We found a branch of dead diamond-shaped brown leaves on the ground in Massy’s Woods in south Co Dublin recently. When I went to pick it up, the leaves fell off the branch very easily. It was next to a knobbly-looking tree where the leaves that were still attached were green, and the tree didn’t look native. Could you identify it? – Tara B Dublin
You are right – this is the national tree of Chile – Araucaria araucana. A Spanish explorer, Archibald Menzies, while dining with the governor of Chile in 1780, sneaked a few of the seeds into his pocket from a bowl being handed round as nibbles and so brought the species to Europe. One planted in a garden in Cornwall caused a definitely not-clued-in visiting barrister in 1850 to exclaim that the tree would puzzle a monkey to climb – hence its English name – Monkey Puzzle. There are no native monkeys at all in Chile.
Viola, in Bray, Co Wicklow, was presented with this ornate object by jackdaws grateful for her feeding them. Is this something you may have heard of before? – Paul Dunne Galway
Yes, it is known that jackdaws and other crows sometimes apparently seem to be leaving gifts for humans. However, it’s difficult to be certain that this is actually what is happening; crows are extremely complex and maybe there is a degree of wishful thinking going on in such cases. But it could well be that they are trying to curry favour with Viola: it would be interesting to know whether they repeat this behaviour or was this just a one-off.
I was on a walk in Howth/Sutton along the cliffs and came across this interesting shell. Looks like the shell of a fish or shellfish with a really cool pattern and hair on the ends. What could it be? – Sophia Gulman
This is indeed quite puzzling. Kevin Flannery of Dingle Aquarium suggests that it would seem to be part of the shell of a much larger creature rather than a species itself. He thinks that it is the detached underside of a female lobster.
Walking in the woods in late February we came across this solitary blue flower. It seemed to be quite wild and not planted there by anyone. What is it? – Catherine Taaffe, Drogheda
This is the wood anemone – Anemone nemorosa. Like all our native spring woodland flowers, it comes into bloom before the leaves come on the trees while there is still enough light present. This species is most often white but blue, and indeed pink, forms can occur too. The flower doesn’t have petals as such – what appears to be petals are in fact sepals. These generally occur in an outer circle outside the petals and are usually green in colour. But not so in this species. Long ago its roots were considered useful for the “expelling of phlegm” but nowadays the plant is regarded as poisonous.
We spotted this pair of frogs hopping about together, not in a pond at all. Surely, they should be mating in freshwater rather than hopping around the place? Patrick Doogan, Co Mayo
They should indeed if they want to have any offspring. Frogs are amphibians and, in this group, fertilisation of female eggs takes place outside the body of the female. The male frog develops horny pads on his front “hands” and is able to cling on very securely on the back of the gravid female. When she releases her eggs, the male is correctly positioned to fertilise them in the water with sperm emitted from his body at the right time. This pair must have got completely carried away during foreplay.
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