Early May Botany in North Cornwall

 I always thought that Cornwall had such a mild climate that wildflowers flowered earlier here than the rest of the country. This is not the case it seems. The mild winters encourage hangers on from the previous Summer to stay well into the Winter, however, the Spring is not warmer than elsewhere as the sea that surrounds Cornwall is still cold. Given this, it takes some time for Cornwall to warm up and get going.

I've noticed a plethora of photos online of Greater Butterfly, Common and Heath Spotted orchids all in flower and lots more, and I'm still waiting for the wildflowers to really wake up here. 

Anyway, this is what I found in the first week of May, which was still quite chilly and mostly under 15 degrees Celsius.

In the first rain for weeks on May 1st, I paid a quick visit to Retire Common hoping to see the elusive Pale Dog Violet. I was rather dismayed on arrival, to find lots of ponies grazing the area. However, my hopes rose when I saw that they had not eaten the violets. There were hundreds of Common Dog Violets along the path and they remained un-munched. So I kept a look-out for any that were very pale or almost white. After about 20 minutes I found one, then a few more. Clearly different to the Common Dog Violet and really, quite easy to spot from a standing height.

Viola lactea

 

They weren't all as white as this one. No doubt there is plenty of introgression going on from hybrids back to both parents.

Further along the path, I found a huge clump of flowering dog violets with withered flowers remaining on the plants. This and the vigour of the plants clearly pointed to it being the hybrid between Common Dog and Pale Dog Violets. You can also see the range of colours from white to purple and thin and thicker top petals too.

Viola riviniana x lactea

Here's a photo showing the vigorous nature of this hybrid clump, no fruits set, flowers die on the plant and stay attached.

I was getting soaked with rain now and nothing more of interest was apparent so I went home to dry out. On May 3rd, I was back to my rural road verges in SX07 looking for colonies of Stellaria neglecta (Greater Chickweed).  Along the way I was very surprised to find numerous flowering spikes of Smith's Pepperwort, most being about 2 feet tall on a rural road verge miles inland.

Lepidium heterophyllum

It was unusual to see these away from coastal areas.

On a verge of the A39 near Chapel Amble, I found 87 spikes of Early Purple Orchid in flower and what a lovely sight it was too. They have even survived to seed as the council has refrained from mowing most verges in my area so far this year. A roadside Bluebell joined in the fun for my photo.

Orchis mascula

On the edge of someone's lawn where it joined a rural road, the lawn had a few 'weeds' in it including these delightful Small-flowered Buttercups. This is a species which had eluded me for some years, but was now finally found and in a new location too.

Ranunculus parviflorus

Of course, I found plenty of Greater Chickweed too. I am pleased to say that from my searches, it has not declined in my local area over the last 40 years and is doing fine in the Cornish hedgerows.

Stellaria neglecta var. elizabethae

Also, in the first week of May, a white flowered form of Thrift.

Armeria maritima var. alba

The beautiful Tree Mallow now in flower along the north coast with its big, showy flowers. Apparently it only flowers for two years then dies. Hopefully, it produces a lot of seed in those 2 years and I don't know how long it grows before it flowers, but some are over 6 feet tall.

Malva arborea

Changing forget-me-not is easily recognised by its tight coil of unfolding tiny flowers.

You can then confirm it by seeing white flowers turing to blue in close up. The ones below will turn blue soon.

Myosotis discolor

A road verge Bitter Vetch with their lovely blue calyxes and multi coloured pastel petals.

Lathyrus linifolius

A lovely Ragged Robin from a damp area.

Silene flos-cuculi

I finally found another new species I had been looking for, this time a small fern. It's called Sea Spleenwort and as the name suggests, it grows close to the sea, usually on rocks or walls that get some salt spray.

I think I've seen it before but probably thought it was a Polypodium and walked on by. On a closer look it's quite unlike Polypodium and the leaves are quite fleshy and set close to each other. Found on a wall by Tintagel church (by the sea).

Asplenium marinum

Spring Squill now carpeted the cliffs in many places. It was quite a sight to see the cliff edges turn blue! These flowers (in passing) are a bit like Spanish Bluebells in miniature but are native and have completely different leaves too.

Scilla verna

 

 

 

On dune beaches on the north coast, Sea Spurge was flowering nicely.

Euphorbia paralias

Another dune plant here is the really tiny Early forget-me-not. This photo below shows how tiny they really are.

Myosotis ramosissima

Spring isn't Spring without seeing Orange-tip butterflies is it. This one was simply roosting on a cold, cloudy day in early May, waiting for the sun to come out.

A nice find on an arable field edge was this Salsify below. I was lucky to see it open, as it was early afternoon when I found it, so it should have closed its flowers up by then as they only open on sunny mornings.

Tragopogon porrifolius subsp porrifolius

My last photo for the first week of May was this Rue-leaved Saxifrage from St. Issey churchyard. It was growing on a roof of an outbuilding that dug into the bank of the churchyard, so I could easily see it from above looking down.

What was nice about this find was that there is only one record for this species from this area and it was in 1908. So I re-found this species here after a gap of 114 years which was nice!

Saxifraga tridactylites

I hope you liked the blog, more and more species are now coming into flower, and I never seem to have enough time to document them all or keep up to date. The second week of May will follow soon, keep an eye out for it won't you.

Take care

Dave

Twitter: @botany2021