Spindle Seeds

Slightly flummoxed about how to photograph hanging berries on a windy day, I kept hoping for small lulls in the blowy conditions as I stood in the muddy ditch in order to get up close and personal! Such were the stunning colours and gorgeous almost Japanese shape that it was going to get blipped - like it or not! I just couldn't walk passed.

The Spindle tree itself is 6-9m high (fractionally higher if you are standing in a deep ditch), a deciduous broadleaf and it's slender branches delicately cascaded and swayed with pink this morning! The pink is the seed case with four chambers. Inside each is what looks like a minuscule orange but is the seed. Each tiny orange has a fleshy outer coating and a single pip inside the size of an orange pip. I have brought a couple home to see if I will have any luck growing them.

Neither was I on my own as a passing dog walker did look on in amazement whilst also trying to get Fido out of my camera bag on the path! Best though was a robin which kept coming down undercover of the brambles to eat the berries and sing a chirpy little tune.

The wood from the Spindle tree has traditionally been used for making spindles for spinning wool, for toothpicks, pegs and knitting needles. When crushed it was used as a laxative and a cure for headlice.

I will add I have never seen this before and it is pretty insignificant in the summer by all accounts - but I will go back and look.