And while I was on Westwood I had another visit to that decaying tree that I posted in
June. The tree itself didn't appear much changed, it's still hard and not crumbling in any way. I did, however, notice a large number of stinging nettles (
Urtica dioica) which weren't there last year. Now nettles like acidic soil but the Westwood sits on chalk which is alkaline, indeed this tree is near Newbegin Pits; the old chalk pits. So looking this up on the web I find, as I vaguely remembered from my student days, that the decay of the tree will produce acids that alter the soil around it. So some subtle changes are happening.