Inside This Seed

Hundreds of habitats hide inside this little seed.
Air, light and water are all that the embryo needs,

then bursting through, stretching up, pushing down, sending out shoots
till, from the tips of each tiny twig right to its roots,

it’s a haven for wildlife, providing a whole host of homes
for birds, bugs or animals needing a place of their own.

Squirrels and insects, like caterpillars, lunch on the flowers;
bees collecting pollen buzz busily hour after hour;

badgers and wood mice enjoy munching acorns galore;
woodpeckers, nuthatches, blue jays and rooks all eat more.

Aphids and larvae will nibble the leaves, which attract
blue tits and wood ants, and spiders in search of a snack.

Moths and black beetles both burrow through old bits of bark.
Owls build their nests in small holes in the trunk. After dark

bats emerge, creeping from crevices, hunting all night
whilst down at the base, in the leaf mould, male stag beetles fight.

Here, above ground and below, different fungi can thrive
and on branches and boughs lots of lichens and mosses survive.

In fact, more than two thousand species eat, shelter and breed
in the hundreds of habitats hiding inside this small seed.