Cornwall Botany - Late July 2024

 To finish off July, here are some of the more interesting plants I found on my recording trips.

My first featured plant is a grass, specifically, Hard Grass. I had only seen this plant a few times and there were usually just a few clumps of it here and there. One evening, I took a walk down the tidal River Camel near Wadebridge and saw hundreds of them, all in "flower". It was quite an impressive sight for an unimpressive flower that I was unable to recreate in a photo.

Parapholis strigosa

Sea Club-rush was also in "flower" in the salt marsh.

Bolboschoenus maritimus

The River Camel is one of the few places in Cornwall where you can find English Scurvygrass. It's a large plant and favours saltmarsh rather than open coastlines.

Cochlearia anglica

Common Gromwell is an uncommon plant in Cornwall, but there is a small disused quarry along the River Camel where they grow. I counted around 20 plants, but the site is rapidly scrubbing over, so they may be lost in a few years time.

Lithospermum officinale

I was lucky to find just one Sea Milkwort still in flower, though there were thousands of plants along the upper edges of the saltmarsh.

Lysimachia maritima

Common Calamint now flowering too, it seems to be more common in Cornwall than it was in Kent.

Clinopodium ascendens

I have been finding and recording many new areas containing Climbing Corydalis of late. I usually only find one or two clumps of it sprawling through other vegetation, with most being in seed by now and beginning to wither. So I was lucky to find one near Davidstow Moor still flowering.

Cerotocapnos claviculata

Common Figwort is one of several Figwort species found in Cornwall, this one again, from Davidstow Moor.

Scrophularia nodosa

On a Cornwall Botany Group field trip to Porthoustock (East side of The Lizard peninsular) we found some of the rare and beautiful Purple Ramping Fumitory. This was only the second time I have seen this plant.

Fumaria purpurea

On the beach we found a plant that was new to me, but I instantly recognised it as Ray's Knotgrass. I had been looking for it for a while, so it was good to finally see some. It's clearly not one of the common aggregate species as it's a large sprawling plant with big flowers. It's like Sea Knotgrass in size, but the leaves do not curl under and the internodes are long not short and cramped. The nutlets also protude from the tepals.

Polygonum oxyspermum subsp raii

Next to it was Cornfield Knotgrass (Polygonum rurivagum) but unfortunately my photos came out poor for that species.
There were many Haresfoot Clovers around the beach car park and nearby clifftops, most in seed, but a few still had some flowers tucked away in their fluffy heads. We also discovered lots of Greek Sea-Spurrey around the car park too, all in seed.

Trifolium arvense

 

On the way home from this field trip, I stopped off at Traboe Cross, near Goonhilly to view some of the flora there. Cornish Heath were flowering in their thousands, with pink, white and all shades in between decorating the road verges and heathland.

Erica vagans

Sneezewort was also abundant, especially along the road verges, growing with Great Burnet.

Achillea ptarmica

Great Burnet in flower on a road verge.

Sanguisorba officinalis

My last find of note was in a town centre. I was walking around Wadebridge looking for new plant species when I found a Plume Poppy growing out the base of a tall wall. It had been recorded before but it shows you that there are always surprises to be found. It spreads from rhizomes, so I imagine that a root from the garden above the wall had grown down 8 feet and driven itself through the wall into the street! The same trip I also recorded a Himalayan Honeysuckle tree growing out of a wall by the local Co-op and several other oddities.

Macleaya cordata x microcarpa M  x kewensis 

With that, July is written up. I hope the selection was interesting and that you come back for plants I might find in August in Cornwall.

Take Care

Dave

 

 

 

Cornwall Botany - Early to Mid July 2024

 I don't know where the time goes. It seems like only a short time ago that the  Spring flowers were opening and now we are well into Summer. Having said that, the weather hasn't been very summery at all, with only a few sunny warm days, the rest being overcast or wet. However, that's not all bad news, as the plants like to be kept watered and last longer as a result. Here follows some of my early to mid July finds in Cornwall.

Below is a very misleading photo from a Cornwall Botany Group field trip to Northcott Mouth north of Bude. It's misleading as it rained incessantly for most of the trip and we cut it short, dripping and bedraggled. A strong onshore wind didn't help matters either. Yet, a mile away north or south, it was a sunny dry day! We got stuck under a conveyor belt of heavy showers, unfortunate, but sometimes that's how it is.

Due to the rain, I took very few photos as my camera and lens are not waterproof. I did take some photos of Common Dodder parasitising Common Gorse.

Cuscuta epithymum

I took a local evening walk around Egloshayle near Wadebridge and found some Wild Onion, or Crow Garlic growing on a cemetery wall.

Allium vineale

In a garden centre car park, growing through the tarmac, was an umbrella plant. This seems to pop up fairly often in the wild, mostly near habitation, but I did find some on arable field edges once.

Cyperus eragrostis

Sweet William naturalised near a churchyard which was its probable origin.

Dianthus barbaratus

The host of small Willowherb species aren't very exciting to look at and can be quite complicated to work out at times. The one below is Spear-leaved Willowherb, a speciality for the South West of England. It has a cross shaped stigma and unlike other species it has stalked lanceolate leaves. These often turn deep red as it ages and the flower is paler than the others. I had this verified by the BSBI Epilobium referee too.

Epilobium lanceolatum

Field Scabious is declining nationally and is a Cornwall axiophyte species (indicative of good habitat where it grows). As such, I always record them when I find them. These were on a Cornish hedge, so I could get under them for a different type of photo to the usual.

Knautia arvensis

The most common Mallows I see in Cornwall are Common, Musk and Tree Mallow, however, there are several other species to consider, including a few garden escaped tree mallow species. The flowers below were so vivid and the leaves quite large that I checked them out thoroughly in the books to see if they were something unusual. However, it turned out to be just Common Mallow, but what a lovely example of one.

Malva sylvestris

Lemon Balm was growing naturalised on a roadside bit of waste ground and as I knelt to photograph it, the smell was indeed very lemony!

Melissa officinalis

On the Cornish coastline and on the moors, English Stonecrop is the species you will find in numbers, however, once you get into urban areas or near gardens, White Stonecrop takes over. With its umbels of flowers it's a much showier Sedum than English Stonecrop, but it lacks pink in the flowers, so doesn't look as spectacular when there is a carpet of them.

Sedum album

One of the advantages of attending field trips with a botany group is that you can draw on the expertise of the others present. On this CBG trip to Cadson Bury Hill near Callington, we found Fragrant Agrimony, a plant I had looked for, but had never previously found.

It differs from the usual Agrimony in having almost smooth bases to their seedpods and the undersides of the leaves having numerous fragrant glandular hairs , so if you rub them, your fingers will have a pleasant smell left by those glands. Leaves are supposed to be bigger too, but I couldn't quite see that in this specimen.

Agrimonia procera

Autumn Hawkweed were about to flower at Cadson Bury Hill, several of them were popping up along the top of the hill.

Hieracium sabaudum

Cornwall Botany Group field trip to Cadson Bury Hill, admiring acidic grassland on the way down.

Cow-wheat was present in good numbers too.

Melampyrum pratense subsp pratense

Both species of Gorse were growing right on top of each other allowing for some comparison photos; they really do look quite different. Western Gorse is flowering now.

Gorse Comparison

 

Ulex gallii in flower

The last photo from that field trip was of Zig Zag Clover with its Red Clover like inflorescenses (but unlike Red Clover the whole being on a stalk above the sub tending leaves) and the narrower, hairy leaves of course.

Trifolium medium

On my way home from Callington, I stopped off to record a the road verges around the A38 near Liskeard. I was drawn to them as I drove by, by the fact that there were several bare areas on the verges and these aften have rare plants growing in them. I wasn't disappointed.

First nice plant wasn't on the bare ground, but nearby. It was Hairy Bindweed, which has a pink striped flower the same size as Large Bindweed, with sepals overlapping too. However, the flower stalk is usually winged and may also be hairy. This specimen was both winged and hairy, so an easy one.

Calystegia pulchra

On the bare aggregate of a slip road I found hundreds of Wall Bedstraw. They had all gone to seed and turned red now, but the growth form is quite unusual, being thin and weedy looking, with whorls of 6-7 leaves. Prickles on the leaves all point forward and the prickles on the stems downwards.

Galium parisience

On the same verge were several clumps of Imperforate St. John's-wort, this was only the second time I'd ever seen this species. As the name suggests, the leaves lack the transluscent spots and the petals are streaked with lines of black glands.

Hypericum maculatum

My star find from this verge were around 50 flowering spikes of Pennyroyal, a very uncommon plant in the Mint family. I suspect they were brought here by birds carrying or pooping out their seeds. There were some recorded on the opposite carriageway a while back but they have spread here since then.

To reliably separate them from Corn Mint, check the sepals. They should be hairy and the lower two being thinner and longer than the upper three.

Mentha pulegium

Here's a habitat shot which goes for the Pennyroyal and Imperforate St. John's-wort and a host of other species too.

That finishes off the first half of July, I hope you enjoyed this selection of plants. So until the end of the month, I will leave you. I hope you too find some lovely wild plants in your area too.

Take Care

Dave