Battling for winter berries

15 Dec 2009 01:51 PM

A helping hand for England’s threatened juniper.

Bushes laden with berries are a familiar sight in the English countryside in winter. But for the juniper, 50 years of rapid decline have turned this once familiar plant into a rarity with a very uncertain future. Now help is at hand as a budding task force, led by Natural England, is returning the threatened juniper plant to its former haunts across England.

Junipers have a life span of around 200 years but many old junipers are not being naturally replaced owing to shading from other plants, grazing pressures from rabbits and livestock and increased cultivation. The answer is a widespread planting programme run by Natural England and designed to re-establish populations of young juniper in the chalk and limestone landscapes they favour. The final planting for 2009 takes place in Cumbria this week.

Poul Christensen, Chair of Natural England, said: “Juniper is a symbol of many of our upland landscapes, but changes in land management have greatly reduced the populations of this important berry bearing plant. Conservation help is now needed to enable the next generation of juniper to become established and with the help of land managers and volunteers the plant is now being restored to many of its former strongholds.”

The juniper has a long history and may have been one of the first plants to colonise the British Isles as the ice sheets retreated 12,000 years ago. A rich folklore has since grown up around it, including legends about its purifying powers and beliefs that planting a juniper bush next to your home would prevent witches from entering. Now known mostly for its association with gin, the blue coloured fruits of the juniper – like most berries at this time of year – make an important contribution to the diet of birds in winter, including the threatened black grouse and colourful waxwing.

Poul Christensen continued “The timing and colour of winter berries is all part of nature’s design - berries appear when the countryside is at its most subdued and provide an essential and conspicuous food source much sought after by animals such as field mice, squirrels, badgers, and especially birds. It is not just major conservation programmes that can help out - planting hawthorn, holly, ivy, rowan and gelder rose in back gardens will help see birds through the winter, whilst also adding brightness and colour to our back gardens.” Natural England’s Big Wildlife Garden website is a great and fun way to learn about how to make gardens more wildlife friendly. For more information visit: www.bwg.naturalengland.org.uk

To complete its juniper planting for 2009 Natural England this week will join forces with members of the Bethecar Moor Commoners’ Association and volunteers from the Lake District National Park Authority to complete the planting of more than 500 junipers in selected areas upon the moors above Coniston Water.

Natural England’s juniper planting work in Cumbria is part of a wider programme of targeted conservation work. This includes ongoing restoration for southern populations, especially at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve, which has one of the largest remaining populations of juniper in the south of England. In the 1960s there were around 2,000 bushes, but the population had declined to only 500 by the late 1990s. The national importance of Aston Rowant’s juniper population was recognised in 2005 when the NNR was made a Special Area for Conservation, the highest level of protection for nature reserves in Europe.

Notes to Editors:

Photographs
Pictures of juniper berries and bushes; planting work and juniper landscapes are available from the press office: 0845 603 9953

For further information
Contact: Natural England’s Press Office on 0845 603 9953 / press@naturalengland.org.uk / out of hours 07970 098 005.

The Big Wildlife Garden

The Big Wildlife Garden is an innovative web site that creates an online network of gardens and open spaces and encourages people of all ages to discover how to attract more wildlife into their gardens.

The site enables users to log their own diaries noting seasonal changes, swap gardening tips and families are encouraged to upload their favourite photos of wildlife. Groups with access to gardens and green spaces, such as scouts and girl guides, can sign up to get recommendations for ways to make their local sites more wildlife-friendly.

Families, individuals and primary schools can collect Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards for their efforts to attract wildlife - with the highest accolade reserved for the appropriately named Green Award.

For more information visit: www.bwg.naturalengland.org.uk

Berries to look out for:

Holly
Holly is a slow-growing evergreen that is very hardy. Female flowers develop into clusters of bright red berries by late November and are greatly enjoyed by thrushes including the winter visitors redwing and fieldfare.

Mistletoe
Mistletoe is a well-known, evergreen, parasitic plant. It grows most commonly on apple trees, but also on blackthorn, hawthorn, lime, poplar, rowan and willow. It occurs from east Devon to Yorkshire, and is particularly common in central and southern England and around London. It has sticky white berries which appear around Christmas time, when there is very little other food available for wildlife. The berries are eaten by birds, especially of course the mistle thrush, which is named after the plant.

Hawthorn
Hawthorn berries light up dull November days with their crimson lanterns. Red berries (haws) develop from July and last well into winter when they are a vital source of food for birds. Hawthorn is used extensively for hedging, especially mixed with other species such as blackthorn. The red berries hang in clusters in the autumn are particularly attractive to redwings and fieldfares but are eaten by many other birds, as well as by small mammals. Hawthorn is also the food plant for a huge number of insects including some very attractive moths.

Yew
Yew is an evergreen tree, the yew is native to chalk downs in southern England, limestone areas elsewhere and in oak woods on other soils. The seed develops within a bright red cup (called the aril) that resembles a berry. The seeds are dispersed by birds, especially blackbirds and thrushes, which are attracted to the fleshy red arils. Kingley Vale NNR on the South Downs, West Sussex has one of the few remaining large yew woods with over 20,000 trees, many of them gnarled and twisted with age.

Rowan / mountain ash
Rowan is a small to medium sized tree with an open oval crown. Although the rowan is associated with high upland terrains it is also frequently found in lowland areas and urban environments where the clusters of bright orange-red berries make a colourful autumn splash. Rowan provides splendid autumn colour, the leaves turning from green to bright red and yellow. The small white flowers are produced in flat panicles in May and June. These are followed by clusters of bright red berries which are a favourite of birds, especially mistle thrushes and blackbirds.

Guelder rose
A frequent shrubby inhabitant of moist and wet ground. Often growing alongside sallow and alder buckthorn, guelder leaves are maple-like in appearance. The leaves turn to stunning shades of red, orange and yellow in autumn. The large clusters of round, brilliant red, glossy - almost translucent - fruits remain on the plant throughout the winter, providing an essential food source for birds

Sea buckthorn
Usually found near the coast, often forming thickets on fixed dunes and sea cliffs. A good vitamin source, the berries will eventually turn orange-yellow, often remaining on the coastal shrub through the winter. They are a popular food source for the thrush family.

Juniper berries
Juniper can be found on moors in the north and chalk downs in southern England. It is a slow-growing tree which grows either in column or spreading form. Both have blue-green, aromatic, leaves that are spiky to touch and grouped in threes. The bark is very thin and flaky, with a bluish-grey colour and very aromatic. The juniper is unisexual: male and female flowers grow on separate trees. The male flowers are small yellow cones, but the female flowers are green, ripening into green berries in the first year, then turning dark purple in the second. Juniper berries take two to three years to ripen, so that blue and green berries may occur on the same plant. They are a favourite food of black grouse – both can be seen at Moor House Upper Teesdale NNR.

Honeysuckle
A climbing plant of hedgerows, woodland margins and thickets. It is a deciduous. Native honeysuckle is found in hedges and woodlands throughout England. Bright red berries form in clusters on the plant after flowering. These will last on the plant well into autumn or until they are eaten by birds.

Bilberry
This small, deciduous, shrub produces the delicious bilberry, also known variously as whinberry, whortleberry or blueberry. A lover of acid soils, particularly on upland and lowland moor and heath, the bilberry provides the forager with a vitamin-rich fruit with a purple bloom. Found on Stipertones, East Dartmoor and Ingleborough NNRs. Bilberries are round, bluish black fruits.

Elder
Elder is a fast-growing, deciduous shrub of fertile soils in a wide range of habitats. It is bushy, open and upright, with arched branches. Left on the plant, the flowers produce masses of small black fruits in autumn. These are rich in vitamin C. They are a favourite food of birds, including various warblers.

Crowberry
Crowberry is similar to heathers in that it is a dwarf shrub which forms carpets and low hummocks. The tiny, pale purple-red flowers appear in May. These are followed by black berries. A small willow beetle Lachmaea capreae is found on crowberry, which also has a number of moth species associated with it. Both small mammals and birds like song thrushes and blackbirds may eat the berries.

Birds and berries: some top facts

Berries do grow on trees (!) and on bushes, climbing plants and shrubs. The best place to see them is on hedgerows and woodland in autumn and winter.
Song birds, including the song thrush and mistle thrush switch from eating insects in the summer to a diet based on berries in the winter, when the ground is frozen
Redwings and fieldfares arriving for winter depend upon berries to survive after their long journey of migration
Black grouse enjoy bilberries
Blackbirds and starlings like elderberries in summer and late autumn
Waxwings feast on rowan berries, haw berries and rose hips and can eat twice their body weight in berries in a day – about 500 berries.

About Natural England

Natural England is the government’s independent advisor on the natural environment. Established in 2006 our work is focused on enhancing England’s wildlife and landscapes and maximising the benefits they bring to the public.
We establish and care for England’s main wildlife and geological sites, ensuring that over 4,000 National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest are looked after and improved.
We work to ensure that England’s landscapes are effectively protected, designating England’s National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Marine Conservation Zones, and advising widely on their conservation.
We run England’s Environmental Stewardship green farming schemes that deliver over £400 million a year to farmers and landowners, enabling them to enhance the natural environment across two thirds of England’s farmland.
We fund, manage, and provide scientific expertise for hundreds of conservation projects each year, improving the prospects for thousands of England’s species and habitats.
We promote access to the wider countryside, helping establish National Trails and coastal trails and ensuring that the public can enjoy and benefit from them.