ABRACADABRA

Sex Change for a tree!

London: Britain’s oldest tree, a male, estimated to be between 3,000 and 5,000 years old may be undergoing a sex change, say researchers who found that part of it is turning female. The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire, estimated to be around 5,000 years old making it older than Stonehenge, is regarded as a male tree because it produces pollen – unlike female yews, which produce distinctive seed-bearing red berries. However, botanists found three red berries on a branch of the yew this year, which indicated that at least part of the male tree is becoming female. “Yews are normally either male or female and in autumn and winter sexing yews is generally easy,” said Max Coleman, of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, who spotted the berries.

“Males have small spherical structures that release clouds of pollen when they mature. Females hold bright red berries from autumn into winter,” Coleman told The Telegraph. “It was, therefore, quite a surprise to me to find a group of three ripe red berries on the Fortingall Yew this October when the rest of the tree was clearly male,” Coleman said. Coleman said while it may seem “odd”, it was not unheard of for yews – and other conifers that have different sexes – to switch sex. “Normally this switch occurs on part of the crown rather than the entire tree changing sex,” he said. “In the Fortingall Yew it seems that one small branch in the outer part of the crown has switched and now behaves as female,” he said.

The three seeds have been collected and will be included in a project to conserve the genetic diversity of yew trees across Europe, the Caucasus, Western Asia and North Africa where they grow, The Independent reported.  The project will involve hedges at Edinburgh’s Botanic Garden being replaced with a conservation yew hedge grown from cuttings and seed collections from wild populations and significant Yew Trees such as Fortingall’s yew.

The hedge will be a “genetic resource of more than 2,000 individual trees, each of which will have a story and can be traced back to their origins in Britain or beyond,” said Coleman.

Cows Most Dangerous !

Cows have emerged as one of Britains "most dangerous" large animals with cattle accounting for 74 deaths in the past 15 years, according to UK Health and Safety Executive figures. The figures given by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the animals, which can weigh more than a tonne, typically crush, butt or trample victims to death, with walkers targeted as they stroll on public footpaths through fields where cows are grazing. Eighteen of those killed were ramblers and 56 were farm workers.

"Cattle have become Britains most dangerous large animal, killing 74 people in the past 15 years," The Sunday Times reported citing HSE figures.

Cows are far more lethal than dogs, which caused 17 deaths between 2005 and 2013. The figures have prompted the HSE to issue new advice to farmers, telling them cattle should never be kept in fields with public footpaths.

"As 70 per cent of these deaths involved either a bull or newly calved cow, activities with these... stock should be very carefully planned," a report from the HSEs agriculture advisory committee said.

It follows the death of Mike Porter, 66, a retired medical lecturer at Edinburgh University who was trampled to death in May 2013 while walking through fields on Timothy Rise Farm near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.

The HSE is considering whether to prosecute Brian Godwin, the farmer who owned the animals, after hearing it was the fourth such attack on his land. Godwin said he had put safety measures in place after the earlier incidents.

David Billington, 51, was trampled by cows on the farm in October 2011, suffering two broken vertebrae. "Until the death of Mike Porter, not enough had been done to protect the public," he was quoted as saying.

In a separate incident Richard Wayne, from Derby, was knocked down, trampled and crushed by a cow as he followed a footpath across a field near the village of Flash in the Peak District where he was on a caravan holiday in August. Cows can be easily spooked because they have poor hearing and depth of vision, which means they cannot focus on objects. Cows that have gone on the attack when they felt under threat can repeat the tactic if similar circumstances arise again.