The plants and trees of Fota

This Bank Holiday weekend marked a much-anticipated return visit to Fota Arboretum in East Cork.

Fota Island was originally the home of the Smith-Barry family and in the ownership of that family since 1177. After the death of the last of the Smith-Barrys in 1975, the Island was sold to University College Cork. Over time, parts of the island has been put to a variety of uses including the unique Fota Wildlife Park. Although financial constraints required parts of the estate to be sold off for a golf course and hotel development, much of Fota remains in public ownership.

Fota House, former seat of the Smith-Barrys and their impressive gardens and arboretum is open to the public and is well worth a visit.

The Irish Heritage Trust took over responsibility for Fota House, Arboretum and Gardens in 2007 and there has been some noticeable improvements in signage and accessibility in that time. The Office of Public Works manage the gardens and arboretum.

Many sources describe the word Fota as coming from the Irish term 'Fód te' meaning warm soil and as such, the gardens are a great spot to relax and enjoy one of the greatest collection of rare and tender trees and shrubs growing outdoors in Ireland and Britain.

Japanese Cedar - a billowing thundercloud

The Smith-Barrys can be credited with the laying-out of the gardens and arboretum. Even up to the last of the Smith-Barrys, a Mrs. Bell, cataloguing and conserving the plant collections were important.

Japanese Cedar

One of the most impressive trees in the collection is a magnificent Japanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica 'Spiralis') planted in around 1880. The national tree of Japan, this variety has particularly interesting foliage where many of the needles twist themselves around the stems giving a spiral appearance. From a distance, the tree resembles a billowing thundercloud and is about 20 metres high.

There are a few small Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) trees in the arboretum.

Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana)

Now is also a good time to visit. The Camellia and Magnolia are already in flower and Primroses abound in the wooded areas.

Magnolia 'Big Dude'

Camellia japonica 'Lavinia Maggi'

There is a magnificent Drimys winteri 'Glauca' currently in flower. Native to rain forests of Chile and Argentina, the bark of the plant known as "Winter's Bark" was a well known cure for scurvy.

Drimys winteri 'Glauca'

Drimys winteri 'Glauca'

Also at this time of the year, the azaleas which are dotted around the house are a riot of pinks, reds and purples.

For those who love plants Fota is a must visit. Understandably, the animals in the nearby wildlife park are a huge draw but, and at the risk of spoiling this oasis of calm, the gardens and arboretum deserve to be more visited in their own right.

Fota Garden and Arboretum are open year round and entry is free. There is however a €3 charge for parking. The island can also be accessed by train from Cork's Kent railway station. Charges apply for visiting Fota House and Fota Wildlife Park.

The Fota House Plant and Garden Fair takes place on Sunday 22nd April 2012 in association with Marymount Hospice New Building Fund. For more details, see www.fotahouse.com

Cutbacks in Science Subjects at Second Level

Some Irish secondary schools are being forced to stop teaching chemistry and physics because of cutbacks to staffing levels. However, those subjects are easy targets because we don't do enough to promote the study of science in general.

According to an ASTI survey published today (conducted by Millward Brown):

• 47% of schools surveyed (151 took part in the research) had dropped one or more subjects at Leaving Cert level since 2009.

• Of those schools which dropped subjects, 23% dropped Accounting, another 23% dropped Economics.

• 21% of schools have stopped teaching Physics at Senior Cycle level.

• 15% have stopped teaching Applied Maths.

• 11% have stopped teaching Chemistry.

• 32% of schools report significant levels of overcrowding in Biology classes at Leaving Cert level.

• 48% of schools say they will drop one or more subjects at Junior Cycle in 2012.

• 64% say they will drop one or more subjects at Senior Cycle.

• The top three subjects to be dropped? Accounting, Chemistry, Physics.

At a time when we are trying to promote the study of science at 2nd and 3rd level, funding cuts are making it more likely that students will attend a school where they will not be able to study all of the sciences. While Biology remains available to most students (although increasingly in overcrowded classrooms and labs), it is only because of its relative popularity when compared to Phyisics and Chemistry.

According to figures released by the State Examinations Commission, 30,349 students took Biology Leaving Cert exams (at either level) in 2011. This compares to 7677 for Chemistry and 6516 for Physics.

While cutbacks in funding are undoubtedly part of the equation, the popularity of these subjects is also relevant. If 30,000+ students were studying chemistry and physics they might not have been dropped as readily. We need to do more to make science in general an appealing subject choice at 2nd level and certainly, cutting availability of the subject is not the way to go.

The survey doesn't go into it, but it would be interesting to see the gender breakdown. Are chemistry and physics being dropped across the board or are they more likely to be dropped in girls-only schools? It would be interesting to find out.

Has your school dropped science subjects? Let us know by adding a comment below

The Case of the Vanishing Narwhal

In what sounds like an April Fools story, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has appealed for the return of a narwhal corpse, which they believe may have been stranded on a North Clare beach in late March.

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are normally found in Arctic waters and, if confirmed, this will be the first recorded stranding of such a creature in Ireland. The thing is, it can't be confirmed, because the body of the dead cetacean has been removed in mysterious circumstances.

I can remember the first time I saw a Narwhal in either the Paris or Berlin Natural History Museum (I can't remember which) and being amazed that such a creature existed. For me, it falls into the same category as the duck-billed platypus, i.e. someone's having a laugh and clearly just stuck a fake tusk on a dolphin. But no, these creatures are perfectly real and their strange appearance has led to them being the source of some confusion over the centuries. Medieval Europeans, when presented with the excised tusks, believed them to be horns from the mythical unicorn. 

The IWDG say that Max Halliday spotted the stranded corpse near the Rock shop in Liscannor, Co. Clare (incidentally, that's the birthplace of one John Philip Holland, the Irishman who invented the submarine) on Sunday, March 25th. He reported the strange find to the IWDG on Monday 26th but the message wasn't picked up until Friday the 30th.

By the time IWDG and GMIT researchers were on site, the carcass was missing and all that remained was a grease stain and a lingering smell of rotting cetacean.

According to the IWDG, Max's description is as follows: "a cetacean that was larger than a dolphin at c15ft, with no dorsal fin, but most interestingly with a spiral tusk, about the length of a hurley, protruding from its head".

Liscannor, Co. Clare

Are there any photos? Unfortunately not. "I am absolutely mad that I didn’t take a photo. I am notorious for taking photos all the time, but for some unknown reason I didn’t take the photo. There were two women who were out on a walk at the time that I met than can corroborate what I saw" Max told the Irish Examiner.

Researchers were able to take small tissue samples from the site of the stranding which should be able to confirm if it was indeed a narwhal but they are keen to locate the corpse, not only to identify it, but to ensure it's preserved for posterity at the Natural History Museum.

"If we can prove this, then this is a very important finding, as this is a first for Ireland, bringing to 25 the number of cetacean species recorded in our waters", said Pádraig Whooley of the IWDG.

The group have appealed to people living in Co. Clare who may have seen the animal before it was removed to contact them with their observations and photos. They have also reminded those who removed the corpse that "all cetaceans in Irish waters, dead or alive, are fully protected by Irish law, and a special licence is required from NPWS for anyone in possession of such an animal or parts of".

"This is a potentially significant extralimital record of an Arctic vagrant, which to the best of our knowledge has never previously been recorded this far south."

"Clearly we are disappointed that thus far this animal has produced no photographic evidence which would be a far simpler way of confirming species ID, as male Narwhals are the only cetaceans that exhibit such a tusk, which is actually a protruding tooth on the upper jaw. So this is a public request for assistance and once again is not a 1st of April prank."

Update 05/04/2012: Clare County Council have said that they removed a carcass from Liscannor beach on the 27th March due to public health concerns and it is now destroyed. The contactors who carried out the removal did not report any tusk but that the corpse had already been significantly decomposed at that stage. Perhaps the eyewitness was mistaken is seeing a tusk? Perhaps the tusk was removed prior to the council moving the animal? Looks like this mystery will only be solved when the results of the genetic analysis are known. Stay tuned!


If you saw the creature and/or took photographs of same, you can contact the IWDG on strandings@iwdg.ie


RTE News have reported on the mystery:

Debating Science

The 2012 Debating Science Issues All-Ireland Finals will be held Thursday, 19 April, at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Dublin. The Finals, co-ordinated by the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) at NUI Galway, will see four teams of secondary school students. 

This is the only All-Ireland collaborative science outreach initiative of its kind. A field of forty schools narrowed to just four through preliminary debate rounds on a variety of contemporary biomedical science topics.

The four secondary schools in the final will be: St. Catherine’s Vocational School, Killybegs, Donegal; Clonakilty Community College, Cork; St. Andrews College, Blackrock and Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town.

The first two debates, St. Catherine’s Vocational School against St. Andrews College and Abbey Vocational School against Clonakilty Community College, will focus on the moral obligation to explore research with embryonic stem cells due to the potential to develop new medical treatments. The winners of those rounds will then meet to debate the necessity of animal testing for advancing disease treatment.

 Debating Science Issues encourages young people to engage in debate on the cultural, societal and ethical implications of advances in biomedical science. The competition is led by REMEDI at NUI Galway and collaborators include APC at UCC, BDI at DCU, RCSI, CIT, CRANN at Trinity College, W5 in Belfast, Clarity at UCD and The Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh.

Danielle Nicholson, All-Ireland Co-ordinator of Debating Science Issues (DSI), said “This cross border project provides a great opportunity for the teachers and students to be exposed to some of the latest developments in biomedical research and also to consider the ethical elements which can be a great hook to interest young people in the science.”

Data collected from five cycles of DSI involving more than 3500 students shows an increase in interest in science as a subject and as a career as a result of participation in the project. This schools’ biomedical science workshop series and debate competition has been supported by the Wellcome Trust for five consecutive years. Provincial trophies and prizes are provided by Abbott Ireland, Boston Scientific, Merck- Millipore and Pfizer Ireland.

Every year the project has evolved and has responded to the feedback gathered continuously throughout the project. This year a new Topic Guide on rare diseases was introduced and a dedicated website has been developed, www.debatingscienceissues.com

On a lighter note...

Singing vegetables? Well, surely with current advances in GM crops, it can only be a matter of time! :) Via (broadsheet.ie)

The Vegetable Song (tweet @totallyeustus) from Si Bennett on Vimeo.

GM Potato set to be planted in Ireland

A major new EU study is set to examine the effects of growing GM, blight-resistant potato plants on biodiversity and the environment in agricultural ecosystems. It will also see the first GM crops being grown in Ireland since the late 1990's.

In a statement issued at the end of February, Teagasc (the Irish agricultural development agency) announced that they are to seek a license to carry out field trials of GM potatoes as part of the AMIGA consortium - a group including representatives of research bodies from 15 EU countries.

Late Blight, caused by the fungal-like organism Phytophthora infestans, decimated the Irish potato crop  in the 1840s leading to the Great Famine. Since then, it has remained a problem for Irish farmers, requiring chemical fungicides to be used to maintain Irish potato yields. GM potatoes have the potential to protect the potato plant from Late Blight attack without the necessity for large amounts of fungicide to be applied.

The potato variety Desiree was transformed withe the Rpi-vnt1.1 gene which confers broad spectrum resistance to Phytophthora infestans. That gene, along with its own promoter and terminator regions were taken from the wild potato species Solanum venturii and inserted into the cultivated potato using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation.

While there are indications that public concern over GM crops has declined in the UK, the news that field experiments will be carried out in Ireland for the first time since the late 1990s has drawn some criticism here.

In a statement released last week, Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA), called the experiments planned for Teagasc's Oakpark headquarters a waste of taxpayers money. "In light of the fact that Teagasc has lodged an application with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for a licence to grow GM potatoes at its headquarters in Oakpark, IOFGA are demanding that Teagasc be held accountable for their decision to waste taxpayers money on this project."

File Photo: Minister Ruairi Quinn at an Anti-GM event last year

Grace Maher, Development Officer with IOFGA said that considering growing GM in Ireland is "economic suicide" and that the move would put at risk an export market worth 9.1 billion: "Ireland has an excellent reputation internationally as a clean green island that is also a GM free region, and we need to build on this reputation not destroy it”.

The statement ends by accusing Teagasc of pedalling an "unwanted technology":
"In this austere economic climate we need to end wasteful public spending immediately and enforce accountability on those who continue to do so."

Unfortunately, it seems the lobby group for the organic industry, is jumping the gun a bit here.

The funding comes directly from the EU's FP7 research programme - a €50 billion fund specifically designated for research and technological development. There is no question of further money coming from Irish taxpayers.

No matter where the money comes from, there is also a wider issue. Teagasc is Ireland's agriculture and food development agency. It is that organisation's role to carry out research leading to a better understanding of agriculture and new agronomic techniques. To accuse such a body of "wasting" money by doing the very thing is was set up to do, is ridiculous. Any arguments for or against GM crops need to be based on firm scientific evidence and that does not simple fall out of the sky.

The field tests to be carried out at Oakpark will look at the impact of GM plants on the surrounding ecosystem and John Spink, Head of Crops Research at Teagasc was keen to point out that the research is "not about testing the commercial viability of GM potatoes".

"The GM study is about gauging the environmental impact of growing GM potatoes in Ireland and monitoring how the pathogen, which causes blight, and the ecosystem reacts to GM varieties in the field over several seasons.”

Mindful of the controversy surrounding trials of GM sugar beet in Ireland in the late 1990s by Monsanto, these new experiments will use a potato developed at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and there will be no biotech or GM company involved. The sugar beet trials ended with a number of the sites being destroyed by a group styling itself the Gaelic Earth Liberation Front.

According to documents submitted to the EPA as part of the licence application, the field experiments are designed to measure the impact of GM potato cultivation on bacterial, fungal, nematode and earthworm diversity in the soil compared to a conventional system; to identify positive or negative impacts of GM potato on integrated pest management systems; and to use the project as a tool for education in order to engage and discuss the issues surrounding GM with stakeholders and the public.

As Teagasc researcher Dr. Ewen Mullins put it: “It is not enough to simply look at the benefits without also considering the potential costs. We need to investigate whether there are long term impacts associated with this specific GM crop and critically we need to gauge how the late blight disease itself responds. This is not just a question being asked in Ireland. The same issues are arising across Europe.”

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Dr. Mullins remarked: "People are asking about the merits of GM potatoes.At Teagasc, we have a remit to inform people. We haven’t had GM field trials here since the late 1990s. The goal is to look at all of the environmental impacts, and to fill the vacuum that exists currently in terms of impartial knowledge."

An edited version of this article appears on the Guardian's Notes and Theories blog. You can read it here.

What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?

You know Spring has arrived when the daffodils, which pushed through the soil early this year, are in full bloom around the country. In fact, today is Daffodil Day in Ireland - a fundraising event organised by the Irish Cancer Society. To celebrate, we remember an Irish plantsman who put Cork on the map in terms of daffodil growing - William Baylor Hartland.

WB Hartland came from a long line of successful horticulturists. His grandfather, Richard Hartland (1745-1821) worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew before moving to Ireland to become a gardener to the Earl of Kingston at Mitchelstown. Around 1787,  Richard established a nursery at Bellvue Cottage, Mallow and had three sons. Arthur established a nursery near Turner's Cross in Cork City - where it seems he planted a fine monkey puzzle tree; Richard jnr. opened a nursery at Glasheen which continued in existence up until 1923 as the Lough Nursery. By 1867 the Lough Nursery took up 40 acres and included 18,000 feet of glasshouses.

The third son, William Baylor (the father of our WB Hartland) stayed on at the family nursery at Bellvue.

Our William Baylor Hartland (1836-1912) was only seven years old in 1843 when his father died and left him the business. With the help of his uncles, the business was run successfully and he established his own nursery at Temple Hill, just outside Cork in 1878.  In 1889 he moved the short distance to Ard Cairn in Ballintemple.

Hartland became internationally famous for growing daffodil bulbs and developing new cultivars such as Ard Righ. He published his Little Book of Daffodils in 1896 and by the turn of the 20th century he was exporting bulbs all over the world.

The back cover of his catalogue from around that time (pictured) clearly shows the drive and marketing ability of the man. "The True Home of Daffodils" the advertisement proclaims about Cork. "Hartlands seeds, Daffodils, and bulbs of all sorts, to all parts of the world".

Hartlands Catalogue c. 1900 (Image: The Library, National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9)

The map of the world, with Cork at its centre is framed by a quote from Virgil - quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris or What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?

WB Hartland was clearly a wonderful salesman and his name lives on amongst daffodil breeders. He was also interested in new varieties of apple and he developed the Ard Cairn Russet variety. He died in 1912 and his nursery closed in 1917.

Cork Lough and the Lough Nurseries c. 1840. Present day Hartlands Avenue in red

The family name still lives on in Cork. In 1926, Oliver Hartland (who was, by then, running the Lough Nursery) built a road from Glasheen to the Lough. Hartland's Avenue remains as a reminder of the nursery and this family's industry.

Today is Daffodil Day and you can support the work of the Irish Cancer Society by buying a daffodil from sellers around the country. Look out for them and support this worthy cause.


Source: Much of the biographical information for this post comes from
Forrest, M (2010). Nurseries and nurserymen in Ireland from the early eighteenth to the early twenty-first century. Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes: An International Quarterly 30(4): 1460-1176.