Botanical Finds in Cornwall - August 2023

 As Summer marches on, species coming into flower change and the Spring plants fade away. The following plants are some that I photographed this month in Cornwall on my recording trips. It's a bit longer than most blogs, but I didn't want to leave out too many of the special plants, of which there were many!

There are two Hemp-nettles and when not in flower, I can't tell them apart. The only real difference is that Bifid Hemp-nettle has a cleft in its lower petal and usually is quite pink compared to the Common Hemp-nettle which doesn't have a cleft lower petal and its flowers are mostly white. Both are coming into flower now and below is the Bifid Hemp-nettle. They're quite attractive flowers, but generally quite small on a large plant.

Galeopsis bifida

There are several species of wild Geranium family species that grow in the UK, but they are supplemented by garden escapes. One of the commonest escapes found in the wild is the hybrid between French and Pencilled Cranesbill which is often found not far from habitation in the wild. There are a huge amount of alien species growing in the wild in Cornwall and as a non gardener, getting to know them all is a new challenge for me.

Geranium x oxonianum

The next few photos are from a Cornwall Botany Group field trip to Bodmin Moor. Much of the moor is overgrazed, but a lack of grazing would likely be worse as Gorse and Bracken would then dominate the whole moor. There are pockets of plants where the livestock couldn't reach and the short sward also favoured tiny plants like this Heath Pearlwort below. From above it looked like Procumbent Pearlwort, but the leaf arrangement is different; the leaves are hairy (you need an eye loupe to see them) and the flowers have larger petals (difficult to see as closed up due to it raining).

Sagina subulata

The main purpose of this field trip was to see and count the populations of two rare ferns, Tunbridge Filmy Fern and Wilson's Filmy Fern. We found both in the same crevice between huge granite boulders near a stack of rocks called The Cheesewring. It was such a small crevice that I had to point the camera and take a photo without being able to see the viewfinder or screen on the camera. I also had to use a flash, so this was the best I could get. First time I'd ever seen either of these species.

Hymenophyllum tunbrigense

The other fern was Wilson's Filmy Fern.

Hymenophyllum wilsonii

The poor thin soils are ideal for Birdsfoot, a tiny pea family plant with even tinier flowers. It mostly flowers in late Spring and the flowers are a bit bigger then, but these plants are up on the moor and have a much harsher climate to contend with than its lowland brethren.

Ornithopus perpusillus

Hiding under some granite was a clump of New Zealand Willowherb, now a widespread alien species in Cornwall.

Epilobium brunnescens

On the way home I stopped off and found some odd looking Clover leaves. They had black lines along them. On researching this I found that White Clover can have a wide variety of leaf markings as shown below. "b" is the type I commonly see here. There's always new things to learn in botany, even with supposedly common species.

Trifolium repens

Late Summer means that the heaths are awash with colour now from Heather and Bell Heather. Joining them soon will be Cornish Heath and Western Gorse and coastal areas like The Lizard and Land's End will be spectacular to see.

Heather - Calluna vulgaris

Bell Heather - Erica cinerea

Wild Thyme is still flowering and these plants that I found at Kitt Hill near Callington had quite striking white markings. The coastal plants seem to lack this two tone effect.

Thymus drucei

In Kent, Fairy Flax was a plant of the short chalk turf and wasn't often found elsewhere. As such, I assumed it was a calcareous loving plant, but no. There is precious little calcareous grassland in Cornwall, yet Fairy Flax is quite at home on many neutral to slightly acidic soils here. This species is tiny with flowers only a few millimetres across; the weight of a raindrop on this flower has caused the whole plant to droop over.

Linum catharticum

It's the time for Michaelmas Daisies to flower too. They are a tricky group to identify to species level, so I thought I'd add this photo of one I found below to show you what you need to look at before attempting to use a wildflower key. A photo of the flower wouldn't be any use.

Laye Michaelmas Daisy - Symphotrichum x versicolor 

The next series of photos relate to another field trip with the Cornwall Botany Group led by me (of all people) with a brief to identify as many Glassworts as we could growing in the saltmarshes at Hayle. Not one, but two Vice County Recorders were present, so no pressure then! The field trip went well surprisingly, though Glassworts were thin on the ground as regards species variety. But of course, we found lots of other plants as well, like this pink variety of Hedge Bindweed, a first for me. The recent rain set off the photo composition beautifully.

Calystegia sepium subsp roseata

The best find on this trip for me was coming across four clumps of Purple Ramping Fumitory. Perhaps the most attractive of our Fumitories, it had eluded me at previously known sites and ironically it was at a new site here. What a beautiful plant.

Fumaria purpurea

Looking at Long-stalked Glasswort at Hayle

The VCRs found us two new species of Rush to see as well. We saw the slender Saltmarsh Rush (Juncus gerardii) and below, the Frog Rush - Juncus ranarius

True to form for Cornwall, there were several alien species to see on this trip too. We saw several Kangaroo Apples growing wild along a path.

Solanum aviculare

This white flowered sorrel posed a headache for our two VCRs, so a sample was taken home for study along with some bulbils from the soil. It turned out to be Broadleaved Sorrel - Oxalis latifolia

Regarding Glassworts, we only found Common, Purple and Long-stalked. About a kilometre away was some Perennial Glasswort but we ran out of time to see those. What was surprising was that only a few years ago Long-stalked Glasswort first arrived in the Hayle eastuary. Now there were hundreds of thousands of them; it had a massive population explosion in less than a decade.

Salicornia dolychostachya

When the field trip ended I drove the short distance to The Lizard Downs for a look around. Cornish Heath was still flowering in white, pink and all in between colours.

Erica vagans

Great Burnet is quite common here.

Sanguisorba officinalis

Gorse doesn't like it much on The Lizard Downs, but Western Gorse takes over instead. It's usually a low growing spindly looking bush, often windswept into a cushion shape. It has smaller and weakly grooved spines and flowers in late Summer only, unlike its cousin Common Gorse.

Ulex gallii

In a cattle field I came across around 30 of these perplexing plants that I'd never seen before. I took a sample and on getting home found them to be an alien plant called Toothed Fireweed. It's like a giant Groundsel (to which it is related) but it smells quite vile, like gone off disinfectant! Apparently, it has gained a hold on the Isles of Scilly and is seemingly invasive. It's now appeared on The Lizard and a few other places in Cornwall too. As it efficiently disperses its seeds by wind, I can't see it being stopped now. Keep an eye out for it.

Senecio minimus

That wraps up August. I'm sorry it was a bit long, but then there was a lot going on this month in Cornwall's wildflower heaven. Hope to see you soon.

Take Care

Dave

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Botanical Finds in Cornwall - End of July 2023

 Botany isn't always about exploring new areas for new species, sometimes you find them within a few miles of your home. I took a walk along a river valley locally, bordered on one side by a disused railway line up a cliff. I had visited this area last year looking for Toadflax-leaved St. John's-wort but had failed to find any, so this year I had another look.

It's an arduous climb to the disused railway and it was heavily overgrown with brambles and gorse, so the wearing of thick jeans to visit is a must! Along one side of the disused railway line was a cliff cut out of the hillside and it was on here that this plant used to grow in good numbers. However, over the years, it had become wooded and scrubbed over, and now only a few small bare areas of cliff were left. On one such area I found a single plant, so I was elated at seeing one. The downside was that this was an evening walk and the flower had closed, but it was great to see this species at long last.

Hypericum linariifolium

Here's a photo of its habitat. It doesn't compete well with other plants, hence it is only found on these bare areas of rock, clinging onto the shallow soils in cracks and fissures.

Climbing Corydalis can often be found around Wadebridge and there were two large clumps of it in the woodland not far from the previous plant featured. It likes shady places, so photography can be tricky in the low light of the canopy.

Cerotocapnos claviculata

As I left the area I noticed an unusual Sedge in fruit by the path. I took a sample home and keyed it out as Small-fruited Prickly Sedge. On checking previous records for the area, I found it had been recorded here before too, thus helping to confirm my identification. This was also a new species of sedge for me.

Carex muricata subsp pairae

Nearby, a Small Skipper butterfly was roosting. It's always great to see butterflies and even better to get a good photo too.

Thymelicus sylvestris

At Juy's end, many plants are at their best, including Angelica. It's quite common in Cornwall and is often found on hedgerows and roadsides given the damp habitats there. This one below was at a nature reserve near Tredinnick Pits. I had hoped to find Pillwort and  Lesser Marshwort here, but their habitat was under water from all the rain we have had and I couldn't find them.

Angelica sylvestris

I did find lots of Floating Club-rush though, but unfortunately, none had "flowers".

Eliogiton fluitans

The magnificent Royal Fern was frequent in a couple of areas, though in danger of being completely shaded out by young tree growth of Grey Willow and Sycamore.

Osmunda regalis

Flowering plants here included lovely stands of Water Mint, Gypsywort and Marsh St John's-wort amongst others, and also some unusually pink Marsh Speedwells, they are usually almost all white, as were most others of this plant here, including white flowers on the same plant as this pink one! Pink-flowered Water Speedwell tends to grow in more alkaline habitats and it is rare in Cornwall as a result.

Veronica scutellata

An unsual find here wasn't found on the reserve, but on a farm track between tractor ruts nearby. A rather small Marsh Yellow-cress. I'd only seen this plant one before growing out of a kerbstone on a rural Kent lane.

Rorippa palustris

My final trip of July was west of Week St Mary in NE Cornwall. I noticed the fungi were beginning to show here and there, unsurprising given the damp summer weather we've had all throughout July.

Below is Yellow Stagshorn Fungi which often grows on dead pine or on pine stumps as here. It turns orange as it matures.

Calocera viscosa

Saw-wort isn't just a coastal plant in Cornwall, it is also found on rural road verges and on some Cornish hedges, though usually just an odd plant here and there. I found these on a dirt track road verge just prior to the flowers opening. I've included a photo of its lower leaves too from where it gets its name. It looks very different to the Knapweed species with which you might confuse it if looking in some of the more basic guide books.

Serratula tinctoria

A fairly common hybrid that can be found is between Hedge and Marsh Woundworts. Both can grow in similar habitats and often do, and where they overlap, cross pollination is fairly frequent. Here there were around 20 flowering spikes of this hybrid. Most had the flowers of Hedge Woundwort with the unstalked stem leaves of Marsh, and a few plants had both stalked and unstalked leaves up the stems. They immediately look "wrong" when you see them for either parent species. They had previously been recorded here many years before, so they can maintain their fertility and no doubt back cross too with either parent. I found both parent species within 30m of these hybrid plants.

Stachys x ambigua

I had gone to this area to search for an old record of Wood Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum). Unfortunately, I failed to find it, but I did find over 50 spikes of Broad-leaved Helleborines scattered over a 100m area. Helleborines are uncommon in Cornwall, so if you want to see them, look in woodland close to the Devon border. The further west one goes, the fewer records there are for them. This is probably as there are hardly any older woodlands in the west of Cornwall which is their preferred habitat.

Epipactis helleborine

So ended July. The whole month was wet or drizzly with under average temperatures. While challenging to keep the camera dry, it was most welcome after the prolonged late Spring drought we had endured with way above average temperatures in May and June. The rain encouraged another burst of germination in annual species and kept going those that would normally dry up in a hot summer.

I hope you enjoyed reading the blog and I am sure there are many botany discoveries to be had in your own area. The key to finding them is to get out and about and walk very slowly!

Take Care

Dave

Botanical Finds in Cornwall - Mid to Late July 2023

The weather pattern throughout July was of numerous low pressure systems bringing wind and rain, not only for Cornwall, but for all of the UK. It seems we might have had our summer in May to June. This is all good for the plants though, especially annuals that will germinate and grow quite late in the season when conditions are right.

Here follows a selection of the wonderful wild plants of Cornwall that I have found on my travels around the county through the middle part of this month.

 

Starting off in North Cornwall near Bude and I found this Curled Pondweed in a stream close to where it entered the sea. It's a very easily identified plant and I've not seen much else like it. The stems and leaves are quite stiff and do not fold flat when you take them out of the water.

 

Potamogeton crispus

A surprise find below, was of Smith's Pepperwort, an uncommon and usually coastal plant. I found several plants in the National Trust car park at Sandymouth Bay which were new records for the monad. Unlike Field Pepperwort, the seeds on this plant have the remains of the style poking out of the top of the seed for several millimetres. The plant can grow to about two feet or so tall.

Lepidium heterophyllum

 

 I have never knowingly seen Sea Storksbill before, but I must have walked past it countless times. The leaves look similar to Common Storksbill, but not as finely cut, but if you look very closely, you will see the plants below have green flowers with no petals at all. I found these on a sandy road verge in short turf near the sea.

Erodium maritimum

I do my best to identify grasses when I have the time to study a sample at home. The one below turned out to be a very large Marsh Foxtail growing at the top of a beach in a pool from a stream, dammed by the sea piling up shingle in front of it.
 

Alopecurus geniculatus

 

 

 By a cafe on a beach were some nice looking False Fox Sedges. They have a similar structure and look to them as Star Sedge (Carex echinata) but the former are much larger and sturdier with sharply 3 angled stems and downward pointing bracts below the spikelets.

Carex otrubae

 

 Below was an example of an annual species that is usually gone over by late Spring, Thyme-leaved Sandwort. Here it is flowering again on a clifftop in short turf, thanks to plenty of rain! These can be distinguished from Slender Sandwort by their conical "flask" shaped seedpods. Slender has much smaller and straighter pods and much finer leaves too.

Arenaria serpyllifolia s.s.

 

Plenty of Speedwells are having a second go at flowering too. The following two photos show the very common larger flower of Common Field Speedwell (Veronica persica) compared to two small native annuals I found growing with it - Wall and Grey Field Speedwells.

Veronica arvensis (the tiny flower)

Veronica polita (the smaller flower)

 

 Back inland and I'm looking around the perimeter of a new housing estate and I find Corncockles on a roundabout! They were clearly sown with the amenity planting, but whether they were part of the mix or a contaminant, I don't know. There were no other typical seed mix plants on it.

Agrostemma githago

 

On a steep bank of disturbed soil by this new estate, I also found a few Field Woundwort plants, likely buried in the seedbank and brought to the surface by earthworks.

Stachys arvensis

 

Not far away was a huge area comprised of china clay waste with some footpaths through it. On some short turf I found a patch of Chamomile in flower. Easily told apart from other Mayweed type of flowers by its lovely smell when any part is crushed. This is not uncommon in Cornwall, especially on Bodmin Moor, but I'd not seen it in china waste areas before, so it was a nice find. They rarely grow more than 6" tall here.

Chamaemelum nobile

 

Another nice find on the waste area were numerous Small Cudweed plants, these are small, grey, hoary looking plants with small capitulas comprised of a few uninteresting brown flowers. These are quite rare and declining nationally.

Logfia minima

In between the rain showers, I took a local walk and ended up on an arable field edge that miraculously had not been sprayed with herbicides. Fool's Parsley was abundant along the edge of the crop of Maize. It's a smallish plant that grew to around 12" tall, but its drooping down bracts are definitive to its identification.

Aethusa cynapium

I also found an unusual Cornsalad here. Looking in the botanist Bible (Stace 4) and also the comprehensive Sell and Murrell volumes, I couldn't decide whether I had found Narrow-fruited or the glabrous form of Hairy-fruited Cornsalad. Photos were sent to the BSBI referee for Valerianella who agreed they were quite unusual, but were most likely Narrow-fruited. As both are rare finds in East Cornwall, I was still very pleased to find around 50 plants here.

Valerianella dentata var. dentata

 

 On another local walk, I passed a fenced off area that used to be an arable field but was awaiting being built on for new housing. I spotted the plants below through an impenetrable security fence, so I couldn't get any closer. Other botanists identified them for me as Narrow-leaf Clover, a non-native Clover and no doubt a crop relict. Unfortunately, I won't see it in flower next year as the bulldozers have now moved in.

Trifolium angustifolium

 I took an evening trip to Bodmin Moor as it's only a few miles away from me. In a bog I came across lots of small rush like plants that appeared to be sprouting seeds whilst still on the stalk. I'd not seen this before (bogs being rather scarce in Kent) and the VCR told me this was Bulbous Rush which commonly propogates in this fashion. There's always something new to learn in botany!

Juncus bulbosus

This bog has carpets of White-beaked Sedge in it, which looked spectacular; like little stars in the grasses.

 

Rhynchospora alba
 

 I didn't want to leave out ferns on this blog, so here's my first Lemon-scented Fern that I have not been shown by someone else! Since Covid, I have had difficulty smelling much of anything, but this fern really did have the scent of lemons and even I could smell it. What's more, when running my fingers over the back of the fronds it was sticky and felt like Sticky Groundsel to the touch, quite unique I think. You can see the lemon scent glands on the second photo below.

Oreopteris limbosperma

Bog Asphodel would have been a fine sight here a few weeks ago, but now, there were just a few plants with flowers left, the rest had gone to seed. They really are the golden gems of the bog.

Narthecium ossifragum

I did find a lone Heath Spotted Orchid still flowering a month after all the others had gone over, but orchids have featured so many times, I'll give them a miss for this blog. My final plant below, was the small but amazing Ivy-leaved Bellflower. Fairly common on damp moors and bogs in Cornwall, but much rarer the further East you go. Unfortunately, due to rain, the tiny blue flower was closed.

Wahlenbergia hederacea

I had hoped to wrap up July with this blog, but there's too many plants to choose from; if I include them all here, the blog will become too long and cumbersome and readers may just fall asleep reading it, so I will write a separate blog for the last week of July. 

Take care.

Dave