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Heartwood Forest
Heartwood Forest is a planned forest ( woodland creation site) in Hertfordshire, England. The site covers , the largest continuous new native forest in England. Planting Heartwood Forest is located near Sandridge, St Albans, in the Metropolitan Green Belt. When the Woodland Trust acquired the land in 2008, most of the area consisted of farmland, predominantly oilseed rape fields. Only of the site's total consisted of ancient woodland. The name "Heartwood" was chosen for the growing forest as a nod to the heart-shaped leaves of the rare Lime trees present in these original pockets of ancient woodland.Huge woodland named 'Heartwood Forest'', St. Albans and Harpenden Review – Retrieved 3 May 2010 On 9 December 2009, a Guinness World Record attempt was made for the BBC ''Tree O'Clock'' scheme, in association with the Woodland Trust to plant the most new trees as possible in one hour. Three woodland sites made the attempt: the Heartwood Forest, Hainault Forest and Gransha Park. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandridge
Sandridge is a village and civil parish between St Albans and Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, England. History The original name was "Saundruage" meaning a place of sandy soil serviced by bond tenants. The earliest recorded mention of Sandridge is in the year 796 the parish being part of the revenue of the Mercian Kings. It was given by Egfrith son of Offa in the first year of his reign to abbot Eadric second abbot of St Alban's Monastery and to the monks of St Albans. Part of the parish of Sandridge was added to the Municipal Borough of St Albans in 1887. The remainder of the parish was renamed Sandridge Rural in 1894 when Sandridge Rural Parish Council was formed. In 1913 a further 241 acres were transferred to St Albans. The parish name reverted to Sandridge in 1957. Second Battle of St Albans In February 1461 the final skirmishes of the Second Battle of St Albans took place in and around Sandridge as the Earl of Warwick, for the Yorkists, retreated towards Nomansland. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bluebell Wood
A bluebell wood is a woodland that in springtime has a carpet of flowering bluebells (''Hyacinthoides non-scripta'') underneath a newly forming leaf canopy. The thicker the summer canopy, the more the competitive ground-cover is suppressed, encouraging a dense carpet of bluebells, whose leaves mature and die down by early summer. Other common woodland plants which accompany bluebells include the yellow rattle and the wood anemone. Locations Bluebell woods are found in all parts of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as elsewhere in Europe. Bluebells are a common indicator species for ancient woodlands, so bluebell woods are likely to date back to at least 1600. Some introduced portions of bluebell woods can occur in places where they've been heavily naturalised such as the Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic Region, and British Columbia. Literature Gerard Manley Hopkins, an English poet, was very keen on the plant as revealed by these lines of his poem "May Magnificat" And azuring- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hertfordshire Life
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it forms part of the East of England region. Hertfordshire covers . It derives its name – via the name of the county town of Hertford – from a hart (stag) and a ford, as represented on the county's coat of arms and on the flag. Hertfordshire County Council is based in Hertford, once the main market town and the current county town. The largest settlement is Watford. Since 1903 Letchworth has served as the prototype garden city; Stevenage became the first town to expand under post-war Britain's New Towns Act of 1946. In 2013 Hertfordshire had a population of about 1,140,700, with Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans (the county's only ''city'') each having between 50,000 and 100,000 residents ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barn Owl
The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalayas, most of Indonesia, and some Pacific Islands. It is also known as the common barn owl, to distinguish it from the other species in its family, Tytonidae, which forms one of the two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical owls (''Strigidae''). There are at least three major lineages of barn owl: the western barn owl of Europe, western Asia, and Africa; the eastern barn owl of southeastern Asia and Australasia; and the American barn owl of the Americas. Some taxonomic authorities classify barn owls differently, recognising up to five separate species; and further research needs to be done to resolve the disparate taxonomies. There is considerable variation of size and colour among the approximately 28 subspecies, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short-eared Owl
The short-eared owl (''Asio flammeus'') is a widespread grassland species in the family Strigidae. Owls belonging to genus ''Asio'' are known as the eared owls, as they have tufts of feathers resembling mammalian ears. These "ear" tufts may or may not be visible. The short-eared owl will display its tufts when in a defensive pose, although its very short tufts are usually not visible. The short-eared owl is found in open country and grasslands. Taxonomy The short-eared owl was formally described in 1763 by the Lutheran bishop Erik Pontoppidan under the binomial name ''Strix flammea''. The specific epithet is from the Latin ''flammeus'' meaning "flammulated" or "flame-coloured". This owl is now placed with seven other species in the genus ''Asio'' that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. Eleven subspecies are recognised: * ''A. f. flammeus'' – (Pontoppidan, 1763): the nominate subspecies, found in North America, Europe, North Africa and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') level. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth; it is usually greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of earth's surface and contain about 90% of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually higher along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future as a primary result of deforestation. It encompasses the evolutionary, ecological, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Linnet (Linaria Cannabina Mediterranea) Female
The common linnet (''Linaria cannabina'') is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, ''Linaria'', from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the English name of the plant from which linen is made. Taxonomy In 1758, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the common linnet in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name, ''Acanthis cannabina''. The species was formerly placed in the genus '' Carduelis'' but based on the results of a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences published in 2012, it was moved to the genus '' Linaria'' that had been introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802. The genus name ''linaria'' is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from ''linum'', "flax". The species name ''cannabina'' comes from the Latin for hemp. The English name has a similar root, being derived from Old French ''linett ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study. In Latin, an ''arboretum'' is a place planted with trees, not necessarily in this specific sense, and "arboretum" as an English word is first recorded used by John Claudius Loudon in 1833 in '' The Gardener's Magazine'', but the concept was already long-established by then. An arboretum specializing in growing conifers is known as a pinetum. Other specialist arboreta include saliceta ( willows), populeta ( poplar), and querceta ( oaks). Related collections include a fruticetum, from the Latin ''frutex'', meaning ''shrub'', much more often a shrubbery, and a viticetum (from the Latin ''vitis,'' meani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known as willow, but some narrow-leaved shrub species are called osier, and some broader-leaved species are referred to as sallow (from Old English ''sealh'', related to the Latin word ''salix'', willow). Some willows (particularly arctic and alpine species) are low-growing or creeping shrubs; for example, the dwarf willow (''Salix herbacea'') rarely exceeds in height, though it spreads widely across the ground. Description Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches, and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are a typically rather short-lived pioneer species widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates. Description Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs, mostly of northern temperate and boreal climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets. The fruit is a small samara, although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from the alders (''Alnus'', another genus in the family) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornbeam
Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam'' derives from the hardness of the woods (likened to horn) and the Old English ''beam'' "tree" (cognate with Dutch ‘’Boom’’ and German ''Baum''). The American hornbeam is also occasionally known as blue-beech, ironwood, or musclewood, the first from the resemblance of the bark to that of the American beech ''Fagus grandifolia'', the other two from the hardness of the wood and the muscled appearance of the trunk and limbs. The botanical name for the genus, ''Carpinus'', is the original Latin name for the European species, although some etymologists derive it from the Celtic for a yoke. Taxonomy Formerly some taxonomists segregated them with the genera ''Corylus'' (hazels) and '' Ostrya'' ( hop-hornbeams) in a separate family, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archant
Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company headquartered in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. Archant employs around 1,250 employees, mainly in East Anglia, the Home counties and the West Country, and was known as Eastern Counties Newspapers Group until March 2002. History 1845 to 1900 The company began publishing in Norwich in 1845 with ''Norfolk News'', backed by Jacob Henry Tillet, Jeremiah Colman, John and Johnathan Copeman. The Colman and Copeman families still retain close involvement in the business. The ''Eastern Weekly Press'' was launched in 1867 and in 1870 was renamed the ''Eastern Daily Press''. A sister title, the '' Eastern Evening News'', was launched in 1882. 1900 to 2000 As the business grew it moved premises in 1902, 1959 and again in the late 1960s to its present headquarters location at Prospect House in the centre of Norwich. At the end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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