Monday 21 July 2014

Butterflies or Georgian Bath


Sir Richard Attenborough has asked all us Brits to count the butterflies this Summer, so I had a go one lunchtime last week, out at the rural workshop, not having a garden here in central town.

I got up to four Cabbage Whites and one coloured one before I began to suspect the one of the Whites was doing the old schoolboy trick of running from one side of the panoramic camera to the other so as to be counted twice.

We considered capturing each butterfly and ringing it for identification before releasing it back into the wild, but decided against it - life is too short, especially for the butterfly.

If there is one plant which evokes a long, hot Summer, it is Buddleia - possibly the butterfly's favourite plant. I love almost everything about it - the colour, the smell and the abundance of long-lasting blossoms, and it's ability to survive  - thrive - on the meanest of soils. It chooses places like bomb-sites as a favoured habitat, but thankfully we are relatively free of those in this part of the world at the moment.

I say 'almost' everything about it, because there is one negative attached to Buddleia which is directly associated with its ability to thrive on virtually no soil. Miraculously, one seed will drift through the air and settle in a tiny crack in the mortar of the masonry of a building, and take root very firmly indeed.

The roots will travel through joints of no more than one-eighth of an inch thick, then somehow suck out enough nutrient to produce a massive bush of flowers high up on the side of a Grade One listed building, as if feeding on the air alone. This is good news for butterflies, but bad news for the architecture.

Buddleia loves rocky, alkali places, and you can't get much more rocky and alkali than Bath.

The roots creep in between impossibly tight places in buildings, then exert tons per square-inch pressure in an outward direction, pushing the blocks apart and carrying out a slow demolition process.

Whenever you see a healthy-looking Buddleia high up on the side of a building, you know you are also looking at neglected masonry in danger, which is why I pulled these young plants out of the footings of the pub yesterday before they had a chance to flower, and before I would be too weak to be able do it.

Sorry, Butterflies.

15 comments:


  1. We don't want the pub walls weakening, do we?
    And, incidentally, how do you ring a butterfly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No.

      You meet all the other bidders in the car park after the sale, then you have your own private auction.

      Delete
  2. I was only thinking this morning what a good year it is for buddleia. I was looking at it from the train window. It took my mind right off other things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Other things? Like running out of the woods and scaring us all shitless?

      Delete
  3. Just two days ago I went to check on a friend's (empty) house, and found one growing INSIDE. It had come through the stone walls, and up behind the skirting. Determined little fella!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Today I have released a butterfly trapped in the window of a friend's antique shop. If there had been a Buddleia growing in there, I wouldn't have bothered.

      I would have released the Koala that was trapped inside as well, but he has Eucalyptus growing out of his skirting board.

      Delete
  4. Love Buddleia, we have both lavender and white ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too - the white ones are scarce around here, but there are a few.

      Delete
    2. I like the very dark ones.

      Delete
  5. I wasn't familiar with this plant so far but was happy to find out that it was named after a Mr. Buddle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had house in London whose downpipes were often blocked by guerrilla Buddleias. Not easy to remove. Sorry I've been such a crappy follower recently by the way! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't mention it - I've only just noticed this comment.

      Delete