Cactus-bongert nature discovery trail

Yuppi

Amélie

practical information: The total length of the footpath is about 3 km.It will take children +/- 1 hour to walk along it, but you should allow 1 hour more to make sure you can have a good look at everything.

Yuppi will show you the way from one stopping point to the next.The path is not accessible for pushchairs or wheelchairs.

You walk along the path at your own risk. Neither Cactus s.a. nor the natur&ëmwelt Foundation Hëllef fir d’Natur can be held responsible for any accidents that occur on the footpath.

I don’t pick any flowers.

I don’t make any noise.

I go on foot. I don’t light fires.

I keep my dog on a lead.

I take my rubbish home with me.

I stay on the footpath.

Thank you for helping us to protect this area

by keeping to these few simple rules:

cactus-bongert nature discovery trail

In the Cactus orchard lives Yuppi’s friend Amelie, who is a bee. Yuppi goes to visit Amelie, but when he arrives at the beehive, there’s great excitement there, because someone has taken the bees’ honey. Now join Yuppi and all the bees from the hive as they look for the thief. Whoever could it have been?

the bee hive

did you know?

Did you know that bees dance, too? This is how they tell the other bees where fodder plants are to be found.

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1. EYESInsects’ large eyes are made up of lots of separate eyes. With these compound eyes they can see faster, i.e. more images per second, than we humans and they also have a far wider field of vision.

2. ANTENNAEBees do not have a nose. They smell and feel with their antennae. This enables them to orientate themselves in the dark beehive. They communicate with each other by scents which each bee produces in special scent glands, for example when they are alarmed it smells of bananas.

3. PROBOSCISBees do not have a tongue but a proboscis with which they suck nectar out of flowers. The bees carry the nectar back to the hive in their honey stomach. In the hive it is either used as food or thickened into honey – to use as a reserve in the winter.

4. LEGSLike all insects, bees have six legs. On their back legs they have large “baskets” in which they transport pollen to the beehive.

5. STINGBees only use their poison sting in an emergency, to defend themselves or their hive. When a bee stings a person, the sting and the venom sac get stuck in our stretchy skin and the bee dies.

6. WINGSBees use their wings to fly. And if it is too warm, they use them like a fan to cool the hive.

For bees, their sense of smell is very important. Every beehive has a special smell, and its inhabitants smell the same. This means that the bees can recognise their hive and its inhabitants. The sense of smell is also important in finding flowers.

01. the bee hive

INFO

hedges

did you know?

Hedges are very important for lots of animals and for us humans too. They offer many different kinds of food and they provide protection from wind, rain, too much sun and noise. They are a good place to spy out from and they help animals orientate themselves. Animals walk along hedges and they creep inside them.

Look at all the creatures that hide in this hedge!

02. hedges

beetle dormouse

cowpartridge

hare

red-backed shrike

nest

meadows

Dandelion

This is how I see the lowers in the meadow.

Ox-eye daisy Bellflower

Field scabious

Buttercup Ragwort Cornflower

did you know?

In a species-diverse meadow, there may be over 30 different plants – all kinds of different grasses, but lots of flowers too. All these plants provide food for lots of insects such as bees and butterflies. And where there are lots of insects, there are lots of insect predators such as shrews, hedgehogs and all kinds of birds.

03. meadows

Here are a few of bees’ favourite flowers, as they see them.Can you find them in this big meadow?

Bees see meadow flowers in ultraviolet light: blue, and shades of violet and pink. For bees, meadows and landscapes are just pale grey.

Bird’s-foot Trefoil

limestone

Quaking Grass

In the past, limestone was extracted here, so that the lime could be burnt out of it. The lime was used like cement, to fire bricks and make mortar and a kind of plaster.

Nowadays on the dry, warm limestone ground, mostly those plants grow which can withstand

hot and dry conditions.

04. limestone

Bee Orchid

Copper

Small Burnet

Oregano

I'd like it here, too!

fruit

did you know?

There used to be lots of different varieties of fruit. The benefit of that was that they flowered in succession. Then it wasn’t so bad if the blossom of one variety was da-maged by the frost. And they ripened in succession so people had fresh fruit over a longer period. And above all, the fruit varieties had very different characteristics: some were better for cooking or were good for making schnapps, others were for stewing or for eating fresh or storing for a long time…

Do you know all the different kinds of fruit in the orchard?

05. fruit

cherries

apple

plum

pear

animals

Do you know these animals from the orchard?

Bees are important for orchards, and orchards are important for a whole lot of animals which find perfect places to live in and around the old fruit trees.

06. animals

> It is a mammal> It eats insects > It has extremely good hearing > It is nocturnal> It can fly

> It is a bird > It is nocturnal> It nests in hollows in old trees> It is only as big as a blackbird > Its image appears on the Greek 1-euro coin

> It is a mammal > It does not eat fruit but insects > It hibernates> When in danger, it rolls itself up into a ball> It is prickly

> It is related to bees > It builds its nests out of wood, in hollows> It is big > It can sting, but its venom is no worse than that of wasps

> It sleeps for almost 7 months of the year > It has black markings like a mask > It likes eating fruit best > It has a long, furry tail that it wraps round itself to go to sleep

> It is a bird> It has a long tongue> It has a tough, pointed beak that it uses to make holes in wood> It is green and red

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1. Green woodpecker 2. Bat 3. Little owl 4. Garden dormouse 5. Hornet 6. Hedgehog

willows

07. willows

did you know?

Willow rods are perfect for weaving, because they are very bendy. But you can only use young shoots for weaving. That’s why willows are cut back every year or two. Then new rods grow from the trunk. That creates the typical shape of a pollard willow, with a thick, old and often hollow trunk, from which lots of thin rods grow like hair on a head.

Can you weave? Have a go here!

the pond

08. the pond

Lots of creatures spend part of their lives in water. Turn the disc to find out what the monsters turn into!

Larvae

1 Tadpole 2 Dragonfly larva 3 Damselfly larva4 Caddisfly larva5 Great diving beetle larva 6 Newt larva7 Mosquito larva8 Stonefly larva

Fully grown creatures

1 Frog2 Dragonfly3 Damselfly4 Caddisfly5 Great diving beetle 6 Newt7 Mosquito8 Stonefly

jobs in the orchard

09. jobs in the orchard

The nicest job in the orchard is picking the fruit when it’s ripe. But before then, there are a whole lot of other jobs to do.

January, February:Plant new fruit treesPrune the trees

April, May:Fertilise young trees with compost

July:Pick cherries Prune cherry trees If it’s dry: water young trees

August, September:Pick plums, greengages, damsons

October: Pick apples, pears, walnuts

November, December:Plant new fruit treesPrune trees

All year round: Check young trees (erect fences to keep animals away, check for voles, diseases, etc.)

trees

10. trees

did you know?

The process in which sugars are formed is called photosynthesis. In the same process, the green parts of the plant also produce the oxygen that we need to live.

Fruit trees through the seasons:Sweet nectar for the bees in spring, tons of sweet fruit in autumn, and the same again year after year. Where does the tree get all that sugar from?

IN SPRING...... as the days get longer, the roots begin to take up water. The sugar reserves from the previous year are mobilised and the sap is transported to the buds. The buds open, the tree blossoms and new leaves form.

IN SUMMER...... production is in full swing. Sugar is formed in the leaves from water, carbon dioxide in the air and the sun’s energy, and then it is taken to where the tree needs it: beneath the bark to form new wood cells, or to the fruits, as a store of energy for the seeds.

IN AUTUMN...... the seed (the fruit) is ripe and falls from the tree. In the leaves, all the substances that the tree still needs are broken down, then the leaves turn yellow and fall off. The sugar reserves are stored in the wood, the bark and the roots.

IN WINTER...... the tree rests. The buds from which new leaves and flowers will grow are well protected from the cold under a tough casing.

1 THE CROWN

2 THE TRUNK

3 THE ROOTS

am hiescht am wanter am fréijoer am summerin autumn in winter in spring in summer

Thanks for your visit!

Please deposit the brochure after your visit in the shop fromHaff Ditgesbaach for the next visitors.