Botanical Finds in Cornwall - 8th to 16th May 2022

It is slowly warming up here in Cornwall and more species are coming into flower with each passing week. Kidney Vetch is starting to go over now, but all around this part of the north coast I am finding different colour forms, including yellow, orange, red, some dual coloured and this white form. All were present at Lundy Hole, a small inlet east of the Camel estuary.

Anthyllis vulneraria subsp. vulneraria (forma unnamed)

It still seems odd to me that in Cornwall you get huge drifts of Bluebells growing in the open, usually on salt spray lashed cliffs like here. No trees required for Cornish Bluebells that's for sure.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

The insects have come to life now, and along with numeorus butterflies were the first Large Red Damselflies of the year.

Yellow Rattle is a plant usually associated with hay meadows, mostly sown deliberately as part of the management to weaken grasses, thus allowing other plants a foot in the door so to speak. It is likely it was originally sown at Lundy Hole too. I did also find it in several places on downs where it was patently wild and naturally occuring though.

Rhinanthus minor

Burnet Roses were now showing nicely in the hedgerow walls.

Rosa spinosissima

Butterflies seen included this lovely Wall Brown. I also saw Peacock, Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Small White and Small Coppers.

Back into an urban area and a walk around Egloshayle by the River Camel revealed some escaped Rosy Garlic, now a common plant in the wild, but at least it's a pretty one and not particularly thuggish towards native plants either.

It mostly spreads by dropping these rosy red bulbils rather than by pollination of the few flowers.

Allium roseum

Another frequent garden escape here is Greater Quaking Grass. Here's several hundred escaped from a cemetery onto a road verge! They're also present in many towns, including Bodmin, all around one of the town car parks.

Briza maxima

Nearly all of the larger Scurvygrass plants in Cornwall are Common Scurvygrass. However, in the tidal River Camel, English Scurvygrass is prevalent higher up the estuary. The flowers look pretty much identical in both and both are about the same stature too.

The leaves are very different though. In Common, they are rounded with a heart shaped base. In English (below) they have a cuneate base slowly tapering into the stem, nothing round about these leaves at all!

Cochlearia anglica

Below is Hoary Cress,  a common weedy type of plant found along road verges and waste areas. What caught my eye about this one and several near it, were that they were bright green. Hoary Cress is usually a drab grey. Bright green plants usually belong to a subspecies called subsp. chalapense which would have been a VC1 county first and only ever recorded at Par Sands in VC2. 

However, to determine its ID for sure, seeds have to be examined. I went back and took mature seeds at the end of May (thankfully they had not been mowed off yet). Unfortunately, the seeds were clearly those of the common subspecies, subsp. draba and not the rare one. As you can see, even common everyday plants can have mysteries!

Lepidium draba subsp. draba

Subspecies draba has a flattened base (truncate) and a knobbly network of ridges (reticulate) on the surface of the seed as shown below. Subspecies chalapense would be smooth skinned and have cuneate bases (tapering into the stalk like the English Scurvygrass leaves above). 

This information came to me from various books in my collection, but crucially having access to the skills of a BSBI Brassicaceae referee and a county recorder, one of the benefits of BSBI membership (see bsbi.org for details).

Here's another everyday plant that can cause ID issues. This one is clearly a Bulbous Buttercup as the photo shows the two defining points for ID confirmation, these being downturned sepals and a bulbous base to the stem. However, you may notice it is VERY hairy and Hairy Buttercup grows here too. Hairy also has downturned sepals but always has a straight stem. I didn't mean to pull up the plant, but as I did so accidentally, I thought it worth a reference photo to show the bulbosity of bulbous buttercup stems!

Ranunculus bulbosus

The first Navelwort has finally come into flower (this one in a town).

They are hard to see inside the flower and unless you looked closely, you wouldn't think any flower was yet open, but here's one in close up to show it was. This is a very common plant in Cornwall, probably due to their being a huge amount of habitat (walls) for it to grow on.

Umbilicus rupestris

On a short drive around Bodmin Moor, I noticed this amazing Violet in flower by the roadside, a Marsh Violet. I hope to find some bigger ones as the Summer approaches.

Viola palustris

Cornwall has lots of the larger flowered Fumitories growing here, usually by the coast. This one below, was White Ramping Fumitory found at Harbour Cove. It is characterised by its very large flowers and sepals and the flowers turning downwards as shown here. They usually turn pink after pollination.

Fumaria capreolata subsp. babbintonii

Pale Flax was in flower in Harbour Cove dunes. A delicate species, hard to photograph in a sea breeze.

Linum bienne

Rock Sea-Spurry growing on a wall near Gunver Head. Similar looking to Lesser Sea Spurrey, but the flowers are much larger, about the same size as the sepals and with 10 stamens (ruling out Greater Sea-Spurrey). It also grows on walls, whereas Lesser Sea Spurrey prefers salt marsh and salted road verges.

The seeds at the top of the photo belong to a different salt loving plant, Danish Scurvygrass.

Spergularia rupicola

Marsh Horsetail made a nice change from the usual Field Horsetail that abounds everywhere. Here it is in a dune slack near Daymer Bay.

Equisetum palustre

Another large flowered Fumitory, this time it's Tall Ramping Fumitory, easily identified by its concolorous upper petals. Or to put it anoother way, the top petal is all pink and not black tipped.

Fumaria bastardii var. bastardii

The Spring sunshine is warmer now and has brought out hordes of these delightful small flowers, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Lesser Trefoil is the yellow flower behind it.

Lysimachia arvensis forma arvensis

Near St. Anthony on the south coast, I found a very large patch of Subterranean Clover. This isn't a particularly rare clover, but it is uncommon with very small flowers.

The leaves are soft and hairy both sides.

But what was nice about this find was that it was last seen here in 1856 and not since. This could be a lack of botanical recorders visiting when they flower or it could be that this area was scrubbed over until very recently when the National Trust burnt off and removed tons of Gorse. The now open land bloomed with thouands of tiny plants such as these. Amazing!

Trifolium subterraneum

I will end this blog with a visit to Treslea Downs adjacent to Bodmin Moor. It's not too heavily grazed, so there were more flowers to find here than on other parts of the moor.

Here's a roadside Bitter Vetch with its lovely blue calyxes.

Lathyrus linifolius

Pink Purslane is a common naturalised plant in mid Cornwall. Here were hundreds of the usual pink ones and amongst them a few white forms, lovely!

Claytonia sibirica

Common Birdsfoot Trefoil is very common, but they are usually all yellow or mainly yellow with a hint of orange. It is rare to find the whole batch of flowers completely orange as here. A nice find.

Lotus corniculatus

With less animal grazing here, Bilberry was able to put out a few flowers. It's a very common plant on the moors but usually grazed very short.

Vaccinium myrtillus

Most likely a Greater Butterfly Orchid rosette, they are in full flower elsewhere in the country now, but I've yet to see a mature plant in Cornwall as yet.

Platanthera chlorantha

My final plant of this blog is Bell Heather with a few roadside plants now showing some flowers.

Erica cinerea

The plants of Cornwall are finally waking up. I won't be able to keep up soon and there are some very rare species to see and photograph soon, especially at The Lizard, so do come back soon to see what I can find there and when out and about in Cornwall.

Take care

Dave

Twitter - @botany2021

Early May Botany in North Cornwall

 I always thought that Cornwall had such a mild climate that wildflowers flowered earlier here than the rest of the country. This is not the case it seems. The mild winters encourage hangers on from the previous Summer to stay well into the Winter, however, the Spring is not warmer than elsewhere as the sea that surrounds Cornwall is still cold. Given this, it takes some time for Cornwall to warm up and get going.

I've noticed a plethora of photos online of Greater Butterfly, Common and Heath Spotted orchids all in flower and lots more, and I'm still waiting for the wildflowers to really wake up here. 

Anyway, this is what I found in the first week of May, which was still quite chilly and mostly under 15 degrees Celsius.

In the first rain for weeks on May 1st, I paid a quick visit to Retire Common hoping to see the elusive Pale Dog Violet. I was rather dismayed on arrival, to find lots of ponies grazing the area. However, my hopes rose when I saw that they had not eaten the violets. There were hundreds of Common Dog Violets along the path and they remained un-munched. So I kept a look-out for any that were very pale or almost white. After about 20 minutes I found one, then a few more. Clearly different to the Common Dog Violet and really, quite easy to spot from a standing height.

Viola lactea

 

They weren't all as white as this one. No doubt there is plenty of introgression going on from hybrids back to both parents.

Further along the path, I found a huge clump of flowering dog violets with withered flowers remaining on the plants. This and the vigour of the plants clearly pointed to it being the hybrid between Common Dog and Pale Dog Violets. You can also see the range of colours from white to purple and thin and thicker top petals too.

Viola riviniana x lactea

Here's a photo showing the vigorous nature of this hybrid clump, no fruits set, flowers die on the plant and stay attached.

I was getting soaked with rain now and nothing more of interest was apparent so I went home to dry out. On May 3rd, I was back to my rural road verges in SX07 looking for colonies of Stellaria neglecta (Greater Chickweed).  Along the way I was very surprised to find numerous flowering spikes of Smith's Pepperwort, most being about 2 feet tall on a rural road verge miles inland.

Lepidium heterophyllum

It was unusual to see these away from coastal areas.

On a verge of the A39 near Chapel Amble, I found 87 spikes of Early Purple Orchid in flower and what a lovely sight it was too. They have even survived to seed as the council has refrained from mowing most verges in my area so far this year. A roadside Bluebell joined in the fun for my photo.

Orchis mascula

On the edge of someone's lawn where it joined a rural road, the lawn had a few 'weeds' in it including these delightful Small-flowered Buttercups. This is a species which had eluded me for some years, but was now finally found and in a new location too.

Ranunculus parviflorus

Of course, I found plenty of Greater Chickweed too. I am pleased to say that from my searches, it has not declined in my local area over the last 40 years and is doing fine in the Cornish hedgerows.

Stellaria neglecta var. elizabethae

Also, in the first week of May, a white flowered form of Thrift.

Armeria maritima var. alba

The beautiful Tree Mallow now in flower along the north coast with its big, showy flowers. Apparently it only flowers for two years then dies. Hopefully, it produces a lot of seed in those 2 years and I don't know how long it grows before it flowers, but some are over 6 feet tall.

Malva arborea

Changing forget-me-not is easily recognised by its tight coil of unfolding tiny flowers.

You can then confirm it by seeing white flowers turing to blue in close up. The ones below will turn blue soon.

Myosotis discolor

A road verge Bitter Vetch with their lovely blue calyxes and multi coloured pastel petals.

Lathyrus linifolius

A lovely Ragged Robin from a damp area.

Silene flos-cuculi

I finally found another new species I had been looking for, this time a small fern. It's called Sea Spleenwort and as the name suggests, it grows close to the sea, usually on rocks or walls that get some salt spray.

I think I've seen it before but probably thought it was a Polypodium and walked on by. On a closer look it's quite unlike Polypodium and the leaves are quite fleshy and set close to each other. Found on a wall by Tintagel church (by the sea).

Asplenium marinum

Spring Squill now carpeted the cliffs in many places. It was quite a sight to see the cliff edges turn blue! These flowers (in passing) are a bit like Spanish Bluebells in miniature but are native and have completely different leaves too.

Scilla verna

 

 

 

On dune beaches on the north coast, Sea Spurge was flowering nicely.

Euphorbia paralias

Another dune plant here is the really tiny Early forget-me-not. This photo below shows how tiny they really are.

Myosotis ramosissima

Spring isn't Spring without seeing Orange-tip butterflies is it. This one was simply roosting on a cold, cloudy day in early May, waiting for the sun to come out.

A nice find on an arable field edge was this Salsify below. I was lucky to see it open, as it was early afternoon when I found it, so it should have closed its flowers up by then as they only open on sunny mornings.

Tragopogon porrifolius subsp porrifolius

My last photo for the first week of May was this Rue-leaved Saxifrage from St. Issey churchyard. It was growing on a roof of an outbuilding that dug into the bank of the churchyard, so I could easily see it from above looking down.

What was nice about this find was that there is only one record for this species from this area and it was in 1908. So I re-found this species here after a gap of 114 years which was nice!

Saxifraga tridactylites

I hope you liked the blog, more and more species are now coming into flower, and I never seem to have enough time to document them all or keep up to date. The second week of May will follow soon, keep an eye out for it won't you.

Take care

Dave

Twitter: @botany2021

End of April 2022 - Cornish lanes and Bogs

 As April comes to a close, it's still quite chilly, so the Summer species haven't as yet put in much of an appearance. However, there is still plenty to see, and this blog features the more interesting plants found in the last week of April here.

 Tiny yellow dots in the grass at Tregonetha Downs alerted me to the smallest tree I'd ever seen, the Creeping Willow. It's only a few inches tall and snaked between grasses, hugging the ground. If it weren't in flower, I wouldn't have noticed it at all. 

Here are the male flowers carrying pollen.

And the female flowers awaiting pollen to arrive in the wind.

Salix repens

Here, I have down my eye loupe down to show some scale.

Heath Milkwort was also in the grasses. Mostly blue, but I did spot one white and another pink form. These are always smaller in form and flowers than Common Milkwort, but the only way to be totally sure is to look at the lower stem. Here you will find opposite leaves (or leaf scars if they've fallen off) in Heath Milkwort. But in Common Milkwort, they will all be alternate.

Polygala serpyllifolia

 The main reason I went to Tregonetha Downs was to try and find some Marsh Violets. However, the place was almost bone dry from a couple of weeks of very dry weather and violets were hard to find. I did find plenty of the usual Common Dog Violets, but nothing much else. Then, by chance, I came across an area still damp and found a few stunted Marsh Violets, another new species for me.

They are quite a pretty violet and should continue flowering all through Summer, so let's hope I find some bigger ones.

 

Viola palustre

 

And a side view showing the pale spur.

 This week, I also found two new pondweeds I'd not seen before, but seem fairly common here. The first was Bog Pondweed which has narrow leaves that aren't transluscent and stems without any form of hinge near where the leaf blade surfaces.

 

Potamogeton polygonifolius

 And in a stagnant pond near the River Camel, I fished out Curled Pondweed, using my mini grapnel. This has crisped, curly leaf edges (much like Curled Dock) with the leaves being very narrow with a large central vein.

Potamogeton crispus

Bog Stitchworts put in an appearance at several venues too. It's a very small flower and hard to spot. It can be confused with Common Chickweed, Thyme Leaved Sandwort or Annual Pearlwort, so take care in looking at different features to identify it. The opposite paired leaves,square hairless stems and heavily bifid petals cut right to the base identify this one from the lookalikes.

Stellaria alsine

It was nice to find a native white Bluebell. These are much more common in Kent than here. In fact, this is one of only three I've seen here.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

The first Sanicle in flower I've seen here this season.

 

Sanicula europaea

Of course, I notice insects along the way, and you can't not notice a large black beetle bumbling around clumsily. This one was a Bloody-nosed Beetle which when threatened, it secretes a distasteful blood-red liquid from its mouth. This flightless beetle can be found on grassland and heathland, and along hedgerows, as here.

Bloody-nosed beetle - Timarcha tenebricosa

There are just as many Cuckooflowers in Cornwall as there were in Kent, however, they are usually much smaller. Most are under a foot tall, but they still look great. This one below was taken in the evening light, so the gentle pastel colours haven't been bleached out by a harsh sun.

Cardamine pratensis

And so onto my last trip of April, which was to an area on the tidal River Camel called Bodieve. Of course Little Robin was present, very rare in most areas except here. This photo gives you an idea that the flowers are quite small, much smaller than the superficially similar Herb Robert.

Geranium purpureum

 

One area which was in a disused small quarry, had numerous spikes of Common Gromwell, a few in flower too. Rare in Cornwall.

Lithospermum officinale

Below: Behind it is last year's plant, still adorned with the tiny ivory like seeds.

 

The first Rose of the season was in flower. The honours went to the Burnet Rose, a beautiful native rose with pure white flowers. It is easily identified by the stems having a dense covering of bristles and prickles.

 

Rosa spinosissima

Some evening views of the tidal River Camel saltmarsh.

Yellow Iris (sometimes called Yellow Flag) is abundant here and some were coming into flower now.

Iris pseudacorus

Flowering Redcurrants are my last offering for April. Weird looking flowers that turn into bunches of  bright red edible berries. Although common in Kent, I rarely saw them in flower, whereas here, I've now seen plenty of them flowering.

Ribes rubrum

So ended April. As we enter May, the weather is still cool and breezy, though we did have two quite warm days, and the plants are now responding. There will be an explosion of wildflowers soon and I hope to see as much of it as I can.

Take care

Dave

Twitter: @botany2021