The Search for Bog Orchids, Cornwall, August 2022

 I've always mis-timed looking for this tiny wild orchid in the past, mostly as my holidays were to areas where they may have been being at the wrong time. So I hoped to put that right now that I live in an area where they can be found. I searched a few venues nearby with historical records but failed to find them, which is not surprising given that they are light green growing amongst similar coloured plants and sphagnum mosses in inaccessible boggy areas. Given my lack of success, I turned to the Cornwall Botany Group and joined a field trip to Bodmin Moor to hopefully find some under guidance from the County Recorder and other experienced botanists. They are a very friendly group and I would advise any budding botanist to join their local group to benefit from their experience and knowledge.

 We parked our cars on a lay-by of a tiny lane in the middle of nowhere, by a stream. Being botanists, it took a while to move away from the cars as there are always interesting plants to see wherever one stops and here was no exception. What initially looked like a small Skullcap plant was in fact the hybrid between Lesser Skullcap and Skullcap. This was a first for many of us and the botanists bible Stace 4 was consulted, measurements taken and agreement reached that this was the hybrid plant.

Scutellaria galericulata x minor = S. x hybrida

 

I often find it useful to make notes on a composite image as below, it saves looking it all up again if one finds a similar plant in the future.

Nearby were patches of Ivy-leaved Bellflower, a cute plant with ivy shaped leaves and tiny bright blue flowers.

Wahlenbergia hederacea

 

 

With many boggy areas in Cornwall, it is easy to forget that it is in fact a rare and declining habitat in England, with many bogs drained and turned over to intensive agriculture. Yet there are so many amazing plants within them and no doubt, insects too. It has also recently been scientifically shown that peat bogs absorb more CO2 than a forest does, yet we still destroy  them for agriculture and development. I see no end to it.

One of the attractive bog plants is Marsh St. John's Wort as shown below.

 

Hypericum elodes

It was a hot August day as we carefully made our way through the bog. After a while, we came to a wetter patch and someone called out they'd found a Bog Orchid. There was no rushing to see it in case we trod on an unseen plant. As such, we took turns treading in each other's footsteps to avoid habitat damage and after a while, there it was in all its splendour. After this we found several, culminating in a patch of multiple spikes. Most were between 4-6" tall (15cm) with a few a bit taller in the clump. They were very well camoflagued.

Hammarbya paludosa

Given it was and is a special plant for me to see, I've added several photos below.

You can see how hard it was to spot in the photo below.

A coin for scale

An amazing clump, probably all from the same plant over many years. We found well over 80 spikes in total.

Close up macro photographs were extremely difficult to do as I was always slowly moving as I sunk in the mire (welly boots essential). Add to that, a breeze and wobbly hands and I was amazed I got any half decent photos.

The photo below shows the Sphagnum moss that this orchid is often associated with. It's an identical colour to the orchid and this makes the latter almost invisible as one walks along at a standing height.

I hope I will have another go at taking better photos next year.

Of course there were many other plants to see and we marvelled at them all. I particularly like the carnivorous plants that digest insects to supplement the meagre pickings from bog soils. One of those was Pale Butterwort which has sticky leaves. When an insect lands on them they fold over and digest the unfortunate bug. You can see the leaves folding over below as well as one of its flowers which range from white to pale lilac in colour.

Pinguicula lusitanica

Well, that was another first sighting of a rare plant in Cornwall and there are lots more for me to see over the next few years. Even when you think you have seen them all, another species pops up unexpectedly to keep the interest going. The best thing about botany is the constant surprises and the realisation that the more you learn, the less you know. Until next time, take care.

Dave

Botanical Finds in Cornwall - End of July 2022

 This blog wraps up my finds for July and it encompasses several venues. My first photo below is not of a plant but of an Adder. This is the UK's only venomous snake and they are as common on moors and heaths in Cornwall, as they were on chalk grasslands in Kent. Having said that, they are in decline overall due to habitat loss.

I've posted this photo first as a warning. I very nearly trod on this sunbathing Adder near Tregoss Moor. I am very pleased I saw it before my foot went down and I could back off without getting bitten. Had I trod on it, I surely would have needed the Cornwall air ambulance to get me to hospital many miles away in Truro.

It quickly slithered off once it realised I had backed off and they can move very fast too. Watch where you tread when in the countryside, especially if you are off the beaten track as I often am. Fortunately, my eyes are usually looking at the ground ahead of me for plants, but others don't look down anywhere near as often, take care!

Vipera berus

Oblong-leaved Sundews are still a novelty for me as I'd never seen any that weren't round before moving to Cornwall. They seem to be a bit smaller and more compact than their Round-leaved cousins and perhaps redder in colour too. However, one can't dispute their oblong-ness. There's the remains of a fly on this one, yes, these plants eat meat!

Drosera intermedia

Found at Retire Common on the eastern arm of that reserve. This was very dry and although I wore wellies, I hardly sunk in mire anywhere apart from the central area of the bog.

The Common Hemp-Nettle below seems to be an unusual find as this one is the only one I've seen here this Summer. A single plant amongst Heather, Gorse and Bell Heather near Tregoss Moor. Its similar looking relative, the Bifid Hemp-Nettle has a notch in the centre lower petal and is usually pinker too.

Galeopsis tetrahit

Wavy-leaved St. John's wort is a new one for me. I wondered how difficult it would be to identify it given the flowers of these species tend to look very similar.

I needn't have worried, they are so striking you can't miss them or mistake them for other Hypericums.

Look at those stunning crimson stripes under the petals!

The photo below shows most of the plant which shows the sepals are also bright red before they open. Superficially like Slender St. John's wort but the plant is much larger with bigger flowers too. Another Retire Common beauty.

Hypericum undulatum

I almost forgot to show a wavy edged leaf from whence they get their name!

My visit to Retire Common also threw up a new species for me with this White-beaked Sedge. It was present in large numbers on the eastern arm of the reserve.

Rhynchospora alba

I've never seen such a perfectly formed Beefsteak Fungus before, velvety to the touch and looking like a beef steak of course. Found on a tree near the town of Rock.

Fistulina hepatica

Sea Beet is a common plant along our coasts and is generally a rather boring plant with spikes of green petal-less flowers. However, once these go to seed, they look spectacular when you look close up. They are very colourful and look like little triffids that just might open up and take a bite out of you as you pass by.

Beta vulgaris ssp maritima

Houndstongue is uncommon in Cornwall and elsewhere. Flowering has long gone, but the seeds are just as interesting. The little spines hook onto the fur of passing animals and help disperse it. I found a single seeding plant along the high tide line of the Camel Estuary near Porthilly.

Cynoglossum officinale

Likewise with the Burnet Rose below, except the seeds are contained within a hip of course.  The hips are distinctive and help to identify it from other roses, but if you look at the top right of the photo you might notice the stem. This is densely packed with small bristles amongst the thorns and is a good ID feature too. Fairly common along the north Cornwall coast and on Cornish walls here.

Rosa spinosissima

I featured Jersey Cudweed not too long ago having found it next to a superstore in Bodmin. I found some more when taking an evening walk around Wadebridge. Behind the Premier Inn was a bit of brownfield concrete long abandoned, so I took a look hoping for some Cudweeds that like the dry conditions found there. I wasn't disappointed.

I found several hundred Jersey Cudweed in seed or flower here, an amazing sight and a new record for the area.

Laphangium luteoalbum

Nearby, along Gonvena Hill I found the fodder version of Salad Burnet. This is much bigger in all parts than the native form with deeply serrated large paired leaves and flower heads so large, you wonder at first if you've found Great Burnet.

This no doubt originated when the nearby Premier Inn was built some years ago and the surrounding areas seeded when the building work was finished. It's persisting all by itself as it often does in such situations.

Poterium sanguisorba ssp balearicum

It's surprising how Sea Milkwort can go unnoticed when not in flower. the leaves are reminiscent of a thin Sea Sandwort, but once you know them, you can't miss them. Fortunately, this patch by the River Camel upstream of Wadebridge was in flower.

Lysimachia maritima

On the last day of July, I managed my first visit to the China Clay waste areas around St. Austell. The dry, arid and barren soils often support some rare or unusual plants.

Yellow-wort was present in good numbers.

Blackstonia perfoliata

Very tiny Trailing St. John's wort were common and distracted the eye with their tiny yellow flowers dotting the whole area. I even managed to pick a rainy day in this long drought period to go out too!

Hypericum humifusum

Chamomile was present where the grasses were short, often in large numbers. They seem to be nearly all less than 6" tall and of course have a lovely smell if you crush one. They can't really be confused with the Mayweeds at all and Stinking Chamomile is a chalk specialist where Chamomile doesn't grow anyway.

Chamaemelum nobile

There were hundreds of tiny Lesser Centaury in the waste areas. Most were less than 2cm high and given the rain the purple flowers were closed. A useful tip for ID is that these have no basal rosette when in flower and Common Centaury does.

Centaurium pulchellum

My first Hawkweed of the Summer was this likely Narrow-leaved Hawkweed. They look great but are a hard group to identify. The leaves in the photo belong to Bracken though!

Hieracium umbellatum

 Here are the leaves of the above Hawkweed, quite distinctive aren't they.

 

 I found a spoilheap of china clay sand. This had a few patches of Birdsfoot growing on it.

The above was a standing height view of the plant, look how tiny the flowers are. Luckily, I have a good macro lens so you can see the beauty of them close up.

Ornithopus perpusillus

This same spoil heap had a small colony of Small Cudweed too, a lovely plant to stumble across.

Logfia minima

Below is a close up photo of the spores of a Polypody fern. You can just see the annulus rings which are the tiny black bits on the egg like spore sacs. To identify these for sure, you need to take a sample and view them under a microscope. You then count the rings to determine which of the three Polypodies this might be. Of course, being a major nerd and having bought a cheap microscope from Lidl recently, I can do this. I used the microscope to count the rings and this was Common Polypody (of course it was). Interestingly I have found that a visual identification based on the morphology of the leaves nearly always matches the microscopic identification too. Occasionally, but rarely, I get surprised! Details of how many rings each species can have can be found in Stace 4 complete with line drawings too.

Polypodium vulgare

This was probably the last English Stonecrop flower of the year for me from the same site as above near St. Austell. I include it as it was quite a popular post from me on Twitter. I think the raindrops on the flower resonated with people walking bone dry areas at the time.

Sedum anglicum

So the next time someone says lets build houses/retail units/roads or plant lots of conifers all over china clay waste areas, you should know that most of the above species would die out. There is no such thing as waste areas or wasteland. Such areas are home to many plants, some quite rare, that support a good deal of bio diversity in the resulting food chains above them. Develop the area and its all lost.

Anyway, that wraps up my July finds. August will follow soon, but still the drought persists. Yes, it rains occasionally, but it immediately evaporates or is sucked up by the stronger plants. So much so, that you can walk through a meadow of seeded brown grasses within two hours of rain and not get wet.

Until next time.

Regards

Dave

You can also follow me on Twitter: @Botany2021

Cornwall Botanical Group Field Trip to Ellenglaze - 05/07/22

 As well as having access to expert botanists on field trips, another big plus is that field trips sometimes take you to out of bounds areas that others cannot explore. This was one such trip to Penhale Sands near Ellenglaze which is a MOD training area, which is behind barbed wire and guarded. 

This was a sunny, warm day and before the drought had started properly, so the plants were still fresh. The area comprised mainly of fixed sand dunes with plenty of dune slacks, some with standing water in them and others that dry out leaving a damp area. Perfect for many of our rarer plants to thrive.

Whilst waiting to get started, I noticed a big stand of Babington's Leek, a large plant and one that can't be missed when in flower. They are relatively common around coastal areas and I saw some flowering today (20/08/22 at the time of writing) much further north at Crackington Haven too.

Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii

 One of the first areas we looked at had Marsh Helleborines, but as we went to look for them, I couldn't help noticing lots of Southern Marsh Orchids. I had a closer look at some and found them to be the hybrid between Heath Spotted and Southern Marsh Orchids, a new record for this monad. I think they are far more common than many realise and it is easy to overlook them as just another Southern Marsh Orchid as one walks by.

They really are quite stunning and mostly much bigger than either parent plant.
Dactylorhiza x hallii

It took a while to find the Marsh Helleborines, even though we knew where they should be. This was because only a few had come into flower, with the rest still in bud. This made it very hard to see them and to avoid crushing budding plants, we trod in each other's footsteps to minimise habitat damage. These flowers were narrower than usual, but I think that was because they were very fresh and had just opened.

We did find some and another small colony in a nearby dune slack too. I think Rock dunes are the only other place they are found in Cornwall.

Epipactis palustris

Portland Spurge is a very attractive native plant and it was dotted around the dunes in the drier places.

Euphorbia portlandica

Near the helleborines were hundreds of the rare Flat Sedge, a plant I'd not seen before. It really is flattened and compressed in fruit, so it's easy to identify. However, it is also confined to this site only within Cornwall, so it is unlikely I will find it elsewhere in the county.

Blysmus compressus

Someone then spotted the most tiny Gentian I'd ever seen in the short turf. On looking closer we found lots more. It was the Early Gentian, a species I had searched for and failed to find in Kent in years gone by, so another new species for me. This used to be classified as a very rare endemic species only found in the UK, however, taxonomists have since downgraded it to a subspecies of Autumn Gentian. Regardless, it is quite different to Autumn Gentian in appearance being much shorter and it flowers much earlier and is thus worthy of protection.

Gentianella amarella subsp anglica

My small eye loupe to give some scale.

Of course, there was an abundance of common flowers too, most of which do not get photographed. One of these was Common Centaury, which looked so bright and cheerful in the sun, I gave in and took its portrait anyway.

Centaurium erythraea

Most Eyebrights are difficult to identify, but the four sided structure of Western Eyebright is distinctive. Only found in coastal locations (to date) it was abundant here.

Euphrasia tetraquetra

There was another orchid to see and it was just coming into flower. It was another new species for me, the Marsh Fragrant Orchid. This species is most likely absent in Kent and I never did find any. It does look quite different to Chalk Fragrant and even the smell is different too.

Gymnadenia densiflora

In one of the drying up ponds was a arge stand of Watercress. Mixed in with it was the rarer One-Rowed Watercress, another new species and one I hadn't heard of before. There are hybrids here, but I couldn't find any mature enough seeds to find it.

Nasturtium microphyllum

Also in this pool were hundreds of plants of Common Clubrush with their distinctive heads and blue green stems. This is now mostly confined to this area of Cornwall too.

Schoenoplectus lacustris

 Our VC2 county recorder amongst the Common Club Rush

Another plant that likes to keep its roots wet and grows around the draw down line of ponds is this Lesser Water Plantain below. The leaves shown however, belong to another plant, Marsh Pennywort.

 Baldellia ranunculoides

The final plant we went to see was Variegated Horsetail and we walked quite a way across the dunes to find it. When we arrived at the right place, we were all on our hands and knees looking for it and it took some minutes before we did find it. It was very small and intertwined around Creeping Willow, so really hard to see and to photograph too. Another first for me too.

Equisetum variegatum

 

 There was also an abundance of butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers and crickets and insects in general, here are just a few of those seen.

Female Silver Studded Blue

Great Green Bush-Cricket

5 Spot Burnet Moth - Zygaena trifolii

Poplar Leaf Beetle

So ended a memorable field trip. Not only did I see many species of plants I hadn't seen before, but I also met fellow botanists and staff from Cornwall Wildlife Trust, thus making contacts too. I can't recommend strongly enough that you seek out your own local botany group and go along to a field trip or two. You will learn so much more than on a solo trip and also have access to locations you otherwise couldn't visit. The same applies to specialist groups looking for all types of insects, birds, mosses and bryophytes and so on.

For plants you can find your own local group at bsbi.org and click on your county on a map of the UK and Ireland. Good luck!

Until next time.

You can also follow me on Twitter: @Botany2021

Dave