London Bound

I quit Portland Bird Obs early doors and headed eastwards into Purbeck, home of magnificent heathlands, rolling downs and one particular plant that I fully intended to track down. Purbeck is an absolute Mecca for the botanist. Had I been visiting in midsummer I wouldn't have known which way to turn next, such is the range of plants present. But I was here on a decidedly cool, early February morning and my focus was squarely centred on Stoborough Heath, site of my target plant. 

I parked up and jumped a fence (doubtless there's a proper car park and entrance area, but I don't know where that is) and ducked my way through a gorse dominated slope until I emerged in the open. I scouted around for a wetter area, which didn't take too long, and set about trying to find my plant. A few minutes later and

Dorset Heath Erica ciliaris on a Dorset Heath! Note the long glandular hairs on the leaves

Well that was easy! I found quite a few clumps of Dorset Heath growing in wetter patches, along with Bell Heather, Heather and a bit of Cross-leaved Heath. Lots of Dwarf Gorse mixed in too, though I didn't see any Western Gorse (not that I looked too hard, to be fair).

My next target was a plant that grows near the main carpark at Hengistbury Head. I was fairly certain I'd seen it before, I just hadn't known what it was at the time. I was amazed quite how long it took me to weave my way around Poole and down to Hengistbury Head, far longer than I'd expected. There's a small reserve somewhere in Poole that has Bristle Bent, Heath Grasshopper and Sand Lizards. I think I was fairly close to it at one point, several of the roads looked familiar, but I missed the entrance. Not that I'd expect to find much in it at this time of year anyway. Finally, I arrived at Hengistbury Head.

I rather messed up at the pay and display meter, grabbing two hours' worth of parking time, then crossing the road and coming face to face with my target plant all of 90 seconds later. Ho hum, I'll know for next time! This is it, Lavender-cotton in all of its fluffy bobbly glory

Lavender-cotton Santolina chamaecyparissus

In the summer months this shrub is adorned with glorious yellow flowerheads. But obviously, as I keep saying, things just ain't like that in early February! Still, it's a pleasantly curious plant and I was happy to spend a little time trying to get to grips with how the leaves all fit together so tightly (heck, I still had an hour and fifty seven minutes left on the parking ticket, what else was I supposed to do?) Actually, I did go for a wander, but couldn't find anything of particular interest so I sped off eastwards some more. I had to be in Epsom that evening and I had a few pitstops to fit in first. 

Tree Lupin Lupinus arboreus - very common along this stretch of coastline

I planned to head into North Hampshire before swinging east into Surrey for the night. As I found myself approaching Ringwood, I suddenly remembered a churchyard that The Ghost and I had visited a few years back. We'd twitched some weird snowdrops, I couldn't recall the exact details but I thought we'd been after Greater and Green Snowdrops. I wasn't entirely certain where the church in question lay, but it was somewhere near Blashford Lakes. I detoured and, miracle of miracles, took the correct side road and soon found myself parking up outside of Ellingham Church (also known as St Marys Church, I think). Out of respect, I dodged around a handful of gravestone visitors and surreptitiously scanned the drifts of snowdrops for any that looked different. I found quite a few 'Flore Pleno' examples, but they weren't what I was after. Finally, I found a clump that towered above the rest. Greater Snowdrop was quickly added to the bulging yearlist, number 439 in fact! 

Greater Snowdrop Galanthus elwesii (alongside Common Snowdrop in lower two images)

It's certainly a bit of a beast! In fact there's a variety named Big Boy, would you believe. Despite quite a lot of searching, I failed to find any other snowdrops other than the bog standard Galanthus nivalis. However, I did find a super-bright patch of Winter Aconite

Winter Aconite Eranthis hyemalis - I've still never seen this plant outside of a churchyard!

Somewhat more elongated than I'm used to seeing, but I think this is still Cyclamen hederifolia

Back on the road again, I steered The Gibstermobile steadily northwards and eventually arrived in the backstreets of Fleet in North Hampshire. I parked up and walked a woodland path that split and meandered its way through some very nice-looking damp woodland. Surprise surprise, I found a stand of Broad-leaved Bamboo. Bloody stuff is everywhere I look nowadays (seeing as I only ticked it a little less than 3 weeks ago!)

Broad-leaved Bamboo Sasa palmata naturalised in woodland

I suspect the bamboo came out of one of the gardens that backs onto this woodland. If you look closely, you can see fence panels in the background. That's how close to the gardens I was at this point. Happily, the woodland improved with increased distance from the properties. There were masses of Dryopteris ferns (there's a very good one in here too, but it's supposed to be deciduous and I'm very wary of attempting the male-ferns in the absence of a proper grown-up) which I studiously ignored. I was here for one particular plant, a lifer for me if I could find it. I was looking for a cuckoo-flower, but one that was just a little larger than usual...

Greater Cuckoo-flower Cardamine raphanifolia  - just a smidge larger than ordinary Cuckoo-flower!

My hands aren't particularly large, certainly nobody would describe them as shovels, but they're not precisely petite either. So I've included a full-sized Lesser Celandine leaf in the lower image, just for scale. I'm not certain, but I think Greater Cuckoo-flower's binomial translates something like 'radish-leaved'. Basically, it's one big bugger of a Cardamine! There was a good fifteen metres of streambank covered in the stuff, must look glorious when it's in flower. But, this being early February.........

I also found a small pool smothered in Least Duckweed Lemna minuta. We don't get this up north

Happy with the Greater Cuckoo-flower I headed into Surrey, my old home county and familiar territory. I'd be staying with friends for the next few nights, but seeing as I wasn't due to arrive for another couple of hours, I headed to a small woodland which I knew held a couple of very desirable trees. Brace yourselves, I hope you aren't expecting high quality pics

I'm pretty sure these will be the worst Field Maple Acer campestre pics you'll see today

I've seen precisely one Field Maple on Skye, and that was planted. It just doesn't occur as a wild tree up there. In fact, once you're past Glasgow, it's decidedly rare all the way up the West coast of Scotland. Hence I definitely needed to secure it whilst down south and this patch of woodland is easily the best site I know for it. It's alright to laugh if you like, I won't mind.

The next tree wasn't on my radar, mainly because it's so common I hadn't even thought about it. It even occurs on Skye. But it was my first of the year so pics were duly taken. 

Wild Cherry Prunus avium - the book is Poland's Winter Twig Key

I brought my Field Key to Winter Twigs with me for just such an occasion. As per The Veg Key, this masterpiece of a book is written by John Poland. It's not as easy to use as the Veg Key (or so I've found) and some of the terminology is bizarre. But there's a comprehensive glossary and undoubtedly it will become easier to navigate the more I use it. But I was here for a different tree, of which several grow close together, somewhere near the edge of the woodland. After fifteen minutes of scouting around, I was starting to think I'd fail to find them. But my memory was playing tricks with me, they were further into the wood than I remembered

Wild Service-tree Sorbus torminalis - get in!!!

Wild Service-tree is essentially absent from Scotland, so once again I was very pleased to catch up with it whilst down south. Twenty years ago, I used to search these very trees for larval Phyllonorycter mespilella, which is a tiny moth that feeds on Wild Service-tree leaves. I never found it, just the far commoner Phyllonorycter corylifoliella. 

Talking about hunting for moths in Surrey, are you ready for a Blast from the Past piccie? 

This was taken on Bookham Common in the summer of 2007. We were in the latter stages of fieldwork for the forthcoming Smaller Moths of Surrey. As Jim Porter himself commented, never in the history of mankind have so many shit-hot lepidopterists gathered together in Surrey. Plus me. I was there too, stood right beside a very youthful-looking Ghostie. 

Anyway, I didn't go to Bookham Common during my stay in Surrey. I didn't see any lepidopterists either, shit-hot or otherwise. But before I left this particular patch of trees, I spied a most unexpected sight

Spanish Dagger Yucca gloriosa var recurvifolia - with the Winter Twig Key for scale!

Clearly these are in close proximity to a garden fence. There's actually a small road that runs between that fence and the woodland where these Yucca are growing. I can only assume they've been either planted out (seems unlikely, the entrance to the property is a bit of a way from those fence panels you can see in the pics) or they've been chucked out as garden waste, possibly by a fly-tipper from elsewhere, and have subsequently rooted and flourished. This seems more likely to my mind, it's a very secluded road and any garden waste fly-tipping would largely go unnoticed. Anyway, a surprising find however they got there! I've seen Yucca in the sand dunes on Tresco; they've been there for decades, are self-seeding and are properly naturalised, hence I suffered no moral quandries with these particular plants. They still went on the yearlist though.

My time for botanising was up, I headed across to Epsom just in time for dinner. Oh, and to meet up with some very dear friends, first time in nearly three years apparently. My plant yearlist stood at 444 species. Crazy.

So apparently my choice of toonage is still too obscure for some.... Here's one that (surely!) everyone knows. It's not linked to anything in this post, it's just a damned good song. This is the Black Crowes covering an Otis Redding song, it's possibly the best known version anyway. Hope you enjoy (and have heard of it)!

Lost on Portland

Dorset Pete was keen to head into the Church Ope/East Weares area, a huge jumble of rocks, scree and dense scrub. It's also home to a suite of incredibly rare and localised lichens and bryophytes, with the liverwort Southbya nigrella topping his Most Wanted List. After a bit of online digging, I managed to come up with a couple of dozen grid references for it, most of which were in the military compound and hence very definitely out of bounds! However, I made a note of several griddies in the Church Ope area. I'd been shown Southbya by Nicola Bacciu several years back, it's very small but quite distinctive. I recalled that we found quite a few patches, and I vaguely remembered whereabouts we were at the time. Should be a doddle... I did hope we'd score today, Pete was proper keen for it. 

But before all that, I forgot to mention the Oblong (Balkan) Spurge that was a lifer for Pete yesterday. John Martin noted it some years back and spread the word. It grows in a small area of waste ground and seems to be spreading, I counted several plants as opposed to the solitary plant that I remember being here in previous years. Terrible pics (I was leaning over a fence at the time) but you get the gist

Oblong (Balkan) Spurge Euphorbia oblongata in wasteland

Back to today - we headed out and descended through the woods near Pennsylvania Castle, noting carpets of vegetative Creeping Comfrey beneath the trees. We spun a few rocks embedded in the damp soil, finding many Kontikia ventrolineata, an alien flatworm that clearly appears to be flourishing here. But before all that, we stopped to admire a few shrubs. Wilson's Honeysuckle, Chenault Coralberry, Shrub Ragwort and more Mediterranean Spurge quickly fell. A large daisy with heavily dissected leaves caught our attention, it appears to be Argyranthemum frutescens which is a new one for me. Problem is, I can't now recall whether it was planted or naturalised (note to self - don't leave it so bloody long between the events and writing them up!) I suspect this was outside the big house at the top of the footpath that leads down through the woods, so is probably planted. Pete - what say you, buddy? Here's a couple of pretty poor piccies of it anyway. 

Presumed Argyranthemum frutescens - aka Paris Daisy/Marguerite Daisy

Exiting the woods, we descended the stone steps and headed northwards across the hillside and down into the Weares proper. This is a really good area for Wild Madder and we saw tonnes of the stuff. Much of it was pristine, but we also found a goodly amount exhibiting leaves that had been chomped by larval Mecyna asinalis, a small moth which, as a caterpillar, grazes off the underside of Wild Madder leaves. As can be seen below

Unchomped Wild Madder Rubia peregrina

And this is a Wild Madder that has played host to a Mecyna asinalis larva

Wild Madder doesn't occur in Scotland, which made it yet another valuable addition to my yearlist. By now we were well down the slope into The Weares and were homing in on the first grid reference for the Southbya. Plants that were new for the year included Horseshoe Vetch, Laurustinus, Rock Stonecrop and Portland Spurge. 

Horseshoe Vetch Hippocrepis comosa - common on barish earth

Rock Stonecrop Petrosedum forsterianum - not looking at its best at this time of year!

Laurustinus Viburnum tinus - very common amongst the jumble of boulders in The Weares

After much back and forthing between boulders, we realised that the first grid reference was lost beneath a huge jumble of Buddleja and Cotoneaster. Arse. Southbya nigrella requires exposed, largely unvegetated ground, if it was somehow clinging on beneath all that vegetation we wouldn't be able to find it anyway. Not a cool situation, considering its rarity in Britain. Luckily for us I had a second grid reference to track down, it wasn't too far away either. Guess what...it too was completely overgrown to buggery. The third option looked to be on an entirely unsuitable patch of cliff, again heavily overgrown. We noted that many Cotoneasters were brown and dead, some sort of a contact spray has clearly been used on them. We also noted that the herd of goats have been working well, with many Cotoneasters nibbled back almost to ground level. But it's the Buddleja that seems to be the biggest problem here. Who, if anybody, is tackling that?? Not the goats by the looks of things. Throw in a healthy amount of Atlantic Ivy and various bramble species, all of which are very successfully covering a decent amount of bare ground, and I feel it's only a matter of time before the incredibly rare bryophytes and lichens that occur here are lost.  

Eventually we worked our way out of The Weares and walked up to Broadcroft Quarry in search of the Snake's-head/Widow Iris Iris tuberosa. Pete has seen it here once before, I've looked but never found it. Would this be our lucky day? No, no it woudn't. Meh, today was all going a bit pants really! We did find a different naturalised alien growing beneath the Monterey Cypresses, a lifer for Pete (and seemingy new to Dorset according to the BSBI maps) but relegated to a mere month tick for me.

Note the 'teeth' along the leaf edge. This is Schmidt's Elephant-ear Bergenia x schmidtii

I life-ticked Schmidt's Elephant-ear Bergenia x schmidtii just a couple of weeks back on the shingle at Pagham, West Sussex. Now here I was looking at it again. I suddenly wondered if my record of Elephant-ear Bergenia crassifolia (from Portland no less!) could actually be of this species. Hmmm...I'd hate to lose a species from my PSL, but better that than to hold on to a wrong ID, I guess. The BSBI maps show Bergenia crassifolia occuring across Portland and a complete absence of Schmidt's Elephant-ear. Broadcroft Quarry is a bit of a botanical hotspot and, judging from the size of the patch, this Bergenia has been here for a number of years. Clearly it has been misidentified in the past (same as the Pagham plant, in fact!) I made sure Pete took some pics and suggested he submit the sighting to his county recorder as a 'first for county'. As for the poxy Snake's-head Lily, we never did find it. One of these years....

At some point, I forget exactly when but it could have been the previous evening, we stopped off at the Cheyne Weares car park in order to check the Hairy Canary-clover that grows there. Once again I'm indebted to Kev Rylands for the ID of this plant. We'd both puzzled over it's identity for a couple of years before he suddenly contacted me with the name. Not sure how he sussed it, I don't think the Veg Key was published back then, but that's what it is. Anyway, it was a full on lifer for Pete and a yeartick for me, a few pics seem appropriate

Hairy Canary-clover Lotus hirsutus at its sole Dorset site. Who even knows how it got there

Pete had to hit the road early, we travelled in convoy down to the Sailing Academy at Ferrybridge where I showed him the naturalised Mediterranean Spurge, Broad-leaved Glaucous-spurge, some Lambs-ear that has escaped its flowerbed, and of course I showed him the Wild Asparagus in all of its berry-laden glory. 

And then he was off, westward bound. I headed back to Portland Bird Obs and tried to bribe Martin into letting me peruse the bookshop. Sadly, he'd just finished painting the floor and was not about to let me tromp all across it. Heartbreaking stuff for a book addict such as myself. 

This is one of my all time favourite SOAD tracks, Lost in Church Ope. It's an absolute classic, all about a young liverwort who moves to Portland Bill looking for stardom, would you believe... Hope you enjoy!