It's been a month of two halves, with the first half of the month's weather being dry, settled, but gloomy and cold and the second half back to Atlantic low pressures systems bringing wind and rain. However, the plants soldier on and will continue to do so until frosts kill off the Summer species, so the following are plants of interest I've photographed around Cornwall this October.
As daylight hours shorten, our native plants begin to become hard to find in flower, so it's worth looking at urban areas, brownfield sites and waste ground, where there are often non native species as well as natives that do well in these habitats. Near Launceston I found a flowering Orange-peel Clematis growing on a waste strip of ground by a wire fence on an industrial estate. It was clearly self or bird sown as this tiny area had nothing else growing there. I had only seen this plant once before, in sand dunes at Harbour Cove on the Camel Estuary. I suspect I may see more of it in the coming years too, so keep an eye out for it.
Clematis tangutica
One native species that often flowers again in the Autumn is the Common Dog Violet. It flowers en masse in the Spring and early Summer, but it isn't unusual to see it again in late Autumn. In this case, there were over a hundred flowering on a rabbit grazed south facing grassy bank near Launceston.
Viola riviniana
Trevathan Farm at St. Endellion is always nice to have a look around. It has a farm shop, a kid's playing area and walks around some of the fields. Typically, I have noticed that herbicides have not been used in these fields for a while now, and plants like Corn Mint (Mentha arvensis), Corn Spurrey (Spergula arvensis) and Field Woundwort (Stachys arvensis) are frequently seen. As I had recorded all the above species here last year, I didn't photograph them, but I found two new species for these fields that likely arrived as crop contaminants. The first was Thorn Apple, with a few plants fruiting in a cropped field of Maize.
Datura stramonium
The second was Green Amaranth, growing in a crop of Sunflowers. The easy way to distinguish this species from Common Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) is that the latter has hairy stems and leaves and this one is virtually glabrous.
Amaranthus hybridus
In the gloom of an Autumn anticyclone, I took a walk around Par, but walked inland along a stream, rather than looking at the dunes as I would usually do. I found some nice plants flowering by taking a different route to usual.
Tall Tutsan, widely naturalised in Cornwall and quite frequent near urban areas where birds disperse the berries. It looks very similar to Stinking tutsan, but the sepals quickly fall off that species and all parts have an unpleasant smell when crushed. Oddly, it is a species I never saw naturalised in Kent.
Hypericum x inodorum
Along an alleyway at the back of some houses were several Balm-leaved Figworts in flower. These have similar flowers to the other Figworts, but the leaves are more like those of Wood Sage being crinkly and heavily veined. You can see what I mean from the photo below.
Scrophularia scorodonia
A close up of its small flowers.
Water Mint in flower by the stream.
Mentha aquatica
Michaelmas Daisies flower well into October and can be challenging to determine to species level. However, I keep a key on my phone and key them out when I find them. It's quite straighforward then and saves having to take lots of photos or a sample home to determine later. This key was available on the Essex Botany Group webpage but it seems to have disappeared. The other option would be to photograph the relevant page from Stace and use it in the field. The most commonly found late flowering Aster is appropriately named the Late Flowering Michaelmas Daisy.
Symphyotrichum x versicolor
Back near the dunes some Sea Radish was in flower, though they are readily identified from their large rosettes of bright green heavily lobed leaves too. The seeds in the photo belong to another plant, likely a Melilotus species.
Raphanus raphanistrum subsp maritius
Nearby, Tansy was flowering well too. I noticed that there was a colony about 50m long along a path. Half had already flowered and were in seed and the other half were in full bloom. I suggest that's likely an evolutionary tactic to ensure seed set in case one or the other fails to set seed for some reason.
Tanacetum vulgare
Mid month and I visited the Canworthy Water area of the county to record. Here's some of the species I photographed from there.
Common mouse-ear - Cerastium fontanum
The invasive, but nonetheless attractive Himalayan (or Indian) Balsam - Impatiens glandulifera
Fox and Cubs - Pilosella aurantiacum
In the River Ottery, the only submerged plant species I could find was Curled Pondweed, and then, only three plants in a long stretch of river. The water quality, though clear, was poor, with lots of brown algae covering the stones and gravels: it's even covering the leaves of this plant, which must affect its ability to photosynthesise. This algae growth is usually caused by agricultural run off and/or sewerage discharges loading the water with excessive nutrients. I wonder what grew in this stream 100 years ago before intensive farming?
Potamogeton crispus
Also in mid October, I visited the area of St. Teath in North Cornwall. In a wooded pathway, I found the first signs of Spring with some Ivy-leaved Speedwell growing at the base of some trees. Of course, it won't flower for a while yet though.
Veronica hederifolia
The Lord and Ladies are coming up with fresh leaves too, but so far, the only species I've found is Italian Arum with its lovely marbled leaves. It's widely naturalised in Cornwall. the leaves in the lower left of the photo, belong to Garden Archangel, another well naturalised species here.
Arum italicum subsp italicum
A very unusual find was Sea Storkbill in an arable field corner of a field over 5km from the sea. It was huge for this species, being around 8-10cm in diameter and also had a few flowers out, though this species lacks petals.
Erodium maritimum
The field margins also had several clumps of Smooth Tare in them, most in seed, but a couple still had flowers, which are very small!
Ervum (formerly Vicia) tetraspermum
A solitary Sharp-leaved Fluellen was the last nice find in this field, though unfortunately, the flowers weren't opened; I think they may be cleistogamous late in the season (flowers that remain closed, are self-pollinating, and do not open).
Kickxia elatine
On a road verge just outside St. Teath, I found some hybrid Woundwort, with the maternal parent being Marsh Woundwort and the pollen (male) parent being Hedge Woundwort. The flowers were much like Marsh, but the mid stem leaves were clearly stalked. If the parentage was the other way around, then the flowers would look like Hedge Woundwort and the stem leaves would be mostly sessile (stalkless).
Stachys x ambigua
Common Vetch (another species that flowers mostly in the Spring) rounded off this trip.
Vicia sativa subsp segetalis
Near the end of October, I went to an area to the East of Stratton and wandered around lanes and paths to record. I found some Betony flowering nicely.
Betonica officinalis
Some Common Calamint, surprisingly new to this monad.
Clinopodium ascendens
I recorded lots of the uncommon arable plant species in a fallow field where I also found some Wild Radish. I suspect this was self seeded from a nearby cover crop.
Raphanus raphanistrum
My final offering for this month was the delightful Yellow Corydalis, growing out of a wall as they mostly do.
Pseudofumaria lutea
I hope you liked the selection of plants, I enjoy finding them and sharing them too. As the nights draw in and the weather turns colder, I'm likely to go out less frequently, so the next instalment might cover more than one month. Regardless, there is always something to find, so if it isn't raining or in between storms, go out and see what you can find too.
Take care
Dave
Some lovey pictures
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