Horse Chestnuts
Everybody in the UK, is familiar with conker trees.
Horse Chestnut Trees
This is a row that my late wife and myself put up several years ago, when we bought the house. They have done particularly well and you can see some conkers in the picture.
Interestingly, one was planted on top of the grave of one of our English Setters and that is the healthiest and biggest. Perhaps, when I go, I’ll get someone to put a tree on top, so that I can do my big for combating global warmings.
But the trees are suffering from horse chestnut leaf miner damage. This is a moth that is ravaging horse chestnuts all over Europe.
Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner
Note the damage in the leaves. This is only minor, but I couldn’t find a really damaged one to photograph.
The jury is still out on whether the moth will lead to the loss of some or all of our horse chestnuts, with Wikipedia saying no and my tree man saying yes. But at least it appears that some birds are taking a liking to the caterpillars.
The Anonymous Widower 
I am lucky enough to live in an area surrounded by trees and some of them are Horse Chestnut, unfortunately, also suffering the same plight.
Comment by willowcambree | July 19, 2009 |
Let’s hope Wikipedia is right and the trees can survive despite the moths. Perhaps, some nice birds will learn to love the caterpillars and eat them all.
Comment by AnonW | July 19, 2009 |