Wild Things 5 of 6 - Yorkshire Dales

Sadly we’re getting ever nearer to the end of the series, with only one episode following the adventures and experiments in the Yorkshire Dales. Excitingly though, I chanced upon the book at my local library, so will be reading that over the next few weeks – with a review to come.

I have to agree with Chris that the Yorkshire Dales are beautiful. In the novel The Secret Garden, we were lead to believe that the Yorkshire Dales were a dull and dreary place. But Dickon must have gotten its knowledge from somewhere – and this episode shows us just some of the plentiful wild things on offer.

Following Chris to a farm, we see him counting the petals of creeping buttercup flowers. He explains that the breeding between the buttercups in the field cause a genetic mutation that means around every 7 years a buttercup with an extra petal is born. Counting over 20 buttercups in this meadow with 6 petals, Chris calculates that the field has been undisturbed for over 140 years. With this mutation only occurring in undisturbed fields, we can see on the maps that due to our farming methods, we have lost some of these fields over time. Chris follows this up with a cool experiment, first showing us flowers through a series of photographs in ultra violet to show us how bees see the plants. The fun part is when Chris remotely controls a small helicopter with the UV camera attached, viewing through some cool head gear – the point is to see how amazing the fields look in UV and how the yellow of the buttercups really stands out.

Next we visit Sally and learn some really awesome stuff about lichens – particularly how different lichens can tell us about the environment that they live in (click here to see the lichens that the Opal air survey are recording. Sally explains that by looking at the small things, we can see the bigger picture. The pixie cup lichen which makes water bounce off the cup spreading its spores. Other lichens such as the Caloplaca tells us that the air is clean. Other lichens can tell us that the substrate, in this case the wall, is limestone. The Xanthoria can tell us that the air is nitrogen rich, a by-product of exhaust fumes and fertiliser.

We then follow Trevor on a mission to see the very rare Lady’s Slipper orchid at a super secret location. When this Orchid is in flower, it receives 24 hour protection – a shame that it has to be done; but wonderful that it is done. Hunted to death by collectors by 1917, a single specimen was found on a Yorkshire hillside in 1930. Trevor’s enthusiasm is clear to see and clearer to understand when we see the beautiful flower that is produced (no sooner than 15 years after germinating). We then see Trevor hand pollinating the orchid to assist in ensuring the survival of this orchid. As with many orchids, the pollination method is intricate with the bee having to follow a route through the flower to ensure that the pollen is collected and then passed on.

After such as serious episode last week, it’s nice to see some lighthearted experiments. We see Sally and a brass band explaining how the bees use sound. We find that the bees flap their wings 168 times a second to heat up the hive and evaporate the water held in the nectar. We find that the musical note is an ‘E’, which is 158 hertz and copied by the band to really illustrate the point.

Excited, but saddened, that the next episode will close of this series. I can’t see how this series wouldn’t inspire anyone that watches it to get out there and look at the ‘wild things’ all around us. Hopefully there are lots of kids out there watching – the next generation of plant scientists.