Stanmore Common Nature Trail
Return trail post 3:
The small tree beside the post, and several nearby, is aspen, a damp loving tree. The latin name Populus tremula refers to the trembing of the circular leaves (image at right) in the slightest of breezes. This is because the leaf stalk or petiole is a flat strip that easily twists; this habit has produced the saying “To shake like an aspen”. Aspen is home to some of the reserve's rarest insects. Because of this aspen is very rarely felled on the Common.
Image: Aspen leaves by Stephen Bolsover
13 paces ahead on the left look in summer for the small buttercup flowers of lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula.
Image: Lesser spearwort by Steve Bolsover
To
description for return trail post 4
More on some of the birds you are likely to see or hear on the Common
More on the three species of deer on the Common and their tracks
Click
here to learn more about the Harrow Nature Conservation Forum including
guided walks and conservation workdays.
