The Listed Property Show 2015 - competition answers and a winner!
24 February 2015
The ECOSA team had a great time at Olympia and look forward to working with some of the listed property owners, architects and other experts whom they met.
Meantime, we laid down a challenge for visitors to our stand: how well did they know their UK wildlife. The three questions related to our bell-jar exhibits:
- A. Was this animal (represented by the skull of a badger) known as: a furze-pig, a brock or a mouldywarp?
- B. Which of the following is not true of the snowdrop:
- The bulbs are poisonous if eaten in volume;
- they are dispersed by woodlice using a special handle formed on the seed; or..
- They have natural resistance to garden pests like aphids and scale?
- C. Would a death's-head hawkmoth: be poisonous to bats, squeak when captured or be a Celtic delicacy?
The correct answers were:
- A. A badger was called a brock in old English, a hedgehog was known as a furze-pig and a mole as a mouldywarp.
- B. Snowdrops are toxic to humans, if eaten in sufficient quantity, and have a natural resistance to many garden pests. They also have a handle-like protuberance on their seeds which assists with their dispersal by ants, not woodlice.
- C. Death's-head hawkmoths, like the one displayed, are named for the characteristic skull-like mark on the back of their thorax and are unusual in that they emit an audible squeak when captured or irritated. We have no evidence to suggest that they are either toxic to bats or were relished by the ancient Celts.
So very well done Mary Bishop of Surrey who not only got all the answers right but also was first out of the 'hat' and will shortly be receiving her prize of vouchers for a day's course or an evening for two at River Cottage.
Thanks to all those who joined in and accepted the challenge.
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