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