Bracken colours

Autumn is a good time of year for Bracken?

Tuesday 13th October 2015

Why is autumn a good time of year for bracken? The answer is because it is beginning to die back! Yes, the colours are great and as the image shows, some leaves are still green, whilst others go through a yellow and gold phase before turning brown. Bracken is a very invasive plant and spreads with underground rhizomes. It has dense foliage so that hardly anything grows beneath it. Bracken grows to a height of about two metres and there is very little in the way of available chemicals to control it. As a walker, I hate it, as it is very difficult to wade through when it is covering a path. This time of year, it is good to see it die back, but as it is a perennial plant, it will be back again in spring! My image was taken this morning in Yearsley Moor Forest in the Howardian Hills AONB. The forest is owned by Ampleforth Abbey and managed by The Forestry Commission.