Picture 4 Picture 1 - Green Schools Ireland
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©Michael John O’Mahony
Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4
Can you name these Irish Plants and Animals?
• Picture 1
• Picture 2
• Picture 3
• Picture 4
• Picture 5
Picture 6 • Picture 6
Picture 5
Bramble
Description Habitat found
SI1
Bramble stems grow in the shape of Bramble typically forms a large
arches and are covered with sharp part of our hedgerows in
thorns. They can create a new root Ireland. It reclaims disused
Common Name: Bramble or Blackberry into the ground when they touch land, laneways and ditches. It
it. Flowers are pink or white. The can be found anywhere really;
Irish Name: Dris leaves have three or five lobes. fields, woodlands, gardens and
They produce blackberries. on the side of the road.
Scientific Name:Rubus fructicosus
Bramble ‘dies back’ to Growth begins in
sleep during the winter. Spring when the sun
This helps save energy starts to shine again.
when there is not Brambles, like most
enough sunshine. plants, get their
energy from the sun!
Life
Blackberries are eaten by
many birds and mammals,
thereby helping to spread Flowers grow
Cycle
the plant’s tiny seeds from May to
(that are hidden inside September.
the berries) in Autumn.
Fruit starts to
form from late
summer through
Once a flower gets
pollen from another
Fun Facts!
to September.
bramble flower, it will Blackberries are delicious, and are packed
Be Careful.... start to produce fruit. full of Vitamin C ! The plant also provides
Do not touch the thorns; they can cause
an infection if they stick in your skin; maybe a really important source of nectar (a
wear gloves if you go blackberry-picking! sugary drink found inside the flowers) for
Flower: May – September bees and other hungry pollinators.
Also the juice from the fruit is a strong
dye so don’t get it on your clothes! Fruit: August - October
SI1
Draw a Bramble bush:
Bramble
In Winter the
berries get eaten or
Draw a bird eating Blackberries else fall to the In Spring the
from the Bramble in Autumn: ground and the seeds Brambles start to
will get washed into grow new shoots
the soil. and leaves.
Life
By Autumn these
Cycle
flowers have
turned into juicy
berries, with seeds In Summer light
inside. pink or white
flowers grow all
over the bush.
Description Habitat found
Dandelion
SI4
Dandelion is a common plant with bright yellow flowers Dandelions are very
and with hollow stems full of sticky white sap. The common in any
Common Name: Dandelion flower heads are 2-5cm across. Once they have received
pollen from their own or another dandelion flower, they
grassland area; you
can find them on
Irish Name: Caisearbhán produce seeds, and thus change into a 'Dandelion roadsides and grassy
Clock‘; these are spheres of mini-parachutes, each one wasteland, fields,
Scientific Name:Taraxacum vulgaria attached to a tiny seed. The leaves are long and narrow lawns and greens.
and have a distinctive jagged edged pattern.
In Autumn the Dandelions start
Dandelions stop to grow again
growing, and take once the weather
a break to rest for begins to get
Winter. warm in Spring.
The Dandelion
Dandelion Clocks
Life
produces
can be seen from flowers from
Spring through to March to
Autumn.
Cycle
October
The Dandelion is a pretty
clever plant! Its mini-
parachutes are perfectly Bees and flies
designed to carry seeds Pollen that is visit the flowers
away on the wind. This
means baby plants, that
absorbed creates
new seeds. A group
to drink the
sweet nectar Fun Facts!
grow from the seeds, will of these new seeds is from the middle The leaves of the Dandelion are responsible
not be growing in the a ‘Dandelion Clock’. of the flower.
for the flower's common name which
shadow of their parent! Pollen from other flowers
rubs off these visiting
comes from ‘Dents de lion’ meaning ‘Lion's
Flower: March – October insects and onto the teeth’ in French.
Dandelion. The pollen
Fruit: April – October then gets absorbed.
SI4 Draw a Dandelion Leaf:
Dandelion
The seeds rest In Spring the old
on the soil plants grow again,
during Winter. and the new seeds
Draw the “Dandelion Clock”: start to grow into
new Dandelions.
Life Draw the bright yellow Summer flowers:
By Autumn the Cycle
flowers have turned
into fluffy seeds. The
seeds look like tiny
parachutes and
altogether are called The Dandelion
a ‘Dandelion Clock’. grows flowers all
Summer.
SI3 Description Habitat found
Blackbird Male or ‘daddy’ blackbirds are
black, and female ‘mammy’
Blackbirds are found almost everywhere in
Ireland; you’ll see them in gardens and
Common Name: Blackbird blackbirds are in fact brown! countryside and from coasts to hills, although
The males have a bright not on the highest peaks! They eat insects,
Irish Name: Lon Dubh yellow beak and a ring around especially earthworms, but they also enjoy
the eye. Their song sounds a berries and other fruit including apples. If you
Scientific Name: Turdus merula bit like a flute and travels far leave apples out in winter they will definitely
in the air. come to your bird table!
©Michael John O’Mahony
Blackbirds build their
©Michael John O’Mahony
Their parents will probably nests early in Spring –
raise two more broods usually in March. The
(small families) of chicks in nest, built by the
the same year, before female, is low down in
spending the winter, each any suitable hidden
on their own again. place such as a hedge.
Life
Female/Mammy The mammy normally
As the chicks learn what to lays 3-5 eggs in a
A blackbird’s nest is cup-shaped and is
eat, and how to find it, they clutch. She incubates
made of grass, straw and small twigs. It is
Cycle
begin to explore further them (keeps them
plastered inside with mud and lined with
fine grass. It can take two weeks to
away, and become totally
independent just three weeks
warm) on her own.
The male will bring her
Male/Daddy
complete! The eggs that are laid are a
after leaving the nest! food so she doesn’t
beautiful blue green colour!
get hungry.
Fun Facts!
The chicks are ready to Blackbird chicks in gardens are usually fed
The chicks earthworms; woodland chicks are fed mainly
fledge after another 13-
hatch 13-14
14 days, but if the nest is caterpillars. Why do you think that is? Do you think
days later. Both
disturbed, they can leave
and survive as early as
parents feed the garden chicks are just fussy eaters? ☺
Image by Dennis@Stromness via Flickr.com the chicks.
nine days old.
SI3
©Michael John O’Mahony
Blackbird Draw the mammy and daddy Blackbird at their nest:
In Winter most In Spring the
Blackbirds will Blackbird finds a
feed alone. partner and
builds a nest
Life
Cycle
The chicks are fed a lot,
until they are ready to fly. In Summer the
By Autumn they are big mammy lays about 4
enough to live without eggs in the nest. She
mammy or daddy. sits on them to keep
them warm until they
hatch out as chicks.
Bullfinch
SI6 Description Habitat found
Bullfinches are 15cm long from beak to tail. Bullfinches are common and
Their thick, stubby black beak is the breed throughout Ireland,
Common Name: Bullfinch perfect tool for nibbling flower buds off usually in hedgerows and
trees and for crushing seeds. Males have a deciduous woodland. They
Irish Name: Corcrán coille dark black cap, face, wings and tail, a pale visit gardens regularly. They
bar on each wing, and striking white rump feed mainly on the buds of
Scientific Name: Pyrrhula pyrrhula patch. They also have a grey back and native trees (e.g. Oak and
beautiful reddish-rose breast and belly. hawthorn), as well as seeds
Females are similar except that their breast and berries such as bramble
©Michael John O’Mahony
and belly are more grey-brown than red. and dandelion.
Paired birds often stay Bullfinches find a
©Michael John O’Mahony
together over the winter, partner in the
and will be partners again Spring time.
the following year.
The mammy or ‘female’
lays the first clutch of
Most pairs will try to blue spotted eggs in the
Life
raise two or three middle of May.
families or ‘broods’
Female (mammy) every summer.
Cycle
4-5 turquoise eggs with
brown spots, are Male (daddy)
normally laid per brood,
The parents teach the and are kept warm or
Fun Facts!
young chicks how to ‘incubated’ by the
collect food in the garden female.
or woodlands for a few
more days.
The name ‘bullfinch’ comes from the bird’s
Two weeks later, chicks front heavy, bull-headed appearance.
Chicks leave
the nest or
hatch and are fed by both Bullfinches were once popular cage birds
their parents until they
‘fledge’ at
are strong enough to because they can be taught to imitate flutes.
around 16
Image by Mark Hope via Flickr.com
leave the nest
days old.
SI6
Draw the Mammy and Daddy Bullfinch building a
nest in a bush:
Bullfinch
©Michael John O’Mahony
In Winter all the birds
will leave the nest area. In Spring young
The Mammy and Daddy Bullfinches find a new
will stay together. The partner. All partners
other birds will live on try to find a nice place
their own. to build a nest.
Life
Baby birds will hatch Cycle
from the eggs, and
Mammy and Daddy will
feed them until they can In Summer the
fly away. The Mammy mammy bird will
and Daddy might have make a nest in a
another family before bush and she will lay
the Autumn. about 4 eggs.
Description Habitat found
Honey Bee
SI5
There are three types or 'castes' of bee within a hive; 'queen’ Bees can be found feeding in most rural and
(female), ‘worker’ (female) and ‘drone‘ (male). The are all similar in urban habitats in Ireland; you are likely to see
appearance; they have a body covered in short hairs, and divided bees anywhere there is flowers that produce
into three main parts; head, thorax and abdomen. They have two
nectar. For example bees feed on clover,
Common Name: Honey Bee large eyes and a pair of antennae on the head. There are 2 sets of
wings above, and three pairs of legs below the abdomen, and there hawthorn, ivy, dandelions, bramble and many
other common native plants. You are likely to
Irish Name: An Beach mheala
is a narrow waist between the abdomen and the thorax. The queen
has a longer and more slender abdomen than the others. find bees feeding on flowers in gardens, parks
and hedgerows.
Scientific Name: Apis mellifera The new queen returns,
having mated with a male
Honey bees live in a
from a different colony, to the
WARNING: Never touch a honey hive. She is the new Queen
home called ‘a hive’. In
bee, or go near a beehive, without Spring they emerge
Bee! The colony will live in the
from the hive and start
permission! If a female bee gets a hive from Autumn through
looking for food.
fright, she will protect herself by Winter, surviving off the
using her (very painful) sting! Ouch! summer’s honey.
A new queen that hatches
leaves the hive on her
“marriage flight”. When
Life Spring to Summer the
Queen Bee’s eggs turn into
Cycle
she is gone, the old queen female worker bees. Young The honey bee is one of the best
with a large group of her bees are fed by these known insects in Ireland. It has a
workers; their big sisters!
workers leaves the nest as very important role in pollinating
Workers also gather pollen
a swarm and looks for
on their specially designed flowering plants such as Dandelion
somewhere else to live.
back legs. and Bramble.
When the hive gets too full of bees
Fun Facts!
in Summer the workers build Honey has to be Honey Bees do not hibernate, instead during cold weather
bigger cells for the queen to lay in. manufactured in the they live indoors in their hive, with thousands of their sisters
The eggs that she lays there, are hive from nectar, which and brothers, and their mother of course! They all eat up the
fed for longer and grow to become is brought back by
honey that they had collected earlier in the year!
a new queen (some males are also other bees. Adult bees
produced then). only eat honey.SI5
Draw a Honeybee visiting flowers:
Honey Bee
In Winter all the bees
Draw the inside of a hive: take a rest, and stay in
the hive, out of the cold By Spring the bees
weather. They can now eat have eaten all the honey
the honey that they have in the hive. They must
collected all summer! visit flowers to collect
nectar to make new
Life honey.
Cycle
Before Autumn the
Queen will lay eggs that
will turn into boy bees
and new Queen Bees. A In Summer the
new Queen Bee will take Queen lays lots of
over the hive. eggs that make girl
bees! These bees all
work hard to collect
nectar.Earthworm
SI2 Description Habitat found
The common earthworm is up to 30 Earthworms live in soil and feed on dead plant
cm long and is pink in colour. Its material. They can be found in soil in gardens,
Common Name: Common Earthworm
body is composed of up to 150 woodlands, in fields and other grasslands. They are
segments. There are stiff hairs really important to farmers and gardeners as they
‘chaetae’ on the underside of its recycle dead plants by digesting it and returning the
Irish Name: Péist talún body which help it move. They have nutrients back into the soil in a way that can be used
no eyes! up by growing plants, such as bramble.
Scientific Name: Lumbricus terrestris
In winter, when it is
cold, earthworms Once the weather
burrow deep into the begins to heat up in
ground and become Spring, worms
totally inactive or become active again.
‘dormant’
Life
When they are active they
move through the soil, and
Earthworms will lay
eat it as they go. As soil
eggs many times
passes through their body
Cycle
throughout the
they take in or ‘digest’ all
warmer part of the
the good bits in it. The
year; Spring to
other bits that are not
Autumn.
taken in are left as a ‘worm
cast’ or worm poop!
As Earthworms move through Fun Facts!
Worms sometimes come to the top of the ground to look for
the soil, they form small tunnels
extra tasty food, such as fallen leaves in Autumn. When its there
which then allows air and water Like snails and slugs,
On warm nights worms it will try to keep its tail inside its burrow so that it can escape
to move easily through the soil Earthworms have both
will come up to the
male and female parts in quickly if danger threatens; birds such as thrushes and blackbirds
afterwards. They also add to its their body. Therefore after
surface of the soil to find
think that earthworms are delicious!! Do you think thrushes and
fertility with their ‘worm casts’. they’ve found a partner
a partner, with which to
make a family. blackbirds are crazy!?
This is great for all plants! every worm will lay eggs!SI2
Draw an Earthworm in the soil:
Earthworm
In Winter
Earthworms dig Earthworms get
down deep into the active in Spring.
soil and fall asleep. They move through
the soil eating it as
Life they go.
Cycle
By Autumn all of the
eggs turn into baby
Earthworms. They In Summer all
grow big by eating Earthworms lay
food in the soil. eggs in the soil.You can also read
