Island 2000 Trust Blog

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Spring is most definitely sprung and buds are bursting all over the place. No exception is the beautiful Wild Service Tree Sorbus torminalis; a rather rare species in the UK and pretty much confined to ancient woodlands and old hedgerows. There’s quite a bit of it scattered along the north of the Island on the clay but very little on the greensand or the chalk, which makes it allthe more surprising that the largest specimen (and one of the largest recorded in the country) grows on a little greensand bank near a chalk down!

Here is a picture taken yesterday of its leaves just beginning to emerge.

Hello.

Sorry we’ve been away. Things have been tough and there have had to be a lot of changes for a lot of people but here we are,  on this our tenth birthday, ready for the new world of credit-free economics!

And what a day to celebrate! Bon Poisson d’Avril a Tout le Monde!

Spring is sprung and there’s much to do and you’ll be hearing a lot more from us now we’ve steadied the ship.

Just to get things going here’s some marvellous Toothwort from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust Reserve at Eaglehead Copse. This extraordinary spring flower has no chlorophyll and taps instead into tree roots for what it needs ( a lot like the broomrapes that featured on the blog last year). HIWT do a tremendous job managing this beautiful woodland and it is ablaze with spring flowerrs just now.