The first half of July started off with a heatwave and accompanying drought, with temperatures widely around or above 30 degrees Celsius. To start with, it didn't affect the wildflowers much, but as the heat entered its second week, I noticed many plants wilting and drooping, from Wood Dock in the woods to Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil on usually damp heaths. However, I still managed to find some interesting plants, here's a selection.
I made an early visit to Colliford Lake hoping the draw down zone would reveal a few interesting plants as for the first time in a few years, the winter rains brought the level up almost to maximum, so as the water receded this summer, new plant seed may have activated due to the immersion. As if to verify this theory, I found numerous Marsh Speedwells in this area, a plant I hadn't seen here in the last few years.
Veronica scutellata
Corn Spurrey had also germinated and was now flowering here, though I had seen this species here in previous years.
Spergula arvensis
Trailing Tormentil was also abundant, as it is all around the lake margins. There's some useful notes on the photo to tell it apart from the sterile hybrids.
Potentilla anglica
Sheep's-bit and Cat's-ear were flowering on a Cornish hedge.
Jasione montana and Hypochaeris radicata
Sun Dews were plentiful in some areas, mostly Round-leaved with a very few Intermediate Sun Dews dotted around. The Round-leaved were in flower which was nice.
Drosera rotundifolia
The slender Marsh Willowherb was also flowering in wetter areas.
Epilobium palustre
Lesser Skullcap
Scutellaria minor
Ragged Robin
Silene flos-cuculi
Fen or Stingless Nettle was an interesting find. It had very narrow leaves and virtually no stinging cells on the leaves and stems. I could handle it easily without getting stung. A close up photo of the stem shows virtually no stinging cells at all.
Urtica dioica subsp. subinermis
Drifts of tiny blue flowers close to bogs were the delightful Ivy-leaved Bellflower.
Wahlengbergia hederacea
Bog Pimpernel gave sheets of pink colour to some bogs.
Lysimachia tenella
The tiny Blinks was flowering on a road edge.
Montia fontana
Redshank was flowering in droves in drier areas. Note the absence of yellow glands below the flowerheads which White Persicaria has.
Persicaria maculosa
My last plant from this trip was from the dry edges of a path on the moor, the humble Sand Spurry.
Spergularia rubra
In a very dry field entrance that no doubt was under water in the winter, was a very few tiny Fool's Watercress plants in flower. They're usually much bigger and more robust plants.
Helosciadium nodiflorum
Hemerocallis fulva
Hypericum x inodorum
Another naturalised alien in flower was Himalayan Honeysuckle, an attractive small tree but it can spread rapidly in some woodlands.
Leycesteria formosa
Another alien honeysuckle I found was Japanese Honeysuckle, a new species for me. Again, it was trailing through a scrubby bank of native plants.
Lonicera japonica var. japonica
Back into town and two more naturalised alien plants found were Canary Grass.
Phalaris canariensis
And Guernsey Fleabane, now becoming more uncommon as it is being replaced with Bilbao's Fleabane (Erigeron floribundus).
Erigeron sumatrensis
And the whole plant.
Two weeks into July and the heatwave is still going strong. I'd barely been out this month as a result. However, I managed an evening in a village called Burlawn to update records there. As one would expect in an urban or semi-urban area, there were several naturalised alien species, such as these two geraniums.
French Cranesbill, with flowers much larger than any native geranium.
Geranium endressii
And Pencilled Cranesbill which I initially mistook as a white variant of Hedgerow Cranesbill as the flowers are about the same size.
Geranium versicolor
Several stonecrops had made their home on garden and roadside walls, such as this Reflexed Stonecrop.
Petrosedum rupestre
And the native Biting Stonecrop with its acid yellow flowers.
Sedum acre
Another new species for me was Confused Bridewort, a garden origin hybrid that had escaped by aggressively suckering onto a roadside wall.
Spiraea x pseudosalicifolia
Verbascum densiflorum
Finally from this trip, was Brooklime flourishing in this drought by living in a roadside flush.
Veronica beccabunga
By the 19th July, the heat had abated somewhat, but daytime temperatures were still in excess of 20 degrees with no rain falling over most of Cornwall for almost the entire month so far. As such, I decided to go look around a marshy area on the Bodmin Moor. The drought will make it easier to walk through it and there should be enough moisture for the plants to be unaffected.
The first nice find was a stand of Sneezewort coming into flower, a new monad record too.
Achillea ptarmica
I found a Heath spotted Orchid in pristine condition which was definitely unusual given the time of year and the multiple heatwaves we've had.
Dactylorhiza maculata subsp. ericetorum
The first Bifid Hemp-nettle of the summer in flower, though unfortunately, it was behind a barbed wire fence so I couldn't get a close up photo of its flowers.
Galeopsis bifida
As I walked through the marsh I thought it odd that I hadn't seen any Pale Butterworts and almost straight away I saw one in flower! This species catches insects on its leaves which then fold up trapping them and then digesting the yummy juices.
Pinguicula lusitanica
A few patches of Round-leaved Water Crowfoot had some flowers out.
Ranunculus omiophyllus
White Beak Sedge was found in a few places, in one place it was so dense it made the area white.
Rhynchospora alba
At the end of June I found some Marsh Lousewort and now I found some run of the mill Lousewort. It's very much smaller than Marsh Lousewort and is more or less unbranched. You'll also find it in drier areas and not in the boggy places. The flowers are similar in shape and colour though.
Pedicularis sylvatica
All the above plants were found in a bog/marsh grazed by sheep, ponies and cattle, all of which were present when I was there. It takes a bit longer to walk through with cows and calves and you need them to get used to you before you get closer. Anyway, I had no issues with them at all; and without them, the area would soon become scrub then willow dominated wet woodland of limited ecological value.
Near the end of July, I attended a Cornwall Botany Group field trip to Porthallow on The Lizard peninsular. As such, I stopped off at Goonhilly NNR for a quick look around on the way there, as the plants look fantastic at this time of the year.
Cornish Heath was flowering in abundance with Bell Heather, Heather and Western Gorse making a colourful display.
Erica vagans
Great Burnet, common in this area.
Sanguisorba officinalis
A late flowering Yellow Rattle
Rhinanthus minor
I then headed off to Porthallow for the field trip. Unfortunately, due to my health I couldn't manage the entire trip as the coast path was too steep for me, so I turned back less than half way around. However, I still had a good time; enjoyed seeing fellow botanists again, and found lots of plants. Here's some of them.
Some of the group admiring Yellow-horned Poppies on the beach at Porthallow.
Glaucium flavum
Some Babington's Leek were found on a roadside, all in seed except one which was still flowering.
Allium ampeloprasum subsp. babingtonii
A close up of the flowers. The flowering head also had bulbils.
Back on the beach and there were lots of an Eryngium growing amongst the pebbles, the basal leaves looking remarkably like Coltsfoot at first glance. It was a new species for me too. It turned out to be a naturalised garden escape:
Eryngium giganteum "Silver Ghost"
Another oddity on the beach was Caper Spurge growing out of the pebbles.
Euphorbia lathyris
A baffling Mint was on the beach too, looking like the hybrid Mentha longifolia x spicata (M. x villosonervata). However, handily, the VCR was on hand and determined this as a hairy Spearmint based on the leaves. It smelt just like the gum too. Usually, they are hairless, but perhaps it was hairy to tolerate the salty environment?
Mentha spicata
Soapwort had escaped from a nearby planting self seeding onto the top of the beach.
Saponaria officinalis
Inland, and there was a surprising find on a Cornish Hedge of several clumps of Wild Marjoram. I've found it in a few places around Wadebridge in similar habitats, but I used to only see it on chalk in Kent.
Origanum vulgare
Sea Radish was still flowering on the beach areas. To separate it from other radishes, check the pods. There will be 2 (3) big seeds in a short pod; in the other inland species, there are usually many small seeds in a longish pod. I've included an inset photo of a pod below of the Sea Radish. The flowers are usually fatter than inland forms and lack coloured veins too. Very rarely, the flowers can be white, so it's then important then to check the other features I have mentioned to avoid confusion with the inland radish species.
Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. maritimus
A new species for me and only the second record for Cornwall as a whole was Colorado Stonecrop naturalised on a beachside wall. I later spoke to the house owner who confirmed it wasn't planted and was a "weed" self sown. She also told me it had yellow flowers in the spring, which made it easier to determine its identity. I've inset a photo of its flowers though it had none at the time.
Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco'
It was great to get out and the views were spectacular in places.
On the way home, I decided to record the northwestern arm of Stithians reservoir, mostly because it was a flat, easy walk! As usual, the draw down zone held plenty of interest.
Common Spike-rush was present in large numbers and much taller than those I used to see in Kent.
Eleocharis palustris
Also present in large numbers were two types of Water Horsetail, the unbranched form growing in the water and the branched form in the dried out areas. To separate it from other horsetails, break a stem. If the central hollow is more than 7/8ths of the internal diameter, its this species. Hybrids will have an internal diameter of approx 3/4 or less. Both Field and Marsh Horsetail have narrow holes in the centre. With Water Horsetail, you can squeeze the stem flat with ease, whereas with the hybrid or other horsetails, you can't!
Equisetum fluviatile
Marsh Pennywort was common in the upper drawn down zone. I usually search in vain for its flowers, but struck lucky this time and found some! They hide under the leaves of the plant and aren't visible from above.
Hydrocotyle vulgaris
At one point it seemed like I was walking over a lush green lawn that spread for many metres in all directions. I then noticed little pollen bearing anthers in this lawn and realised I was walking over thousands of Shoreweed plants. I took this specimen home to press and dry it for my herbarium.
Littorella uniflora
The "lawn" which was all Littorella uniflora and not grass at all with young Corn Mint (Mentha arvensis) in the right hand corner.
Gypsywort was close to a car park.
Lycopus europaeus
An unusual plant for a draw down zone was Pale Persicaria, though Redshank is common in such places. Check the ochrea for "eyelash" like hairs to rule out a pale Redshank. Pale Persicaria also has yellowish glands at the base of the flower spike which have the glandular heads larger than their stalks. You can see this if you are able to enlarge my photo below.
Persicaria lapathifolia
Corn Spurrey, Corn and Water Mints and their hybrid were all present in large numbers, but tucked away in between them was another new species for me, Unbranched Bur-reed. It's quite a lot smaller overall than Branched Bur-reed and of course, the inflorescences are born on an unbranched spike. The fluffy blobs at the top of the spike are the male flowers, and the female flowers are those at the base.
Sparganium emersum
There were thousands of Amphibious Bistort plants, both on dry land as the terrestrial form, flat to the ground and stranded by falling water levels in the draw down zone and floating on the water too; a very adaptable plant.
Persicaria amphibia
Lesser Spearwort was abundant in the draw down zone too. These were quite low to the ground; in wetter places they can be over two feet tall.
Ranunculus flammula subsp. flammula
It's been a good summer so far for butterflies with an abundance of Painted Ladies, Meadow Browns and all the other species too. However, it's always nice to see some Clouded Yellows, an immigrant from the near continent.
Colias croceus
That wraps up July. Considering there has been virtually no rain for the entire month with many days having temperatures above 25 degrees (sometimes 30), I was surprised with the abundance of species still to be found flowering. Hopefully, August will provide at least some rain for the plants to keep goimg. See you then.
Dave
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