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)!