Hidden Gems at St Kew Highway, Cornwall March 2022

I just picked this area to visit at random, mostly as it has easy parking. The areas I looked at were rural road verges, an arable field and an allotment. However, the visit did throw up some interesting surprises. As I came to a stop in a lay-by, the first Cornish Blackthorns were coming into flower.

Prunus spinosa

Cornwall is full of non native plants that have done very well in the milder climate of the South West. One of the most successfull is Three-cornered Leek. It seems to be on most roadsides in the area.

Allium triquetrum

This is a Shrub Ragwort. The original bushes were likely planted along the A39 as amenity planting, but they have since naturalised and spread (like Ragworts do). Of interest is that there is a specific variety of Broomrape that parasitises this species, so I may go back and have a look in June to see if these plants have any.

Brachyglottis x jubar

Here is the ubiquitous Garden Archangel adorning a roadverge. Lots in flower now, but this was the first one I saw in flower this year. Cornwall mostly lacks the native form of Yellow Archangel (which has plain leaves) now.

Lamiastrum galeobdolon subspecies argentatum

I do lots of plant recording but I don't wait until plants are in flower to identify them. By sheer repetition, one gets to know what they are, plus I always pay attention to the leaves when they are in flower to match them up at a later date, such as now.

This is Betony, it has very distinctive leaves and can't be mistaken for other species once you know what it is. This is a "desirable" plant in Cornwall and is called an axiophyte as a result.

Betonica officinalis

The road verges are coming alive with wildflowers now. Here's the first Common Vetch I've found flowering, though I've seen the leaves straggling through grasses a while now.

Vicia sativa subspecies segetalis

Assorted Speedwells are also in bloom. These include Common Field, Grey Field, Germander, Ivy-leaved and this (relatively) large flowered Slender Speedwell. This last one is found in lawns, parks and road verges and winds through the grasses. Note the reniform leaves (kidney shaped), it's the only Speedwell that has them.

Veronica filiformis

As the Spring grasses grow, thus other plants have to compete and grow taller. This is the usually diminuitive Dovesfoot Cranesbill, now ascending to the dizzy heights of about 15cm tall!

Geranium molle

Another Spring ephemeral that likes unimproved grassland is the Field-wood Rush, found here on a verge of the A39.

Luzulu campestris

It's coming up to the best time for many Violets too. Below is a white bearded form of Sweet Violet followed by a Common Dog Violet.

Viola odorata var. dumetorum

Viola riviniana

This one is the Ivy-leaved Speedwell. There are two subspecies, one has blue pollen as below, the other hasn't (subsp. leucorum). There are other minor differences too. 

Veronica hederifolia subspecies hederifolia

 

Here is the first wild orchid I've seen in Cornwall. Too early for flowers, but a welcome sight nonetheless. It's the Early Purple Orchid. The little white flower is a Barren Strawberry growing through the orchid leaves.

Orchis mascula

Tucked away within Brambles and Cleavers was this pink flowered bulb. Clearly a garden escape but none were nearby, so I suspect its origin was from old fly tipped material. It's clearly survived and flowered.

Scilla forbesii "Pink Giant"

Here's a habitat photo.

 Beautiful, aren't they.

 

I then came to an allotment, usually good for arable plants as most allotment holders don't use herbicides to any degree. Whilst there, I found this very tame Pheasant that followed me around waiting to get fed (it didn't).

Sure enough, I soon found arable plants such as this White Ramping Fumitory. These start out with white flowers, but change to pink after pollination. I've left some notes on the photo which are key points to identifying fumitories. I have another photo of white flowers hanging down (rather than up) from the same plant as suggested in those notes. Seeds are needed to get to sub species level here though, but none were yet present.

Fumaria capreolata

For some reason, an allotment holder grew the garden version of Wood Forget-me-not on his plot. As one would expect, this escaped to other parts of the allotment and beyond.

Myosotis sylvatica

There were several other plants of interest, such as Field Madder, Pineappleweed and so on, but the last plant I photographed here was an escaped Borage, well off the plots onto nearby land.

Borago officinalis

 

*** Star Find ***

Now here's a weird story. A fellow botanist on Twitter was asked by the County Recorder to go and look for a variety of Primrose that hadn't been seen in the county since 1922 which was near his home in Bodmin.  He described it to me out of interest and I did some research on it too. I thought I would keep an eye out for it (given how many thousands of Primroses adorn Cornwall's roads), but I never for one moment thought I'd find it the very next day!

This is a form of wild Primrose which has an elongated central pedicel (flower stalk) from which numerous individual pedicels arise and fall laxly around it. The flowers are simple Primrose ones and to finally rule a cowslip hybrid out of the reckoning, it had long wavy hairs up the pedicels too. Although not clear in the photo, the petals were yellow, not white. Reflection has caused this effect in the photo.

Again, one photo has notes of interest, including an extract from an early 20th Century botanist who described the variety. This isn't described in Stace volume 4 but is in Sell and Murray.

I took detailed photographs including using a microscope of the hairs on the pedicels and the County Recorder agreed with the identification. An excellent find. This site had at least three "umbels" arising from rosettes.

Primula vulgaris forma caulescens

Macro photograph of the long way hairs on the pedicels.

An iphone photo using a simple microscope of a pedicel hair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last recorded in Cornwall 100 years ago and only ever seen 17 times since the first sighting in 1848.

There are lots of things to find, discover and re-discover wherever you are, so get out and about and see what you can find now Spring has properly arrived.

Take care

Dave

 

Follow me on Twitter: @Botany2021

 

March 2022 in North Cornwall

 It's been a month or so since we moved to this area from Kent, and it seemed like the chores resulting from moving house would never end. This was much like the wind and rain with weeks on end of rather autumnal weather, including three named storms in a week ( so I bought some wellies too).

Since then though, the weather has settled down and we are into the second week now of beautiful  Spring sunshine under a high pressure weather system. As such, I have finally been able to get out and see what I can find in my local area of botanical interest.

One thing that was quickly apparent was that most fields were set aside for pasture for cattle and sheep with a grass monoculture and nothing much else in it. Many other fields don't grow crops for food either, like this field of Daffodils near St Ives. Apparently, Cornwall is a top exporter of Daffs, and also supplies all the UK with them too. Unfortunately, the farmer (as ever) sprays everything else in his field to oblivion, even right up to the road. Would some "weeds" along the edges really impact his Daffodil crop? I think not. I wonder why some (not all) farmers seem to hate nature so much?

My first proper trip was to Sladesbridge near Wadebridge, only a mile or so from my home, picked at random from the OS map. Unknown to me, this was actually a prime site for later in the year with several rare and interesting plants. More on those later in the year and at the end of this blog.

Meanwhile, I took a walk along the River Allen and the adjoining disused and overgrown railway line (now a young woodland). Due to the damp weather, ferns abound in Cornwall, so I'm having to learn more about these too. Here's what I found.

 On a garden centre wall was a Rustyback Fern, so called due to the dense mat of rust coloured spores on the underside. An easy one to identify.

Asplenium ceterach

Even the Ivy is different here to Kent. Above is Atlantic Ivy (Hedera hibernica) which is usually a garden escape in Kent.

The underside of Rustyback Fern showing the dense spores.

Maidenhair Spleenwort is another wall fern that is common here. I now know there are three sub species, each with slightly different leaf arrangements. However, in Cornwall, we only get this one (though I will look for others just in case). These have a black stem (rachis) so are easy to remember.

Asplenium trichomanes subspecies quadrivalens

The odd looking round leaves above, belong to Navelwort, a very common plant here on almost every wall, that flowers from April onwards.

 I then found my first "proper" flowering plant, the familiar Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage.  This forms a gold studded carpet of tiny flowers on a sea of light green plants, but only in permanently damp or wet areas, usually by a stream, bog or pool.

 There is an alternate leaved version but that isn't found in Cornwall.

Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

Spring isn't Spring without Lesser Celandines. As I write this in late March, there are now carpets of yellow flowers adorning every road verge and most lawns too. A very cheerful plant that opens with the sun and closes up at night or in bad weather.

Ficaria verna

I then came across a clump of Snowdrops in flower. It was a hybrid type sold by garden centres and I think they were likely planted even though they were not near a house or garden. My theory is that when a pet dies the owner may plant something like this on their favourite walk as a memorial to them. There were lots of dogs being walked here, so quite possible.

This Snowdrop is distinctive as it has a large green heart within the flower. Could of called it "For the Love of Spring". Of course, Snowdrop flowers hang down, so I got quite muddy taking this photo!

Galanthus nivalis x plicatus = G. x valentinei

Barren Strawberries were now coming into flower too with their tiny white petals failing to touch each other and with its matt green leaves without a central point. I mention those things as Wild Strawberry (the rarer strawberry) has the opposite of them with petals crowding and touching, glossy green leaves with a central point. Keep your eyes peeled as they are coming up now too!

Potentilla sterilis

Back to ferns! I couldn't help but notice some beautiful and impressive ferns arising from a central point and fanning out like a shuttlecock. There were a number of them and I have since seen them elsewhere too, quite common here. I took photos and a close look of every part of the fern and identified it as the Golden (or Scaly) Male Fern, very impressive and up to 4 feet tall.

Dryopteris affinis s.s.

The easiest feature to remember them by is to look for the black blotch at the base of the pinnae.

Some views of the walk.

 

 

 

 

The young woodland still in its Winter state with no leaves on the trees as yet.

River Allen

 

It's whole catchment area is an SSSI and runs into the River Camel just south of Wadebridge.

Hypericum linariifolium

The rare plant found here later in the year is Toadflax-leaved St John's Wort, a species I'd not heard of before. Here's an image from the internet with credit to Len Worthington whose image I borrowed.  Its quite rare (near threatened) and only found in the SW of England. It's in danger of dying out here as the young woodland will shade it out soon.

Spring has truly sprung and the next blog with my latest finds from Cornwall will follow soon. 

Regards Dave

 

 

Follow me on Twitter @Botany2021