Posted by Robert Dilley on April 02, 2003 at 18:11:37 from 65.39.15.73 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Red Stuff posted by John Nichols on April 02, 2003 at 16:21:35:
Much more likely dead bracken from the previous summer. The fronds (if that's the right word) go a kind of rusty brown-red when dead. Heather-covered hills are purple when in flower, blackish at other times.
Bracken used to be valued -- as a bedding material for animals and even for roofing. So much so that people in the Lake District had to be limited in how much they could take, and were often forbidden to pull up (rather than cut) the stalks, so the plant would regenerate. Nowadays it is a nuisance, though it can be quite decorative (especially when dead!)