It's the last month of Summer and many species have withered away, gone to seed or have turned brown. Those dead stems can still be identified for a botanical record though and many persist until the Winter. Add to that the swathes of recently cut brown grassy road verges and it doesn't look like there's much left to see. However, that is not the case; there's plenty to see and new species to discover all through the year, so keep on looking, especially in urban and brownfield areas, which usually hold a good diversity of plant species. Here's some of the plants I found this August in Cornwall.
I started off the month with a trip just west of St. Dennis in china clay country.
Plants do not have to be in flower to be identified or to catch a photographer's eye. I noticed this Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot suspended in the surface tension of a small stream; the raindrops from persistent drizzle giving an even better composition than if it had been a dry day. It's quite rare to find them floating on water in Summer as they tend to grow in puddles that are full in Spring and dried out by Summer. The gate areas around pasture fields are a favourite habitat.
Ranunculus hederaceus
Summer time is when the Mint Family plants come into flower and one of the most common is Water Mint. It is characterised by having a terminal head of flowers with usually, another below it. Softly hairy leaves and a sweet minty scent when you crush a leaf. It often hybridises with Corn Mint (Mentha arvensis), so if you find a vigorous plant with multiple large clusters of flowers up the stem, and a not so nice smell, consider that hybrid.
Mentha aquatica
Watercress was also in flower in the stream. Easily told apart from Fool's Watercress when in flower as there are only 4 petals in Watercress and 5 petals in multiple umbels in Fool's Watercress. Watercress also has the end leaflet with a large lobe and rounded appearance to all the leaves.
There are two native species of Watercress in the UK that can only be told apart by looking at the seeds in the pods. If there are two rows, side by side, it is the plant below (I checked), Watercress; if there is a single row, it is Narrow-fruited Watercress (N. microphyllum).
Given the amount of pollution in our waterways nowadays, I would not recommend taking some home to eat in a salad or sandwich!
Nasturtium officinale s.s.
Brooklime is a common plant along damp woodland paths and in waterlogged areas that do not have too much competition from other plants. The flowers are a striking shade of blue, but they are tiny, less than 1cm across.
Veronica beccabunga
To help you recognise how they look as a plant, here's a photo of the plant colony from a standing height. The leaves are quite large, so easy to see.
I was quite surprised to find Canary Grass on a woodland path, even more surprised to find Pale Flax and then some Wild Oats. The mystery of their origin was eventually solved when I found a wild bird feeding table in the nearby woods and seeds scattered all over the place. Although Canary Grass is found fairly frequently around the country, it's the first time I've seen it.
Phalaris canariensis
On a Broad-leaved Willowherb, I found a giant caterpillar with big false eyes, which seems to be that of the Elephant Hawkmoth.
Deilephila elpenor
Chinese Bramble may turn out to be invasive, time will tell. For some reason, it's often planted around industrial estates from which it then spreads, mostly by runners. Here's some escaped from a nearby industrial area onto an old wall, likely bird sown. Note the bristles as well as thorns on the stems and the shiny leaves. The fruits look more like a Raspberry too, though I didn't taste one to find out what it was like.
Rubus tricolor
Jersey Cudweed is being found more often in the China Clay waste areas, this being the 13th record for the hectad (10km x 10km square) since they first appeared in 2014. They were growing in lightly vegetated china clay aggregate that had been used for a hard standing for cars to park on. When the plants are young, they are covered in white hairs and so look white from standing height; this one has had the hairs wear off, so it looks greener than usual.
Laphangium luteoalbum
A Red-legged Shield-Bug finished off this early August trip.
Pentatoma rufipes
A field trip with Cornwall Botany Group to cliffside mire near Boswednack (West of St. Ives) yielded some nice plants, but first a group photo. The ponies featured had done a good job in grazing back the Molinia mounds (Purple Moor Grass), thus allowing the smaller species to do well in the gulleys between them.
Wahlenbergia hederacea
The occasional Goldenrod was seen in the typical coastal form of short stems and tight clusters of flowers. Inland, they are usually tall, spindly plants with the flowers well spaced out.
Solidago virgaurea
However, the star find of the field trip was discovering hundreds of Annual Knawel plants along a trackway, prior to arriving at the mire. It was last recorded in the general area in 1902 and not seen since. Whether it died out and was reintroduced by accidental means; or whether it was there all along and no-one visited at the right time of year to see it, we'll probably never know. Nearly all records for this species in West Cornwall pre-date 1970. Subspecies annuus has sharp tepals with narrow pale margins - held erect in fruit & subspecies polycarpos is as ssp annuus but greyer with the tepals held open in fruit.
Scleranthus annuus subsp annuus
Other plants seen were Cornish Moneywort in the mire. I still haven't found it when it's in flower.
Finally, a solitary Sand Spurry amongst the Annual Knawel.
In a cemetery was a colony of Least Yellow Sorrel growing under a planted Yew tree. The second photo shows how small these flowers are. The flowers are also always single, unlike the more common Procumbent Yellow Sorrel which also has bigger flowers and leaves.
Oxalis exilis
A footpath went through some fields where Courgettes were being grown. No herbicides had been used and the fields were full of plants such as Common Orache, Fat Hen, Redshank and much more. One of the surprises there were thousands of Shaggy Soldier plants. These are usually pavement plants in urban areas and not found in arable fields. As such, I suspect they were a seed contaminant with the courgettes and the farmer unsuspectingly planted them along with his crop.
Galinsoga quadriradiata
Small Nettle was also frequent in these fields, uncommon in Cornwall compared to further East.
Urtica urens
The star find for this monad was finding numerous clumps of Four-leaved Allseed outside the church on old and worn block paving pavement.
Polycarpon tetraphyllum
Field Pennycress in seed is easy to identify, but I don't often see it in flower. However, in these fields, I found them both in flower and seed, side by side.
Thlaspi arvense
On a field trip to Cawsand the Cornwall Botany Group came across several patches of a pink tinged stonecrop in the short mown grass on the ramparts of Cawsand fort. As the fort was built in 1860 and the ramparts have been grassed since then, we had hoped to find some Autumn Ladies Tresses here. We didn't find any, but this stonecrop was interesting as it was clearly not one of the usual species. We determined it to be Turkish Stonecrop, only the third record for Cornwall and the 8th for the entire UK. The first record in the UK was from Plympton in Devon in 2008, so it's beginning to spread around.
Sedum pallidum
From a standing height, you can see that the pink tinge of the plant becomes apparent as huundreds of plants form a large cushion in the grass.
Not so apparent from the photos above is what the leaves look like individually, so here's one I took to press for my herbarium.
Nearby, in a small village called Millbrook, I found an odd looking plant that I did not recognise at all. It was in seed, so there were no flowers to help me work out what it was. I asked my VCR for help and he recognised it as Mount Olympus St. John's-wort. I checked a leaf and noted that it had transparent dots in it and no black glands along the leaf edges, thus confirming the determination.
Hypericum olympicum
Whilst this was most likely a garden escape, it was noteworthy as it was a first record for Cornwall as a whole, though there are 188 records for it around the UK, so it's clearly spreading itself around.
I found it in a typical habitat for escaped plants in urban areas - on a wall by a car park, with more growing in cracks along the sides of the wall. There's a public footpath on the other side of the wall, then a garden from which it probably came from originally.
A field trip of the Cornwall Botany Group to Bodmin Moor threw up a surprise fungi, coincidentally, one I've been wanting to see for some years. The fungi in question was Devil's Fingers, an alien fungi that's been in the UK for some years now. Here it was growing next to a large pile of animal dung. It smells of rotting meat too.
Clathrus archeri
A Bog Hoverfly on one of the many Devil's Bit Scabious flowers around the boggy parts of the Moor.
Sericomyia silentis
Hypericum elodes
It was hard walking across the Molinia grass tussocks, but plenty of nice species seen and records updated.
The end of August is when our reservoirs are at their lowest. With a prolonged period out of water, the now dry banks become green with vegetation. As such, I took a trip to Siblyback Lake, hoping to find Six-stamened Waterwort. I didn't find any, but here's some of the interesting plants I did find.
Corn Mint is very common in the draw down zone here and at Colliford Lake nearby. Given its short life cycle (before the water covers them again), they flower and seed by the time they reach 3" tall! They differ from Water Mint in having flowers in whorls up the stem; have narrower leaves and a musty mint smell rather than a sweet one that Water Mint has.
Mentha arvensis
A walk down to the water's edge revealed a long strand of Alternate-leaved Water Milfoil. This was in flower, but they are so small, I've put an arrow in the photo for you to see them! It was too far out for me to pull in and photograph properly.
The most common plant around the draw down zone was the invasive New Zealand Pygmyweed. It formed a green carpet all around the lake. It does tend to smother other vegetation, though I did notice Shoreweed and Marsh Cudweed had little difficulty coming up in similar places. It was also frequented a lot by solitary bees whilst I was there, so it does provide a food source for them at least. The very small flowers are about 1-2mm across, and the bees walked from one flower to the next, rather than flying.
A wider view of the draw down zone showing the green carpet of Crassula helmsii all around it.
Some plants from an hour by the tidal River Camel late August, near Wadebridge.
Sea Milkwort - Lysimachia maritima
The photo below is Lesser Sea-Spurrey - Spergularia marina
Note: Here's some tips on telling apart Greater and Lesser Sea Spurries.
Greater has: 10 stamens; petals longer than sepals, petals mostly white in colour.
Lesser has: 7 stamens (sometimes 8), petals always shorter than sepals, petals with a distinct pink tinge.
Saltmarsh Rush - Juncus gerardii
These were quite short compared to those I saw in Hayle last year, but well within the reach of the tides.
On the last day of August I visited Cargreen on the Cornwall side of the tidal River Tamar. Here's some of the species I found there.
Fool's Parsley is easy to identify as the bracts hang down under the flowers and seeds almost vertically. It's one of the few umbellifers flowering in late Summer.
Aethusa cynapium
A wall by the quayside had several clumps of Fairy Foxglove growing from the cracks. I had only seen this species once before in Kent at Scotney Castle. Here, there were no nearby gardens, so I don't know how it arrived there.
Erinus alpinus
I added a second site for Long-stalked Glasswort to the Tamar, where until this year there had been no records of it anyway on the South coast of the county. Its typical habitat is at the base of the vegetation saltmarsh zone closest to the sea.
Salicornia dolichostachya
On Cargreen Quay I found an odd looking dock, which turned out to be the hybrid between Curled and Broad-leaved Docks. It's the first Dock hybrid I've knowingly found, though they are apparently quite common. I had it determined by the BSBI Rumex referee.
Rumex x pratensis
Damson trees were frequent along the shore line on a low cliff. I ate a few to make sure and they were quite sweet. About 3 times the size of a Blackthorn sloe.
Prunus domestica subsp insititia
An unusual find was a garden escape that had seeded onto a pavement underneath the parent plant. It was Common Rue and this was apparently the first time it had been recorded in the wild in Cornwall. However, I'm sure it will be a casual that disappears after a short time. There's well over 100 records for this throughout the UK as a whole growing in the wild.
Ruta graveolens
Yes, its those two little grey/green plants at the base of the wall! Here's the parent plant when fully grown.
Of course, the end of Summer marks the start of the coastal Atriplex season for me. The shorelines are full of Oraches and their hybrids, the latter of which are under recorded. So where possible, I try to identify any hybrid Oraches growing along the coast at this time of year. At Cargreen, I found a couple of hybrid swarms comprising of hundreds of plants, intermediate between Babington's and Long-stalked Oraches. I am awaiting a determination from the BSBI referee on those, so here's one I found a week earlier at Hartland in North Devon (VC4). This one has been verified as a hybrid by the referee. If you attempt these, it would be wise to read up on them as much as possible beforehand. There are articles within BSBI News and Watsonia publications with diagrams on what to look for.
Atriplex x taschereaui
My final species was Wild Basil, unusual in Cornwall as it prefers calcareous soils which are scarce here. On a rural road verge I found 30 or more plants growing along the edge of the road.
Clinopodium vulgare
So ended August. The drought broke in the last few days of the month and as usual, it looks like we're going to get several inches of rain this week to make up for the previously dry weather. I wonder what September will bring, apart from wind and rain? Until then, take care and get outside for a look around your local area.
Dave
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