Botanical Finds from Cornwall - End of August 2022

 Not a sign of rain yet, but the plants keep on coming. Here is a summary of the more interesting or rare finds I made from mid Cornwall at this time. 

To start off, I took a walk down a small stream that ended with an earth barrier to keep the sea out. The fields adjacent to it were heavily grazed by dairy cows, so not much to see there. However, the river banks were fenced off from the cows, so had plenty of interest there. The first plant was one I'd not seen before, but on researching it when I got home turned out to be Wild Celery. As I hate the taste of Celery I didn't try it, furthermore, never taste any part of umbellifer type plants unless you really are sure what it is. Some, such as Hemlock Water-Dropwort are fatally poisonous!

Apium graveolens

On the moors, the dominant Forget-me-not is Tufted, which is a very pale blue with mid sized flowers. So when I came across this Water Forget-me-not I was struck by its much larger and deeper blue flowers. As with all Forget-me-nots, check out the hairs on the stem and calyx to properly determine their identity.

Myosotis scorpioides

Another plant that likes its feet wet is the Celery-leaved Buttercup. It has quite small and dainty flowers and can be quite a large plant with many branches tipped with these flowers.

Ranunculus sceleratus

It's not just about flowers. Here's a nice example of a Branched Bur-Reed with its characteristic spikelets.

Sparganium erectum ssp neglectum

As I crossed over the earth barrier to the estuary, the flora completely changed with the saline influence. In one place was a dense stand of Sea-Club-Rush.

Bolboschoenus maritimus

 

 

In some bare places on the saltings were stands of Glasswort. Given previous records and that they all looked similar, I think these are Common Glasswort.

 

Salicornia europaea

On the mud were lots of Lesser Sea-Spurries and in one place a clump of Greater Sea Spurry. These are not as common here as Rock Sea Spurry, unsurprisingly given that cliffs and rocks outnumber estuaries by a large number.

Spergularia marina

Sea Arrow Grass was common, but all but this one were in seed, not that the flowers are particularly impressive anyway!

Triglochin maritima

Both varieties of Sea Aster were present. One has purple ray petals (var. tripolium) and the other lacks it as below.

Tripolium pannonicum var flosculosus

From estuaries to exposed sea cliffs which is home to Sea Spleenwort that hides away in cracks and fissures in the rocks. 

Asplenium marinum

On the sheltered side of the cliffs were some fields managed by the National Trust. Within this very dry and arid field were two stands of Field Eryngo, a rare plant indeed. There were still some of its small white flowers present, though most were now in seed. In Kent, there are two sites for it and it's called the Watling Street Thistle.

 

Eryngium campestre

 

It's rather like a white flowered Sea Holly, though the leaves are more thistle like than holly.

One field had some Chickory growing along its edges.

Cichorium intybus

Common Restharrow in the same field. It's not often one sees the flowers completely open as here.

Ononis repens

A Meadow Grasshopper from these fields.

 Chorthippus parallelus

A few miles inland and it is completely different scenery on Bodmin Moor. Here is a view of a tiny part of Colliford Lake on the Moor with Heather and Western Gorse flowering in the foreground.

Along the draw done zone of the reservoir were lots of interesting plants like this Water Purslane.

 

 

Lythrum portula 

 

If you see extra large flowers on what initially looks like Tormentil, look again. On examining the leaves and seeds of this pant, it was obviously Trailing Tormentil. This is hard to identify until it has plenty of flowers with some seeding. The similar looking hybrid P. x mixta is almost sterile, so seeds present rule that out. Both will likely have 4 and 5 merrous flowers too.

Potentilla anglica

 

These leaves are quite unlike Tormentil, Creeping Cinquefoil or the hybrid, combined with the seeds, they are reasonably determinative for P. anglica

A few miles away, but still on the moor, was a riverside location popular with picnickers and families. Amongst the people enjoying the sun and cooling off in the river were some special plants.

Tiny harebell like flowers showed the presence of Ivy-Leaved Bellflowers.

Wahlenbergia hederacea

 Some Cross-leaved Heath looking lovely on the moor.

Erica tetralix

 

 Miniature Corn Mint in flower on the banks of Colliford Reservoir. Heavily grazed, they have to flower small or be noticed too soon and eaten. These were less than 2" tall.

Mentha arvensis

I have saved the best plant until last. Close to the splashing children in the river were patches of Coral Necklace, a very rare plant. On the opposite side of the river was the largest colony, several metres long along the river bank. The 20p coin shows its size nicely.

 Illecebrum verticillatum

August ended with trips to various habitats including an estuary, freshwater stream, exposed sea cliffs, arable fields and the largest moor in Cornwall. By varying your trips you visit more diverse habitats and see more species. The scenery is usually wonderful too.

Until next time, take care.

Dave

Botanical Finds for Mid August - Cornwall

 This Spring and Summer have been so dry, I am amazed there's been any plants to see this year. But of course, our native plants are well adapted to most conditions the UK weather throws at them. Many are adapted to surviving with low levels of water and others simply flower and seed much quicker than usual due to the lack of rain. Given their survival strategies, this means there is always something to see or find, even during a drought.

One advantage of a drought is that I could visit venues where I would need wellies and now only wear normal walking boots. One such place was in mid Cornwall where Heath Lobelia grew. Around 6 clumps of it had been found a few weeks before, but given the dry conditions, I wondered if any would be left for me to see.

I'd never seen this plant in real life, so I made the trip to go on a hot mid August day to an area of heathland south east of Lostwithiel. The first plant I noticed was the striking red and yellow flowers of Wavy St. John's Wort, one of the prettier Hypericums found in the wild here. Not shown here are its wavy edged leaves.

Hypericum undulatum

The ground was still quite damp (though usually waterlogged here) and the Water Mint was still numerous and quite happy to flower profusely. Here's a view looking down onto one of their pom pom like flowers.

 

Mentha aquatica

Devil's Bit Scabious was also flowering in large numbers. Here's a photo of the flowers in close up. Each "flower" is actually made up of over 50 individual flowers sat on a flat saucer like receptacle.

Succisa pratensis

I had 8 figure grid references for the Heath Lobelia for 6 locations at one site. Unfortunately 5 of them had gone over and couldn't be found, however, I was lucky to find one clump of plants still with flowers. So, below is Heath Lobelia, a lovely rare native plant, a first see for me. It took a while finding them, but it was worth it.

Lobelia urens

I paid a price for seeing them though. I had left my insect repellent back home, so I was unprotected from biting insects. I suffered numerous horse fly bites to my arms and legs along with a couple of mosquito bites and even picked up a tick (thankfully walking across my leg and not buried in my skin). So be prepared and take the necessary precautions. I won't forget things like that again!

There were some friendly insects too, like this female Silver Washed Fritillary butterfly.

Argynnis paphia

 

 The same day, I went south to Par Sands on the south coast of Cornwall. Rare Sea Daffodils had been found there recently and were in bud a few days ago. I rather hoped a flower or two might now be open. Fortunately, my timing was spot on. Par Sands is made up of old china clay waste from over a century ago, rather than shellgrit and silicon as most beaches are. This gives the sand a whiter colour than usual and it's not good at holding water. As such, this was an extremely parched environment.

What a stunning flower.

Pancratium maritimum

More buds yet to open.

I like the next photo the best as it shows the flower off well.

A close up of the anthers in an unusual position compared to other plants.

This species first arrived in Marazion, South West Cornwall over a decade ago and it was believed to have arrived by sea (their seeds and bulbs float) from Brittany and with our warming climate, it seems to have survived there and now spread up the coast to here. There was no evidence of them being planted and they were sufficiently far down the beach for a storm surge to leave the seeds behind. Sea Spurge, Sea Sandwort and Evening Primroses accompanied them in the habitat here.

The photo below shows where they were. The brown plants well behind it are dead and dying Japanese Roses that couldn't withstand the drought. Amazingly, no holidaymakers picked these flowers either.

Evening Primroses are a bit of a challenge to identify for sure. There are a few different species, mostly from the Americas that are naturalised in the UK, but they freely hybridise and can also back cross with either parent. This makes firm identification difficult. However, most plants do key out to a particular species, like this one did to Common Evening Primrose. Take notes or photos of all parts of the flower, its stalk, the sepals, the anthers and stamen arrangement, hairs and glandular hairs, stem colours and so on. The only parts of these plants that isn't useful for identification are the leaves. These were also at Par Sands.

 

Oenothera biennis

 

Japanese Rose is an invasive garden escape and it easily takes over dune systems and clifftops. So in a way, it was good to see it decimated by the drought as shown in the first photo below. As they die off, native plants can regrow and colonise the sands.

 

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of them that have survived, below shows one in flower during the drought, they have now set hips, and so the cycle will repeat itself.

 

Rosa rugosa

Below is the fruiting pod of Sea Radish which is usually a large plant with bright yellow crucifer flowers. They were quite rare back in Kent, but seem relatively common here in Cornwall. You can eat the pods too for a radishy taste if you wanted to.

Raphanus raphanistrum subsp maritimum

 

A drought specialist as it grows in sand near the high tide mark is Prickly Saltwort. Like many plants close to the sea the flowers lack petals and only the anthers are visible here. It can pack a nasty scratch too so be careful around it.

Salsola kali

 

A few days later and I revisited The Lizard area again, this time to Kynance Cove, home to many rare plants. Below is the humble Harebell, quite rare in Cornwall.

Campanula rotundifolia

The rare Great Burnet was also in flower.

Sanguisorba officinalis

Below is Saw-wort, relatively common along the Cornish coasts, but rarer the further east one goes. Due to the drought conditions, it was only about 3" tall. The lower right of the photo shows it sharply toothed leaves from whence its gets its common name.

Serratula tinctoria

 

 

The main reason for going to Kynance was to see for the first time, Cornish Heath in flower. There were huge areas covered in their flowers, a delight to see. They were quite bushy, but low growing with tufts of flower filled spikes arising from them.
 

Erica vagans

 As far as this species was concerned, what drought? What a plant!

And as is often the case here, amazing picture postcard views to botanise in.

There were of course, many more amazing plants that I saw on these trips and many more yet to see.

I'll leave you now with one of the Sea Daffodils from Marazion that I also saw this month.

Until next time, take care and thank you for reading this.

Regards

Dave