hazel catkins

HAZEL CATKINS

Male hazel flowers are called catkins because they look like little cats’ tails. They are yellow with pollen. They are long so that, if there are no insects around, the wind can blow them and some of the pollen can blow onto the red female flower which will then grow into a nut. Squirrels like hazel nuts. They hide them to eat in Winter but then they forget where they put them so the nut grows into a tree. Hazel trees grow in woodlands.


Alia & Sarah

     
Evergreen, so it makes its food all year round. An ancient woodland plant worshipped by Celtic women long ago. Climbs up and through other trees to reach the sun, using special roots to grip with.
 
     

They can push their drooping flowers up through snow. They have a protective hood to help them do this.
After flowering, the leaves start to die. Then the sugars in the old leaves travel back down to the bulb, where they make more bulbs ready for next Spring’s flowers. We have been given some bulbs, so next February we hope to have lots of flowers.

 
   
                     
                         
 
 
  GAME 1

1) What am I?
2)
What colour are my flowers? (You could colour them in.)

 


GAME 2

Connect the right bud to the right tree. (Answers on the website next month)
a) Ash b) Hazel c) Thorn d) Horse Chestnut (Conker tree) e) Pussy Willow

 

BATS ABOUT BATS???
Pana is and some of us are so we were very happy to read in the latest Friends of Brompton Cemetery magazine that a dozen bat boxes have arrived and are to be fixed up in specially high trees where they won’t be disturbed. Nick says he can show us how to make bat boxes using spare wood and bicycle inner tubes. If we’re quick and clever, we may be able to make some boxes ourselves and ask to have those fixed to the trees, too.

 
   
                                     
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