Adelaide Local Nature Reserve is in North West London, in the area of Chalk Farm, Primrose Hill, Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage. It is managed by a local volunteer group, the Adelaide Nature Reserve Association, which works with the council to improve the site for wildlife and local community use and enjoyment. The site is a Local Nature Reserve [1] [2] and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1. [3] [4]
The site has been a nature reserve since 1984 but for hundreds of years had been a hay meadow area which provided food for London’s horses. A railway was built through the area in the 19th century and Stephenson’s railway tunnel can be seen nearby. When completed in 1837 this was one of the engineering wonders of the world. In the 20th century, up until world war two, it was covered with domestic gardens. There was a tree nursery here at one time. The reserve was co-founded by Ursula Granville and there is a plaque to commemorate her. The land is owned by Network Rail, who lease it to the London Borough of Camden for use as a nature reserve. The site has been managed as a nature reserve since 1985 and received official Local Nature Reserve status in 2011. However, towards the close of 2011, the site has been threatened by an adjacent building project proposal.
The reserve is dominated by a south facing meadow with some adjacent areas of woodland. There are two ponds one of which has a dipping platform. A circular path runs around the site. A mural, which includes illustrations of site wildlife, overlooks the reserve. Due to the steep sloping nature of the site, there is no wheelchair access as of 2012. The entrance to the site is on Adelaide Road, east of Primrose Hill Road, and the reserve is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays.
There are events held on the last Sunday of the month from 11am – 3pm and at other times by arrangement. Activities have included bird and plant surveying, nature trails, wildlife arts and crafts, badge making, nature quizzes and games and much else. Volunteers from Green Gym, University College London, Interact and other groups have all worked here.
An insect survey found a wide variety of unusual insects, including rare solitary wasps. The site has a notable variety of grasshoppers and crickets. The most notable find was a rare species of chafer beetle last seen in Britain in the 1950s in Cheshire. Lesser stag beetles are common and volunteers are encouraging the Great stag beetle by building loggeries. Site volunteers leave logs in place to provide habitats for insects and fungi. A fine insect house has been built to provide winter homes for insects such as Ladybirds, Lacewings & Butterflies. There are also Bee nesting boxes. Butterflies include Peacock, Comma, Meadow brown, Small heath, Small skipper, Essex skipper, Green veined, Large and Small white, Small copper, Brimstone, Holly blue, Common blue, Speckled wood and Gatekeeper. Amongst moths Narrow-bordered Beehawk moth and Burnet moth have been recorded. An unwelcome recent arrival has been the Harlequin ladybird, which is a threat to native ladybird species. A spectacular new arrival in recent years has been the Wasp spider. Yellow meadow ants make distinctive mounds in the meadow.
Birds are surveyed at regular intervals. Green woodpecker has been seen hunting for ants in the meadow. Regular visitors have included Great, Blue and Long-tailed tits, Robin, Wren, Blackcap, Carrion crow, Jay, Magpie and Blackbird – all common urban birds. A more unusual visitor was a Meadow pipit. Red kite and Sparrowhawk have been seen overhead. A bird-feeding station has been installed and this is a good place to see the birds. There are many bird boxes in place throughout the reserve and Blue tits have used them.
Foxes have dug their dens in the reserve and are often seen here by local people. Volunteers have made Hedgehog hibernating boxes which provide warm and dry winter quarters. Squirrels are frequently seen high up in the trees. The pond supports a population of newts.
There is a diversity of plants, especially in the meadow area. Some recently seen plants include Birdsfoot trefoil, Bloody cranesbill, Corncockle, Cowslip, Dog rose, Evening primrose, Field speedwell, Lesser periwinkle, Michaelmas daisy, Oxeye daisy, Vipers bugloss, Sweet violet, Lucerne, Wild gladiolus, Green alkanet, Herb robert, Lesser celandine, Marsh marigold, Purple loosestrife, Yellow flag, Wild strawberry, Yarrow and many others. Some of these have been introduced, others found their own way here.
Tree species include English oak, Caucasian oak, Turkey oak, Holm oak and Sessile oak, Rowan, Ash, Lime, Spindle, Hazel, Laburnum, Apple, Cotoneaster, Hawthorn and Silver birch.
The site has a good variety of galls, which have been surveyed in recent years, including some rarities. Some of the wasp-induced galls have a life cycle based on English and introduced Turkey oak. These species have done well as a result of the two species being present together. On Oak, Andricus lucidus (Hedgehog gall) and Andricus aries (Ramshorn gall) are present. The well known Robin’s pincushion (Diplolepsis rosae)- a wasp gall on Dog rose – can be found periodically. The site also has a number of mite and Hemiptera induced galls. A gall of note is Cryptosiphum artemisiae found on Mugwort. C. artemisiae is a Hemiptera gall - of which the aphid inducers are preyed on by larvae of Hoverfly species Triglyphus primus.
Galls or cecidia are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or warts in animals. They can be caused by various parasites, from viruses, fungi and bacteria, to other plants, insects and mites. Plant galls are often highly organized structures so that the cause of the gall can often be determined without the actual agent being identified. This applies particularly to insect and mite plant galls. The study of plant galls is known as cecidology.
Gall wasps, also traditionally calledgallflies, are hymenopterans of the family Cynipidae in the wasp superfamily Cynipoidea. Their common name comes from the galls they induce on plants for larval development. About 1,300 species of this generally very small creature are known worldwide, with about 360 species of 36 different genera in Europe and some 800 species in North America.
Ashford Green Corridor is a green space that runs through the town of Ashford in Kent, England. The Green Corridor is made up of parks, recreation grounds and other green spaces alongside the rivers that flow through Ashford. It is a Local Nature Reserve.
London Wildlife Trust (LWT), founded in 1981, is a local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, each of which is a local nature conservation charity for its area. The Trust aims to protect London's wildlife and wild spaces, and it manages 36 nature reserves in Greater London. The Trust provides education services for schools. Local groups work on reserves and organise walks.
Andricus quercuscalicis is a gall wasp species inducing knopper galls.
Andricus kollari, also known as the marble gall wasp, is a parthenogenetic species of wasp which causes the formation of marble galls on oak trees. Synonyms for the species include Cynips kollari, Andricus quercusgemmae, A. minor, A. indigenus and A. circulans.
Andricus foecundatrix is a parthenogenetic gall wasp which lays a single egg within a leaf bud, using its ovipositor, to produce a gall known as an oak artichoke gall, oak hop gall, larch-cone gall or hop strobile The gall develops as a chemically induced distortion of leaf axillary or terminal buds on pedunculate oak or sessile oak trees. The larva lives inside a smaller hard casing inside the artichoke and this is released in autumn. The asexual wasp emerges in spring and lays her eggs in the oak catkins. These develop into small oval galls which produce the sexual generation of wasps. A yew artichoke gall caused by the fly Taxomyia taxi also exists, but is unrelated to the oak-borne species. Previous names or synonyms for the species A. fecundator are A. fecundatrix, A. pilosus, A. foecundatrix, A. gemmarum, A. gemmae, A. gemmaequercus, A. gemmaecinaraeformis and A. quercusgemmae.
Andricus grossulariae is a gall wasp species inducing agamic acorn cup galls on oak tree acorn cups and sexual phase galls on catkins. Synonyms include Andricus fructuum, Andricus gemellus, Andricus intermedius, Andricus mayri and Cynips panteli.
Woodridge Nature Reserve or Woodridge School Nature Reserve is a 0.7-hectare (1.7-acre) Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation in Woodside Park, London, owned and managed by the London Borough of Barnet. It was designed as a nature trail for local primary schools, but is now very neglected.
Scratchwood is an extensive, mainly wooded, country park in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. The 57-hectare site is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation and together with the neighbouring Moat Mount Open Space. It is a Local Nature Reserve.
Arkley Lane and Pastures is a 50-hectare (120-acre) Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II, in Arkley in the London Borough of Barnet. Arkley Lane, off Barnet Road, is an old drovers' road. Located on the Barnet Plateau, it is now a quiet country lane with a traditional bank and ditch. The thick hedges are composed of beech and hornbeam, ash, field maple and magnificent old pedunculate oaks.
Oak Hill Wood is a 10-hectare Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation Grade I, in East Barnet, London. It is owned by the London Borough of Barnet, and part of it is a 5.5-hectare nature reserve managed by the London Wildlife Trust.
Cranham Marsh is a 15.3 hectare Local Nature Reserve and a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation in Cranham in the London Borough of Havering. It is owned by Havering Council and managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.
Andricus quercuscalifornicus, or the California gall wasp, is a small wasp species that induces oak apple galls on white oaks, primarily the valley oak but also other species such as Quercus berberidifolia. The California gall wasp is considered an ecosystem engineer, capable of manipulating the growth of galls for their own development. It is found from Washington, Oregon, and California to northern regions of Mexico. Often multiple wasps in different life stages occupy the same gall. The induced galls help establish complex insect communities, promoting the diversification in niche differentiation. Furthermore, the adaptive value of these galls could be attributed their ecological benefits such as nutrition, provision of microenvironment, and enemy avoidance.
Foxley Wood is an 11.36 hectare Local Nature Reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, in Purley in the London Borough of Croydon. It is owned and managed by Croydon Council. The site was purchased by Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council under the Green Belt Act in the 1930s.
Gutteridge Wood and Meadows is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in Yeading in the London Borough of Hillingdon, which is owned by Hillingdon Council and managed by the London Wildlife Trust (LWT). It is also part of the Yeading Brook Meadows Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, which includes two neighbouring reserves managed by the LWT, Ten Acre Wood and Yeading Brook Meadows LNRs.
Ten Acre Wood is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in Yeading in the London Borough of Hillingdon, which is owned by Hillingdon Council and managed by the London Wildlife Trust (LWT). It is also part of the Yeading Brook Meadows Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC), which includes two neighbouring LNRs managed by the LWT, Gutteridge Wood and Meadows and Yeading Brook Meadows LNR.
Andricus aries is a species of gall-forming wasps, in the genus Andricus. The species was named by the French entomologist Joseph-Étienne Giraud, in 1859. It is commonly found in eastern Europe and during the 21st century has spread to western Europe.
Andricus infectorius is a species of gall-forming wasp. The species was named by the German biologist Theodor Hartig, in 1843 and is found in Europe.