas as well as Festivals. If you did, then hot-spots would occur and that might deter visitors from going to the centre of another concrete/brick built city. |
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Photo 19 - tree 96 from pestana promenade to forum roots between pavers IMG_6049.JPG This is an old saw cut and the heartwood is drying out and cracking at this point. Photo 20 - tree 87 from pestana promenade to forum with black mesh repairing hole in tree IMG_6010.JPG How deep is the rot in the trunk behind this black mesh? Photo 21 - tree 87 from pestana promenade to forum with lateral roots in road IIMG_6009.JPG Miniscule room of exposed earth for gaseous exchange, irrigation and nutrient input to this tree's roots. Photo 22 - tree 87 from pestana promenade to forum with lateral roots in road road repairIMG_6008 2 of the lateral roots have upended the kerb and others have disturbed the tarmac in the road requiring this new layer of tarmac. Did they cut out the exposed roots of this tree before applying boiling hot tarmac onto their exposed ends? A combination of removal of 180 degrees of roots, rot from the hole in the trunk and stopping root growth in the remaining 180 degrees of the circle of roots, will this cause the death and fall of this tree? |
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Photo 23 - tree 89 from pestana promenade to forum surrounded by grey pea-shingle IMG_6015.JPG Damage to trunk is now rotting it. Photo 24 - tree 89 from pestana promenade to forum surrounded by grey pea-shingle IMG_6015.JPG The black area indicates a deeper hole in the trunk. Photo 25 - tree 8 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6150.JPG Let us hope that this carving does kill off the bark within that heart shape, otherwise the rot would then continue into the trunk |
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Photo 26 - tree 8 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6149.JPG This part of a paver is embedded in the same tree as in Photo 25. It may be that this tree was surrounded by red pavers and then a rectangle enclosure was put round the base and grey shale replaced the pavers, with this one broken off to produce a tidy effect. |
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Photo 27 - tree 8 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6152.JPG Same tree as above. This may be where the corner of a paver or kerb was located which prevented this part of a lateral root from continuing. |
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Photo 28 - tree 10 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6155.JPG Lateral root overgrowing a lump of concrete and part of a grey paver. It needs a larger open ground area before it throttles itself. |
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Photo 29 - tree 10 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6157.JPG This is the another side of the same tree where the pavers were removed from under the lateral root. A very small section of a paver is embedded in the tree above the serrated leaf on the right hand side. |
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Photo 30 - tree 11 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6162.JPG Damaged trunk. Photo 31 - tree 13 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6167.JPG Another damaged trunk where the heartwood has started to dry and split. This provides an entry for rain and then organisms to start destroying the heartwood without the tree being able to defend itself. Just 3 euros would have paid for the amount of black masonry paint which would have kept this tree healthier. On past record this will become invisible to pedestrians like the hole in the trunk within Photo 12 above and this tree will fall down. Photo 32 - tree 13 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6169.JPG This is probably not the same tree as in Photo 31. But it is interesting to note the lifting of the pavers caused by the lateral roots below. |
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Photo 33 - tree 13 forum end of 2 road junction IMG_6168.JPG It is interesting to note the water manhole on the left. Is this for use by the irrigation system in the flowerbed on the left? Could it also be part of an irrigation system for the trees in the pavement? Despite having pavement and the bicycle track to walk and cycle on, pedestrians still walk over the grey shingle covering the open ground for this tree inflicting further damage by the sharp edges of the grey shale being repeatedly forced onto the tree roots. What kind, considerate, caring animals people are!!! Mind you; by walking on the concrete pavers which are placed directly on the earth above possible tree roots cannot possibly affect these delicate feeder roots of trees, can it? It must be true that the rhizosphere round each root (further details in the row below) acting as the shop, policeman, army and doctor between the tree and the surrounding earth cannot possibly be damaged by the weight of a 25 stone person concentrated on the front part of 1 shoe as the other leg is lifted off the ground in strange animal processes called walking or running. |
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The following is taken from What Types of Organisms are found in the Soil? Page within the Soil Topic:- "A more-in-depth explaination of how soil works:- "Plants are in Control Most gardeners think of plants as only taking up nutrients through root systems and feeding the leaves. Few realize that a great deal of energy that results from photosynthesis in the leaves is actually used by plants to produce chemicals they secrete through their roots. These secretions are known as exudates. A good analogy is perspiration, a human's exudate. Root exudates are in the form of carbohydrates (including sugars) and proteins. Amazingly, their presence wakes up, attracts, and grows specific beneficial bacteria and fungi living in the soil that subsist on these exudates and the cellular material sloughed off as the plant's root tips grow. All this secretion of exudates and sloughing off of cells takes place in the rhizosphere, a zone immediately round the roots, extending out about a tenth of an inch, or a couple of millimetres. The rhizosphere, which can look like a jelly or jam under the electron microscope, contains a constantly changing mix of soil organisms, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, and even larger organisms. All this "life" competes for the exudates in the rhizosphere, or its water or mineral content. At the bottom of the soil food web are bacteria and fungi, which are attracted to and consume plant root exudates. In turn, they attract and are eaten by bigger microbes, specifically nematodes and protozoa who eat bacteria and fungi (primarily for carbon) to fuel their metabolic functions. Anything they don't need is excreted as wastes, which plant roots are readily able to absorb as nutrients. How convenient that this production of plant nutrients takes place right in the rhizosphere, the site of root-nutrient absorption. At the centre of any viable soil food web are plants. Plants control the food web for their own benefit, an amazing fact that is too little understood and surely not appreciated by gardeners who are constantly interfereing with Nature's system. Studies indicate that individual plants can control the numbers and the different kinds of fungi and bacteria attracted to the rhizosphere by the exudates they produce. Soil bacteria and fungi are like small bags of fertilizer, retaining in their bodies nitrogen and other nutrients they gain from root exudates and other organic matter. Carrying on the analogy, soil protozoa and nematodes act as "fertilizer spreaders" by releasng the nutrients locked up in the bacteria and fungi "fertilizer bags". The nematodes and protozoa in the soil come along and eat the bacteria and fungi in the rhizosphere. They digest what they need to survive and excrete excess carbon and other nutrients as waste. The protozoa and nematodes that feasted on the fungi and bacteria attracted by plant exudates are in turn eaten by arthropods such as insects and spiders. Soil arthropods eat each other and themselves are the food of snakes, birds, moles and other animals. Simply put, the soil is one big fast-food restaurant. Bacteria are so small they need to stick to things, or they will wash away; to attach themselves they produce a slime, the secondary result of which is that individual soil particles are bound together. Fungal hyphae, too, travel through soil particles, sticking to them and binding them together, thread-like, into aggregates. Worms, together with insect larvae and moles move through the soil in search of food and protection, creating pathways that allow air and water to enter and leave the soil. The soil food web, then, in addition to providing nutrients to roots in the rhizosphere, also helps create soil structure: the activities of its members bind soil particles together even as they provide for the passage of air and water through the soil. Without this system, most important nutrients would drain from soil. Instead, they are retained in the bodies of soil life. Here is the gardener's truth: when you apply a chemical fertilizer, a tiny bit hits the rhizosphere, where it is absorbed, but most of it continues to drain through soil until it hits the water table. Not so with the nutrients locked up inside soil organisms, a state known as immobilization; these nutrients are eventully released as wastes, or mineralized. And when the plants themselves die and are allowed to decay in situ, the nutrients they retained are again immobilized in the fungi and bacteria that consume them. Just as important, every member of the soil food web has its place in the soil community. Each, be it on the surface or subsurface, plays a specific role. Elimination of just one group can drastically alter a soil community. Dung from mammals provides nutrients for beetles in the soil. Kill the mammals, or eliminate their habitat or food source, and you wont have so many beetles. It works in reverse as well. A healthy soil food web won't allow one set of members to get so strong as to destroy the web. If there are too many nematodes and protozoa, the bacteria and fungi on which they prey are in trouble and, ultimately, so are the plants in the area. And there are other benefits. The nets or webs fungi form around roots act as physical barriers to invasion and protect plants from pathogenic fungi and bacteria. Bacteria coat surfaces so thoroughly, there is no room for others to attach themselves. If something impacts these fungi or bacteria and their numbers drop or disappear, the plant can easily be attacked.
Negative impacts on the soil food web Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides affect the soil food web, toxic to some members, warding off others, and changing the environment. Important fungal and bacterial relationships don't form when a plant can get free nutrients. When chemically fed, plants bypass the microbial-assisted method of obtaining nutrients, and microbial populations adjust accordingly. Trouble is, you have to keep adding chemical fertilizers and using "-icides", because the right mix and diversity - the very foundation of the soil food web - has been altered. It makes sense that once the bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa are gone, other members of the soil food web disappear as well. Earthworms, for example, lacking food and irritated by the synthetic nitrates in soluble nitrogen fertilizers, move out. Since they are major shredders of organic material, their absence is a great loss. Soil structure deteriorates, watering can become problematic, pathogens and pests establish themselves and, worst of all, gardening becomes a lot more work than it needs to be. If the salt-based chemical fertilizers don't kill portions of the soil food web, rototilling (rotovating) will. This gardening rite of spring breaks up fungal hyphae, decimates worms, and rips and crushes arthropods. It destroys soil structure and eventually saps soil of necessary air. Any chain is only as strong as its weakest link: if there is a gap in the soil food web, the system will break down and stop functioning properly. Gardening with the soil food web is easy, but you must get the life back in your soils. First, however, you have to know something about the soil in which the soil food web operates; second, you need to know what each of the key members of the food web community does." Both these concerns are taken up in the rest of Part 1 of Teaming with Microbes - The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis ISBN-13:978-1-60469-113-9 Published 2010. This book explains in non-technical language how soil works and how you can improve your garden soil to make it suitable for what you plant and hopefully stop you using chemicals to kill this or that, but use your grass cuttings and prunings to mulch your soil - the leaves fall off the trees, the branches fall on the ground, the animals shit and die on the land in old woodlands and that material is then recycled to provide the nutrients for those same trees, rather than being carefully removed and sent to the dump as most people do in their gardens leaving bare soil." See top of page to show you how soil stays as soil and how it degrades to only rock when starved of some of its component parts. |
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This website is being created by Chris Garnons-Williams of Ivydene Horticultural Services from it's start in 2005. I am requesting free colour photographs of any plants grown in or sold in the United Kingdom to add to the plants in the Plant Photographic Galleries and Butterfly photographs for the Butterfly on Plant Photographic Galleries. |
Site design and content copyright ©April 2007. Page structure amended October 2012. Page structure changed February 2019 for pages concerning Trees in pavements alongside roads in Madeira. Chris Garnons-Williams. |
It should be remembered that nothing is sold from this educational site, it simply tries to give you the best advice on what to use and where to get it (About Chris Garnons-Williams page details that no payment or commision to or from any donor of photos or adverts I place on the site in the Useful Data or other sections is made to Chris Garnons-Williams or Ivydene Horticultural Services). This website is a hobby and not for direct commercial gain for Ivydene Horticultural Services. There is no Google Adscenes or Search Facility in this website. The information on this site is usually Verdana 14pt text (from December 2023, this is being changed from 14pt to 10pt) and all is in tabular form. This can be downloaded and sorted using WORD or other word-processing software into the order that you personally require, especially for soil subsidence, the Companion Planting Tables and the pages in the Plants section. This would be suitable for use in education as well. I put jokes in at various places to give you a smile. |
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The following is from "Some time around 600 million years ago, green algae began to move out of shallow fresh waters and onto the land. They were the ancestors of all land plants... Today, plants make up to 80% of the mass of all life on Earth and are the base of the food chains that support nearly all terrestrial organisms.... But the algal ancestors of land plants had no roots, no way to store or transport water, and no experience in extracting nutrients from solid ground. How did they manage the fraught passage onto dry land? ... It was only by striking up new relationships with fungi that algae were able to make it onto land. These early alliances evolved into what we now call mycorrhizal relationships. Today, more than 90% of all plant species depend on mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhizal associations are the rule not the exception: a more fundamental part of planthood than fruit, flowers, leaves, wood or even roots.... For the relationship to thrive, both plant and fungus must make a good metabolic match. In photosynthesis, plants harvest carbon from the atmosphere and forge the energy-rich carbon compounds - sugars and lipids - on which much of the rest of life depends. By growing within plant roots, mycorrhizal fungi acquire privileged access to these sources of energy: they get fed. However, photosynthesis is not enough to support life. Plants and fungi need more than a source of energy. Water and minerals must be scavenged from the ground - full of textures and micropores, electrically charged cavities and labyrinthine rot-scapes. Fungi are deft rangers in this wilderness and can forage in a way that plants can not. By hosting fungi within their roots, plants gain hugely improved access to these sources of nutrients. They, too, get fed. By partnering, plants gain a prosthetic fungus, and fungi gain a prosthetic plant. Both use the other to extend their reach.... By the time the first roots evolved, the mycorrhizal association was already some 50 million years old. Mycorrhizal fungi are the roots of all subsequent life on land. Today, hundreds of millions of years later, plants have evolved, faster-growing, opportunistic roots that behave more like fungi. But even these roots cannot out-manoeuvre fungi when it comes to exploring the soil. Mycorrhizal hyphae are 50 times finer than the finest roots and can exceeed the length of a plant's roots by as much as a 100 times. Their mycelium makes up between a third and a half of the living mass of soils. The numbers are astronomical. Globally, the total length of mycorrhizal hyphae in the top 10 centimetres (4 inches) of soil is around half the width of our galaxy (4.5 x 10 to the power 17 kilometres versus 9.5 x 10 to the power 17 kilometres). If these hyphae were ironed into a flat sheet, their combined surface area would cover every inch of dry land on Earth 2.5 times over.... In their relationship, plants and mycorrhizal fungi enact a polarity: plant shoots engage with the light and air, while the fungi and plant roots engage with the solid ground. Plants pack up light and carbon dioxide into sugars and lipids. Mycorrhizal fungi unpack nutrients bound up in rock and decomposing material. These are fungi with a dual niche: part of their life happens within the plant, part in the soil. They are stationed at the entry point of carbon into terrestrial life cycles and stitch the atmosphere into relation with the ground. To this day, mycorrhizal fungi help plants cope with drought, heat and many other stresses life on land has presented from the very beginning, as do the symbiotic fungi that crowd into plant leaves and stems. What we call 'plants' are in fact fungi that have evolved to farm algae, and algae that have evolved to farm fungi.... Mycorrhizal fungi can provide up to 80% of a plant's nitrogen, and as much as 100% of its phosphorus. Fungi supply other crucial nutrients to plants, such as zinc and copper. They also supply plants with water, and help them to survive drought as they have done since the earliest days of life on land. In return, plants allocate up to 30% of the carbon they harvest to their mycorrhizal partners.... And yet mycorrhizal fungi do more than feed plants. Some describe them as keystone organisms; others prefer the term 'ecosystem engineers'. Mycorrhizal mycelium is a sticky living seam that holds soil together; remove the fungi, and the ground washes away. Mycorrhizal fungi increase the volume of water that the soil can absorb, reducing the quantity of nutrients leached out of the soil by rainfall by as much as 50%. Of the carbon that is found in soils - which, remarkably, amounts to twice the amount of carbon found in plants and the atmosphere combined - a substantial proportion is bound up in tough organic compounds produced by mycorrhizal fungi. The carbon that floods into the soil through mycorrhizal channels supports intricate food webs. Besides the hundreds or thousands of metres of fungal mycelium in a teaspoon of healthy soil, there are more bacteria, protists, insects and arthropods than the number of humans who have ever lived on Earth. Mycorrhizal fungi can increase the quality of a harvest. They can also increase the ability of crops to compete with weeds and enhance their resistance to diseases by priming plant's immune systems. They can make crops less susceptible to drought and heat, and more resistant to salinity and heavy metals. They even boost the ability of plants to fight off attacks from insect pests by stimulating the production of defensive chemicals... But over the course of the twentieth century, our neglect has led us into trouble. In viewing soils as more or less lifeless places, industrial agricultural practices have ravaged the undergound communities that sustain the life we eat.... A large study published in 2018 suggested that the 'alarming deterioration' of the health of trees across Europe was caused by a disruption of their mycorrhizal relationships, brought about by nitrogen pollution." from Before Roots chapter by Merlin Sheldrake.
"We do know, that this fragile, generative world has been damaged by intensive farming, pollution, deforestation and global heating. A third of the planet's land has been severely degraded and 24 billion tons of fertile soil are destroyed every year through intensive farming, according to the Global Land Outlook. Topsoil is where 95% of the planet's food is grown and is very delicate. It takes more than 100 years to build 5mm of soil, and it can be destroyed shockingly easily. This destruction and degradation of the soil is created by intensive farming practices such as heavy mechanised soil tilling, which loosens and rips away any plant cover, leaving the soil bare. It is also caused by the overgrazing of animals, as well as forest fires and heavy construction work. These factors disturb the soil and leave it exposed to erosion from wind and water, damaging the complicated systems underneath its top layer... We are losing good soil at an estimated 100 times faster rate than we can remake and heal it. The world's soils are thought to store approximately 15 thousand million tonnes of carbon - 3 times as much as all of our planet's terrestrial vegetation combined. Soils hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and when soil disintegrates, the carbon is released. In the last 40 years the soil in the UK's croplands lost 10% of the carbon it could store. In a time of climate crisis, soil's quiet potency, its ability to store carbon safely, is utterly essential to our future survival.... We know that soils are being destroyed, and that with that comes a higher risk of floods, and a more unpredictable and unreliable food and water system. An Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecostem Services report in 2018 told us clearly that land degradationis already putting the welfare of two-fifths of humanity at risk, and that urgent action is needed to avoid further danger. There are many things we can do to protect soils, and the organisms, plants and connections that thrive within them. Actions that can support and heal soil structure include
Such regimes allow soil structure to remain intact, and protect the soil by allowing crop residues to stay on the surface. " from Strange Soil chapter by Rebecca Tamas. |
Due to intensive farming techniques and chemical fertilisers this has occurred:- The BBC has produced an article as to why modern food as lost its nutrients. |
The following about trees in pavements show why when the roots are denied access to air, water and nutrients even the fungi cannot work to support the trees. Pavements of Funchal, Madeira |
The following addition of this mulch improved the clay soil, so that A 150mm deep mulch of mixed peat, sharp washed sand and horticultural grit was applied on top of a heavy clay soil to improve its structure, and stop the plants therein from drowning, at £10 a square metre. The mix was:
The following was then sent to me:-
and the following was sent to me in October 2004:- An unsuccessful planting scheme had left bare areas of garden as plants failed to survive winter in the waterlogged clay soil. The loss of numerous plants and the cost of replacing them had left us disheartened. It was evident that remedial action was need in the form of a mixture of gravel, sand and peat to create an organic loam. Approximately six inches was added in April and left to settle and do its job. By July there was a noticeable difference in the quality of the soil and the plants. Shrubs with sparse, mottled leaves were looking glossy and robust, overall growth had increased (including the weeds!) and the soil was holding its moisture well. But the biggest difference came in the confidence it gave us to transform the garden. The borders used to be a no-go area between May and September as the clay baked and cracked, but the new soil was easy to handle and weeds could be successfully removed. We realised that there are no quick fixes - the key to a healthy garden is rich, nutritous soil. Once our plants began to thrive we were optimistic that, with good advice, we could create a garden to be proud of. |
More Details |
Cultural Needs of Plants "Understanding Fern Needs |
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It is worth remembering that especially with roses that the colour of the petals of the flower may change - The following photos are of Rosa 'Lincolnshire Poacher' which I took on the same day in R.V. Roger's Nursery Field:- |
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Closed Bud |
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Opening Bud |
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Juvenile Flower |
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Older Juvenile Flower |
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Middle-aged Flower - Flower Colour in Season in its |
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Mature Flower |
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Juvenile Flower and Dying Flower |
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Form of Rose Bush |
There are 720 roses in the Rose Galleries; many of which have the above series of pictures in their respective Rose Description Page. So one might avoid the disappointment that the 2 elephants had when their trunks were entwined instead of them each carrying their trunk using their own trunk, and your disappointment of buying a rose to discover that the colour you bought it for is only the case when it has its juvenile flowers; if you look at all the photos of the roses in the respective Rose Description Page!!!! |
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There are 180 families in the Wildflowers of the UK and they have been split up into 22 Galleries to allow space for up to 100 plants per gallery. Each plant named in each of the Wildflower Family Pages may have a link to:- its Plant Description Page in its Common Name in one of those Wildflower Plant Galleries and it does have links:- to external sites to purchase the plant or seed in its Botanical Name, to see photos in its Flowering Months and to read habitat details in its Habitat Column. |
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Links to external websites like the link to "the Man walking in front of car to warn pedestrians of a horseless vehicle approaching" would be correct when I inserted it after March 2007, but it is possible that those horseless vehicles may now exceed the walking pace of that man and thus that link will currently be br My advice is Google the name on the link and see if you can find the new link. If you sent me an email after clicking Ivydene Horticultural Services text under the Worm Logo on any page, then; as the first after March 2010 you would be the third emailer since 2007, I could then change that link in that 1 of the 15,743 pages. Currently (August 2016). Other websites provide you with cookies - I am sorry but I am too poor to afford them. If I save the pennies from my pension for the next visitor, I am almost certain in March 2023, that I could afford to make that 4th visitor to this website a Never Fail Cake. I would then be able to save for more years for the postage. |
