Emblem of hope

The hawthorn

Hawthorns are large bushes or small trees that belong to the rose family and are native in Europe, Asia and North America. 

These trees y are an important source of food plants for birds and insects. and are often planted by naturalists to attract wildlife.

Hawthorns are at their best in spring and autumn, most pictures of these small trees show the trees in autumn when their branches are laden with small apple-like fruit. 

The fruit is beautiful to look at but its function is not to please us but to attract thrushes and other birds and entice them to eat the fruit so that they would help disperse the seeds. 

Same is true in spring. The pleasant fragrance released by the beautiful white flowers of the hawthorn attracts large numbers of insects which are important for their pollination.

The name hawthorn is now used for all species in this group of plants but it was originally used only for one species that is common throughout most of Europe including Malta.

In Maltese it is called żagħrun. This species grows wildly in the Maltese countryside but is usually noticed only in autumn.

A less common species, the Crete hawthorn, is known in Maltese as għanzalor. 

Although this species is found in other Mediterranean countries it is not known whether it is indigenous to the Maltese islands as it might have been brought and planted here for its fruit. 

Sometimes one can also meet hybrids which are known in Maltese as għanżalor bagħal.

The hawthorn was commonly used in traditional medicine and is still being studied as a source of antioxidants and other phytochemicals which can be used as a cure for a number of medical conditions including cardiac insufficiency. 

The fruit can be made into jellies, jams and syrups and to add flavour to brandy. The petals can also be used in salads.

It is inevitable that such a popular plant would have many important folk traditions surrounding it. It is the emblem of hope and in parts of Britain and Ireland it was considered unlucky to uproot it. 

This article was published in The Times on 09.05.2012

Birds and berries

Common smilax (Smilax aspera)

Plants produce berries to entice birds to eat their seeds. 

In most cases the seeds are swallowed whole and after passing through the bird’s digestive system they are deposited away from the parent plant ready to germinate. This sometimes takes place hundreds of kilometres away from their origin.

These plants and birds have developed a vital partnership on which both are dependent for their survival. 

Most berries become ripe at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn, when birds are building the fat reserves that they will be using to provide them with the energy required to migrate to warmer parts of the world. It is also the time when another food, the insects, start to decrease.

Some plants provide berries during the winter and provide food to non-migratory birds even in countries further north where the ground is often covered in snow or frozen making it impossible for birds to find molluscs, insects and other small creatures to feed on.

To ensure that the berries are eaten plants fill them with important vitamins and energy and colour them red or black to make it easier for birds to see them.

 Red berries are usually found in evergreen trees. Trees which loose their leaves in the autumn usually have black berries because these show better against the yellow or brown autumn leaves.

Several species of berry producing plants can be found in the Maltese countryside. 

The most visible is the hawthorn (żagħrun) which produces fruit that look like small apples.

 Less easily seen are the berries of the common smilax (pajżana) which I photographed last Sunday. At this time of the year two other native trees, the lentisk (deru) and the Mediterranean buckthorn (alaternu) have berries.

 These berries are eaten by native species such as the Sardinian warbler (bufula sewda) and migratory species such as the song thrush (malvizz) but unfortunately most of these are shot before they get a chance to eat any berries.

This article was published in The Times on 27.10.2010