BRACKEN IN THE IRISH LANDSCAPE

| gaiainaction
Around this time of late autumn, and along the Irish country roads, there is a wealth of bright colours and especially after the many days of rain we have had recently the colours are brought out even more. It is refreshing, bright and yet mellow. I’m inclined to romanticize whenever I’m in nature, colours become very vivid in my eyes. I stopped the car about seven times while on an errand to the next village, it was evening, but not yet sunset time, everywhere was so beautiful.
Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, turn this lovely rusty colour after the first frost during autumn, and during the last cold spell we have had a little night frost. Bracken is found all over Ireland, probably due partly to the damp climate here. Being a very large fern it is not something to grow in a smallish garden, though I do like some of the other fern species as they can be very beautiful. No this species does belong to the mountain areas and typically to the side of the country roads.
The water is actually the river Ilen almost at the point where the river ends into the sea at Baltimore.
Bracken and some of the late and now forgotten blackberries.
Bridge at Skibbereen town, and close to the potato famine graveyard. This is a most attractive bridge going back a good many years and featuring the lovely arches that you see here all over the place. The bridge spans the same river Ilen.
I so enjoyed my little journey today even though I was driving and not walking every now and then I stopped the car to enjoy the views, to get the scents and to listen to the blackbirds. A lovely late autumn day it was.
I arrived home to a cosy atmosphere where Ian was tinkering away on one of his projects. Soon it was time to turn on the light and draw the curtains, these days are very short now – another thing I thoroughly enjoy…….for a while.

30 thoughts on “BRACKEN IN THE IRISH LANDSCAPE”

    1. My Eliza did you have a lot of frost already? Here once, one night we had light frost. Yes grass stays green all year round in Ireland 🙂 but we do have to take the rain with it also. Our winters here in West Cork are mild.

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      3. Oh, yes, lots of snow that lasts for months, at least through March. Some years it comes to mid-thigh. Snowshoes are the only way to get around the yard and woods. Very aerobic! 😉

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      7. Below freezing temps for long enough makes everything here go dormant. Even evergreens like pine and rhododendron develop an olive cast. It’s the best color we can hope for in the depths of winter.

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  5. I’m not sure I have ever seen bracken this beautiful red before. There is some bracken just a few minutes’ walk from my house, so I will try to remember to take a walk in that direction in the next day or so to see if that is likewise an autumnal colour. It might have died off by now but I shall see.

    Interesting that the bracken does change colour, while other ferns may not. I bought two evergreen ferns this year to grace my pond and so far, at least, they are resolutely green. Maybe they are in sympathy with the hazel tree whose leaves have also stayed green!

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    1. Yes I’d be interested Helen to know. Here in Ireland probably because of the huge amount of rain it does bring out the colours I find, the evening sun brings out the colours as well. Not sure if frost changes the colours again. Yes bracken is known for its brown colours during winter, at least here in this wild, rugged and wet West Cork 🙂

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      1. I realise I simply haven’t been paying attention perhaps, as I reflected on what I’ve seen without realising and I’m sure the bracken must turn into a reddish colour here. At the same time, this part of England isn’t renowned for being wet under normal circumstances and I doubt bracken gets as vibrantly coloured as in your photos.

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      4. Hello Agnes, I saw bracken on my travels today and it was brown rather than red. Now, this I think is the normal autumn/winter colour here but I will still look out for it in different places to see if there is any which is red.

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      5. Hi Helen, I am wondering if the colour is being distorted and coming out wrongly over some of the media as the colour should not be red, the bracken are a rusty brown rather than red.

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