'I Spy' in a village churchyard:
A valuable ecosystem
It is common to find old yew trees in old churchyards
in central and southeast England, the Lake District, and Wales
due to well-draining chalk and limestone soils
Slow growing and long lived,
yews have been found to be older than the churches they protect
possibly because they were planted on old religious sites where churches were erected later
The majority of the world's ancient yews is found in Britain,
some still growing after 1000 years
These evergreens were
sacred to the Druids and Celtics,
sacred to the Druids and Celtics,
a common source of myths and legends,
used for making longbows during the Middle Ages,
and always a good food source for birds
One of the curious things about yews is they have an unusually small cone
surrounded by what looks like a red berry (an 'aril' to be exact)
which is the only part of the tree that is not poisonous
Another 'I Spy' is lichens on gravestones
Lichens take water and nourishment not from soil, but from air
As many gravestones are made of limestone,
they create an ideal habitat for these little cutie-pie plants
as limestone neutralizes acidic pollution
Because headstones are rarely cleaned and graves are rarely disturbed,
churchyards inadvertently protect some endangered lichens
So much life in a village churchyard :)
- all photos by me -
- all photos by me -
Sources: AncientYew.org, Wikipedia, Country Living Magazine Dec 2011, The Country Life Book of the Natural History of the British Isles pub 1980
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