Botanical Finds in Cornwall - 8th to 16th May 2022

It is slowly warming up here in Cornwall and more species are coming into flower with each passing week. Kidney Vetch is starting to go over now, but all around this part of the north coast I am finding different colour forms, including yellow, orange, red, some dual coloured and this white form. All were present at Lundy Hole, a small inlet east of the Camel estuary.

Anthyllis vulneraria subsp. vulneraria (forma unnamed)

It still seems odd to me that in Cornwall you get huge drifts of Bluebells growing in the open, usually on salt spray lashed cliffs like here. No trees required for Cornish Bluebells that's for sure.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

The insects have come to life now, and along with numeorus butterflies were the first Large Red Damselflies of the year.

Yellow Rattle is a plant usually associated with hay meadows, mostly sown deliberately as part of the management to weaken grasses, thus allowing other plants a foot in the door so to speak. It is likely it was originally sown at Lundy Hole too. I did also find it in several places on downs where it was patently wild and naturally occuring though.

Rhinanthus minor

Burnet Roses were now showing nicely in the hedgerow walls.

Rosa spinosissima

Butterflies seen included this lovely Wall Brown. I also saw Peacock, Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Small White and Small Coppers.

Back into an urban area and a walk around Egloshayle by the River Camel revealed some escaped Rosy Garlic, now a common plant in the wild, but at least it's a pretty one and not particularly thuggish towards native plants either.

It mostly spreads by dropping these rosy red bulbils rather than by pollination of the few flowers.

Allium roseum

Another frequent garden escape here is Greater Quaking Grass. Here's several hundred escaped from a cemetery onto a road verge! They're also present in many towns, including Bodmin, all around one of the town car parks.

Briza maxima

Nearly all of the larger Scurvygrass plants in Cornwall are Common Scurvygrass. However, in the tidal River Camel, English Scurvygrass is prevalent higher up the estuary. The flowers look pretty much identical in both and both are about the same stature too.

The leaves are very different though. In Common, they are rounded with a heart shaped base. In English (below) they have a cuneate base slowly tapering into the stem, nothing round about these leaves at all!

Cochlearia anglica

Below is Hoary Cress,  a common weedy type of plant found along road verges and waste areas. What caught my eye about this one and several near it, were that they were bright green. Hoary Cress is usually a drab grey. Bright green plants usually belong to a subspecies called subsp. chalapense which would have been a VC1 county first and only ever recorded at Par Sands in VC2. 

However, to determine its ID for sure, seeds have to be examined. I went back and took mature seeds at the end of May (thankfully they had not been mowed off yet). Unfortunately, the seeds were clearly those of the common subspecies, subsp. draba and not the rare one. As you can see, even common everyday plants can have mysteries!

Lepidium draba subsp. draba

Subspecies draba has a flattened base (truncate) and a knobbly network of ridges (reticulate) on the surface of the seed as shown below. Subspecies chalapense would be smooth skinned and have cuneate bases (tapering into the stalk like the English Scurvygrass leaves above). 

This information came to me from various books in my collection, but crucially having access to the skills of a BSBI Brassicaceae referee and a county recorder, one of the benefits of BSBI membership (see bsbi.org for details).

Here's another everyday plant that can cause ID issues. This one is clearly a Bulbous Buttercup as the photo shows the two defining points for ID confirmation, these being downturned sepals and a bulbous base to the stem. However, you may notice it is VERY hairy and Hairy Buttercup grows here too. Hairy also has downturned sepals but always has a straight stem. I didn't mean to pull up the plant, but as I did so accidentally, I thought it worth a reference photo to show the bulbosity of bulbous buttercup stems!

Ranunculus bulbosus

The first Navelwort has finally come into flower (this one in a town).

They are hard to see inside the flower and unless you looked closely, you wouldn't think any flower was yet open, but here's one in close up to show it was. This is a very common plant in Cornwall, probably due to their being a huge amount of habitat (walls) for it to grow on.

Umbilicus rupestris

On a short drive around Bodmin Moor, I noticed this amazing Violet in flower by the roadside, a Marsh Violet. I hope to find some bigger ones as the Summer approaches.

Viola palustris

Cornwall has lots of the larger flowered Fumitories growing here, usually by the coast. This one below, was White Ramping Fumitory found at Harbour Cove. It is characterised by its very large flowers and sepals and the flowers turning downwards as shown here. They usually turn pink after pollination.

Fumaria capreolata subsp. babbintonii

Pale Flax was in flower in Harbour Cove dunes. A delicate species, hard to photograph in a sea breeze.

Linum bienne

Rock Sea-Spurry growing on a wall near Gunver Head. Similar looking to Lesser Sea Spurrey, but the flowers are much larger, about the same size as the sepals and with 10 stamens (ruling out Greater Sea-Spurrey). It also grows on walls, whereas Lesser Sea Spurrey prefers salt marsh and salted road verges.

The seeds at the top of the photo belong to a different salt loving plant, Danish Scurvygrass.

Spergularia rupicola

Marsh Horsetail made a nice change from the usual Field Horsetail that abounds everywhere. Here it is in a dune slack near Daymer Bay.

Equisetum palustre

Another large flowered Fumitory, this time it's Tall Ramping Fumitory, easily identified by its concolorous upper petals. Or to put it anoother way, the top petal is all pink and not black tipped.

Fumaria bastardii var. bastardii

The Spring sunshine is warmer now and has brought out hordes of these delightful small flowers, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Lesser Trefoil is the yellow flower behind it.

Lysimachia arvensis forma arvensis

Near St. Anthony on the south coast, I found a very large patch of Subterranean Clover. This isn't a particularly rare clover, but it is uncommon with very small flowers.

The leaves are soft and hairy both sides.

But what was nice about this find was that it was last seen here in 1856 and not since. This could be a lack of botanical recorders visiting when they flower or it could be that this area was scrubbed over until very recently when the National Trust burnt off and removed tons of Gorse. The now open land bloomed with thouands of tiny plants such as these. Amazing!

Trifolium subterraneum

I will end this blog with a visit to Treslea Downs adjacent to Bodmin Moor. It's not too heavily grazed, so there were more flowers to find here than on other parts of the moor.

Here's a roadside Bitter Vetch with its lovely blue calyxes.

Lathyrus linifolius

Pink Purslane is a common naturalised plant in mid Cornwall. Here were hundreds of the usual pink ones and amongst them a few white forms, lovely!

Claytonia sibirica

Common Birdsfoot Trefoil is very common, but they are usually all yellow or mainly yellow with a hint of orange. It is rare to find the whole batch of flowers completely orange as here. A nice find.

Lotus corniculatus

With less animal grazing here, Bilberry was able to put out a few flowers. It's a very common plant on the moors but usually grazed very short.

Vaccinium myrtillus

Most likely a Greater Butterfly Orchid rosette, they are in full flower elsewhere in the country now, but I've yet to see a mature plant in Cornwall as yet.

Platanthera chlorantha

My final plant of this blog is Bell Heather with a few roadside plants now showing some flowers.

Erica cinerea

The plants of Cornwall are finally waking up. I won't be able to keep up soon and there are some very rare species to see and photograph soon, especially at The Lizard, so do come back soon to see what I can find there and when out and about in Cornwall.

Take care

Dave

Twitter - @botany2021