Botanical Finds in Cornwall - September 2022 - Part 2

Mid month and I decided to re-visit Pentire Farm, a National Trust managed farm near Newquay known for its good selection of arable plants. I had briefly been there during the summer, but the lack of rain and drought had meant there wasn't much to be seen at that time. However, the recent rain had brought the place to life. Here's some of the more unusual plants I found there.

Corn Marigold is mostly only found as a bird seed casual in much of the UK, but it is native in Cornwall and this was a stronghold area. In places there were hundreds of flowering plants.

Glebionis segetum

Dotted around the field were a few specks of pale blue belonging to Pale Flax, another Cornwall native. I had also found this in the Camel Estuary dune systems in June.

Linum bienne

  One of the plants I had hoped to find was in one field in good numbers, Weasel's Snout, a small snapdragon that is quite rare in much of the UK.

Misopates orontium

 

Dotted around the field were several Wild Radishes, most with lilac coloured flowers, but a few were white too. Nearby, on the cliffs was the yellow Sea Radish but that wasn't in flower.

Raphanus raphanistrum

Corn Spurrey was also present in the fields.

Spergula arvensis 

The fields were enclosed with Cornish walls, a mixture of slate, rocks and earth. These walls support a myriad of plants, but being so close to the sea, Rock Sea-Spurry was dominant.

Spergularia rupicola

 My final offering from these special arable fields was Field Woundwort.

Stachys arvensis

In coastal areas (and some salted roads inland), one can find the more unusual sub species of Great Plantain. These are much smaller than the usual form, with small 3 veined leaves on a longer cuneate shaped stem. The flowerheads are small and very dense too.

Plantago major subspecies intermedia

On a recording walk around Park Head on the north coast, I found this odd looking Orache. The commonest two species found here are Spear-leaved and Babbington's Oraches, but this was different to either of them. It was fleshy green with some leaves near the stem tips and a few bracteoles were stalked. An email to the BSBI Atriplex referee followed and he determined this was the hybrid between Babbibgton's and Long-stalked Orache, an unusual and nice find.

Taschereau's Orache

Atriplex x taschereaui (A. glabriuscula x longipes).

The bracteoles were spongy at the base with a few teeth and no tubercules on the sides (Babbington's has tubercules). It was also only open to less than half way. These features ruled out Spear-leaved Orache.

The seeds had the radicle ( the point where the seed would sprout) sub basal and pointing laterally, a feature of Long-stalked Orache.

I now look very closely at any coastal Atriplex species I come across. Most are the parent plants of A. prostrata or A. glabruiscula. The other potential parent is A. longipes which is very rare in Cornwall.

Up until this point in time, I had only found Autumn Squill in seed. The drought conditions had caused most to flower and seed within a week, so I missed most of them. Inspired to look again from some finds shown on Twitter, I finally found two plants still in flower near Ephaven Cove on the north coast again. What delightful little flowers they are too. They look like miniature Spanish Bluebells, unsurprising, given they are related. However, unlike those, these are native plants and can mostly be found on western coastlines in short turf.

Scilla autumnalis

 The photo below has a coin included to show some scale. Small aren't they!

On a brief visit to Par Sands on the south coast, I found numerous Evening Primroses in flower. Earlier in the Summer, the place was full of Large-flowered Evening Primrose, but the shape of the petioles (flower stems) and the smaller flowers with styles not exceeding the anthers meant the current plants were a different species. These can be tricky to identify and there is a BSBI handbook on them, as they hybridise freely making some identifications difficult. However, these were easy to identify as they were also scented. I give you the Scented Evening Primrose.

Oenothera stricta

Nearby were the biggest stands of Prickly Saltwort I had ever seen. It does very well here, though it's now in seed. They are very prickly, so don't sit on any! On the highest tides, the seeds will float off and disperse to other beaches.

Salsola kali

In amongst the Prickly Saltwort were numerous plants of Sea Knotgrass. These are quite rare and are characterised by the large (compared to other knotgrasses) flowers being tightly bunched and they also have inrolled leaves which you can see in the photo below.

Polygonum maritimum

 

 

A view of Prickly Saltwort on the western end of Par Sands looking east.

I finished off the month with a woodland walk where I found plenty of Bifid Hemp-nettle with their attractive, though fairly small flowers.

Galeopsis bifida

Hawkweeds are similar to Dandelions in that there are numerous micro species that self clone. It's an area I haven't yet explored, but one usually finds a few in hedgerows and walls at this time of the year.

Hieracium

As September ended, the rains arrived in earnest and so had the wind. Over the next few months, I hope that our reservoirs and lakes will be refilled and the drought broken, although despite several inches of rain lately, the main water reservoir at Colliford is still below 25% full, so there is a long way to go before the drought restrictions can be lifted. 

Until next time take care.

Dave

@Botany2021

Botanical Finds in Cornwall - September 2022 - Part 1

 

 September is when the heath plants flower and there were a few I'd yet to see, such as Dorset Heath, which is present on the mid Cornwall moors. So at the beginning of Spetember I went off to find them. One site is near Carland Cross on the A30 which is currently subject to a massive roadworks project to dual the existing A30. Thankfuly, I avoided any major delays and parked  down a lane off the A30. After walking a while, I noticed lots of Orpine in flower along the rural lane. Clearly not planted, and native in Cornwall, they were quite colourful and I could see why people plant them in their gardens.

Hylotelephium telephium subsp fabaria

How the leaf attaches to the stem and its shape is key to subspecies determination. The leaf below shows a cuneate base (tapering) to the stem and is stalkless. Subspecies telephium is a non native garden escape and would have strongly truncate leaves (horizontal to the stalk) and almost stalkless.

That was a good start and they are uncommon in the wild, they had been recorded here before, but not for many years.

Once on the reserve I photographed what I thought was Dorset Heath as the leaves were in whorls of 4. However, it didn't match the online (or book) photos of it, with the flowers being closer to Cross-leaved Heath. Given its height, branching habit and glandular hairiness, it was quite obviously a hybrid plant.

Erica ciliaris x Erica tetralix E. x watsonii

 I didn't have time to look further as rain had finally arrived, and it was teeming down giving me a good soaking. As my camera and lenses aren't waterproof I gave up and headed home. A week or so later, I had another go at finding Dorset Heath and headed to a nature reserve where they were known, but different to the previous location. Dorset Heath was in abundance here, though mostly in seed, but they clearly looked quite different to the previous plant above.

Note how the flowers are mostly one sided up the stem in a raceme and not clumped together at the top. The whorls of glandular hairy leaves and branches are quite apparent and the leaves are in whorls of three.

Dorset Heath is quite an attractive rare plant.

Erica ciliaris

  I found another hybrid there too, in fact I found several.

 Erica ciliaris x Erica tetralix E. x watsonii

Heather was also in flower.

Calluna vulgaris

Here is the other parent to the hybrid, E. watsonii above, the Cross Leaved Heath.

Erica tetralix

Sneezewort is not very common and the flowers look rather like oversized Yarrow flowers to which it is related. It's found in damp acidic areas and was doing well around several Gorse bushes on the edge of a mire. The purple flower beneath it is a Water Mint (Mentha aquatica).

Achillea ptarmica

Along a remote farm track I found stands of Pale Galingale, a fequent garden escape plant that pops up every now and then. Also called an Umbrella Plant given the shape of its leaves.

Cyperus eragrostis

Purple Loosestrife is a late Summer flowering plant of wet plaes and it usually looks quite ragged and "rough looking". This one bucked the usual trend for this species and looked very attractive.

Lythrum salicaria

Bog Myrtle flowers in the Spring, it is a woody small shrub and every part of it smells beautiful and still did in September. I was drawn to what looked like catkins, but on closer examination they turned out to be its fruits.

Myrica gale

There were some massive Royal Ferns around like the one below. It was about 5-6 feet tall, it's a shame I couldn't rig up a time delay photo to include me in it to show scale, it was really impressive. Reasonably common on the mid Cornwall moors, but rare the further East one goes. In Victorian times these were almost collected to extinction.

Osmunda regalis

Part 2 follows soon to round off the month, I hope you enjoyed it.

Regards

Dave

 

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