Cornwall Botany - Early May 2024

 Although it's a balmy 20 degrees and a lovely sunny day as I write this (9th May), the first five days of May were just like before; cold, breezy and sometimes wet. The plants haven't been affected too much, some are flowering later due to the colder weather, others are flowering better and longer due to the more frequent rain. So it's swings and roundabouts as far as our local plants are concerned. Here's some of my finds for this first 8 days of May.

 For a couple of weeks now I've been looking for a rare form of Wood Anemone. It has light blue tepals instead of white ones and there are a few records for it scattered around Cornwall. Unlike in other counties, Wood Anemone is often found in the open here and not just in woodland or shaded road verges. The sites I had checked with old records for them turned up the occasional white flowered one and not much else. Most plants were still very young and undeveloped, unlike further East where drifts of them were in flower. Maybe, being out in the open means they flower later? I don't know. Anyway, I went to a rough moor covered in dead bracken with the new season's fronds curling up from the ground. In between them were clusters of Wood Anemones, with Lesser Celandines dotted around them. You can see some of last year's fronds of Bracken in this photo.

Anemone nemorosa and Ficaria verna subsp fertilis

I spent a long time searching the two locations where the blue form had been previously found to no avail. Once again, most plants had yet to flower, with only young leaves showing in these areas. As such, I gave up and just went recording what else I could find. About 500m on and I was stopped in my tracks by a scruffy looking blue Anemone. Not in the best condition, and closing up for the evening, but it was the rare form, hooray!

Anemone nemorosa var. caerulea

I hadn't even heard of this variant until I was looking through old records and found reference to them, so it was great to find one, and in a new location. Nearby was a patch of around 100 of the usual white ones, so I picked a flower to put next to the blue one for comparison.

This moor was bounded on one side by the De Lank River that feeds into the River Camel downstream. With all the recent rainfall, the flow was good and the water rushing over the rapids made for a good photo using a 1/2 second exposure (hand held too). The plant to the right of the river is Great Wood-rush (Luzula sylvatica), quite common here.

Part of the moor was very boggy and I couldn't explore it even though I was wearing wellies. On a Molinea tussock, it was a bit drier and I saw my first Heath Spotted Orchid rosette of the year. For a relatively common orchid it was strange that this was last recorded here in 2006 and not before or since.

Dactylorhiza maculata subsp. ericetorum 

Ivy-leaved and Round-leaved Water Crowfoots were growing side by side in a boggy area. The latter (pictured below) has 5 shallow lobes, giving the leaf a rounded appearance rather than 3 lobed and ivy in appearance. Ivy-leaved also commonly have dark blotches and marks on their leaves. Round-leaved have much bigger leaves and flowers than the Ivy-leaved too. These are the two most common Water Crowfoots in acidic bogs and heaths in Cornwall, though other species can be found too.

Ranunculus omiophyllus

After the blue Anemone, the other star find that evening was my first sighting of Cornish Moneywort. I'd been looking for it for some time and always managed to miss it. When I finally did see it, the leaves were tiny, and at standing height the plant looked rather like a patch of liverworts. I tried to see if any minute flowers were present, but I couldn't find any. As you can see, the big leaves were only 15mm wide, with most much smaller. I hope that I will see more of it now I know what to look for.

Sibthorpia europaea

Here is a habitat photo.

I did a recording trip to an area near Bugle that was essentially a brownfield site. It was a path through a large area of china clay spoil that had been landscaped and then left. Over the years it has fully vegetated and the lower areas have become good quality mires. In one such area I found Marsh Marigold and below it leaves of Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) which will have lovely flowers next month.

Caltha palustris

In the same area were numerous seeding spikes of Common Cottongrass, which is actually a type of sedge and not a grass. These flower in March and are now developing their fluffy seed heads which the breeze will carry off and disperse.

Eriophorum angustifolium

Nearby, but on drier ground the first Heath Woodrushes were coming into flower. There is now a Luzula identification guide book that can be purchased from Amazon in Kindle form or directly from the author, Tim Rich (see BSBI.org). It de-mystifies this genus.

Luzula multiflora subsp multiflora

In a boggy area under Grey Willow trees I found this plant below that had me foxed. I could only think it was a Blinks, but it had transparent leaves and just looked all wrong. Of course, when I got home, I realised that it wasn't a vascular plant at all, but a moss! A big thank you to the helpful people on "X" (Twitter) for identifying it for me as Dotted Thyme Moss. It's easy to forget there are other things to look for, not just vascular plants, but mosses, liverworts, lichens and all the wildlife that feed on them. As mosses go, this species was large enough to fool me into thinking it was a vascular plant!

Rhizomnium punctatum

The next day was a family day out and we ended up at Pendennis Point, Falmouth. Of course, in between ice creams and such like, I had a brief look around and I found this flower that I'd never seen before. I had seen the plant in the same location in the Winter, but didn't know what it was at the time. Again, thanks to botanists online, it was identified as the Heart Ice Plant, which has been recorded here since 1993. Unlike the somewhat similar Hottentot Figs, this one hasn't spread and does not seem to be invasive. The flowers are quite small, around 2cm wide and the leaves are very succulent and of course, heart shaped. It was growing down a steep rock face, so I can't imagine it would have been planted, unless the imaginative gardener used mountaineering equipment to do so.

Aptenia cordifolia

 Whilst sat on the grass at Pendennis Point, a lone Bluebell put on a clifftop display for me along with associated flora, so I took its picture. It's a shame it was on my phone and not my camera as the light breeze slightly blurred the plant itself. The down side to this photo, is that when I got home I found a tick buried in the crease of my elbow. It seems they are everywhere now, not just in wild places, but even in tourist crowded areas of grass - probably from rabbits here. Thankfully I have a tick removal card that easily pulled the creature out without leaving its head inside my arm. So far, no signs of any ring mark or infection and the mark has almost gone now.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

My last outing for this blog was just over an hour before dusk to Port Quin, a picturesque tiny cove with lovely views out to sea. If visiting, beware the tiny narrow roads that lead to it. In places there are very few passing areas, so you might have to reverse some distance if you meet one of the regular tractors that use these lanes. Below is Sea Carrot on the clifftop with the sun beginning to set.

Daucus carota subsp gummifer

Spring Squill is now at its best on the clifftops of many western coastlines including Cornwall. Instead of single flowers, there are quite a few big clumps as below, concentrating the intense blue colour of their tepals into an amazing spectacle. One part of the coastline must have had thousands of them scattered over the clifftop grassland, truly delightful.

Scilla verna

Milkwort was flowering in pink (as below), deep blue and purple colours. Usually, we have Heath Milkwort in Cornwall which prefers the acidic soils found over much of the county. However, there are pockets of Common Milkwort and that's what these were. To tell them apart, you have to look at the lowest part of the stem. If the leaves are alternate all the way to the base, then you have Common Milkwort. Heath Milkwort leaves start off opposite and after a while become alternate. To complicate matters more, most plants are very small and the lowest leaves usually fall off by flowering time, leaving little scars on the stem. As such, to identify them you need to use an eye loupe (x10 or x20) to see these little leaf scars and work out if they are opposite or alternate up the stem.

Polygala vulgaris

Another first was finding the white flowered form of Red Campion which is not that common and often mistaken for White Campion. Check the calyx and calyx teeth for the differences between Red and White Campion. The photo wasn't too good as it was almost dark by this time.

Silene dioica forma lactea

When I saw this Violet below, I thought it looked like a Pale Dog Violet, which was very unlikely given there were no records of it from the Port Quin area. Of course, a quick check of the leaves showed it to be the Common Dog Violet, but an aberrant colour form. I'm always surprised each Spring, by the variety of colours in Common Dog Violet flowers, from totally white to the most vibrant purples.

Viola riviniana

The next plants were tiny and growing on almost bare rock with English Stonecrop. The flower bud showed this to be the commonly found Scarlet Pimpernel, however, I'd never seen them so small before.

Lysimachia arvensis

My final offering is more of a view of Port Quin as I made my way back to the car park, however flowering Navelwort very obligingly gave me a floral aspect to the composition.

Umbilicus rupestris

So ended the first 8 days of May. Many more species are coming into flower now and many more to come, so now is a great time to explore your own areas and discover your local flora for yourself. There's always something new to find too, so enjoy your botanical or wildlife travels.

Dave