Monday 29 April 2024

Cornwall Botany - April 2024

 As I write this near the end of April, it has been a cold, mostly wet month overall with only glimpses of Spring sunshine and never more than a few days without cloud and rain. However, the plants respond mostly to increasing daylight hours and not just temperature, so more and more species are coming into flower every week. Here's a selection of those flowering here this April.

Goldilocks Buttercups are rare in Cornwall and are found in old woodlands, so it was nice to see it at a known site near Wadebridge. This is another genus where there are many microspecies or apomictic populations. In Kent, the majority of them are scruffy and lose petals within an hour or so of opening, but here, many were intact. It seems it depends on the microspecies as to whether you find some with petals complete or not.

Ranunculus auricomus


Shepherd's Cress is a small white crucifer (related to Cabbages) and I photographed a large colony growing on a Cornish hedge near Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor. Unfortunately, I only had my phone with me to capture the moment.

Teesdalia nudicaulis

Thyme-leaved Sandwort has a very small flower and is often found in ruderal or waste areas, as was the case here near Wadebridge.

Arenaria serpyllifolia


Sticky Mouse-ear is a Spring annual, so by the end of May they''ll all be gone until next year. However, it seeds prolifically and it is a very common plant to find almost anywhere except very wet or very acidic places. An easy way to separate this from the other Mouse-ears is that the inflorescences are tightly bunched at the top of the stem. Size can range from 1cm tall to around 15cm.

Cerastium glomeratum


Anything coloured red in the sward really stands out. This is a leaf from a Shining Cranesbill plant growing on the thinnest of soils on a pavement. I think the colouring is a sign that the plant is stressed, but it still survives and has flowers. I wonder if red allows photosynthesis to occur?

Geranium lucidum


Ivy-leaved Speedwell is another here then gone Spring annual. It comes in two subspecies that are easy to tell apart if its in flower. Subspecies lucorum is usually found in shaded habitats such as woodland edges and has white or cream pollen. Subspecies hederifolia has blue pollen sacs and slightly wider leaves and prefers more open, light conditions. You'll need an eye loupe to magnify the tiny 5mm flower to see the anther colour unless you have very good eyes.

Veronica hederifolia subsp hederifolia


Following a tip off from the VC2 vice county recorder, I went to see a new species for me, Nettle-leaved Figwort. It was on the Camel Trail in Wadebridge by a smelly dog poo bin, so it's location was not at all glamorous.

Scrophularia peregrina


It looks a bit like a glossy Common Figwort, so I thought it would be handy to compare the two species, see the next photo below.

And the exotic location!


As April progressed, the Wood Anemones came into flower. They are dotted around Cornwall and found mainly in the wooded river valleys that farmers don't use. However, I haven't seen carpets of them like you get further East in other parts of England. I'm hoping to find a blue variant (var. caerulea) before the season ends, but it has eluded me so far.

Anemone nemorosa

Not far from the above Wood Anemones, I found what seems to be Barrenwort. It's a rare garden escape and looks like a Hedge Bindweed but with woody stems. It also throws up sprays of flowers in late Spring, so to firmly identify it I have to return in May and hope it flowers.

Epimedium pinnatum (unconfirmed)


Still in the same wood was a colony of around 50-100 Common Twayblade, these are also not as common in Cornwall as the rest of the UK. The flower spikes were just short of flowering on some plants. For those that don't know, this is one of the 50+ species of orchids found in the UK.

Neottia ovata


A garden escape naturalisation that I commonly see now is Fringecups. It's usually around 60cm tall with a spike of little flowers up it. This one was on a rural road verge near Wadebridge.

Tellima grandiflora


Spring is the time to find Wintercress. There are three species and the one below is American Wintercress. Check the uppermost leaves just below the flowers. If they are shovel shaped it is Common Wintercress; if there are a few side lobes with tiny flowers under 4.5mm wide then it is Intermediate Wintercress, and finally as Intermediate but with larger flowers over 4.5mm diameter you have American Wintercress. Hope that helps!

Barbarea verna



An unusual find was Stinking Hellebore, I believe it's not native to Cornwall. It was in woodland by a tiny rural lane between Camelford and Wadebridge. I'd only seen them before on chalk soils. No doubt a survivor of past fly tipping.

Helleborus foetidus


The hanging flowers of Redcurrant, quite a common plant in our woodlands.

Ribes rubrum


A trip to my local bog found Lousewort back in flower

Pedicularis sylvatica


Heath Milkwort in deep blue, small but beautiful. Found in acidic soils in dry heaths or drier parts of mires and bogs. Note the opposite leaves at the base of the stem. Common Milkwort has alternate leaves from base to tip. That's useful to know, as there are a few places where both species can be found growing not far apart.

Polygala serpyllifolia


When seen en masse, Bog Stitchwort look like tiny little white stars in the bog.

Stellaria alsine


A walk through a forestry woodland in mid Cornwall had carpets of the alien Rockery Willowherb, a recent arrival to the UK. It's spread here by forestry vehicles and plantation woodland is where it is predominantly found at present. I also found a patch of New Zealand Willowherb, another alien though neither were yet in flower. Both species hybridise with our native willowherbs and it is possible to find a hybrid species new to science. I will be back to look for them come the summer.

Epilobium pedunculare


Bilberry in flower from the same woodland as above.

Vaccinium myrtillus

It's rare that I find Blackcurrant in the wild, but it is a native species. It looks a bit similar to Redcurrant (see above), but the flowers don't hang like a curtain like Redcurrant does. Also, any doubt can be removed by gently squeezing a leaf then sniffing your fingers. If it's a Blackcurrant plant you will smell it as the leaves have glandular hairs that release this lovely scent when crushed.

Ribes nigrum


In a damp meadow I found numerous specimens of this dainty Dandelion. It was clear it was a Section Celtica species and I keyed it out to be a recently described species which was soon verified by the BSBI Taraxacum referee, a nice find. The leaves are very distinctive in this micro species.

Taraxacum chlorofugale


Cuckooflowers are common and found in damp roadsides, meadows and any damp areas really. However, it is very difficult to get a nice photo as the flowers reflect the sunlight back, usually bleaching out the details. Here, as it was so bright, I stopped the camera down to f16 which restricted the amount of light coming into the camera and gave an improved depth of field. You can only do this in good light or if using a tripod. This photo was near a lake in Bude.

Cardamine pratensis


The Fumitories are re-appearing, with this long thin flower belonging to Tall Ramping Fumitory. This variant always has a pink upper petal, matching the colour of the flower body. Other species have a black tipped upper petal, so this is an easy one to identify.

Fumaria bastardii var bastardii



Bogbean has an amazing flower structure but an ugly name. It is common over much of the UK and is found in bogs, mires, lake edges and anywhere permanently wet.

Menyanthes trifoliata


Early Meadow Grass used to be a rare species of southern coastal grassy areas, but it has now spread north to beyond the Midlands and is increasingly found in urban or brownfield sites. The one below though, was found on a path by a lake in totally natural surroundings. It can be confused with Annual Meadow Grass, the common grass of pavements and pretty much everywhere else.

It's characteristics are that the inflorescence is delicate and always pale green with no purple hues; the anthers are smaller than Annual Meadow Grass (you need magnification to measure them), and the lowest spikelet is usually at 45 degrees and not reflexed to 90 degrees or more. Look for lime green patches in short grass or bare ground.

Poa infirma


The clifftop edges on western coastlines are now exploding with the blue flowers of Spring Squill. In places you can get carpets of these tiny plants which look like miniature Spanish Bluebells. Lovely little plants.

Scilla verna


Typical habitat below


Horsetails didn't seem too complicated, until I realised that they freely hybridise. To check whether you have the true species or a hybrid, you need to cut open a stem to observe the hollow inside it. Below is Water Horsetail which is the only species that has an almost circular stem with a very large hollow, this rules out any hybrid. It's often unbranched as shown below and forms large stands in damp areas or by water bodies.

Equisetum fluviatile


Nearby were Marsh and Field Horsetail so it was worth checking for hybrid plants, but this day I failed to find any, though they had been recorded from this venue before. Below is Marsh Horsetail with small branches to the stem and a small hollow stem strongly ridged.

Equisetum palustre


Marsh Marigolds in a boggy part of a lake near Bude, they light up the bog with their golden hues. Even the seedpods are a fantastic colour.

Caltha palustris



My final plant is another Dandelion, this time from near Bude in another damp meadow. It's a Section Celtica microspecies and is fairly delicate. It keyed out in the Field Handbook as Taraxacum nordstedtii as there appeared to be pollen present.

However, since writing this, I have been notified by the BSBI referee that this is in fact Taraxacum pietii-oosterveldii and is new to Cornwall. The nearest known colony is on Dartmoor. The pollen is not on the anthers and appears to have been transferred from another plant by an insect. A plant without pollen takes one to a different part of the key.

If you get into trying to identify Dandelion microspecies, you will need the Field Handbook from the BSBI for sure; then take photographs of all relevant parts, like below. Take additional photos of seeds if present and any flowers in bud too. You then work through a key to work out which section your specimen comes under which takes you to another key. You then go through that, ruling features in or out and use your photos to confirm. It's quite time consuming, but it's a fun thing to do in April to early May. After that, the leaves become degraded and grow erratically, not true to type and most  cannot be readily identified thereafter until the following Spring. There's over 230 micro species to find and probably a few as yet undiscovered. Oh, don't bother looking at any that have been previously mowed, grazed or trampled, drought stricken or flooded! That rules out most Dandelions you will see!

Taraxacum pietii-oosterveldii


May is coming and I hope it's a bit drier and warmer than it has been in the previous few months. Until then, take care and see what species you can find close to you.

Dave







Saturday 6 April 2024

Cornwall Botany - Late March 2024

 March turned out to be one of the wettest on record, so I chose not to go out as much as I usually would have done. There's a limit to enjoyment in heavy driving rain and gale force winds isn't there! I also try to include what could be called "every day" plants, that you, the reader might find locally to you but don't know what they are. I hope this blog helps you to identify a few more plants.

What follows are plants of interest that I did find when I got out and about.

 

Town Hall Clock, or Moschatel, is not that common in Cornwall, mainly due to the fact that the majority of Cornwall's ancient woodlands were felled a long time ago. However, they persist along the steep, wooded river valleys that dot the Cornish landscape. I found five clumps flowering along a road verge near to the Lanhydrock estate in late March. I've also noticed that the flowers tend to be smaller than those I used to see in Kent, I don't know why that should be.

Adoxa moschatellina


The first Garden Archangels had also burst into bloom. This garden escape is very common in Cornwall and can be told apart from the native species in that the leaves have silvery blotches on them and the flowers are a bit larger too.

Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatum


The Dandelion season is now under way as Spring is the only time one can reliably identify plants from the 230 or so different species there are. This one looked striking, so I had it identified by the referee. This plant also taught me a lesson, in that the leaves looked spotted. Spotted leaves lead one to a specific set of Dandelions in the Field Handbook, so I found it difficult to determine what I had found. The reason for this was that the leaves aren't actually spotted at all, the blotches are from insect damage. A lesson learned.

Taraxacum hamatum


Spring is also the time that Slender Speedwell begins to flower. It has bigger flowers than most other common species and is common in lawns, greens and road verges that are mowed, and graveyards, which is where I found this one below. Note the kidney shaped alternate leaves that are typical of this species.

Veronica filiformis


The end of March also saw several grass species come into flower, such as this Meadow Foxtail, a common sight on Cornwall's road verges. Hay fever season has begun in earnest I suspect.

Alopecurus pratensis


There are two species of Parsley Piert; both are tiny plants with even smaller petal-less flowers and tiny stipules under the sepals. The photo below shows some hints on determining which species you have found. Generally, Slender Parsley-piert is only found on acidic soils, but not always.

Regarding the notes in the photo: cuneate means tapered (into the leaf stem) and truncate means horizontally flattened off (to the leaf stem).

Aphanes australis


Mossy Stonecrop is a tiny succulent leaved plant that only grows where there is little competition from other plants. As such, it is often found on urban paths, very short turf rural paths and waste ground. Below, it is flowering on a gravel path on the Camel Trail near Wadebridge. In a few weeks, as these plants go to seed, they turn bright red and are easier to see, even from a distance. Look for unexplained red patches in bare areas and you might find some. The £1 coin gives you some scale as to the size of individual plants.

Crassula tillaea



Blinks are tiny plants - blink and you'll miss them. This whole plant wasn't much bigger than that £1 coin in the last photo. It was growing in a damp gravel car park amongst moss. It is another species that doesn't like competition from other plants. When the flowers open, they have 5 petals. Note the thickened leaf stalks where the leaf blade joins the stem and the tiny bumps (papillae) on the leaves.

Montia fontana


Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot is often found in wet areas of pasture fields for grazing animals. I suspect the animals distribute their seeds in mud on their hooves to other wet areas where they germinate the following Spring. Given the very wet weather, the plant below was in a huge patch of thousands of plants in a cow field entrance that had become a giant puddle from all the rain. The flowers are small and the leaves look like mini ivy leaves and often have dark blotches on them.

Ranunculus hederaceus


The next photo was so poor that I wasn't going to include it, however, it contains an important feature for identification, so I have. When I see a load of floating duckweed plants in a ditch, it's so easy to assume that they are just Common Duckweed and walk on. However, there are several species of duckweeds, so it's worth having a look. Dip your finger into them and pull it out and a few plants will stick to it enabling a closer look. These ones turned out to be Least Duckweed, evidenced by their small size, single root and most importantly, a single ridge line of papillae along the centreline of the upper side of the leaf. Other species may have 3 leaves joined together, tiny sacs of air bubbles on the underside or multiple roots coming off the base. All are slightly different.

Lemna minuta


On a wall in Wadebridge, I came across a Polypody fern that looked odd. The frame of reference of what looked odd for me, was that I normally only see Common and Intermediate Polypodies around Cornwall. The one below didn't fit either species, so was likely to be the rarer Southern Polypody. To tell them apart reliably, you need to examine them microscopically. The text in the photo shows the important points, but crucially, this plant had paraphyses (tiny hairs) between the sporangia (orange blobs on the underside of the frond). Only Southern Polypody has these, apart from a hybrid. The hybrid is sterile and under the microscope I found plenty of viable spores, thus ruling that out.

Polypodium cambricum


In damp woodlands and rural road verges, Pink Purlsane has burst into flower. They are attractive and though not native, are long naturalised in Cornwall and are now widespread in the east of the county. Most are pink or pink and white, but occassionaly I find all white flowered variants too.

Claytonia sibirica


Along a flooded rural road verge in the Luxulyan valley, I saw some Water Horsetail (not photographed). A short distance away, I found more, but they looked different, having denser branches and more rigid (but still weak) stems. This was the hybrid between Field and Water Horsetail, one I'd not seen before. A key tip to Horsetail identification, is to break a stem and note what the inner hollow in it looks like. Each species is different, some with large interior hollows and other with angled narrow ones. I've photographed the stem hollow below and it is intermediate between the two species, as expected.

Equisetum x litorale



The three most common early flowering wood-rushes are now out, including: Field wood-rush; Greater wood-rush and below, Hairy wood-rush. Oddly, the hairy wood-rush is not as hairy as the other two!

This species is easy to identify as the branches that hold the flowers and later nutlets are bent in all directions and thus are unmistakable. The second photo below shows this trait clearly.

Luzula pilosa



In a boggy area under Grey Willow trees, I found the first Marsh Violet of the season. Easily identified by their round leaves in a very wet habitat and when in flower, by the veins of the bottom petal going all the way down to the base. Most are quite small flowers, so if you look for them, they might only be a few centimetres wide.

Viola palustris subsp juressi

In the same area where I found the violet, I came across some Three-nerved Sandwort growing along the drier areas of a woodland path. Easily identified by the 3 prominent veins in the leaves along with 5 un-notched petals shorter than the sepals. Usually found in woodland or Cornish hedges.

Moehringia trinervia


Wood Sorrel is a declining species nationally, so it's always nice to find some. Quite often they grow in damp woodland on tree trunks or mosses. Anywhere shaded and damp where there is less competition from other plants.

Oxalis acetosella


Lesser Celandines (the yellow flower below) have been out for many weeks now and will begin to fade soon. However, they are being joined now by other wildflowers, so look even better. Here, one is enhanced by the deep blue of Germander Speedwell, a very common plant of open woodland, road verges and lawns. It has two opposite lines of hairs up the leaf stems and all the flowers are on a raceme as shown below.

Veronica chamaedrys


Many tree species are waking up from their winter slumber and most flower early. This peculiar looking bunch of flowers below belong to the common Ash tree.

Fraxinus excelsior


That sums up my March botanical finds. Of course, there were far more wildflowers open than what I photograph or show off here, but I hope my selection was of interest to you. I try to include a few ID tips too for the featured plants. 

As I write this, Storm Kathleen is howling outside and driving rain is hitting the windows of my house, so no change in the weather patterns we have had all through March, but I will get out and about in April regardless, I hope you do too.


Take Care

Dave




Wednesday 20 March 2024

Cornwall Botany - Late Winter to Early Spring 2024

 As I write this on the 20th March, it has rained almost every day for most of the year so far. It's certainly the wettest early year period I can recall. As such, I haven't gone out that much, so this is a short blog on botanical finds or plants of interest found so far. With the rain has been very mild weather, with only two short periods of frost to date. As such, many Spring plants are coming into flower earlier than usual by up to two weeks or so. The wet and mild weather should also bode well for annual species in the coming weeks and should enable them to recover from the repeated Spring droughts we have had in recent years.

Here are the plants I've come across so far this March, many being rosettes or plants without flowers. If you record, it's important to try and identify plants in this state too. Plants may be present all or much of the year, but may be in flower just for a few weeks, so why restrict yourself to only identifying plants in flower?

My first plant actually was in flower and is a plant of acidic bogs and mires, Round-leaved Water Crowfoot. I found it at Retire Common, not far from Bodmin. The habitat where it grows in is usually in or by the stream that runs through the common or in pools where the water collects. However, it has been so wet this year, that seeds have germinated on the footpath through the common and the plant below (and many others) were in water filled footprints on the main path. The stream itself was full of these plants too. They've only just begun to flower, so in a couple of weeks, there should be drifts of flowers here.


Ranunculus omiophyllus



Another bog plant that was growing all over the place was Marsh Ragwort. Like the Crowfoot above, it had multiple plants growing on the path as well as by the stream where it is usually found. Of course, it was too early for flowers, so here's a photo of it's basal leaves. Note the very large terminal lobe and simple side lobes that distinguish it from other Ragworts.

Jacobaea aquatica 


Opposite Leaved Golden Saxifrage is a reliable early Spring flower to find. In Cornwall it's found almost everywhere there is flowing water or seepage, from rock fissures to road edges, streams and rivulets. These were some of the first to come into flower, but now there are thousands of golden little dots amongst carpets of plants. It's always a wonderful and uplifting sight to see them in flower in early Spring.

Chrysosplenium oppositifolium 


From late February onwards, I see lots of young Common Valerian plants. These are fairly common on Cornish hedges and woodland paths in Cornwall. However, back in Kent, they are very uncommon and were only found on dry chalk slopes, often in company with the likes of Musk and Common Spotted Orchids. It's odd how the plant has adapted to such different environments, but then, there are two subspecies and these are found in these two very different environments, but not usually together.

The chalk tolerant subspecies is called subsp. collina and the acidic tolerant one found in Cornwall is called subsp. sambucifolia. They are separated by having a different arrangement for their stem leaves. You might find both subsp. together in some places, so it's always worth checking the stem leaves if you are going to identify them to subspecies level and not solely relying on its environmental habitat.

The plant below will grow up to a metre tall with at least three pom pom like heads of small pink/white flowers later in the year, all being well.

Valeriana officinalis 


In Kent, Green Hellebore was considered a native plant and was included in the rare plant register and it was always great to find some. In Cornwall, they are considered neophytes and arrived within the last few hundred years by human intervention, usually as garden escapes. Having said that, the plants I have seen in Cornwall have fully naturalised. The plants below were first recorded in the wild at this location in 1927, almost a century ago. There are now well over 100 plants along a rural lane Cornish hedge and extended several metres into deciduous woodland, so they have survived here a long time.

Helleborus viridis subsp occidentalis

Here's one of the clumps in the woodland spread quite a distance from the original introduction.


A flower close up.




Wandering the lanes and by-ways of Cornwall, one never quite knows what exotic plant might turn up next. In this case, I came across several large Tree Ferns, similar to those found at Helligan Gardens. In this case, it was clear they had been planted as they were all in a straight line along a farm track. However, they are not cheap to buy and I wondered why someone would pay out all that money to plant them along a farm access road, a long way from the farmhouse or any other buildings. I put in a record for these as planted, as there are records of some growing wild in Cornwall, so should some be found growing wild nearby in years to come, they will know where they originated from by my record.

Dicksonia antarctica


Plenty of Scarlet Elf Cup fungi were now growing on the wet dead wood in several locations I visited. The wet weather meant there were lots more around than I saw last year.

 Sarcoscypha coccinea


My partner and I had lunch at a coastal pub at Trebarwith Strand and I noticed lots of these pale green rosettes, growing on a vertical wall with fresh water seepage constantly running over them. I recognised them as Brookweed, often found in such damp coastal locations here. Sea Spleenwort grew with them too.

Samolus valerandi


Some of the other species that had come into flower so far this month incuded:

Barren Strawberry - Potentilla sterilis


Wild Strawberry - Fragaria vesca


Lesser Celandine - Ficaria verna



Wild Daffodil - Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp pseudonarcissus



Greater Stitchwort - Stellaria holostea


 

 Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa


 

Danish Scurvygrass - Cochlearia danica


  I'll end with a Dandelion. It's that time of year when they start to become identifable again. The one below that I found at Looe seafront had spotted leaves, a Section Naevosa species which I had determined by the referee as:

Taraxacum ronae


 There were of course many more species coming into flower than I have featured, along with many pavement plants, such as Rue-leaved Saxifrage and Common Whitlowgrass, but I won't feature them all.  As increased daylight continues into April, there will be many more species to see, and I am looking forward to discovering them all over again along with hopefully, some new species too 


Take Care

Dave







Cornwall Botany - End of August 2024

 Summer has drawn to a close and many plants are in seed or dying back, but there's always plenty of interesting things to see. Here is ...