Levin Down nature reserve - March report

Rob Eadie 

Volunteer Reserve Manager

Here we are in a new season of blossom, colour and activity on Levin Down’s chalky grassland and marginal scrubby habitats. Despite the rain, there have been some fine days over the last few weeks, with plenty of sunshine and mild temperatures. Among the Dog Violets and rosettes of Early Purple Orchids, there is a small patch of Stinking Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) blooming in the dappled shade of an old Blackthorn. Given its distance from domestic gardens, this is likely a rare occurrence of one of our native hellebores, and the first official record of this plant on Levin.

On the east facing slope of the reserve, where heather and Tormentil flower on the acidic loess later in the season, there is an old lichen covered Oak. Each year in March, a luminous jelly fungus appears on its branches. The species is almost certainly Tremella mesenterica, commonly known as Yellow Brain, Golden Ear or Witch's Butter. It is parasitic on another fungus, which is not usually visible as Tremella envelopes it before the host species produces its fruiting bodies.

Moving away from the open chalk grassland and into the dark and still damp woods at the northern end of the reserve, there is a Yew tree partly denuded of its outer bark layers, revealing the extraordinary luminous scarlet of its inner layers. I have often noticed the vermilion hues of Yew bark but have never seen such an intensity of colour.

Finally, Levin’s reptiles are basking in sheltered spots at the edge of the denser bramble thickets. One or two Adders have slid away too quickly to photograph, but the Common Lizards have been less skittish.