Cornwall Botany - June 2026 Part 1

 As the month begins, my health issues carry on, with medication being phased out and pain and difficulty in walking increasing once again. Unfortunately, I am not seeing a consultant until early July, but I have managed to persuade the GP to prescribe another course of steroids, though this will be the last one due to the dangers in taking them long term.  However, I am determined to get out when I can and explore Cornwall's flora the best I can, especially at this floriferous time of year. Here's some of what I did manage to see.

 One evening in early June, I went to a boggy heath near Bodmin; it's always a delight at this time of year and not too far to walk from the car. You could see many bog plants from firm ground too, which was useful as I didn't want my walking stick to sink in the mire as I walked.

June is a good time to see sedges in fruit and there were quite a few at this venue, here's a selection.

Carex demissa - Common Yellow Sedge 

 Carex echinata - Star Sedge

 

Carex panicea - Carnation Sedge

Carex pulicaris - Flea Sedge

 

 

There was plenty of colour on the heath and bog too with hundreds of Heath Spotted Orchids flowering.

Dactylorhiza maculata subsp ericetorum

 

 

Cross-leaved Heath was starting to flower too. 

Erica tetralix

 

 

 The first few Bog Asphodel were coming into bloom, a few now, hundreds in a couple of weeks time.

 

Narthecium ossifragum

 

 

 

A few years ago management on the heath had scraped back the vegetation in a few limited areas to reveal wet, blackish soil. Not much had grown on it initially, but now there were hundreds of Intermediate Sundews. Unlike Round-leaved Sundews, they don't need sphagnum moss to grow on. Spring droughts over the last few years have reduced the amount of sphagnum, and as a result I only found one Round-leaved amongst the hundreds of Intermediate Sundews.

 

Drosera intermedia

 

 A Round-leaved Sundew, note the wet, green moss underneath it.

 

Drosera rotundifolia

 

 

Marsh Ragwort found the wet conditions ideal and there were over 200 plants, though only a few were coming into flower. Note the large terminal lobe that easily distinguishes it from Common Ragwort.

 

Jacobaea aquatica

 

 

 

Royal Fern was frequent along a stream that led into the bog. Here is its golden spike of spore bearing sori.

Osmunda regalis

Bog Pimpernel carpeted an area, but unfortunately, the sun was going down, so they had started to close up. They are a very pretty small flower.

Lysimachia tenella

Creeping forget-me-not is another bog plant commonly found in these habitats. 

Myosotis secunda

Lousewort flowering, on the drier slopes above the bog.

Pedicularis sylvatica

There were two species of Willow in the mire that I photographed; the first was Eared Willow which had small, crinkly furry leaves with tiny "ears" along the stem.

Salix aurita

And a ground hugging Creeping Willow.

Salix repens

Bog Stitchwort was plentiful, unsurprising given it likes damp, acidic habitats very much.

Stellaria alsine 

 There is a tendency to name species to subspecies level in Cornwall where that can be done, however for some reason, Common Valerian rarely is, which is a bit of an anomaly. There are two recognised subspecies and I have detailed their differences below.

 Valeriana officinalis subsp sambucifolia 

 Subsp. sambucifolia typically features broader, more distinctly toothed leaflets, with the terminal leaflet being significantly wider and larger than those on the sides. In contrast, subsp. collina tends to have narrower leaflets that are less prominently toothed, and its terminal leaflet is roughly the same size as the lateral ones. Additionally, you will often find that subsp. collina has a higher number of leaflet pairs per leaf compared to subsp. sambucifolia.

Their environments are also key indicators. If you are looking at a plant in a wet, marshy area or along the banks of a stream, or any neutral to acidic soil type, it is much more likely to be subsp. sambucifolia. Conversely, subsp. collina is an inhabitant of drier, lime-rich (calcareous) soils. So far, I have only found subsp sambucifolia in Cornwall.

Occasionally, you may come across an intermediate form, in which case you couldn't assign to either subspecies. I've yet to see an intermediate form. 

 

Leaves of subsp. sambucifolia 

 

There was also a good population of Early Marsh Orchids in one part of the mire, not far from the dry areas. In previous years, less than 10 had been counted, but this year, I counted over 50 flowering spikes; no doubt as a result of all the rain in late winter.

Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp pulchella

 

I'll finish up this evening trip to the mire with some rushes.

Clustered Rush, but beware the Soft Rush lookalike (Juncus effusus subsp subglomeratus) which has almost smooth, bright green (not yellow/green obviously ridged) stems. you can see the yellow/green colouring and stem ridges in the inset picture below.

Juncus conglomeratus 

 

Juncus acutiflorus - Sharp-flowered Rush

 

Juncus articulatus - Articulated Rush

 

Finally, Black Bog-Rush - Schoenus nigricans

I'll finish up the heathland trip with a heathland grass, or Heath Grass to be precise. It is a small spike with few, relatively large florets and a very hairy ligule (see photo inset).

Danthonia decumbens

 

 

After an inland venue, I changed to a coastal one and recorded a monad at the south end of Whitsand Bay in the south eastern corner of the county. Here's some of the plants I found there.

There were hundreds of Hedge Bindweeds in flower along the road verges, but I found a single colony of the pink form too, which always look stunning. 

Calystegia sepium subsp roseata 

Dodder parasitising Gorse on a clifftop by the road, but no flowers yet.

Cuscuta epithymum

 

Shining Cranesbill, the leaves turning red as the plant ages. this was flowering between some stunted Herb Robert so could initially be mistaken for Little Robin due to the yellow anthers with Geranium leaves underneath. Always check the flower stalk down to the plant's leaves as you can be misled otherwise.

Geranium lucidum

 

Hedgerow Cranesbill was prolific along the road verges too.

Geranium pyrenaicum

 

 Some very small Smith's Pepperwort on a lightly vegetated path. Note the very long protruding style on the seed pods which is barely noticeable in Field Pepperwort (Lepidium campestre).

Lepidium heterophyllum

 

From the same track, I found several interesting species which particularly liked the very short turf between the car tracks down the cliff.

Sand Spurrey - Spergularia rubra

 

Slender Trefoil with its heads of less than 3 flowers  and equal stalkless leaflets. Given that I couldn't bend my left knee, this was the best shot I could get.

Trifolium micranthum

 Knotted Clover was abundant on this track and on another that led to a car park. I eventually found a few with tiny flowers still out.

Trifolium striatum

 Nearby were some very small Common Centaury flowers. These can be told apart from Lesser Centaury by the prescence of a basal rosette at flowering time; the larger flowers and the colour being pink, not dark purple.

Centaurium erythraea

 

The last plant on this track of note was Trailing St. John's-wort.

Hypericum humifusum 

 

 On path edges on the cliffs were some of the beautiful Slender St. John's-wort too, with their orange coloured buds and anthers.

Hypericum pulchrum

 

On the tarmac edge of the road were several ruderal species like Spear-leaved Oraches and Fat Hen along with a few surprise Fig-leaved Goosefoots too. I think these types of plants are spread by farming machinery.

Chenopodium ficifolium

 

Sometimes insects get photographed too.

Lesser Bloody-nosed Beetle - Timarcha goettingensis   

 I probably walked less than 2 kilometres, taking around 4 hours to do that, and that was enough to stop me going out for several days as I could hardly walk. There's always a price to pay isn't there.

 

 One afternoon in early June, I drove back to the Moonwort site near Colliford Lake on the Bodmin Moor (see last blog). I couldn't find any Moonwort, and I think they may have been grazed off by the frequent ponies on this part of the moor. But I did find that 6 of the Greater Butterfly Orchid rosettes had managed to flower despite the ponies and the recent heatwave and drought.

Platanthera chlorantha

 

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On the 8th June there was an amazing discovery at Pentire Head on the north coast in VC2 (East Cornwall). My VCR, Ian Bennallick, and Pete Stroh of the BSBI found 50 plants of Long-headed Clover on the droughted coast path, and between the cliff and path. They have never been recorded in East Cornwall VC2 before, and known only from the Lizard and in South Devon at Bolt Tail. They were growing with fruiting Trifolium striatum, T. scabrum and some freshly arising T. arvense.

An amazing discovery for East Cornwall 

Trifolium incarnatum subsp. molinerii 

 

These were only a few miles from I live, so it just goes to show there are plants out there just waiting to be discovered; one just needs to walk an area at the right time of year.

 

Mid month and I couldn't walk far, but we had a family trip to Pendennis Point in Falmouth. On the way I stopped to have a look at a clump of Ruddy Clover growing out of the pavement up against an industrial estate wall. It had clearly self seeded on its own, but there were no gardens close by, and no amenity plantings here either. I didn't find this, another person found it and let us know about it so that was nice.

Trifolium rubens

 

Once at Pendennis Point I found a few nice plants, some I'd seen before there, some I hadn't.

Heart-leaf Ice Pant grew on a cliff in 2 places and has done for many years without becoming invasive.

Aptenia cordifolia

 

The Purple Dewplant, another fleshy-leaved alien that doesn't seem to cause problems.

Disphyma crassifolium

 

Some Sea Fern Grass growing on the walls below the car parks.

Catapodium marinum

 

Finally, I found lots of Rough Clover, a species I'd not seen here before and had not been recorded here for a number of years. Oddly, those clovers I saw here in the spring I couldn't re-find (T. subterraneum and T. ornithopodioides). Perhaps they were droughted and faded away. 

Trifolium scabrum

 

By the middle of the month, my medication had ended with another month before I would see a consultant on the NHS. Within a couple of days, I was once again crippled and in agony, being unable to walk and move around normally. Some days were so bad I couldn't even sit in a car or get dressed. My knee had swollen up again and couldn't be bent, so any walking I did was odd looking with a stiff unbending left leg.

I did manage to walk about 100m or so along a new road verge that had been sown in 2025 with unknown species. After over a year, I thought it worth looking to see what might still survive on the china clay waste road verges. 

Corncockle seemed to be doing well , see photo below, and so was Viper's Bugloss and Annual Cornflower, neither of which I photographed.

Agrostemma githago

 

Corn Marigolds were plentiful, happily a native plant in Cornwall with many coastal fields still full of them. However, on the china clay waste verges, some of them looked nutrient starved with normal flowers, but very spindly stems and hardly any stem leaves.

Glebionis segetum

 

That rounds off the first half of June. The second part will only happen if I can get some pain relief which is very frustrating given it's the best time of year for wildflowers now. I really struggled with the last short trip detailed above and it could be dangerous for me walking alone should I fall over as I wouldn't be able to get back up. However, I'm back on steroids now, so in a few days, I should be able to function to some degree again.

Until next time, take care.

Dave