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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/06/country-diary-signs-of-life-on-a-shingle-shore
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| Country diary: signs of life on a shingle shore | Country diary: signs of life on a shingle shore |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The vast shark’s tooth of shingle that is Dungeness protrudes into the strait of Dover. Though the sky is overcast, as I drive on to the promontory the light intensifies, reflecting from the sea on to the flint pebbles. It’s like walking into a room with glass walls. | The vast shark’s tooth of shingle that is Dungeness protrudes into the strait of Dover. Though the sky is overcast, as I drive on to the promontory the light intensifies, reflecting from the sea on to the flint pebbles. It’s like walking into a room with glass walls. |
| This is an ancient, undulating, beach dotted with old abandoned boats and sheds. Millennia ago the sea deposited 40 square kilometres of shingle here, sifting it into ridges of smaller pebbles and troughs of bulkier ones. Above the shoreline, Dungeness is a static shingle platform, a huge, flat cairn. | This is an ancient, undulating, beach dotted with old abandoned boats and sheds. Millennia ago the sea deposited 40 square kilometres of shingle here, sifting it into ridges of smaller pebbles and troughs of bulkier ones. Above the shoreline, Dungeness is a static shingle platform, a huge, flat cairn. |
| This is an exposed environment, buffeted by maritime winds, the closest the UK gets to a desert. | This is an exposed environment, buffeted by maritime winds, the closest the UK gets to a desert. |
| In the shingle furrows the conditions are botanically brutal. Water drains away in seconds and any seeds that germinate face a parched demise. Only lichens, community organisms within which fungi and algae and sometimes bacteria co-exist to form a miniature, self-supporting ecosystem, can take hold. | |
| I squat down to take a closer look at the delicate but hardy patchwork of this lichen heath and see minute forests of branching and scalloped forms. Their colours are beautiful: subtle aqua greys of Cladonia pentosa and Hypogymnia physodes, mustard yellow of Xanthoria parietina, and pale chartreuse of Flavoparmelia caperata. | I squat down to take a closer look at the delicate but hardy patchwork of this lichen heath and see minute forests of branching and scalloped forms. Their colours are beautiful: subtle aqua greys of Cladonia pentosa and Hypogymnia physodes, mustard yellow of Xanthoria parietina, and pale chartreuse of Flavoparmelia caperata. |
| Fronds of decaying seaweed blow up from the strandline, catch and accumulate between the smaller pebbles on the ridges. Sea kale (Crambe maritima) is a pioneer species, able to germinate in these small traces of humus. A little more soil accumulates around its roots every year as its leaves are shed and with each growing season more drought-tolerant plant species take hold. | Fronds of decaying seaweed blow up from the strandline, catch and accumulate between the smaller pebbles on the ridges. Sea kale (Crambe maritima) is a pioneer species, able to germinate in these small traces of humus. A little more soil accumulates around its roots every year as its leaves are shed and with each growing season more drought-tolerant plant species take hold. |
| As I walk between the islands of vegetation I spot the desiccated seedheads of sea campion (Silene uniflora), wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile), wild carrot (Daucus carota), yellow horned poppy (Glaucium flavum) and viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), all growing near mounds of sea kale. | As I walk between the islands of vegetation I spot the desiccated seedheads of sea campion (Silene uniflora), wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile), wild carrot (Daucus carota), yellow horned poppy (Glaucium flavum) and viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), all growing near mounds of sea kale. |
| With the help of the wind, these specialised plants are slowly knitting the shingle together with their roots and self-made soil. They are making new land. | With the help of the wind, these specialised plants are slowly knitting the shingle together with their roots and self-made soil. They are making new land. |
| Making Winter: A Creative Guide for Surviving the Winter Months, by Emma Mitchell (LOM Art, £14.99); from guardianbookshop.com £12.74 | Making Winter: A Creative Guide for Surviving the Winter Months, by Emma Mitchell (LOM Art, £14.99); from guardianbookshop.com £12.74 |
| Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary |
| This article was amended on 6 October 2017 to correct the description of lichens as community organisms | This article was amended on 6 October 2017 to correct the description of lichens as community organisms |