the online meeting place for all who love our amphibians and reptiles
Home Page Live Forums Archived Forums Site Search Identify Record Donate Projects Links
Forum Home Forum Home > Alien & Naturalised species of the UK > Aliens
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - happy couple...
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

happy couple...

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
will View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1830
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote will Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: happy couple...
    Posted: 29 Apr 2011 at 8:55pm
...for some reason the zig-zag at Boscombe was empty of people today, so giving this happy couple more peace than usual...


Back to Top
Liz Heard View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Location: South West
Status: Offline
Points: 1429
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Liz Heard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr 2011 at 11:05pm
blinding pic will
thanks for posting.

as an aside, when we were in Boscombe last week i observed swathes of this succulent beside the zigzag. rarely visiting seaside habitat, ive never encountered it before. do you (or anyone here) happen to know what it is and if its native?
put me out of my misery and save me searching the internet/books or posting on ispot!



flowerheads are 6-7cm in diameter.

cheers
Back to Top
Wolfgang Wuster View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 374
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wolfgang Wuster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2011 at 9:39am
It's a hottentot fig (Carpobrotus edulis) - an invasive species native to South Africa. It's a serious pest in parts of the Mediterranean and elsewhere with a Mediterranean climate, although I guess the UK climate will control it a bit more than would be the case in warmer latitudes.
Wolfgang Wüster

School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor

http://pages.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/
Back to Top
will View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1830
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote will Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2011 at 9:56am
Thanks Ben; as Wolfgang says it's hottentot fig - it was indeed noticeably knocked back by the cold winter of 09/10, and to a lesser extent this winter - however it's still carpeting swathes of the cliffs and in Cornwall it's a real pest.
Back to Top
David Bird View Drop Down
Forum Specialist
Forum Specialist


Joined: 11 Apr 2011
Location: Dorset
Status: Offline
Points: 6
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David Bird Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 May 2011 at 10:02pm
Natural England have spent a lot of money over the past decade or so controlling the Hottentot fig on the Bournemouth cliffs. The patches do look reasonable reptile habitat especially with the dead dry and warm material underneath but on my cliff surveys I have found no reptiles in or around them, they also do not seem to harbour many invertebrates either. Last year I did find some of the ripe "Figs" or as the South Africans call them "Sour Figs" but found them rather salty with an unplesant bitterness  nothing really like figs.
David
Back to Top
kithara View Drop Down
Member
Member
Avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Status: Offline
Points: 19
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kithara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2011 at 1:05pm
very lucky shot
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 11.06
Copyright ©2001-2016 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.141 seconds.