Adventuring Solo

Ghostie was busy this morning, so I had the day to myself. I had a shortlist of target plants I intended to twitch and I fancied mooching about a bit too, simply doing a bit of generalised botanising someplace that looked good. But first the twitching! 

I headed into nearby Winchester in search of polypodies. The Hants Flora Group had undertaken a survey of polypodies in Hampshire and, though not a member, I somehow stumbled across their Newsletter detailing the results of this survey. If you click here and scroll down to p17, you can read the article for yourself. What caught my eye was Winchester's Polypodium x mantoniae, which is the sterile hybrid between Common Polypody and Intermediate Polypody. Back on Skye, we've started our own Polypodium survey, and one of the main aims is to rediscover and confirm the single old record for P. x mantoniae on Skye and to determine if it exists elsewhere. Clapping eyes on the Winchester plants would be a useful exercise for me. 

I'm not sure quite what I was expecting when I found the plants, but 2ft long fronds bursting up out of the pavement certainly wasn't it!

Oh wow, not exactly 'diminutive' are they?

Possibly the longest Polypodium stipe I've ever seen!

Sori look deceptively normal on this frond

And a bit under-developed on this frond. The few that have even formed, that is

To be taken back to the lab for microscopy. Do excuse the crumbs....

These are fascinating-looking fronds, really quite variable even though they are growing side by side and are presumably all part of the same plant. I've yet to check the spores beneath a compound microscope, but I'm expecting at least half of them to be deformed/shrivelled. 

I had a bit of fun trying to find Southern Polypody by the river that runs through Winchester. The given grid references didn't really make sense - until I realised the plants were growing on the wooden bridge over the river itself - duh! 

All of these plants, on seperate footbridges, have been microscopically confirmed by Hants Flora Group

I had a quick wander around a churchyard in search of the Yellow Figwort I've seen there before, but to no avail. Last time I looked for it was a couple of years ago in late February, I can only assume that I'm simply too early this year and it isn't up yet. 

Sticking with churchyards, my next plant was also in a churchyard - though this one was more sort of on the church itself rather than in the yard. There were lots of cars parked outside and I could hear voices coming from within the church, so I didn't stay for very long. Long enough to find and pap the plant though!

Pink-headed Persicaria Persicaria capitata growing in the cracks at the bottom of a church wall

I had a quick scout around in an effort to find more plants elsewhere in the churchyard, but could see no sign of where these plants could have come from. Not wanting to be collared by any church folk, I snuck back out and headed off on yet another plant hunt. And I thought my twitching days were behind me...

Two days ago I had been looking at Algerian Ivy, a lifer for both Ghostie and myself. Today I was chasing the second large alien ivy that occurs in North Hampshire. This time I was after Persian Ivy, a real beast of a plant that had apparently made a section of Hampshire hedgerow its home. After coming head to head with a fuel lorry in a very narrow, winding lane (and having to reverse maybe 200 metres, then realising that he only had to reverse 30ft...) I finally found myself in the right lane. I needed to pull over and check the directions, but a quick glance out of the car window told me all I needed to know - I was here!

Persian Ivy Hedera colchica - alongside Common Ivy in the bottom image

That was simple enough, once I'd found the place (seems to be a recurring theme with these alien ivies). I was struck by the way the larger leaves had the edges draped inwards on themselves, almost as though they were too heavy to support their own weight. Very different from the Algerian Ivy, though leaf size was similar. I walked a length of the hedgerow, I reckon there must be about 120 feet of Persian Ivy dominated hedgerow. It's going up the trees as well as along the ground, the Algerian Ivy was only on the ground, but then again it was quite a small patch. Maybe it too will climb trees given time? What I did notice was the paleness of some of the leaves. Usually it would be all of the leaves along a short length of stem, maybe fresher growth, maybe stressed growth, I just don't know. Happy that I'd gotten to grips with a few features of this ivy, I headed elsewhere in search of yet another alien plant, all the time hoping I didn't come head to head with anything larger than a pheasant in these winding lanes.

Unbelievably, my next desination was yet another churchyard. Seeing as I don't generally 'do' churches and religion, to find myself visiting three churchyards in one day was just a bit shocking. At least this one was not in use

And the plant that I was here to see was Siberian Stonecrop (and not Siberian Stonechat as I wrote in my notebook - duh!) I soon realised that there's at least two species of stonecrop that grow on the remains of the chapel. Ignore the stuff on the first wall and head to the back wall, that's where the Siberian Stonecrop lives. In the summer months it has bright yellow flowers, which should make it pretty obvious. Today it was less blousy.

Siberian Stonecrop Phedimus hybridus on the rear wall of the chapel

I hadn't anticipated being in the chapel for very long so had neglected to put my coat on. In t-shirt and jumper I quickly noticed the cold. The inside of the chapel was in shadow and a cold wind was gusting through. What I ought to have done was grab a bit of the second stonecrop and keyed it through from the comfort of my car. What I actually did was take a few pics and scramble back for warmth. Meh. Here's the second stonecrop, probably White Stonecrop but possibly something more interesting. One for next time.

Answers on a postcard, please

I had one last plant to twitch and then I hoped to do a bit of proper botanising, if time allowed. Already it was mid-afternoon and not the brightest of days. I parked up near the end of a long lane, jumped a fence and wandered through some bramble-infested grassland at the edge of a dense woodland. Eventually I cut into the wood, discovered a proper footpath, and headed off in search of yet another alien plant. It really didn't take too long, the gen I had stated one plant in the woods just south of the footpath. I found over a dozen of them scattered along maybe 100 metres of footpath

This thorny beast is Gagnepain's Barberry Berberis gagnepainii

Gagnepain's Barberry is more often found planted around the edges of private housing estates and in supermarket carparks than in the middle of a woodland. I initially presumed it was birdsown, the berry stones crapped out by a bird that had earier feasted on a garden/carpark plant. But as I continued through the woodland I started finding more and more bushes, then a few seedlings. I guess the birdsown theory does hold up, but I started to wonder if these had been deliberately planted out rather than birdsown. I couldn't see anything to suggest the soil around them had been brought in, but they were, more or less, in a line just several metres back from the footpath. 

A smaller example. I guess the age differences would hint more at being birdsown than planted

I stopped to stare across the river that runs alongside this wood, I'd heard a Kingfisher calling and hoped it would provide me with a colourful fly-by, even though I'd left my binoculars in the car. No such luck with the Kingfisher, but I caught sight of a small Mahonia by my feet. It didn't look anything like the usual Oregon-grape that I'm used to seeing, so I took some pics and a sprig to key through and then continued back to the car. 

Note the abundant teeth around the leaf margin

For once, Poland let me down and it was Stace 4 that led me to an identification for this plant. This is Newmarket Oregon-grape Mahonia x decumbens, which is listed on the BSBI database as occuring at one site in South Hampshire (Ringwood area, 2021), but isn't listed for North Hampshire at all. Get in, I've found a new for VC plant!! What you can't see in these images is that the underside of the leaves are minutely papillose (vaguely looking like very closely-packed goosebumps) which, combined with the high number of teeth on the leaf margins and the fact that the whole plant was only about a foot tall, clinch the identity. Grid reference for anybody who wants to check it out for themselves is SU49875 32139. I now need to submit this to the VC recorder, I think he prefers iRecord. 

I had a nice wander around the area, finding lots of suckering elm which I couldn't identify. I've had five new plants today, six if you count the hybrid polypody. Poor ol' Ghostie will be well jealous. With luck... 

The song seemed appropriate, and I guess at least most of you will have heard of this guy (not that I've had complaints....) Hope you enjoy!

 

Turfing it Out

Overnight we had received shocking news from John Poland's girlfriend (yep, Ghostie is good friends with the girlfriend of the Veg Key's author!!) Two days ago we had attempted to find Jo-jo Weed Soliva sessilis in one of the New Forest campsites, finding lots of Chamomile and Parsley-piert in the short-cropped turf, but no sign of the Jo-jo Weed. Well, John Poland himself had been to the campsite yesterday and declared the Soliva to be widespread across the site. He also mentioned that it looked very similar to Chamomile, which also occurs on site. Bugger!! 

Ghostie and I looked at each other and jumped online in search of better images of the weed. I noticed one seemingly consistent feature that seperated Chamomile from Soliva - in Chamomile each petiole has leaflets running down towards the basal parts, though they are massively reduced near the bottom of the petiole. Soliva, in direct contrast, completely lacks leaflets in the basal half of the petiole. The other obvious difference of course is that Soliva has tiny burs that are sharp enough to puncture skin, making walking across it barefoot a painful exercise. Annoyingly (or maybe thankfully), at this time of year the burs are absent. We checked a lot of websites, the leaflet/petiole feature seemed good. Armed with this new information, we decided to return to the campsite and try again.

But first, we had gen (again from John Poland's lady) for Slender Marsh-bedstraw. Ghostie had seen this plant before, but it would be a lifer for me. We headed to Hatchet Pond and pretty soon found ourselves stooped low over the wet turf in search of teeny, tiny bestraws. I think it was by sheer luck, but within about 90 seconds I found it.

Slender Marsh-bedstraw Galium constrictum

I think Thread-leaved Bedstraw would be a better name for this miniscule rarity! The books say it can grow up to 40cm in length, but there's no chance of it achieving that size here. Anything that pokes up more than about 4mm above the sward will soon be grazed off by the ponies. The key feature that differentiates Slender Marsh-bedstraw from Common Marsh-bedstraw, aside from size, is the shape of the leaf tip. Both species occur together here, and this allowed us to undertake a very useful side-by-side comparison. The New Forest area is the national stronghold of this diminutive plant, though I reckon there's a very good chance that it's true distribution is larger than currently known, it's very easy to overlook!

A nearby site has White Forget-me-not Plagiobothrys scouleri, again we had detailed directions to the area in question. Neither of us have seen this plant before, and January is probably about the worst time of year to try to identify it. Nevertheless, we spent quite a while on hands and knees, peering at the cropped turf for signs of it. I quickly realised that Ribwort Plantain is a master of imitation, it fooled me time and time again. Finally I started seeing something different

Pretty happy these are side-by-side young Ribwort and Buckshorn Plantains

Also young Ribwort Plantains. But what of the paler leaves emerging through them???

I suspect these could be White Forget-me-nots. Maybe.

In the end we gave up, I couldn't convince myself one way or the other. Ghostie remarked it was beyond his botanical abilities and said he'd come back later in the season when they were in flower. Assuming they escape the attentions of the ponies, which in fairness seems unlikely.  

We had an abortive wander across Beaulieu Heath in search of the Cotoneaster divaricatus bushes that occur there. Or rather, that used to occur there! We've seen these plants in the past, we knew where they were. I followed my memory whilst Ghostie followed his GPS. Between us we drew a complete blank. Arse, I thought that would be a gimme species! A bit puzzled, we quit and tried Goatpen for the Bayberry bush that has been growing a lonely life out on a hillside since at least the 1930s. We wandered back and forth, we scratched our heads in puzzlement, we moved a little and searched again. Nada. Again. Ghostie has a sneaky suspicion that, as part of a New Forest project, various alien species are being removed. Certainly the Venus Fly-traps and Purple Pitcherplants have all been dug up in recent years. Personally, I'd rather they tried tackling the Rhododendron, Crassula and various self-seeding conifer species first and tackle individual plants afterwards. Fair enough, if a Giant Hogweed suddenly sprouted up, drop everything and eradicate it. Otherwise, tackle the big issues first. 

The other possibility is that Ghostie and I are inept and simply missed the Cotoneasters and Bayberry bushes. Let's face it, it wouldn't be the first time we've been numpties. 

We had one more plant to try for today, the one that John Poland himself had seen just yesterday and had provided a TEN figure griddie for it. Hell, if we couldn't find the Soliva in a single square metre we needed to quit this botany mallarkey and take up something easy, like cloud watching or playing cymbals.  

Walking across the empty campsite towards John's grid reference, I couldn't help but notice the many hundreds of Chamomile plants in the short grazed turf that I'd noted on our earlier attempt. Sod it, I knelt down to study them. I checked the lower petioles for signs of reduced leaflets - there were none. Fucksakes, this was our plant, this was the Soliva sessilis, and it was everywhere! In fact, I couldn't find any Chamomile at all until we were heading back out of the campsite. Holy cow, I really wouldn't want to pitch my tent here. In fact, I'm amazed the owners haven't made any attempts to eradicate it. They will soon, I'm certain. 

The curiosly named Jo-Jo Weed Soliva sessilis, positively abundant across the campsite

I joined Ghostie at the appointed ten-figure grid reference to find lots of the same - Soliva sessilis all over the place. 

Well at least we ended the day on a high, it was looking decidedly iffy in the middle part of our day. The number of ponies in the New Forest is approximately twice the historical number and grazing pressure has never been as intense as it is now. Consequently, huge areas are actually relatively depauperate. It's not an easy place to botanise in the middle of the winter period. On any number of occasions I found myself comparing the visible plant diversity here to that on Skye, I have to say that Skye came off better time after time, something I really wasn't expecting! However, look closely and there are still hidden gems to be found in the mercilessly cropped turfs of this landscape.

Talking of decent turfs, here's one I haven't heard for a few years now. Hope you enjoy!

Catch Up Time

For much of this past week, I've been spending lots of time in the field by day and basically chilling with me ol' mate The Ghost of an evening. Hence my blogging is now several days behind. Today has been put aside as a blogging day whilst Ghostie is out trying to trap more Marsh Tits in the New Forest, though we did nip out to check out some Maidenhair Fern Adiantum capillus-veneris this morning - there's a decent colony growing on the stairwell to a crypt at a nearby church. It was all very spooky, I expect Ghostie felt right at home. So, taking it back a few days...

On Sunday 23rd Jan, we hit North Hampshire on a mission to mop up a number of plants that we very rarely bump into. Well, Ghostie could bump into them pretty much whenever he likes, but if I wanted to see them this year - which I did - it was now or never. We hit the road.

First on the agenda was a lifer for both of us, White Comfrey growing in a village verge. Or drain, as it turned out.

White Comfrey - Symphytum orientale

This keyed very easily. For starters the leaves lack the bristly, scratchy hairs found on other comfreys, having a nice, soft, downy texture instead. The leaf bases were a little variable but were mostly somewhat cordate, again unlike most other comfreys. The leaf blade is quite small and the stem is unwinged. Were it flowering, there would be white flowers, but as this is January...

Next plant twitch was on the outskirts of Church Crookham, pretty soon we were pulling up in a carpark where the very air smelled of dogshit. Great, my fave kind of place. Treading carefully, we headed down a track alongside a conifer plantation and very soon found a sprawling patch of low-growing bamboo. To be fair, we already knew what it was, but keyed it through anyway. Happily we came to the same identification as had the BSBI vice county recorder.

Hairy Bamboo Sasaella ramosa intemixed with brambles on the edge of a conifer plantation

I've become badly bogged down trying to key bamboos in the past and have avoided attempting to ID them ever since, but the new edition of Poland's Veg Key worked like an absolute dream and we keyed this particular bamboo through easily and quickly. It really is a marvellous book. Key features are blade width of less than 3cm and a rounded culm to place us in the right section of the bamboo key. Then it's just a matter of deciding whether it's patch or clump-forming, whether the culms are more or less than 1.2metres in length and whether the leaves are hairy on the upperside or not. Within a mere six couplets we safely arrived at Hairy Bamboo, beautifully simple. On our way back to the shit-infested carparking area, I noticed a clump of Italian Lords & Ladies, the first I've seen since October 2020, which was the last time I visited England.

Next on the hitlist was another lifer for both of us, Algerian Ivy. To be fair, the site itself was trickier to find than the plant. We did a quick tour up some private roadways, complete with CCTV cameras and a road barrier (it was raised at the time) before re-orientating and coming at it from a different angle. Eventually we were at the correct site and within about two minutes Ghostie gave a whistle to call me back to the plant I'd just blundered past.

Note my copy of Stace 4 resting on the fence in the third image down!

Clearly this is one big ass ivy! Again, we knew what it was before we arrived, but we always key these things through anyway. Why? Well, first of all it's just good practice, how else are you going to learn? And secondly, there's always a chance that the original finder has misidentified it. Typically we key plants through using Stace 4 and Poland's Veg Key, both of which I lump around everywhere we go. We also always have Ghostie's copy of the Collins Wild Flower Guide which nicely complements Stace and Poland thanks to the beautiful illustrations, plus it has its own keys, though it doesn't deal with more than a few of the alien species which abound in this part of the world. It doesn't have this ivy, or the bamboos, for instance.

This was Algerian Ivy Hedera algeriensis which differs from the even larger Persian Ivy in the leaf shape and glossiness. Even through a x20 handlens I couldn't discern the hairs on the underside of the leaf (though they were visible at 40x under the microscope afterwards) and again these differ between the two species. This patch was scrambling over Common Ivy Hedera helix low down in the leaf litter. I'd walked past it because I was looking at the tree trunks and not at the ground, duh! You can see the smaller leaves of the Common Ivy in a couple of the pics above. 

As we cut across country to another part of North Hampshire, we found ourselves driving through the town of Alton. Now, to set the scene, I've been banging on at poor Ghostie that I was determined to find Water Bent, a relatively recent arrival into Britain which has consolidated and expanded it's range massively in the last three or four years. It was growing in Ghostie's local high street until recently, then the council came along and sprayed the footpaths, bastards... Pretty much ever since my arrival at his house, I've been looking at pavement grasses and asking "is that Water Bent? So is that Water Bent? What about that, is that Water Bent?" By now he'd gotten to the point of showing me Annual Meadow-grass and telling me that it was Water Bent in an effort to shut me up. So, as we were sat at a road junction awaiting a break in the traffic, you can probably imagine his thoughts when I suddenly screamed, "Stop! Stop! That's Water Bent! Right there look, that's Water Bent!!!" Happily, he pulled into a nearby layby allowing me to rush back around the corner to confirm my find. And was it actually Water Bent this time? Well...

Water Bent Polypogon viridis - at last!

Hell yeah it was! Not at its finest, I agree, but this was definitely Water Bent, probably the one plant I was most determined to encounter whilst down south. And I'm really pleased that we didn't twitch a site for this, it's far more satisfying to find these things for yourself. And spotted from a speeding car too!! Well ok, we were already slowing down as we approached a junction, but I still think it was a good spot from inside a moving car. Even if we were only doing about 10mph at the time.   

Our next destination was a spot we'd previously visited in February 2020, which was the last time I stayed with Ghostie. Back then we were chasing lifers, today we were chasing the very same plants, but as yearticks. And yes, I know that seems pointless and ridiculous, but we are both hoping to see 1000 species of wild plants this year and these were 'bankers', we hoped. Anyway, I hadn't encountered any of the target plants at this site since last seeing them two years ago, so it would be a useful refresher to see them again. Numbers game or not, I was particularly looking forward to seeing the Caucasian Stonecrop again, mostly because I couldn't recall exactly what it looked like! But first, a very minor detour into an overgrown layby. Ghostie looked smug and didn't leave the car, why had he brought me here? I started scanning the plants. It didn't take me long to find an unexpected tree 

Stag's-horn Sumach Rhus typhina - what on earth is that doing here?

I suspect Ghostie was a little surprised that I recognised this tree straight away. I know I certainly was! I did mention that there was a second sumach in Britain, but he said it's only in Kent and this was Stag's-horn Sumach (turns out there are actually two more sumachs, one restricted to a site in Kent and the other to a site in Kent with a second site in South Wales). In the uppermost of the three images above you can see numerous clumps of Stinking Hellebore. Taking a closer look it was apparent that they were heavily mined by Phytomyza hellebori, a species of agromyzid fly that mines various hellebore species. 

Mines of Phytomyza helleborus on Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus

A quick skirmish through the gutters revealed a few nice 'weeds' for the year, including Parsley-piert, Ivy-leaved Speedwell and Himalayan Giant Bramble, situated between beer cans, dumped rubble and the odd condom and face mask

Ivy-leaved Speedwell Veronica hederifolia - a real rarity on Skye, certainly I've never seen it there

We then headed to the site of various plants we wanted to see for our yearlists. It may have been two years since we were last here, but everything was just as we left it last time

Caucasian Stonecrop Phedimus spurius - smaller than I remembered and distinctly matt green

Along the same track we found Forsythia Forsythia x intermedia, Chinese Barberry Berberis julianae and Green Alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens, all escaped from gardens and hence countable.

Job done, we next headed across to Shortheath Common, one of Ghostie's sites back in his wardening days. As such, he had a bit of insider gen regards a few desirable plants. Well, two of them are decidedly undesirable from a conservation point of view, but from our listing perspective, we definitely wanted to see them. We visited the Juneberry Amelanchier lamarckii tree in the woods, apparently it is runnning amok on a nearby common, dipped on the Confused Bridewort due to the fact someone has built a playground on top of it, and had great fun carefully splooshing through a boggy area in which we found mountains of Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccos. Shortheath Common has the largest population of Cranberry in the south of England, we must have seen hundreds of plants. 

Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccos 

Ghostie pointed out a small area of non-flowering Bird's-foot Ornithopus perpusillus which impressed the heck outta me until he admitted that this small area of sandy bank is a known spot for it. 

The tiny leaves of Bird's-foot Ornithopus perpusillus

A little further onwards and we emerged on the side of a road near some large gardens. We were met with a dense wall of bamboo, towering high over our heads. Oh wow! Still flushed with our success with the Hairy Bamboo earlier that day, we entered the thicket and ran it through the keys.

No sign of panda or tiger, but we did find Bamboo Aphids!

Once again, Poland's Veg Key worked like a dream and we very quickly and conclusively came to an identification. This is a quick run down of the key couplets: Leaves over 3cm wide, main culms round >> section A (there are four sections in all). Then; leaves not variegated, 3/4 glaucous below >> two options: leaves 5-9cm wide, shiny bright green above, rarely hairy beneath, culms 2-3 metres tall and 5-10mm diameter OR leaves 2-5cm wide, shiny dark green above, sparsely hairy, culms 2.5-5 metres tall and 10-20mm diameter. And it's that simple! Ours fitted the latter option perfectly, Arrow Bamboo Pseudosasa japonica and a lifer for both of us. Checking the BSBI maps that evening, we could see that it's already been recorded from that square, just as confirmatory back up.

We'd done a fair bit of travelling between sites today, though this gave us Water Bent (and thank fook for that, says Ghostie) but I'd encountered five new plants and reacquainted myself with several others for the first time in a couple of years. A successful day and bamboo has proven to be eminently possible to key to species. Far easier to key than most of its smaller cousins, in fact. 

I can't pretend that this is a song I'd ordinarily listen to (or from a film I'm ever likely to see again now that I'm no longer six years old) but....