The Lizard NNR Early June 2023

 I thought I would visit a different area within the large area that comprises The Lizard National Nature Reserve in order to find new species. I had in mind an area near Predannack Airfield where I hoped to find some unusual and rare plants. This area holds a small shallow lake with boggy areas and then dry heath around it. I headed towards the lake area first, my boots coming perilously close to having water and bog sludge overtopping the laces. Some of the interesting plants I found follow.

In the margins were small white flowers comprising of four overlapping petals with yellow centres. The spear like leaves meant they could only be Lesser Water-Plantain. This plant likes to keep its feet wet, but seems to also do well in areas where Winter water levels drop over Summer leaving damp, boggy conditions.

Baldellia ranunculoides

Ragged Robin and Marsh Speedwell were also at the pool's edges, but I have already featured them in recent blogs. I had hoped to find Lesser Marshwort, but perhaps I was too early as none could be seen at this known site for them. Their leaves are as fine as Pignuts and could have been submerged too, so unless flowers are out, they're easily missed. After trudging around the boggy lake for a while, I made my way up a track that progressively became drier and drier, until there were two almost dry vehicle ruts going across dry heath. In this habitat I found one of my target species that I had wanted to see, the Yellow Centaury.

 

Their stems are only about 2mm wide and the flowers about 5mm across. As such, they are very hard to photograph in situ. I wasn't happy with these photos, but they're all I have of this delightful tiny plant (for now).

 

Cicendia filiformis

Nearby, but still in the ruts were lots of Toad Rushes and amongst them, the attractive Bulbous Rush.

Juncusbulbosus

Here's a habitat photo showing the ruts that these plants were growing in. Both species require open ground and cannot tolerate competition from other plants, thus management is needed from time to time to keep scrub and grasses at bay. In natural areas, they would grow where large animals poached the ground in Winter conditions leaving muddy puddles in their hoof prints. This would create new habitats each year. This doesn't happen with modern day farming as it is too intensive and the plants themselves would be grazed before they could flower. Unfortunately, I didn't find Pygmy Rush which was supposed to be here too.

 

Habitat photo for Cicendia filiformis and Juncus bulbosus

 Now I was in dry acidic heathland, the flora changed and dotted here and there were the delicate flowers of Petty Whin, a rare and declining species nationally. It's like a very small Gorse bush with weak prickles and similar flowers. The leaves are more like Dyer's Greenweed than Gorse though, no surprise given it's in the same family as the former. Look at those lovely seed pods!

 

Genista anglica
 

In a few places, there were carpets of the tiny Lesser Stitchwort flowers, lovely to see amongst the grasses.

Stellaria graminea

I then went through a gate into an unexpected meadow full of orchids and other lovely plants.

Heath Spotted Orchid - Dactylorhiza maculata

 

I am always amazed at the variation of their petals, colours and markings.

There were plenty of Southern Marsh Orchids too and as expected a few hybrids between them and Heath Spotted. It's not hard to spot these hybrids (most of them anyway), as they often show hybrid vigour and tower above their nearby parents. The plant below was triple the height of the Heath Spotted and double that of the Southern Marsh parents. Given the flower arrangement, I suspect that the maternal parent was Heath Spotted in this case.

D. x hallii

There were numerous Yellow Bartsia in the meadow too, a beuatiful yellow flowered imposing plant that is hemi-parasitical on nearby plants, usually grasses I think.

Parentucelia viscosa

Unfortunately, whilst crouching down to take these photos I picked up three nasty ticks. I didn't find them until I got home and was constantly scratching. I found one under my left knee, another by my left knee and one on the left side of my waist. I removed all three using a tick remover tool (like a credit card with notches in it) and eyelash tweezers for the one under my knee where the tool couldn't reach. So far, no rash has appeared and I don't feel unwell, but beware of ticks and Lyme's Disease at this time of the year.

 Some of the many Southern Marsh Orchids here.

Dactylorhiza praetermissa

 In the same monad (1km grid square) but not in the same meadow, I found around 9 Heath Fragrant Orchids.  These plants have a lovely scent.

They were again surrounded by hordes of Heath Spotted Orchids, but this time I couldn't find their hybrid. It's not a common hybrid, though I did find some last year at another venue in Cornwall.

Gymnadenia borealis

 When I returned to the car, which was parked in a tarmacked layby, I noticed Sand Spurrey growing in a crack, they really are opportunists.

Spergularia rubra

Whilst here I did manage to photograph one butterfly, the stunning Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

Boloria selene

 

I still had a couplle of hours spare, so I decided to visit a coastal area near Mullion, still within The Lizard NNR. There were lots of lovely plants here too of course.

 Below is one of a large group of Dropwort plants on a coastal cliff path. They have dainty white flowers but with bright pink buds and look much nicer than their relative, Meadowsweet.

Filipendula vulgaris

 

Common Restharrow flowers lined the path in places. It seems almost invisible when not in flower, so I must miss it at other times. The leaves have an unpleasant "gone off" lemony smell when you touch them too. There is a variety called var. horribilis (and another species, Ononis spinosa) which are viciously spiny, so don't grab a load of it just in case! The flowers are about 1cm tall on a low growing plant. Sometimes I forget to include some sort of scale and the macro lens make these flowers look huge when they are not.

Ononis repens

 A straggler of Western Clover was the final plant of note here before I returned home. The drought had shrunk the Clover season to a couple of weeks instead of a month, but they still flower and survive to seed for the next generation.

Trifolium occidentale

 

That ended my first full day outing in June. Until next time, take care and get outside and find some of these plants for yourself.

Dave

P.S. One of the advantages of allowing (moderated) comments is that sometimes if I get an ID wrong, people can tell me about it. The Bulbous Rush above was originally incorrectly described as Pygmy Rush by me, I've put that right. Here's a photo of Juncus pygmaeus taken by David Pearman and provided to me by my VCR.

Dave

Botanical Adventures in Cornwall, End of May 2023

 May was perhaps the driest month for a long time with no measurable rain at all (this extended into mid June), so the annuals and early flowering species quickly shrivelled up and went to seed. I wondered what effect this might have on plants about to flower, but of course, our native plants are well adapted to periods of drought and seemed to cope well. The only obvious difference I have noticed, is that the very dry conditions means they flower and seed much quicker than usual, meaning that you might only see a plant in flower for a couple of weeks instead of for the whole month. Anyway, these are the highlights to round off my May finds in Cornwall.

I had never seen Water Avens, the species being absent from my previous home in the South East, so I made a trip "up North" to see it. I was of course, still in North Cornwall, but quite close to the Devon border. There are only a couple of places this species has previously been recorded and I knew it liked wet or damp conditions, so I concentrated my search near a small stream that ran by the road here. It took a while to find some, and only two plants were flowering. They are much nicer looking than their cousin Wood Avens, but more about those in a while.

Geum rivale

The issue with these populations is that they have hybridised with Wood Avens, which was flowering prolifically all over the area. Most plants I found were big and bushy with hybrid vigour and yellow petals, clearly the hybrid. To be sure, I had the Geum rivale above checked by an expert to determine it was the real deal and not a hybrid. Thankfully it was, but I think the hybrid is taking over at these sites to the detriment of the Water Avens itself.

Here's some photos of that hybrid. Note the yellow petals.

Geum rivale x urbanum = Geum x intermedium

Back on my local north Cornish coast and the Common Ramping Fumitory is back in flower, here at Pentireglaze cliffs.

Fumaria muralis

Last year I looked for, and failed to find Hairy Birdsfoot Trefoil. I put that right at Pentireglaze one afternoon. It has rich egg yolk coloured flowers only about half the size of Common Birdfoot Trefoil. Of course, it's a very hairy plant and looks a bit greyish from a standing height. It doesn't like competition, so grows in short turf or bare areas only.

Lotus subbiflorus

Here's what  patch looks like from afar. Note how bare the ground is of other vegetation and the small, deep yellow coloured flowers. I found this quite quickly which was odd as I had looked over the same area last year and failed to find it. However, if not in flower, it could easily be missed.

Kidney Vetch was now flowering, and as usual on the North Cornwall coast there was a myriad of colour forms. There was the usual yellow, white, yellow and orange and these lovely red forms.

Anthyllis vulnareria var. coccinea

Cornwall is full of streams and streamlets which arise from faults in the bedrock, so even in drought, there are always wet flushes and damp valleys. Here's a fine display of wetland plants from such a streamlet.

In this area I found some Ragged Robin too. It's commonly spread around Cornwall, but I rarely see more than a few plants here and there.

Silene flos-cuculi

I was driving out of my local Tesco store when I noticed a patch of silver grey in the grass by the exit. I stopped and went back to look and found over a hundred Jersey Cudweed plants about to flower, lovely! This was right by the tyre inflation station with a lady inflating her tyres. She obviously thought I was mad, but she was actually quite interested when I showed her the plant.

Laphangium luteoalbum

 

On the last day of May, I took an evening trip to Rock Dunes and found Hairy Rock-cress, which had previously been recorded here. Oddly, I failed to find any in those previousy recorded areas, but I did find a dozen plants flowering at a new location in the dunes. I have seen these on chalk in Sussex and they are quite different. They are much taller here and the leaves are longer and do not clasp the stem as much as their chalk counterparts. They were too tall and thin to get a whole plant photo (about 30cm). Given the differences mentioned, I took the time to key them out properly in the botanist bible "Stace, 4th Edition" which confirmed the identification. Apparently they are  quite variable species.

Arabis hirsuta

 

 Viper's Bugloss is uncommon in Cornwall, but there's always some plants to see at Rock. I love their blue and pink flowers.

Echium vulgare

 

Atlantic Ivy is all over the dunes, though often buried under the sand. Making the most of this population was a huge number of Ivy Broomrapes which parasitise them. There were at least a thousand plants and most were the yellow form (they are usually purple).

Orobanche hederae

 

Yellow Rattle was abundant too in places, another hemi-parasitic plant that weakens grasses, allowing other less competitive species to grow.

Rhinanthus minor

The alien Hare's Tail Grass was super abundant here too in places. 

It's flower head is soft like cotton wool to the touch.

Lagurus ovata

Mind Your Own Business is a common garden escaped plant here and probably all over the UK. This one below was growing on a sea cliff about a metre above the highest tide mark. What merits its inclusion here, is that this photo is the first one where I have managed to capture one of its minute flowers. It has no petals and is dead centre on the red stem.

Soleirolia soleirolii

There are so many amazing plants at Rock, but I'll make the next one the last for brevity. It's Sea Bindweed, but unlike its inland cousins, it doesn't climb up other plants. Its leaves are rounded and fleshy and can withstand being buried by shifting sand, only to pop up through it a few weeks later. They grow with Marram Grass in the sandy parts of dunes, usually closest to the sea, but above the high tide mark. Keep an eye out for them.

Calystegia soldanella

That's wraps up a very hot and dry May which continued well into June. But I have learned that our wild plants are very resilient and no doubt I will find some lovely plants in June too.

Until then, take care.

Dave