In Search of Irish Ladies Tresses in Devon - August 2024

 On my way back to Cornwall from a family day out to Dartmoor in July, we found the road closed and a diversion in place not far from Tavistock. This sent us down a narrow country lane which went past some really nice looking bog pasture. I stopped to take a look around and thought the bog flora was quite impressive, given that much of Dartmoor is dry and over-grazed. Once home, I did some reaearch and found that Irish Ladies Tresses had been recorded here for many years, but not seen since 1994.

Given this incentive to re-find it, I visited the area in mid August to record the monad. I searched all over the area but unfortunately I didn't find any, but here's what I did find of interest.

 

Lanceolate Spleenwort on a roadside wall. Much like Black Spleenwort, but the fronds are tapered to the base and not triangular. Also, the stipe is not blackened near the base and the sori are smaller in this species too.

Asplenium obovatum

Carnation Sedge was in fruit in the boggy areas. It's characterised by the fruits being large and loose as illustrated in the photo.

Carex panicea

Slender Knapweed (formerly inadequately called Chalk Knapweed) on a road verge by the bog. You can tell this apart from Common Knapweed by the slender capitulas, less than 14mm wide and the dark part of the bracts are lanceolate, not ovate and do not overlap each other.

Centaurea debauxii

 

On a boggy flush down a hillside were numerous Oblong-leaved Sundews, an insect eating plant.

Drosera intermedia

In the same area were clumps of Floating Club-rush "in flower" as it were. I'd not seen these growing on soil before. In Cornwall I see them floating in ponds and puddles.

Eleogitons fluitans

 

Cross-leaved Heath up the slope in the drier parts.

Erica tetralix

Back to the road verge and there was a colony of Common Hemp-nettles.

Galeopsis tetrahit

 

A typical bog habitat for the carniverous Oblong-leaved Sundew.

 

A plant that only grows in very wet places is Marsh St. John's-wort, quite unlike the other species of Hypericum but the same family of course.

Hypericum elodes

 

Trailing St. John's-wort in the drier parts.

Hypericum humifusum

 

The beautiful flowers of Slender St. John's-wort, this plant has orange buds before the flower opens.

Hypericum pulchrum

 

Bog Pimpernel looking great as ever in the bog.

Lysimachia tenella

 

A few Bog Asphodels were still flowering, though most were in seed, as shown in the third photo.

Narthecium ossifragum

 

A short distance away was a golf course with not much growing on it, but I found some young Royal Fern growing in a roadside ditch next to it. A lovely plant.

Osmunda regalis

 

Back on the edge of the bog were rafts of White-beaked Sedge

Rhynchospora alba

 

Quite numerous in places was the diminuitive Lesser Skullcap.

Scutellaria minor

 

Devil's-bit Scabious with their lovely blue flat-topped flowers were found by the roadside.

Succisa pratensis

 

My final find of note was a single plant of Ivy-leaved Harebell amongst clumps of Purple Moor Grass.

Wahlenbergia hederacea

 I don't often get to record in Devon, but it's good to go and see plants in areas other than your local one. I didn't find the elusive Irish Ladies Tresses and they may well now be extinct at this site, but I found lots of other nice species. I might return next season for another look perhaps?

Take Care

Dave

Cornwall Botany - Mid August 2024

 The first group of plants come from a Cornwall Botany Group field trip to Loe Bar walking along coast, clifftop turf and arable fields to Gunwalloe not far from Helston.

Sea Beet isn't often photographed as it's a very common seaside plant related to garden Beetroot. However, they look quite exotic when the pods and fruits turn red, so they become worthy then of a portrait.

Beta vulgaris subsp maritima

 

We then found some that were fasciated, a condition I hadn't seen in this species before.

Almost onto the beach at Loe Bar was an all white variant of Betony, perhaps the salt influence affected its colouring? 

Betonica officinalis

Some of the Cornwall Botany Group at Loe Bar which comprises of sparsely vegetated fine shingle.

A surprise find were a few ragged looking Chamomile on the coast path. They were ragged because walkers continually tread on them as they grew right in the middle of the path. A sniff of the crushed foliage easily identifies it from lookalike Mayweeds, it smells lovely!

Chamaemelum nobile

Rock Samphire coming into flower, a sure sign of late Summer.

Crithmum maritimum

Common Dodder was prolific in some areas, almost all of it parasitising Common Gorse (Ulex europaeus). However, we did find one plant growing on Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) which was a surprise.

Cuscuta epithymum

Due to declining habitats, Sea Holly is an uncommon plant, but it grew prolifically on Loe Bar. There were previous records too for Yellow-horned Poppies but we failed to find any which was a shame.

Eryngium maritimum

When in West Cornwall, it's always great to come across Cornish or Western Ramping Fumitory. It's the UK's largest flowered fumitory (the flowers are usually about 14mm long) and it is endemic to Cornwall, nearly all of it found West of the River Camel. Note the white border on the top petals, no other fumaria species has this, though they turn deep pink after pollination, as shown in the last photo.

Fumaria occidentalis

When I lived in Kent, I associated Ladies Bedstraw as a chalk plant, however, it grows in Cornwall anywhere where shell grit/sand is blown ashore as well as some road verges inland - much like Kent but without the chalk.

Galium verum

On CBG field trips there is usually an entomologist with us recording insects too. He found this 5cm long (excluding the antennae) Great Green Bush Cricket on an arable field edge for us to admire.

Tettigonia viridissima

Sea Sandwort with its pyramid like leaf structure is quite photogenic. They are in seed now and this photo shows the large seed pods which detach in time for the Autumn storm tides to float off and spread to other areas. The holes around it belong to solitary bee species burrowing into the harder sand of fixed dunes.

Honckenya peploides

A Frog Rush growing on old concrete on Gunwalloe beach. 

Juncus ranarius

Below was a new species for me, though in seed now. Found by the VCR on a cliff, it is Crested Hair-grass.

Koeleria macrantha

We found a bunch of Cut-leaved Dead Nettles in an arable field with deeply incised teeth on the leaves.

Lamium hybridum

A Swinecress flowering on fine shingle.

Lepidium coronopus

Our entomologist kindly found a native Cockroach for us to admire. Up until then, I had no idea we had any cockroaches native to the UK. The one below is a flightless female Lesser Cockroach.

Ectobius panzeri

The rhino horned flower of Common Restharrow, the hairs on it being very glandular and smelling of gone off lemons. Rub some on you and it acts as an insect (and person) repellant too.

Ononis repens

A disused small quarry on the coast path had a lone Heath Pearlwort still in flower. Thanks to the occasional rain we've had throughout the Summer, some annual species have kept going all Summer long.

Sagina subulata

A Rock Sea-spurrey on a cliff. Their flowers are at least twice the size of the other spurries, so very easy to identify in flower.

Spergularia rupicola

Wild Thyme dotted the clifftop turf or on thin soil rock outcrops.

Thymus drucei

We found some Western Clover too, though not in flower this late in the season. There are only a few sites off The Lizard where it has been found in recent times.

 

Trifolium occidentale

That summed up the field trip which was very enjoyable with good weather too. The next day I had an evening walk at Daymer Bay in the Camel estuary which is local to me.

A very late Pyramidal Orchid still just in flower in short turf.

Anacamptis pyramidalis

Carline Thistles, look dead but are actually in full flower.

Carlina vulgaris

The sticky seed capsules of Houndstongue which help to disperse seed to other areas via the fur coats of passing animals.

Cynoglossum officinalis

A view of Daymer Bay from the nearby coast path.

An unusual garden escape was a bunch of blue coloured gladioli, Large-flowered Gladious.

Gladiolus x hortulanus

The rhubard and custard coloured flowers of Ploughman's Spikenard.

Inula conyzae

 

Where the turf was short, Western Eyebright studded the grass with their quadrilateral form.

Euphrasia tetraquetra

There was a hatch of Six Spot Burnet Moths. This one was feeding on Field Scabious.

Zygaena filipendulae on Knautia arvensis

I went to Daymer Bay primarily to find and record Autumn Ladies Tresses, a small wild orchid with spirals of green and white flowers up a spike. In previous years, only the odd one or two plants had been recorded here. No doubt thanks to the wet Spring and Summer, I recorded 43 spikes here, a vast improvement.

Spiranthes spiralis

My final plant of the day was Pink Water Speedwell, a rare plant in Cornwall. It had been previously recorded in the stream that runs into Daymer Bay in recent years, though I found a patch in a new part of the stream, virtually on the beach, so that was nice.

Veronica catenata

 

That wraps up mid August, keep an eye out for my Late August blog of Cornwall Botany, coming soon.

Take Care

Dave