November 2011 report

The November meeting was also the Annual General Meeting. The minutes of the last year's AGM were read out and approved. Members expressed their thanks for the work of the committee over the last year and the existing Committee was re-elected

After the AGM the Chairman introduced the speaker - Mr. Chris Allen whose talk was entitled "Amazing Plants". He brought along a selection of Seed, Cones and Fossils which we were all able to handle. One of the fossilised Fir cones was 3.5 million years old. Records of fossilised remains show that plants have been around for millions and millions of years, gradually evolving. The oldest living structures today are a small group of pines found in the White Mountains of Nevada which are 5000 years old.

Seeds come in various shapes and sizes and the speaker gave examples of how many there can be in a gram, in the case of Orchids ,there are one million seeds per gram. Seeds can remain dormant for many many years - in Japan archeologists found Magnolia seeds which were 2000 years old  and they were successfully germinated. The structure of every grain of pollen is identifiable and unique to its species.

Mr. Allen's interesting talk was very informative - for instance did we know that the Giant Redwood has fire-proof bark? that there is an Australian coconut the size of a pea or that it is smoke, not heat, which triggers certain seeds to germinate. He left us with this question which he has never had answered - How do Sunflowers move to follow the sun and when do the heads move back from West to East!!

Flower of the Month competition - was won by Mrs. Shirley Jones.

Date of Next Meetings :-

Wednesday 14th December 7.30pm Christmas Party  at   Finleys - Members tickets £13 Non Members £14 available from John Watts -01929 400749

Wednesday - 11th January 7.30pm - Village Hall - Speaker Mr. Mark Chinn - Wicked Winters.