The Lizard in Early May 2023

 I thought it would be a good idea to show readers what happens to our validated botanical records, so for each species, I have included a link to the BSBI 2020 Atlas webpage. Here it shows you the UK distribution, a species trend, whether it's doing well or not (most are not), photographs of most species and a summary for it. I hope you make use of it and who knows, become a botanical or biological recorder yourself?

 I've seen thousands of Green-winged Orchids in Kent and Sussex previously, but I thought it would be nice to see the Cornish ones, so I headed off to The Lizard area where I knew some might be found. It didn't take too long to find them, but they only grew in short turf around rocky outcrops back from the sea and were few in number, compared to those pristine inland meadows of SE England with thousands of plants in them.

See https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.6y71f0

They were pretty much all this colour and ranged from about 6 to 15cm tall, so they were quite dwarfed too. What was different about them was the flora they grew with, so there was a nice combination of Spring Squill growing amongst them, something you don't see further East.

Anacamptis morio

Not far away from them were acres of dry heath, typically with Heather with Cross-leaved Heath in Purple Moor Grass grassland. Intertwining amongst them were lots of Petty Whin, a small, weakly spiny shrub much like a miniature Gorse. 

Genista anglica

Petty Whin has undergone a dramatic decline over the last century, you can read all about it here - https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.8n8

 Also on the dry heath, but usually by paths, were the rich blue flowers of Heath Milkwort.

Polygala serpyllifolia

 

It can tricky to tell Common Milkwort apart from this species, but to do so you have to look at the base of the stem. In Heath Milkwort, the leaves will be opposite (or if fallen off, leaf scars will be opposite), in Common Milkwort they are alternate all up the stem. Furthermore, it is rare for Common Milkwort to grow on acidic soils, so habitat often narrows your options down too.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.fka

 Dwarf roses were dotted amongst the heath too, these were Burnet Roses which have not only thorns but impressive rows of sharp bristles up the stem too. Later in the year, they will have black hips (seed pods) unlike the usual roses that have red ones.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.5k8

Rosa spinosissima

Procumbent Pearlwort (below) is a common plant, both in the countryside, but also in towns in pavement cracks. It normally has four petals and mostly lacks any petals, but here I found a large plant with 4 and 5 petals on it, so I have included it to show the variation in this species.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.m20

Sagina procumbens

 

I had never seen Eyelash Fungus before and from online photos, I had assumed they were about 2-3cm across. On the damper places on the heath, but especially on paths, I noticed orange/red tiny blobs on the ground and eventually bent down to look closer. Of course, it was this fungus. The first photo below was the biggest one which was about 1cm across, look at those lashes!

Scutellinia scutellata

One of the dominant plants here was the Black Bog-Rush, so called after its very dark coloured fruiting heads. It's a tussocky plant with stiff leaves that end abruptly in its seedhead as shown in the second photo below. It has a quite Westerly distribution and is often found on damp, acidic moors, bogs and heaths.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.m3b

Schoenus nigricans

 

Changing Forget-me-not is fairly common in Cornwall, but I only recently became aware that there are two sub-species. In subspecies discolor, the flowers start off yellow and turn blue (I've not found one yet), and in subspecies dubia they start off white or cream and turn blue. Below is the latter.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.5dz

 

Myosotis discolor subspecies dubia

 

In the same area were hundreds of Adder's Tongue (below) which are actually ferns, just very small ones.The area had been mowed a few weeks prior to my visit and without mowing or grazing, the scrub would out-compete them and they would disappear.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.y9x

 

Ophioglossum vulgatum

 

Nearer the coast were patches of the rare Western Clover. These patches would never grow directly exposed to the sea, but would be behind large rocks close to the cliff edges, thus the salt spray reduces competitive plants from crowding them out, but they cannot withstand the full force of storms. Below it was growing with Spring Squill behind just such a rock.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.cpn

Trifolium occidentale 

 

 Back on the heath and there were lots of trees, though  none had trunks as we usually see them. This was Creeping Willow, which rarely gets much off the ground and intertwines through the undergrowth. It's most noticeable when it flowers as below. Otherwise, the leaves fade into the green of other plants un-noticed.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.1tf

Salix repens

 

 

Pale Dog Violets were also scattered about the dry heath. The flowers are usually a bit larger than Common Dog Violets and the petals can be white to faintly purple. Their leaves are longer too with small teeth on the far edges and tip (1st photo below). They hybridise frequently with the Common Dog Violet and I found a hybrid clump not far away.

 

 

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.w5f

 

Viola lactea 

Whilst there I had to pay a visit to The Lizard village car park as it contains some unusual plants. In the car park can be found Greek Sea Spurrey, but I couldn't find any in flower. While looking for flowers, I came across Sand Spurrey which has a larger (though still tiny) flower and leaf like bracts below the flower (Greek has shortened bracts).It is also far less glandular hairy than Greek Sea Spurrey.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.cm5

Spergularia rubra

The car park is also well known for having a population of Red Shepherd's Purse. Unlike the usual form, the whole plant is red, stems, branches and pods.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.b5e

Capsella rubella

 

My final plant species is the lovely Cornish or Western Ramping Fumitory, endemic to Cornwall.

See: https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.558

 

It has the largest flower of the Fumitories in the UK upto 14-15mm and a white rim to the spanner head shaped top petal. This tells it apart from all the other species. This plant was at least three feet wide and scrambling up other plants to about 5 feet tall.

Fumaria occidentalis 

So ended a nice day out to The Lizard area. I didn't go and visit the rarest clovers site as it was in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go. I also looked for Pygmy Rush but was a few weeks early, but I am sure I will find it later in the month when I return. 

Take Care

Dave

 

Botanical Finds in Cornwall - Late April 2023

 Cornwall has stayed on the cold side of the jet stream for most of early Spring, so many species are flowering one to two weeks later than in previous years. However, frosts have been minimal and rainfall has been plentiful, so no Spring drought this year. This will enable the early annual species to have a good year and provide plenty of seed for the future too.

Many trees are flowering now including this Ash tree below with its odd looking petal-less flowers.

Fraxinus excelsior 

 Not quite a tree, but a woody shrub, is Bog Myrtle below. This is also flowering, again no petals present. All parts of this plant smell lovely when crushed, ironic given that it grows in foul smelling bogs!

 

Myrica gale

 Water-crowfoots are coming into flower in the bogs too. This one below is Round-leaved Water Crowfoot with its bigger flowers and rounded lobes.

Ranunculus omiophyllus

 In the drier parts of the heath, Pale Dog Violets were flowering. The colours of the petals vary from light purple to white and mostly somewhere in between. The easiest way to tell them apart from Common Dog Violets is to look at the leaves. In Pale Dog Violet these are more than x2 in length than the width and with small rounded teeth on the leaves. The leaves taper into the stems (cuneate) and are not heart shaped at the base (cordate).

Viola lactea

 With the wet Spring so far, Marsh Violet has emerged in large numbers compared to 2022. The boggy areas were full of them. These have quite small flowers varying from white to lilac but have almost round leaves with cordate bases. The other common violets cannot grow in such wet conditions either. Note that (usually) the veins on the lower petal almost reach to the base.

Viola palustris

In the car park of my local pub in Wadebridge, there is a cliff behind it. From a fault in the rocks runs a constant trickle of fresh water, thus creating a constant wet area on the rocks and a small pool below.

Growing here on the rockface were masses of the rare Maidenhair Fern (top centre), carpets of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage (bottom centre), Pendulous Sedge (upper left), Great Willowherb (upper right) and Herb Robert (lower left). I even found Small Duckweed in the pool.

 Adiantum capillus-veneris

Below, a close up of this lovely delicate fern with its black stems (rachis).

A tip off from my Vice County Recorder led me to a lay-by near Bodmin to see Dwarf Cherry, one I'd not seen before. It was indeed a dwarf tree and the stem was wavy and irregular with none of the tree much more than 10 metres tall. The flowers were very white with no hint of pink like Wild Cherry has. Quite a delightful tree and one that would grace any garden rather than those tasteless pink flowered imports that feed no native insects at all.

Prunus cerasus

On an evening walk, I found a clump of Small-flowered Buttercup growing on top of a stone wall, not 100m from my house. It certainly wasn't there last year. Maybe that's the difference between a wet and a dry Spring? More seed from the seedbank is likely to germinate in wetter conditions I suppose.

Ranunculus parviflorus

The photo below was taken on the 26th April. Since then the roadside verges have filled with a multitude of Early Purple Orchids. One old wall-top on the road from Bodmin to Bugle had at least 80 flowering spikes on top of it. The ones below (A39 by Chapel Amble exit) had only just started to flower and just survived being mowed by about 30cm!

Orchis mascula

 

On Rosenannon Downs, this small Deer Grass (thank you VCR for correct ID) was flowering by the thousands. At only about 8cm tall, I wouldn't have noticed them if not in flower, though it will grow bigger as the weeks go by.

 

Trichophorum germanicum

Sometimes mosses grab my attention, not often as it's a branch of science I haven't got the time to learn, but the Juniper Hair Cap moss below couldn't be ignored when in "flower".

 

 

Polytrichum juniperinum

 

 Of course, at this time of the year, I am still trying to identify and record some of the 230 or more Dandelion microspecies out there. I usually go for the tiny, delicate plants, but in a fit of madness, I collected this giant of a specimen from a nearby heathy area. Each leaf was around 30cm long.

I have provisionally identified it, but that awaits confirmation from the BSBI referee.

 

Taraxacum marklundii

With the lack of frost and the warming days, the wildlife is also waking up from its Winter slumber. Below is a Drinker moth caterpillar, a common sight at this time of year across the South.

 Euthrix potatoria

Cornwall's milder climate means that many garden plants cross over the garden fence and do quite well in the wild. As such, I am often finding garden plants growing in the wild, and I occasionally find a plant that I've not seen before. This happened on a mud track lane near Bodmin where I found a bush with odd looking flowers on it. As it was close to a farmhouse entrance, I assumed it was likely planted for decoration, but I recorded it (as planted) in case it spreads, which is probable.

The bush was a Box-leaved Honeysuckle and had plenty of bumblebees around the flowers.

Lonicera pileata

Last year, I frequently featured Greater Chickweed. It is a rare plant, but relatively common east of Wadebridge for about 10 miles or so. So it was nice to find a new unrecorded colony on a track near Bodmin, not far from Asda actually!

 

Stellaria neglecta var neglecta
 

 Back on heathland and Lousewort has flowered. It's now out in large numbers. It's a common plant and steals some of its nutrients from other plants by attaching its roots to its neighbours'.

Pedicularis sylvatica

 

Bilberry coming into flower now on heaths where grazing isn't too severe (not that many then) and some road verges and walls.

 

Vaccinium myrtillus
 

 Main roads are salted in the Winter and this allows a seaside plant called Danish Scurvygrass to cover the verges in tiny white flowers at this time of year. However, below is its larger relative, English Scurvygrass, that only lives in saltmarsh. In Cornwall it is nowhere near as common as Common Scurvygrass, so it's nice to find them. The one below was found next to the bridge crossing the River Camel at Wadebridge. It differs from the other two species by having diamond shaped leaves with a cuneate base and large flowers. English Scurvygrass has rounded leaves with a heavily cordate base but here it is often found inland and on sea cliffs.

 

Cochlearia anglica

 My final plant for the end of April was on a trip to Par Sands hunting Dandelions. I failed to find any of significance, but I did notice the Sea Sandwort coming into flower. Sadly, they live in areas where holidaymakers will flatten them completely with towels and trampling. But, enough will set seed before they arrive in the Summer, thus ensuring their survival. I adore the symmetry of their leaves.

Honckenya peploides

 So ends April 2023. This year seems to be going by so fast that I fear I will blink and the leaves will fall off the trees and snow will be on the ground again. But then, it's only 6 weeks (from the time of writing - 08/05/023) that the nights start to get longer again. So get outside and breathe in the Spring air while you can. My next blog will cover early May and will show that nature is awakening very fast indeed now.

Take care

Dave