Читать книгу The Times A Year in Nature Notes - Derwent May - Страница 51

ON ELDER TREES, the first new leaves are opening. Their fresh green colour stands out against the dry-looking grey stems, which are full of fissures and which crack easily. Inside the stems there is a soft white pith that has a surprising human use: it holds botanical specimens firm while they are being sliced into thin sections. Later in the year the white flowers will be used to make a scented cordial and the black berries will help to make a wine. On sycamore trees the pointed, egg-shaped buds are growing plumper: they are noticeably green already.

Here and there tufts of green leaves, like small whisks, are breaking out of the hawthorn twigs. It is usually the same tree or same patch of hedge that comes out so early each year. Occasionally, there is some forsythia entangled in a hawthorn hedge, and the yellow flowers are opening now.