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The fruit is a samara: it has a wing, with the seed at its base.

It can dive. Its relationship with water sets it apart from the small birds usually seen on branches.

The larvae live and feed in decaying wood. An old trunk can continue to support other forms of life.

The song of adult males can reveal the insect before we manage to spot it in the vegetation.

Sori, structures associated with spore production, are found on the underside of the fronds. Ferns reproduce without flowers.

The fruit is a pome: botany groups fruits in this category by their structure, beyond their shape or colour.

It feeds on insects and is active at dusk and at night. In Portugal it is a summer visitor, mainly in the northern half, where woodland meets open spaces.

It is endemic to the Iberian Peninsula: its natural range is limited to this territory. It reproduces in water.

Adults can survive the winter. The Gulbenkian Garden describes them basking on trees and shrubs on sunny days. This is a Lisbon example, not a calendar for observing them in Cabeceiras.

It can colonise burned areas and abandoned pastures, forming fern-dominated patches known in Portuguese as fetais.

Woodlands near broadleaved trees or conifers. The guide describes mycorrhizal associations with trees.

Naturalis describes whitish to pale-yellow tubes and pores beneath a cap about 6 to 12 centimetres across. Unlike gills, pores form small openings: a difference to observe without damaging the specimen.

Taraxacum and Plantago are the plant genera associated with this species in the Naturdata record. A small herbaceous plant can also be part of a moth’s story.

The subspecies purpurea is described at the edges and in clearings of woods and scrub, in cool, shady places.

Evergreen leaves with spiny edges that can be smooth on older branches or older plants.

The fruit takes about a year to ripen and may coincide with the next flowering.

The winged stems carry out photosynthesis; the leaves are very small.

The leaves can be deciduous or marcescent: some dry out and stay on the branches during the unfavourable season.

Woodland and scrub along banks, hedgerows and damp places, including beneath oak woodland.

The proportion of pale and brown feathers can vary greatly between individuals.

The nest is cup-shaped and made from mud, on structures such as buildings and bridges.

It searches for aquatic insects.

Males and females both have contrasting pale markings on their wings.

It may have dark bands or no bands at all. Colour and pattern vary between individuals.

The Royal Horticultural Society describes this species as nocturnal.

A shell-shaped or fan-shaped reproductive structure, attached to the wood at the side.

The species description identifies a cyanobacterium of the genus Nostoc as its photosynthetic partner.

A saxicolous species: it grows on rocks.