Brede High Woods

Green Man fossil

2014-09-12T23:35:00.001+01:00

I was looking around near Brede High Farm today when I discovered this stone of some unusual, hard, white material with a clear imprint of a fossilised leaf (top right).

On closer inspection the impression of the ancient Green Man appeared.

A clouded yellow butterfly

2014-07-28T23:41:00.001+01:00

This afternoon I spotted a solitary clouded yellow butterfly (Colias croceus) visiting the march thistle flowers in Holman Wood field.

There have been sightings of this immigrant species from several places in Sussex this year, so maybe we will get an invasion.

Some years ago we saw a female ovipositing on bird’s-foot trefoil in Pond Wood on the east of Brede High Woods. I took one egg home and kept it until it turned into a butterfly, then took it back to Pond Wood.

To our surprise there were maybe a dozen clouded yellows in the area. However, the species cannot survive the English winter, so these brief colonies will not be able to persist.

The second generation of common blue butterflies (Polyommatus icarus) is on the wing.

Although it was still warm and sunny at about 3.3pm, this female decided she would settle down on a rush stem. If you look at the tuft of brown flowers on the stalk, you will see a small, white, sausage-like protuberance on the left. This is the larval case of a Coleophorid micro-moth. They are usually very common on rush flower heads.

Another yellow one

2014-07-07T18:35:00.001+01:00

On the bank at the edge of the road where Frymans Lane meets Powdermill Lane (TQ80651934) there are a couple of quite distinctive spikes of the yellow flowers of fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia verticillaris) which grows as a native in north and east Turkey, Caucasia, Crimea and northern Iran. The identity has been confirmed by Hugh McAllister, an expert on this genus.

Quite where it has come from locally is difficult to suggest. It is certainly a garden escape, but this particular corner is not the best place for fly tipping garden waste. It apparently does not set viable seed in this country.

McAllister’s paper on this group of plants is here: http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/Wats22p279.pdf

Variations in yellow

2014-06-30T15:27:00.001+01:00

The konik horses are making small areas of grazing among the scrub and many of these are now brightened with lesser spearwort (Ranunculus flammula). ‘Flammula’ is Latin for ‘little flame’, perhaps referring to the brightness of the flowers, or maybe the shape of the leaves.

There are many other yellow flowers along the sides of the rides in the woods at the moment.

Trailing St. John’s wort (Hypericum humifusum)

Common cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata). Apparently the leaves of this are edible and not normally bitter like dandelions. They can be eaten raw in salads, or cooked.

Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) is typical of heathy spots. The roots are very bitter and produce a reddish dye, and are used to make a powerful alcoholic beverage in Germany called Blutwurz (blood root) – the same name as the plant.

Tormentil is one of several Potentilla species in the woods and the plant also hybridises a great deal and clones often difficult to distinguish one from another

Tillingham View

2014-06-22T22:24:00.001+01:00

The cutting back of the vegetation along the pylon line has reopened the view into the Tillingham Valley. So far as I know, this is the only view northwards from Brede High Woods. The transmission lines cross the road and run down through Whorne Wood. The furthest point is 1.5 km away at the top of the ridge about 170 metres south of the B2165 Staplecross to Beckley road. The river Tillingham is at the bottom of the first hill.

Enjoy the view from just west of the eastern car park at grid ref TQ80322066.

A pylon walk

2014-06-21T14:09:00.001+01:00

Today I parked the car at the eastern end of Brede High Woods and followed footpath from the corner of Powdermill and Reservoir Lane to the first pylon.

All the vegetation underneath the transmission wires has been cleared, as happens every few years, giving and opportunity for wildlife that likes open ground to spread and to reach new areas by following the transmission lines. It is, in effect, a linear meadow between woods ancient and modern.

At the start of the walk I spotted a hazel-leaf roller weevil, Apoderus coryli, on (surprise, surprise) a hazel leaf. These curious little insects cut slits in hazel leaves and roll them up into tubes for their larvae to live in.

The brambles are now in full bloom and, where they grow beside a sunny, open ride, they represent a magnificent resource for wildlife. They offer much nectar, pollen and, later on fruit for insects and other creatures; they are a foodplant for many more, they provide shelter, they are hosts to many small fungi, and their dead stems even offer handy tubes for small bees to nest.

Around the first pylon there were many meadow brown and ringlet butterflies and the marsh woundwort still grows there.

Best of all was the arrival of the first summer silver-washed fritillaries (Argynnis paphia).

This continues to spread through the wood and I think this is the furthest east I have seen it. The picture on the left shows the whitish flashes on the hind underwing because of which the name ‘silver-washed’ was coined.

Later, close to Keeper’s Cottage about halfway across the wood, I found a bush of red currant (Ribes rubrum) bearing and appreciable amount of ripe fruit. This plant is not uncommon close to streams in our local woods, but the fruit hardly ever ripens before the birds get it. Also the leaves on this bush seem a bit different to the usual wild ones. Maybe it is a survivor from the Keeper’s Cottage garden.

A walk in Rafters and Horns Woods

2014-06-03T23:26:00.001+01:00

Rafters and Horns Wood is the southerly extension of Brede High Woods to the south of Powdermill Lane (OS grid ref: TQ801189). Yesterday I walked from the Horns Wood entrance along the western ride to Powdermill Lane, then back along the higher path to the east.
The wood is ancient coppice with standards but in the past was much messed about by the nearby iron and gunpowder works.
The flora is very rich and with trying very hard I noticed 26 ancient woodland indicators: field maple, ramsons, wood anemone, hard fern, hornbeam, pendulous sedge, golden saxifrage, pignut, scaly male-fern, narrow-leaved buckler fern, bluebell, tutsan, beautiful St. John’s-wort, holly, yellow archangel, southern wood-rush, yellow pimpernel, common cow-wheat, three-nerved sandwort, aspen, primrose, lesser skullcap, orpine, black bryony, wood speedwell and bush vetch. The names are almost as magical as the plants.
There were also common spotted orchis and ragged robin, the latter not very common in our area.

None of the above is especially rare, but it is unusual to see orpine (Sedum telephium) growing in such large quantities and in several places. (see picture below).

Another treat was to see the small colony of monkshood (Aconitum x stoerkianum) at the edge of Powdermill Lane a few metres east of the bridge, though it is being rather overwhelmed by by Japanese knotweed. As far as I know it grows nowhere else in our area and is almost certainly an escape from the garden of the cottage that used to stand there.

Perhaps the highlight of the day though was tracking down the source of a loud and persistent ‘chip chipping’ of a hungry great spotted woodpecker chick high up in a dead tree.

After the storm

2013-10-31T23:30:00.001+00:00

On a lovely sunny morning a couple of days after the St Jude's storm on 28th October I walked down the track to Austford and round the area where the Konik horses graze.

Apart from the leaves and small branches littering the ground, there was little evidence of the recent high winds, the only obvious casualty seemed to be this larch tree.

Along the ride to the east I saw the horses sleeping stretched out on their sides in the autumn sunshine. They put their heads up as I came nearer and the friendliest stallion walked up to me for a stroke.

Later I looked for insects in the purple moor grass area of Compartment 5a and, among other things, found several of these fierce-looking but harmless marsh flies, Sepedon sphegea whose larvae are parasitic in water snails.

Four new horses

2013-08-23T23:08:00.001+01:00

On 21 August four konik horses from the Wildwood Trust in Kent were put into the conservation grazing area of Sedlescombe Heath in Brede High Woods to follow the Exmoor ponies that grazed there earlier in the year, and the Sussex cattle last year and the year before.

The konik, originally from Poland, (the word means 'horse' or 'little horse'), is described as 'semi-feral' and is thought to be at least partly descended from wild European horses, though DNA studies have shown a very complex development of the breed.

Whatever their origin, they are small and beautiful animals with blue dun (aka mouse grey) coats and a dorsal stripe which they share with some wild horse breeds.

Koniks are now used quite widely across Britain and Europe for conservation grazing and, as the picture above shows, they certainly seem to appreciate the sward on Sedlescombe Heath.

Silver-washed fritillaries

2013-07-23T00:16:00.001+01:00

There has been a strong emergence of these beautiful butterflies in the last few days. Usually they occur in open, flowery rides and glades in different parts of BHW and seem gradually to be increasing.

Today they were along the lane from the Old Woodyard to Austford Farm (TQ789207 to TQ787201) and from there up the ride to TQ786202 They were also in the ride to the east of Holman Wood Field, TQ795202. They are mostly patrolling males at this stage and fly to have a look at you, circling around the ride and among the lower branches of the trees.

So far this year though I have seen no white admirals, butterflies that are usually on the wing with the silver-washed fritillaries, and I would be grateful to learn of any sightings.

Double flowers and dragonflies

2013-07-18T23:20:00.001+01:00

I have visited the High Woods several times during the current heatwave and it is much quieter than usual. Perhaps people are going to the beach instead. However, there is plenty to see. The woodland edges are rich with flowers and delicate grasses (as below: common bent, Agrostis capillaris., tufted vetch, Vicia cracca, and marsh bird's-foot trefoil, Lotus pedunculatus).

Common blue damselflies are very numerous this year and there are some interesting dragonflies.

Most summers there are golden-ringed dragonflies, Cordulegaster boltonii, often around some of the smaller, acid streams, one of the places they breed.

Today I saw a species I have not seen in the Woods for nearly 20 years, though it is a common enough in England and Wales: the black-tailed skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum.

Surprisingly hard to see when settled among twigs and grass.

A floral curiosity is growing by the gate to the Old Wood Yard. There are a couple of plants of double red campion, Silene dioica, again something I have not come across before.

Summer arrives

2013-07-13T20:18:00.001+01:00

There is much to see in the woods at the moment in particular the summer butterflies that are starting to emerge.

Today on a walk my friend Dave Monk spotted a purple hairstreak butterfly sitting on birch leaves.

Its camouflage is good and it looks just like the ghost of a butterfly in the shadows, the lines on the underwings like the edges of leaves.

We managed to get it down and it sat obediently on Dave's hand before returning to the shelter of the trees.

Purple hairstreaks tend to stay up in the top of the canopy, but they sometimes come down to lower levels, particularly in hot weather. The upperside is dark with blue/purple highlights.

Elsewhere one of the children on our walk spotted a mouse in the undergrowth. Unusually it sat eyeing us for a while before scampering away.

Up in the Old Woodyard the corn sow thistles (Sonchus arvensis) are in flower now. This is one of the few places in the High where they occur and the shaggy yellow flowers are larger and more showy than other British Sonchus. Plants of this genus are said to have a particular affinity with pigs (hence 'sow thistle') and they are supposed to be effective if applied to wounds made by pigs: worth bearing in mind if attacked by a wild boar (very unlikely). The bee is, I think, the white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum).

A spring walk

2013-04-09T20:35:00.001+01:00

On Sunday we had a lovely sunny day, the first spring-like occasion seemingly for weeks.

I led a walk mostly around Coneyburrow and Twist Woods and we checked on the green hellebores, which were in full flower, somewhat later than usual.

One unusual discovery on our walk was that in various places along the rides plants of pendulous sedge (Carex pendula) had been pulled up and left lying on the ground.

I suspect this has been done by wild boar and that they were aiming for the roots which are edible and, though small, contain starchy material which is probably very welcome to the animals at this time of year when food can be scarce.

Another strange discovery was of the very large burr at the base of an ash tree with four cultivated daffodil flowers in a natural hole. We wondered what this might be commemorating.

As a final confirmation that spring is at hand, we saw a fine male brimstone butterfly, like a flying flake of bright lemon paper along the ride by the car park - showing off to the visitors maybe.

Midwinter Day 2012

2012-12-21T19:55:00.001+00:00

For once a sunny morning which we were able to enjoy in Brede High Woods where it was muddy and quiet.

It is a good time of year to reflect on the past season and what might be done next year. It is also easier to see things like mosses. The picture below is of white moss (Leucobryum glaucum), normally pale green and I think the white patches are where it is not too healthy.

We also had a look at some of the extensive sphagnum moss beds that have developed on the flatter woodland areas around some of the streams. Unusual and precious ecosystems with their own special wildlife.

And, finally, a midwinter moss-covered oak.

First bat records

2012-09-24T13:42:00.001+01:00

A small party of bat enthusiasts led by Dave Barker braved the wind and rain yesterday evening in an effort to see and hear some bats, animals for which there had been no earlier formal records from Brede High Woods.

Despite the cold, wet and lateness of the season, six species were on the wing foraging for insects. These included soprano pipistrelles, common pipistrelles, brown long-eareds, a noctule, a Myotis species and possibly a whiskered bat.

This is very encouraging news that further emphasises the importance of Brede High Woods for wildlife. In addition to being of interest in their own right, bats need a healthy supply of insects and places to roost and hibernate. They also have many insect associates living in their roosts (but not necessarily anywhere else).

With the success of this first bat walk, there are likely to be others, hopefully in better weather, so watch the events lists for the woods if you are interested in leaning more about these fascinating little mammals.

Yellow jumping spiders

2012-09-11T21:06:00.001+01:00

Crystal Ray, who frequently visits Brede High Woods, took these photos of yellow jumping spiders (Evarcha falcata) by the 'Soldier's Seat' on Brede High Heath on 20th August this year.

Although widespread in the southern half of Britain, this species is rare in East Sussex so it is a welcome addition to the Brede High Woods records.

The picture above is of a male and this and the one below of a female:

This species is mainly a woodland spider which occurs in the foliage of trees as well as on lower vegetation such as heather and gorse in woodland clearings. Brede High Heath would seem to be ideal as it is a place where heath and woodland meet.

An interesting aspect of this spider's behaviour is its sleeping position (yes spiders do sleep). It hangs on a short thread with all eight legs pressed into its body. This occurs whenever it darkness falls and the spider will adopt this position when in captivity at any time of day if it is put into a dark place. The reason for this 'suspension' is assumed to be a way of avoiding predators.

The specific name falcata means a sickle-shaped sword and is, presumably, a reference to the spider's jaws.

Fishy wasp?

2012-08-03T00:11:00.001+01:00

At Soldier's Seat on Brede High Heath (grid ref TQ780207) there is a sunlit patch of bare earth worn by all the people, their children and their dogs who rest a while there.

Yesterday I photographed this small solitary wasp scooting about just above the surface.

It is an ornate-tailed digger wasp, Cerceris rybyensis, an identity confirmed by my entomologist friend Steven Falk.

This species is predatory on the small mining bees that build their nests in this area of bare soil. The wasp catches and stings the bees and buries them in a nest tunnel as food for its larvae.

If you get a chance sit on the seat on a warm sunny day and watch all the action. It is a good illustration of the importance of bare ground as a habitat as most of the active species cannot complete their development in places where the vegetation forms even the thinnest layer.

'Ryby', incidentally, is the Polish word for 'fish', so the scientific name means 'of the fish'. Seems a bit improbable, but I cannot find anywhere called 'Ryby', though it can be someone's name. Perhaps someone can suggest a better reason for the specific name.

When it isn't raining

2012-07-14T18:38:00.001+01:00

I have had two lovely sunny mornings in Brede High Woods this last week and, though it is wet underfoot, the wildlife responds very quickly to an hour or two of warmth.

Butterflies on the wing include many silver-washed fritillaries and today just one white admiral. There are also meadow browns, ringlets, commas, red admirals, brimstones and large and small skippers. I have not yet seen a gatekeeper though and they are usually one of the commonest butterflies at this time of year.

One apparent success story is the large number of six-spot burnet moths (Zygaena filipendulae) shown here on marsh thistle.

It disappeared from the woods for a few years, then started to return a couple of years ago and continues to increase in Holman Wood Field.

One of the plants now in full bloom in several places is musk mallow (Malva moschata), so named because the flowers are said to smell of musk and they do have quite a pleasant scent.

Not being sure of what proper musk smelt like anyway, I looked it up in Wikipedia and learnt that "No other natural substance has such a complex aroma associated with so many contradictory descriptions; however, it is usually described abstractly as animalic, earthy and woodyor something akin to the odour of baby's skin" The leaves of musk mallow are very finely divided, which distinguishes it from other mallows and, with the flowers, are edible and highly regarded by many wild food foragers.

Musk mallow is a native but, in the main car park, there are, as usual, some interesting aliens. In the picture below there is, on the right, a typical plant of purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea) next to the much rarer pink form of this Mediterranean plant. In the foreground there are also some silver leaves of Lamiastrum galeobdolon subspecies argentatum, a cultivated form of the wild yellow archangel.

Recolonising plants

2012-07-09T23:36:00.001+01:00

An area that until late 2008 was covered in a dense canopy of spruce with a ground layer of black, dead pine needles, has now the conifers have gone, a very varied vegetation of a markedly heathland nature. All three Sussex species of heather grow there and there is purple moor grass, dodder and much else.

Here is some slender St. John's-wort, Hypericum pulchrum, in the bracken:

As well as these smaller acid soil plants there are many trees and shrubs coming from seed.

The picture above shows a host of birch seedlings, which we would rather not have, with a slightly larger alder buckthorn seedling in the centre. Alder buckthorn, Frangula alnus, is scattered, but uncommon, in the High Woods and it is good to see in increasing naturally, especially as it is the only local food plant of the brimstone butterfly (one of which was on the wing here last week).

Small water bodies

2012-07-07T14:33:00.001+01:00

This very wet summer has its compensations and there are many small water bodies in Brede High Woods at the moment that offer a specialised habitat to the various plants and animals that need them.

In the areas where the cattle graze there are plenty of water-filled hoof prints and there are some insects that use such a very ephemeral habitat. The caddis fly Limnephilus sparsus, for example. A widespread species, but with only one Sussex record so far (Chailey Common).

Plants that flourish in small scale aquatic environments include remote sedge, Carex remota, seen here at the edge of an iron-stained stream that would normally be dried up by now.

In the cart ruts there are pools rich in lesser spearwort and water-starwort (Callitriche), whose leaves can almost cover the surface as below.

Where the soil is very acid and boggy there are some good colonies of sphagnum moss much more associated in my mind with moorlands and uplands.

Something new to me was a strange red cloud I noticed on the muddy bottom of a small, clear puddle in one of the rides. I thought at first it might be a leaf, or a dense cluster of water fleas, but closer inspection showed it to be a colony of tubifex worms, almost certainly Tubifex tubifex which, like us, use the red-pigmented haemoglobin to carry oxygen around their bodies.

Each 'cloud' is composed of hundreds of small worms, head down and writhing around together like the tentacles of a sea anemone.

These pools and puddles may be small, but there is much going on in them and, when they dry up, most of the residents have survival strategies to tide them over until the next deluge.

The flowering of the broom

2012-05-29T19:37:00.001+01:00

Broom (Cytisus scoparius) has become a landscape feature in Brede High Woods following the opening up of more acid areas and is currently in full bloom.

It is a beautiful shrub that has featured much in poetry and folklore as described by Geoffrey Grigson in his 'Englishman's Flora'. One ballad says:

There was a lady of the North country

Lay the bent to the bonny broom.

According to Grigson this means that twigs of broom were plaited with 'bent' or heath rush (Juncus squarrosus) to avert the evil eye and discourage the elfin lover.

In Brede High Woods heath rush grows along many of the rides that are bordered with broom, so it is easy to see how the two came together. Yesterday I plaited two rush & broom amulets just in case the elfin lover is lurking about:

The top one is 2 rush, 1 broom and the lower 2 broom and 1 rush. I will see which is the most efficacious.

As well as being beautiful and useful, broom attracts a great number of insects including, in the High Woods, the green hairstreak butterfly whose larvae feed on this and other plants.

Broom flowers are also sought after by bees. As Thomas Hood said "the broom's betrothed to the bee."

A spring walk

2012-04-22T15:33:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I led a walk from the new car park to Austford and Austford Farm then back to Holman Wood Field and up around Brede High Heath.

Though rather chilly, it was a fine sunny day crowned by a noisy thunderstorm of which we missed almost all the rain.

Highlights of the day were the sound of the cuckoo, the fact that there seemed to be plenty of heath dog violets, Viola canina, a rapidly declining species in there usual places, while in one of the streams we found a small brook lamprey, Lampetra planeri. It did not look too healthy and was easy to lift briefly out of the water, but the fact that it was there at all indicates that the streams are in good condition.

Now is the time to look for these strange, primitive creatures as they swim upstream to find suitable spawning grounds, though they are often on the move at night.

Puffballs, ferns & littler things

2011-12-01T23:12:00.001+00:00

The mild, and now damp, weather is extending the fungus season.

Today in Greenden Wood we found a fine clump of the stump puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) growing, believe it or not, on an old stump. These fruit bodies are good to eat so long as they are still white inside, but we left them where they were.

A larger member of the same genus, the common puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum) was found in several places. It is also good to eat and one source says it used to be used as a painkiller in dentistry, but I can find no further information on that.

On a rather smaller scale were some tiny black rat's dirt fungal fruiting bodies (hysterothecia) growing on the wood of a honeysuckle twig.

The twig was lying on the ground and the tiny microfungi were confined to a small area where the bark had exposed the wood underneath. They turned out to be Hysterobrevium mori, not previously recorded from East Sussex.

Identifying things like this is not easy. In this case I was able to get close by looking at pictures in a book on microfungi. However, since there were several rather similar species it was necessary to crush a few of them up to get the ascospores out then examine them under a high powered microscope.

Fiddly though this may be, it is always gratifying when one gets a good fit and a new name. The specific name 'mori' means 'of the mulberry' as in the scientific name of the silkworm, Bombyx mori, whose caterpillars eat mulberry leaves. Maybe this fungus was first found on mulberry wood, but I fancy the name is because the ascospores look rather like mulberries.

Greenden Wood retains its wonderful stands of hard fern (Blechnum spicant) where the chestnut coppice is dying back and letting in more light. Below is a fine display of the spore bearing fronds.

I have not come across any special uses for this fern in the UK, but among the indigenous people of western Canada it has a reputation for curing internal cancers and giving relief to skin sores. These people say that deer rub the antler stubs on these plants when their antlers break off.

Cattle and toadstools

2011-11-24T14:00:00.001+00:00

Yesterday I went to see the cows (everyone seems to call them 'cows' regardless of their sex) for the first time. They are healthy-looking, friendly beasts of the Sussex breed. These animals are a Wealden variety descended from the draught oxen of the past. They are hardy, stocky animals with that characteristic dark red colour and were once reckoned to be among the finest cattle in England (and we think they still are).

In the picture above they are standing at the top of The Hoathes, one of the fields that was used for rough grazing in the past and which was a larch plantation until the end of 2009.

On my way back after an hour's walk they were standing together as though dreaming in the middle of a field half a mile away. Maybe they were listening to the spirits of their ancestors.

For late November the day was exceptionally warm and there are still many fading leaves on the trees.

The shallow indentation above with the bank to the left is part of the old lane that led from Austford Farm to Brede High Farm and unused for maybe 200 years.

Here and elsewhere there are many fungi enjoying the dampness and the unseasonal warmth. The butter cap (Collybia butyracea), named for its greasy feel, has popped up everywhere

while some of the pine stumps are sporting orange yellow stagshorns (Calocera viscosa) like the hackles worn on some soldiers' hats.

Most interesting of all was a fine crop of the redlead roundhead (Leratiomyces ceres - formerly Stropharia aurantiaca) on the remains of the woodchip pile at the old woodyard.

This species was first recorded in Britain in 1957 and has since spread widely on the woodchip habitat, though there are only a few other Sussex records.

It is not alone. Many other species are turning up on woodchip. several from much warmer parts of the world. It is thought that the warmth of the woodchip itself as it decomposes gives them a head start and that maybe our increasingly milder climate allows them to increase and spread.

Finally I came across this spooky little familiar on the ground in The Hoathes - a fawn (faun) man rather than a green man. What could have caused it I wondered, then remembered the old phantoms of which the faraway cows were dreaming.

Pears from the past

2011-09-24T13:55:00.001+01:00

Like most fruit trees our Beurre Bedford pear down our garden in Sedlescombe has fruited well this year. This is fairly surprising as it is a self-sterile variety, though I expect there are plenty of potential pollinators around.

The tree is a graft I made from one of the old pear trees that used to grow in the orchard at Austford Farm in Brede High Woods. The fruit above are a bit battered because they grow too far up for me to reach, so we have to gather windfalls.

The variety was first recorded in 1902 and was identified by the fruit naming service of the Royal Horticultural Society. It was raised by Laxton's of Bedford.

I often reflect on how the people who used to live at this long demolished farm might have selected and grown these pears and other fruit and I think of our tree as a bit of living archaeology.

In 1927 the celebrated Irish-born gardener and writer William Robinson said "Beurre Bedford is superior in quality to many October pears and, being a strong grower and free cropper, it should soon become widely grown."