Other species, so far only recorded once or twice, will soon be flowering more widely, so would also be worth recording if you see them: e.g. Hoary Plantain, Plantago media; Knotgrass, Polygonum aviculare; Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis, Knotted Hedge-parsley, Torilis nodosa; Lesser Stitchwort, Stellaria graminea. And what about Dog-rose, Rosa canina?
As always, I’d be very pleased to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or other) spp coming into flower in the next week, by email to simonleach@phonecoop.coop.
Please dip in and out as you wish. It’s not compulsory!
I have to begin with Blackbirds. Since the start of ‘lockdown’ eight weeks ago, one of the compensatory pleasures of being home-bound has been the opportunity—with the relative lack of traffic noise—to listen to birdsong. And even now, while I’m clack-clack-clacking on the computer keyboard, I’m aware of a more or less continuous backdrop of Blackbird song. From 5 in the morning until 9 at night, one particular Blackbird in our street is endlessly broadcasting its presence from various TV aerials and chimney pots. His song is both wonderfully varied and endlessly repetitive: he has two immediately recognisable ‘stock phrases’, both of them quite different to those of his neighbours. He can start to sound like a cracked record—the same phrases recurring ad nauseam—but listening more closely we’ve noticed that no two phrases are ever quite the same. Each time he repeats, he adds a squeal or a chatter drawn from an evidently limitless supply of ‘terminal flourishes’. So while one phrase might sound strident, like a statement of intent, the next—same phrase, but ending this time with an upward lilt—seems more like a question. Or, same again, but dipping at the end and melancholic in tone, might be followed by another that’s cheerily optimistic—like the punch line of a joke, complete with terminal chuckle. He seems to be playing with his song, testing out what works and what doesn’t, and keeping us on tenterhooks to find out exactly which phrase, with which flourish, he’ll choose to pull out from his bottomless song-bag next. He’s become the talk of the street. And during our VE-Day street party on Friday he was perched on the TV aerial adding his own commentary to the evening’s celebrations.
Week 8, and the start of the eighth week of lockdown, was dry and predominantly sunny again, the first half warm (26°C on Saturday), the second half less so. There was a ground-frost on Monday morning, the temperature overnight dipping to just 2°C in Taunton. Sunday evening’s announcements on the gradual easing of the lockdown seemed to clarify and confuse in equal measure, but one thing we do know is that, from today, we’re free to take as much exercise as we like, and to drive as far as we like to take it – as long as that doesn’t involve driving into Wales, where the ‘stay at home’ instruction still applies. On the face of it, then, for some of us this may open up new possibilities for exercising/botanising further afield. I’m tempted, but I think for now I’ll be continuing to stick pretty close to home. Besides, I’m enjoying the lack of traffic…
Not many non-botanical highlights to report, although Helena seems to be chalking up a new ‘personal best’ of one sort or another each time she dons her Lycra. Her latest was a two-mile run, the first of which she completed in 9 minutes 13 seconds. (She doesn’t say how long the second mile took.) Usually she makes a few plant records while she’s out running—like we all do, I suppose—but now everything’s becoming a bit of a blur, apparently. We’ve also had three first-sightings of Common Blues, Georgina on the 7th, me on the 10th and Andrew on the 12th. And I had a Red Admiral this morning, presumably a newly-arrived migrant rather than surviving over-winterer.
Right! First flowerings. Another good week, but suddenly everything seems to be coming at once, and in no particular order. 123 records and 94 species. I’m beginning to lose track. Anyway, we saw 16 of the 20 species on our target list for Week 8, or 18 if you include records from the ‘eastern enclave’ otherwise known as Fred. Only Viper’s-bugloss, Echium vulgare, and Common Cow-wheat, Melampyrum pratense, seem to have evaded us altogether. The following summarises our Week 8 records: target species, as usual, with their names emboldened, other notables slotted in as and when, and the whole lot loosely arranged in alphabetical order by scientific name…
‘A’. There have been patches of winter-flowering Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, on some road verges this year (my first record of Yarrow in flower in Taunton was between Christmas and New Year), but this is unusual and the decadal (2008-17) average FFD for it is 15th May. So the spring flush of new flower-heads noted in Taunton on the 7th and Wellington on the 9th (Linda) is much in line with expectations. Ground-elder, Aegopodium podagraria, has yet to be spotted flowering in Somerset, the only record so far being from the eastern bloc, in St Michael’s churchyard in Aldershot. Two more records for Black-grass, Alopecurus myosuroides, during the week, Helena in Paulton, and Jeanne between Blue Anchor and Watchet, both on the 10th. Jeanne found it in a field of (flowering) Crimson Clover, Trifolium incarnatum subsp. incarnatum – a stunning plant which used to be much grown as a fodder crop. (Interestingly, on the 9th Maureen Webb, a member of Somerset Botany Group, had Crimson Clover in another field, near Kilve.) Georgina had a ‘hairy’ day in Mendip on the 7th, with both Hairy Lady’s-mantle, Alchemilla filicaulis subsp. vestita, at Black Rock, Mendip, and Hairy Rock-cress, Arabis hirsuta, at Velvet Bottom. Andrew recorded (and photographed) a gorgeous ‘Star of Persia’, Allium cristophii, growing beside a rhyne on Middle Street on the 9th – possibly a first or second record for VC6 and Somerset, and one of a number of unusual aliens to be mentioned in dispatches this week.
‘B’. This was the week for Quaking Grass, Briza media, with first-flowering records from Winford on the 9th (Margaret), Thurlbear and Brent Knoll on the 10th (me and Andrew), and Ubley Warren and Runnington on the 12th (Georgina and Chris L.). The unlikeliest ‘B’ came from Margaret’s garden in Winford, with a report of self-seeded Interrupted Brome, Bromus interruptus, now flowering in one of her flower pots!
‘C’. Spiked Sedge, Carex spicata, actually made its first appearance in Week 7, Margaret seeing it in Winford on the 7th, and Ro at Lilstock on the 5th. Some species, though, really seem to be getting ahead of themselves, and I’ve had two this week, both bindweeds, both in Taunton: Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium, on the 7th, and Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis, on the 11th – the first in South Street, the second on Upper Holway Road. It’s been quite a week for thistles too: Spear Thistle, Cirsium vulgare, our ‘target’ thistle, was seen by Linda in Wellington on the 9th and by Val in Glastonbury on the 13th. Pat, also on the 9th, had a very early Creeping Thistle, C. arvense, at Nettlecombe, while Alastair saw flowering Marsh Thistle, C. palustre, at Crowcombe on the 8th. And Georgina recorded Musk Thistle, Carduus nutans, in Cheddar Gorge on the 7th. As if to emphasise how much later some parts of the county can be than others, Chris B. had her first-flowering Pignut, Conopodium majus, at East Harptree on the 10th, almost three weeks after its earliest sighting near Wellington. Finally, Alastair saw Hound’s-tongue, Cynoglossum officinale, starting to flower at Dunster beach on the 10th.
‘D’. Common Spotted-orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, has been popping up all over the place – at Ivythorn Hill on the 8th (Fiona), Langford Heathfield on the 9th (Ian Loudon), Thurlbear on the 10th, and Middle Street, Brent Knoll, on the 12th (Andrew). Ian had flowering Heath Spotted-orchid, D. maculata, also on the 9th, and also at Langford Heathfield.
‘E’. I had Square-stalked Willowherb, Epilobium tetragonum, in Taunton on the 7th, while Fred reports it in flower in Bordon on the 9th. I know, I’d never heard of Bordon either. It’s between Alton and Haslemere. Chris B. had an Eyebright, Euphrasia agg., in East Harptree on the 10th, while Andrew reminds me that he saw early-flowering Euphrasia tetraquetra at Uphill on 23rd April.
‘G’. Huge excitement beside the river Tone on the 12th, with drifts of Meadow Crane’s-bill, Geranium pratense, just starting to flower—only 43 days earlier than Watson’s FFD for it! Also Flote-grass, Glyceria fluitans, in Taunton on the 9th, and Middle Street, Brent Knoll, on the 12th. And Margaret had Plicate Sweet-grass, G. notata, at Dundry Hill on the 9th.
‘H’. Barely worth mentioning but, following last week’s flurry of records, I can report that Common Rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium, was just starting to flower at Thurlbear on the 10th.
‘I’. I’m not sure what to make of the yellow-flowered variety of Stinking Iris, Iris foetidissima var. citrina. Margaret had a flower of it at Sand Point in March, and I’ve now found another patch – the first time I’ve seen it in the Taunton area – flowering nicely in a roadside hedge in Killams. I’m guessing it’s either deliberately planted there or else a garden escape/throw-out. Does this variety tend to flower especially early, I wonder? And is it generally regarded as a native variety, or as a plant in cultivation that sometimes leaps the garden wall? Can anyone shed any light please?
‘J’. ‘J’ is for Senecio… Two more records this week for Common Ragwort, Jacobea vulgaris aka Senecio jacobea – Linda in Wellington on the 9th, and Andrew in Highbridge on the 12th.
‘L’. Our first Meadow Vetchling, Lathyrus pratensis, was seen by Linda in Wellington on the 9th, while there were two further records for Rough Hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus, in Brent Knoll churchyard on the 6th (Andrew) and in Taunton on the 11th (me); also I’ve had our first Lesser Hawkbit, L. saxatilis, flowering on the road verge where I’d seen Sea Pearlwort, Sagina maritima, and Sea Hard-grass, Catapodium marinum a few weeks earlier. We’ve also had Privet, Ligustrum vulgare, spotted by Val in the Glastonbury area earlier today.And finally, there was a precocious Honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, flowering in a hedgerow at Killams, Taunton, on the 9th.
‘M.’ Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris, is now flowering quite widely, with records this week from Minehead (Alastair) and Middle Street (Andrew). Our only flowering Wall Lettuce, Mycelis muralis, was annoyingly from the eastern enclave, so remains on the list as one of our targets for Week 9.
‘O’. Once again, Brent Knoll leads the charge, with the county’s first (and so far only) record of flowering Corky-fruited Water-dropwort, Oenanthe pimpinelloides – on the 10th, in Brent Knoll village, where Andrew says, “I was amazed to see these plants, which went from basal rosettes to 18 inch stems and first flowers in less than a week!” A couple of alien ‘O’s too this week: Linda had flowering Star-of-Bethlehem, Ornithogalum umbellatum, on the 9th in Wellington, while I had Upright Yellow-sorrel, Oxalis stricta, on the 12th, growing as a pavement weed on East Reach.
‘P’. A motley collection of ‘P’s this week, only one of which was on the target list – Creeping Cinquefoil, Potentilla reptans, seen by Andrew on the 9th at Middle Street, and by me in Taunton on the 12th. Another Common Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, this time at Dunster beach on the 10th (Alastair), while Pat had an extraordinarily early Corn-parsley, Petroselinum segetum, at Nettlecombe on the 6th. Andrew’s Hoary Plantain, Plantago media, on the 10th at Brent Knoll, was also very early – its 2008-17 decadal average FFD for the Taunton area is 31st May.Lastly, I had Common Knotgrass, Polygonum aviculare, on the 8th on Cotlake Hill, Trull. Another early date: Watson would have been amazed, his own FFD for P. aviculare from the 1920s/30s was 16th June!
‘R’. Lots of Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor, seen this week, including Chris B. at East Harptree on the 4th, Margaret at Winford on the 9th, me at Thurlbear on the 10th, and Sue Carpenter (a new contributor) in St James’s churchyard, Taunton, on the 12th. Other than that, our first Weld, Reseda luteola, was flowering well on waste ground on Canal Road, Taunton, also on the 12th, along with my own first Bramble, Rubus fruticosus agg., which, as expected, was ‘Himalayan Giant’, R. armeniacus. And today, Alastair has seen Marsh Yellow-cress, Rorippa palustris, flowering at Wimbleball Reservoir.
‘S’. Like Chris B’s Pignut, so also Ellen’s just-flowering Elder, Sambucus nigra, on the 8th, which again illustrates the difference in FFDs between the ‘balmy south’ and the ‘frozen north’. A ridiculously late ‘first date’, really, given that our earliest FFD for it this spring was on Easter Sunday, 12th April—but even Ellen’s date would have seemed early to Watson, his FFD (from the Taunton area, don’t forget) was 20th May! See also ‘U’, below.
More ‘S’s… First, Schedonorus pratensis, Meadow Fescue – and how did its old name sneak onto last week’s list? – which several of us have seen, including Pat at Nettlecombe on the 6th, and me in Trull on the 11th. And Fred’s had it in the Far East too. Ragged Robin, Silene flos-cuculi, was flowering in Longrun on the 7th, while Chris L. had Bladder Campion, S. vulgaris, at Thorne St Margaret on the 8th. Several more records of Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara, this week too, including Taunton, Minehead and Aldershot. And early records for Branched Bur-reed, Sparganium erectum, in Taunton on the 9th, and Lesser Stitchwort, Stellaria graminea, at Nettlecombe, also on the 9th (Pat). We’ve had two records for Hedge Woundwort, Stachys sylvatica, at Sandford on the 7th (Andrew) and in Taunton on the 11th.
‘T’. Andrew spotted first-flowering Knotted Hedge-parsley, Torilis nodosa, at Oldmixon on the 8th, and we have had another good record for Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius, this time Linda in Wellington on the 9th. Our target ‘T’ was Hop Trefoil, Trifolium campestre, which Alastair spotted in flower on the 7th on North Hill, Minehead.
‘U’. Ellen would, I’m sure, want everyone to know that on the 8th, on Greendown, she saw Common Nettle, Urtica dioica. In an email entitled ‘Catching up with Taunton’, she says: “[I’ve had] my first flowering Urtica—and I had to go out of my way to find it out of thousands searched…” Here in Taunton, meanwhile, I’m struggling to find any that’s not flowering! Interestingly, very few of you have reported this species, so I’m starting to wonder, could Taunton be out of kilter with the rest of the county? If it’s any consolation, Watson’s FFD for it was 22nd May—so you’re in good company, Ellen!
‘V’. Heath Speedwell, Veronica officinalis, seems to be flowering quite widely now, with records this week from Black Rock, Mendip (Georgina), Langford Heathfield (Chris L.) and Wimbleball (Alastair). Plus a record from Bramshill (Fred). And, for what it’s worth, I’ve finally seen Brooklime, Veronica beccabunga, at Thurlbear on the 10th.
Winding up for another week, here are a few lines from a poem, about spring, printed in last week’s Guardian Weekly:
“… the lights of the flowers / coming in waves / as I walked with the budburst / and the flushing of trees …”
Other species, already
recorded, but which may soon be starting to flower more widely, would also be
worth recording if you see them: e.g.
Common Ragwort, Jacobea vulgaris (= Senecio jacobaea); Foxglove, Digitalis
purpurea; Ragged Robin, Silene flos-cuculi; Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus
minor; Smooth Hawk’s-beard, Crepis capillaris
As always, I’d be very
pleased to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or other) spp coming into
flower in the next week, by email to simonleach@phonecoop.coop.
I dived into my emails
on Saturday morning and alighted immediately on an incoming message with the
subject title “BOOM!!” It was from Linda. Two days before, on the 30th,
she had emailed with a photo of her first – our first – Black Bryony, Tamus
communis. I suggested, in reply, that all she needed now was White Bryony, Bryonia
dioica, to complete the set. I imagined this would be unlikely so early in
the week, and besides, I had my own plans for White Bryony; last year there had
been a great sprawling, clambering – and early-flowering – patch of it in a
riverside tangle at Roughmoor, so that was where I’d be heading. This would be
one of the easier plants, I fancied, in the week ahead – just a matter of
getting the timing right, really.
But the next day, May
Day, Linda took a stroll out to Nynehead, where – expletives deleted – she
stumbled upon the first flowering Bryonia of the year. In VC6 this would
be called a squeak; in VC5, evidently, it’s now to be known as a BOOM.
Attached to her email there were three photos: one of the plant, a close-up
of the flowers, and one of a woman with a Cheshire cat grin, standing beside a
hedge. The subject title, the message and the photos said it all, really,
revealing both the plant and the pleasure, plain as day, in black and white – black
one day, white the next… The complete set, damn it!
Black Bryony has had
quite a week. Along with its white namesake (no relation – one’s a monocot,
the other’s a dicot),it was on our list of potential Week 7
first-flowerers. But whereas our first flowering dates (FFDs) for most species
have tended to span several weeks – varying according to microclimate, aspect,
altitude, distance from the sea, etc. – the onset of flowering of Black Bryonyhas shown a remarkable synchronicity across the county. Following Linda’s
trail-blazer on 30th April, Val (Glastonbury), Ro (Honibere) and I
(Orchard Wood) all reported it for the first time on May Day, followed by Liz
(Wedmore) and Chris (Wiveliscombe) on the 2nd – and then Helena and
Jim (Paulton) on the 3rd, who took a seven-mile hike to Chewton Wood
and saw “nothing from the Week 7 list until we were almost home when … we
finally found Tamus.” So it’s a fair
bet that others will start seeing it in the next few days. Note that the
earliest flowers tend to be on the lowest (least conspicuous) axillary racemes,
while the upper, more visible, racemes are still tightly in bud.
To put these FFDs for
Black Bryony into context, in twelve years of recording first flowerings my earliest
date for it was 29th April, in 2011, while the latest was 2nd
June, in 2013. For the Taunton area, the
2008-17 decadal average FFD for Black Bryony was 18th May; Walter
Watson’s, from almost a hundred years ago, and similarly based mainly on
observations around Taunton, was 2nd June. By any measure, then, for
Black Bryony the spring of 2020 is proving to be an especially early one…
… Which is hardly
surprising, given the weather we’ve been having. The long, warm, dry spell has
been only briefly punctuated by cooler, damper conditions. We had a taste of
these during Week 7, with fronts bringing cloud and rain on Thursday, Sunday
and Tuesday, and with temperatures for the most part well down on previous
weeks. One evening we even lit the fire. The rain was badly needed and, despite
the cooler temperatures, has probably helped to further accelerate spring
rather than slow it down.
Before we tackle the
rest of this week’s hit-list, let’s quickly highlight a few other happenings in
the natural world…
It’s been
another good week for butterflies: holly blues are still in abundance, while I
had my first Small Heaths, Grizzled and Dingy Skippers on the 4th at
Thurlbear. Georgina reported her first ‘dingy’ on the same day, at Ubley
Warren, but her first ‘grizzly’ was much earlier, on 19th April –
same date as in 2019, apparently. Has anyone had a Common Blue yet?
And what
about dragonflies? My first Beautiful Demoiselle, Calopteryx virgo, was
on the 2nd, beside the river Tone at Obridge. No damsels, although
surely others are seeing them by now?
If you’re on
the Levels you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about, but in Taunton this year
we appear to have at least four singing Cetti’s Warblers – one each at
Hankridge, Obridge, Longrun and Roughmoor.
Last week’s
Swifts vanished, so we had to endure several days of empty skies, until the 4th
when there was a sudden arrival of new birds – and these turned out to be our
birds! From midday onwards screamers were circling high overhead, while
later in the afternoon some of the birds began hurtling about at rooftop height
…
And then one
of them peeled away from the rest of the group, suddenly dipping and dropping,
then curving round and up for a first, hurried ‘fly-past’ of its nest-site.
It’s hard enough to comprehend the length of the journey this bird must have
been on since it was last here, yet harder still to appreciate the precision of
its return; back from Africa, somewhere south of the Sahara, to the familiar,
slightly warped fascia board on the gable-end of 16, Gordon Road, TA1 3AU.
This week, the seventh
since the start of ‘lockdown’, produced the largest batch of first-flowerings
yet: more than 160 records and about 100 species, shared between 18 recorders.
We saw 16 of the 20 species on our target list. Here they all are, as usual in
roughly alphabetical order, with a few ‘extras’ getting a mention along the
way…
‘A’. At last, we’ve
‘ticked’ Black-grass, Alopecurus myosuroides.
I’d begun to think we’d never get it. Ro was the first, at Lilstock, on the 4th,
followed by Andrew in Highbridge and me in Trull, both on the 5th.
The Trull plants were growing along an arable margin with new-flowering
Black-bindweed, Fallopia convolvulus. Two days earlier, on the 3rd,
Andrew also had Horse-radish, Armoracia
rusticana, on Wick Lane, near Brent Knoll.
‘B’. White Bryony, Bryonia dioica. As a
footnote to Linda’s record, my phone ‘pinged’ a few minutes ago and it was an
incoming WhatsApp photo of a White Bryony flower, from Helena in Paulton. Which
means we have now had two records for it this week, neither of them
mine.
‘C’. This week’s sedges
have included a very early Pale Sedge, Carex pallescens, recorded by
Chris at Langford Heathfield on 30th April, and several records of
False Fox-sedge, Carex otrubae, including Linda in Wellington on the 1st,
Liz near Wedmore on the 2nd, and Ro at Lilstock on the 4th. Remote Sedge, Carex remota, is now
widely flowering in the south of the county, with records this week from
Wellington, Langford Heathfield, Taunton, Thurlbear and Orchard Wood. Dogwood, Cornus
sanguineus, has been slow to blossom, but Ro saw it at Lilstock on the 4th,
while I had it the next day at Trull.
We’ve also notched up two of this week’s target ‘C’s. Smooth
Hawk’s-beard, Crepis capillaris,
was seen by Alastair in Minehead on 24th April (so actually in Week
6), while Dee had it in Clevedon on the 30th. Crested Dog’s-tail, Cynosurus cristatus, was coming into flower on a road verge
in Taunton this morning. But perhaps the most exciting – and certainly the most
photogenic – ‘C’ of the week was Chris’s record of first-flowering Meadow
Thistle, Cirsium dissectum, at Langford Heathfield. This isn’t a species
I routinely record, so I’m not sure whether this is especially early or not –
but Walter Watson would have been flabbergasted: his FFD for it was 12th
June!
‘H’. In Week 6, Hilary
visited Purn Hill where, on 23rd April, she recorded not only Common
Rockrose, Helianthemum nummularium, but also White Rockrose, H.
apenninum, and the hybrid between the two, H. x sulphureum.
Andrew also saw Common Rockrose in Week 6, at Cross Quarry on the 25th,
while in Week 7 Ellen had it at East Harptree on the 1st, and Anne
at Broadmead Quarry on the 3rd.
It isn’t flowering yet at Thurlbear.
‘L’ to ‘P’. Just the one record for Rough Hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus, Helena seeing
it in the churchyard in Midsomer Norton this afternoon (6th). ‘L’ of
the week, though, should probably go to Andrew for his first-flowering Pale
Flax, Linum bienne,at Uphill on the 2nd. (The only
‘L’ I could produce was Rye-grass, Lolium perenne, in the back garden on
the 2nd.) Water-cress, Nasturtium officinale, was
spotted by Liz on the 2nd.
The first record for flowering Corn Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, was also on the 2nd, as
Gill pushed her bike up the hill coming out of Nunney. I had it this morning,
in less desirable surroundings, on a road verge in Taunton. But ‘P’ of the
week, although not on our list, must surely be Greater Butterfly-orchid, Platanthera
chlorantha, recorded at Thurlbear Quarrylands (me) and Ivythorn Hill (Fiona
Davis), both on the 4th – an exceptionally early first date. My
decadal average FFD for Greater Butterfly-orchid is 28th May, while
Watson’s first date for it was 4th June.
‘R’. The first bramble
to come into flower is usually Dewberry, Rubus
caesius. Watson’s dates were 5th May for Dewberry and 21st
June for Rubus fruticosus
agg. While the latter is now flowering much earlier than that, FFDs for
Dewberry have hardly changed at all. Anyway, we’ve had both during the week:
the first R. caesiusrecords
were from Orchard Wood on the 1st, Roughmoor on the 3rd
and Lilstock on the 4th (Ro), while the sole R. fruticosusrecord was from Station Road, Brent
Knoll, on the 3rd (Andrew). Early-flowering ‘fruticosus’, at
least in Taunton, tends to be the alien – and delicious – ‘Himalayan Giant’, R.
armeniacus, which should start blooming within the next week. Elm-leaved
Bramble, Rubus ulmifolius, usually follows about a fortnight after the
‘Giant’…
We had three ‘S’s on the
list, and we found them all! Annual Pearlwort, Sagina apetala/filicaulis, was recorded in pavement cracks
in Taunton on the 4th and Midsomer Norton on the 6th.
White Stonecrop, Sedum album,
was flowering on a road verge in Taunton, again on the 4th, and in
Burnham-on-Sea on the 5th.
Chris had what seemed to be the first record of White Campion, Silene
latifolia, at Runnington (near Wellington), on 30th April,
followed by Andrew’s at Berrow, beside the churchyard, on the 4th.
Then Alastair, in an email this afternoon, listed it with several other species
as having been in flower at Dunster beach on 26th April (Week 6);
but then another email, close on its tail, was to say he’d just remembered that
White Campion was already flowering there several weeks earlier, on 27th
March (Week 2) – and he attached a photo to prove it! That’s a very early
record for it, but there’s no doubting its veracity. Another ‘S’ of note, by
the way, was an early Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara, recorded by Liz
near Wedmore on the 2nd.
‘T’ is for Tamus. Nothing to add on
that one. But a brief nod here to Goat’s-beard, Tragopogon pratensis,
which several of you have reported for the first time this week, including Liz
in Wedmore, Val in Glastonbury, Ro at Lilstock, and Andrew at Lympsham. It
should probably have been one of our Week 7 targets. Another ‘T’, White Clover,
Trifolium repens, is now popping up all over the county, from Nynehead
and Lilstock in the south and west to Midsomer Norton in the far north.
And finally, ‘V’. This
week’s ‘V’ is Heath Speedwell, Veronica
officinalis, which was flowering nicely at Thurlbear Quarrylands on the
4th.
Amongst the other more
interesting FFDs this week: Bugloss, Lycopsis arvensis, at Dunster beach on 26th April
(Alastair) and Wellington on 4th May (Linda); Downy Oat-grass, Avenula
pubescens at Berrow on the 4th (Andrew); a second Rough Chervil,
Chaerophyllum temulum, this time on Cotlake Hill, near Trull, on 30th
April; Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, at Hurlstone on the 2nd
(Alastair); Common Spike-rush, Eleocharis palustris, near Wedmore on the
2nd (Liz); Smooth Tare, Ervum tetraspermum (= Vicia tetrasperma),
at Nettlecombe on the 6th (Pat);Tall Ramping-fumitory, Fumaria
bastardii, at Lilstock on the 2nd (Ro), plus White R-f, F.
capreolata, at Wedmore, also on the 2nd (Liz); Small-flowered
Crane’s-bill, Geranium pusillum, in the churchyard at Berrow on the 4th
(Andrew); Common Water-crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis, near Wedmore on
the 2nd (Liz), and its coastal counterpart Brackish Water-crowfoot, Ranunculus
baudotii, at Dunster beach on 26th April (Alastair); second
records of Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor, from Chewton Mendip on the 1st
(Ellen), and Wild Clary, Salvia verbenaca, in and around Ro’s garden at
Lilstock on the 3rd; Common Figwort, Scrophularia nodosa, at
Greenaleigh on the 1st (Alastair);Sea Campion, Silene
uniflora, at Blackmoor, Mendip, on the 4th (Georgina);Bog
Stitchwort, Stellaria alsine, on Croydon Hill, also on the 4th
(Alastair); and Field Pansy, Viola arvensis, at Nynehead on the 1st
(Linda).
Oh yes, and one more
‘first’ this week, from Ellen: “The first forage harvester heard howling on the
hill beyond the village … [which] always marks the transition from spring to
summer for me.”
Many thanks, as usual, for your records, and apologies if I’ve inadvertently omitted anything of particular interest. You’ve brightened up my week no end.
This time he introduces us to Miss Isobella Gifford. a leading botanist of the mid 19th century. Maybe you don’t need an introduction, but I did, and was glad to have it.
the guidelines for the new look photo competition have arrived! You can access them in the “Instead of Meetings” menu. Only members can enter, of course, but new members are always welcome.
Several other species,
for which early FFDs have already been recorded, should soon be coming into
flower more generally, so it would be well worth keeping a note of when you
first see them:
As always, I’d be very
pleased to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or other) spp coming into
flower in the next week, by email to simonleach@phonecoop.coop.
When I’m kerb-crawling I
always think of Clive. I mean this, of course, in the nicest way possible. He
and I share, along with many others in the group, a particular fondness for
road-verge botanising, and this week I’ve been reflecting on why this might be
so. It may have something to do with the
lure of the unexpected. Absolutely anything can pop up on the kerbside,
so you never quite know what you might come across next. It could be a scarce
alien, like the (flowering) plants of Annual Toadflax, Linaria maroccana,
I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago on the edge of Canal Road, near the site
of Taunton’s old livestock market – only the third record for this species in
VC5 this century! Or what about the Woolly Clover, Trifolium tomentosum,
found last year, and again this, on the cut-and-scalped verge outside Wickes?
Aliens are all well and
good, but often it’s roadside coastal plants that generate the greater
excitement. This week’s offering (after last week’s Sea Fern-grass, Catapodium
marinum, Sea Pearlwort, Sagina maritima,and Bird’s-foot
Clover, Trifolium ornithopodioides) has included (fruiting) Sea
Stork’s-bill, Erodium maritimum, on Trenchard Way – the new road on the
south side of Taunton railway station – and Lesser Chickweed, Stellaria
pallida,a sand dune annual masquerading as a pavement weed in
Bridge Street near the wholefood shop. Botanically, these verges often have a
distinctly maritime feel to their flora; so if, like me, you’re an inland dweller
desperate for a whiff of sea air, a stroll along a (relatively) deserted
highway could be the answer. You can’t go to the seaside, so why not
investigate your local road verge and see if the seaside’s come to you?
Still on verges, several
of you are noticing that flowery roadsides have (so far) escaped their usual ‘spring
cut’. Not so in Taunton, where the mowing gangs – and the gang mowers – have been
much in evidence this week; frustrating, I agree, if the plants you were
willing into flower end up decapitated before their time, but a pleasing sight,
for Clive and me at least, since many of the little annuals in these places –
Knotted Hedge-parsley, Torilis nodosa, and Small-flowered Buttercup, Ranunculus
parviflorus, for example – seem to thrive on a regular close shave – plus,
ideally, a combination of spring/summer drought and the odd pinch of de-icing salt
in winter.
Week 6. Another dry,
warm week, until a late hiccup of rain yesterday and today which, in a parallel
universe, annoyingly led to the final day of the championship match between
Somerset and Hampshire being a wash-out. It would have fizzled out as a draw,
probably. In this universe, Steve Parker spotted his first swifts while
clapping for carers in N. Petherton on the 23rd. Maureen Webb, who lives in Priorswood – a real
hotspot for breeding swifts – had two flying over her house on the 25th,
while we had high-altitude ‘screamers’on two evenings, the 24th
and 27th, but despite much sky-scanning we have yet to actually see
them. Anyway, the main thing is: THEY’RE BACK! Which, as Ted Hughes says, “…
means the globe’s still working, the creation’s/still waking refreshed, our
summer’s/still all to come …”
Other summer migrants touching
down this week have included lesser whitethroats (Eve Tigwell’s on the 26th,
mine on the 27th) and cuckoos (Eve, in Mendip, on the 24th;
Maureen, on Cothelstone Hill, on the 25th). Still no sedge warblers
though. And as for tree pipits, pied flycatchers, redstarts and wood warblers; well,
for those of us unable to visit wooded combes on Exmoor or the Quantocks, these
birds are the stuff of dreams…
Turning now to ‘first
flowerings’, it is interesting to see how varied first flowering dates (FFDs)
are from different parts of the county. Several of you have noted how onset of flowering
is affected by altitude, distance from the coast, aspect, etc. As Ellen
McDouall and Eve will testify, anyone high up on a north-facing slope a long
way from the sea should expect to be perhaps 2-3 weeks behind the rest of us. Even
in the ‘deep south’, this is the case. The moment of ‘peak bluebell’ at
Thurlbear Wood (80-90 metres a.s.l.) was about 10 days ago, but at Cothelstone
Hill (250 metres a.s.l.) they’ve only just begun to look their best, with
the peak probably still a few days away. It is noteworthy, though, that since the
middle of March everyone has seen something in flower before anyone
else – even those who feel that they’re generally trotting along about two
weeks behind the rest of us.
This week, the sixth
since ‘lockdown’, was another bumper week for first flowerings, with seventeen
of you contributing more than 110 records involving 86 species. Our target list
for ‘Week 6’ comprised 24 species, of which 14 were seen and 10 weren’t. Here’s
a summary of the 14 we did see, arranged, as usual, in roughly
alphabetical order, with others of particular interest getting an honourable
mention in passing…
Starting with the ‘C’s… Welted
Thistle, Carduus crispus, was
just starting to flower near Roughmoor on the 28th, where it grows
in a scrum of tall herbage on the banks of the river Tone. Remote Sedge, Carex remota, is yet to start
flowering in Taunton, but Andrew Robinson had it in Brent Knoll churchyard on
the 21st. Other sedges have
been widely noted, and it’s been a good week, especially, for Grey Sedge, C.
divulsa: Steve had it in N. Petherton on the 23rd, while
Caroline Giddens, also on the 23rd, saw it flowering in Alcombe,
followed by Dee Holladay in St Mary’s churchyard, and Liz in Wedmore, on the 25th.
Following my (bracketed)
mention of back-garden Starved Wood-sedge, Carex depauperata, Fred
Rumsey – from his tiny enclave of would-be Somerset within a region otherwise
known, apparently, as Hampshire – reports no fewer than 18species (or
hybrids) flowering in his sedgecollection. Many are northern ‘exotica’
that aren’t found in Somerset, and, frankly, shouldn’t really be in Hampshire
either, like Fibrous Tussock-sedge, Carex appropinquata, String Sedge, C.
chordorrhiza, Bird’s-foot Sedge, C. ornithopoda and Sheathed Sedge, C.
vaginata. Not to mention a Lady’s-slipper, Cypripedium, called ‘Hank
Small’. On the 23rd, he saw Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum,
and Marsh Valerian, Valeriana dioica, in a nearby local nature reserve. Talking
of which… Back in Somerset proper, Gill Read encountered Marsh Valerian on the
28th at Postlebury. A really interesting ‘first’, this one, as it’s
probably not something many of us are likely to come across on our home
patches. It’s certainly not on mine!
Returning to ‘C’, the
large form of Fern-grass, Catapodium
rigidum,subsp. majus, was found
flowering as a pavement weed on Holway Avenue, Taunton, on the 26th.
It had been ‘in bud’ for about 10 days, and then suddenly – overnight – the
yellow anthers emerged. These made the whole inflorescence look ‘gritty’, as if
it had become covered with minuscule sand grains.
Moving on to ‘E’. Just
the one this week, Broad-leaved Willowherb, Epilobium montanum, which was seen by Steve in N. Petherton
on the 20th, in Week 5, but its identity wasn’t confirmed until the
start of Week 6. I had it in Taunton, another pavement weed, on the 26th. Then there’s a couple of grasses. Yorkshire
Fog, Holcus lanatus, was seen
in Taunton on the 26th and by Linda Everton in Wellington on the 27th,
while on the 25th Andrew had Rye-grass, Lolium perenne, on Brent Knoll. Within a week or so it will probably
be everywhere…
We did well with the ‘P’s: we had two to find and we found them both. Graham Lavender recorded first flowers of Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum, on the 23rd, and close-up examination of the hairs on the involucral bracts identified his plants as subsp. euronota(described in ‘Sell & Murrell’, but not in ‘Stace’). Andrew also saw it on the 23rd, at Uphill, Dee had it in Clevedon on the 24th, Linda in Wellington on the 25th, and finally, finally, I saw it just coming into flower at Thurlbear on the 27th. Silverweed, Potentilla anserina, was spotted by Andrew in a lay-by at Webbington, while Linda saw it in Wellington, both on the 25th. Helena Crouch, also on the 25th, dashed past it while on a two-mile run with her daughter Jenny. Doubtless spurred on by the Silverweed, Helena notched up a new ‘personal best’ of 20 minutes 45 seconds.
We did even better with the
‘R’s. Two of you reported Celery-leaved Buttercup, Ranunculus sceleratus: Andrew in Brent Knoll village on the
19th (so actually in Week 5), and Liz McDonnell in Wedmore on the 28th.
Dog-rose, Rosa canina(agg.),
was flowering at Roughmoor on the 28th, and at Obridge on the 29th.
I anticipate a flood of Dog-rose records during Week 7. The first Curled Dock, Rumex crispus, was on the 24th,
in Taunton, although Graham or Clive might well have determined it as a ‘probable
hybrid’. But as it was me determining it, this simplified things enormously!
One species I thought we
wouldn’t get this week was Wild Clary, Salvia
verbenaca. Certainly, its sites around Taunton are all too distant or
difficult to get at easily. Anyway, I needn’t have fretted, as Andrew turned it
up on his visit to Uphill on the 23rd – along with Honewort, Trinia
glauca: another of those Mendip specialities that, to me, feel like the half-forgotten
inhabitants of a former world, a world where Somerset would doubtless have trounced
Hampshire within three days…
White Clover, Trifolium repens, on the other
hand, is a plant we can all relate to, and one we’re all bound to get
sooner or later. Probably sooner, since Andrew and I both had it on the 24th
– me near Taunton railway station, and Andrew on Brent Knoll. Four days later
it was coming into flower more widely in Taunton, including in Longrun Meadow.
And finally, our ‘V’ of
the week was Guelder-rose, Viburnum
opulus, reported from Bossington by Caroline’s friend Ruth Hyett on the
21st, Brent Knoll churchyard on the 24th (Andrew) and
Roughmoor on the 28th (me).
Amongst the other more
interesting FFDs this week: Kidney-vetch, Anthyllis vulneraria, at
Uphill on the 23rd (Andrew); Lesser Pond-sedge, Carex acutiformis,
and Oval Sedge, C. leporina, at Wedmore on the 28th and 27th
respectively (Liz); a second FFD for Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes, this
time at Ubley Warren on the 23rd (Georgina Shuckburgh); Swine-cress,
Lepidium coronopus, in Trull on the 25th (me), and Wedmore on
the 28th (Liz); Ivy Broomrape, Orobanche hederae, in Clevedon
on the 23rd (Dee); Lousewort, Pedicularis sylvatica, at GB
Gruffy nature reserve on the 26th (Georgina), and near Wellington on
the 27th (Linda, with Tormentil, Potentilla erecta); Yellow
Rattle, Rhinanthus minor, at Uphill on the 23rd (Andrew); Ragged
Robin, Silene flos-cuculi, at Rew Mead nature reserve, nr Wellington, on
the 25th (Linda); Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius, in N.
Petherton on the 23rd (Steve); a second record of Brooklime, Veronica
beccabunga, this time at Nettlecombe on the 29th (Pat Wolseley);
a second record for Yellow Flag, Iris pseudacorus, near Wellington on
the 25th (Linda), following a record on the river Tone in Taunton on
the 20th; and, lastly, Biting Stonecrop, Sedum acre, on
Priory Bridge Road, Taunton, on the 24th – that’s almost four weeks
earlier than my previous-earliest FFD for it, and more than six weeks earlier
than Walter Watson’s FFD in the 1920s/30s.
Contender for the
strangest find of the week, though, was a Camassia, a single plant of which
was discovered in a field/wood-border in Trull. I’m hopeless on garden plants,
so didn’t have a clue what it was, but a WhatsApp photo pinged across to Helena
produced an immediate response. The key in the European Garden Flora indicated
that the Trull plant was most probably C. leichletlii, rather than C.
quamash which curiously is the only Camassia species mentioned in
‘Stace’. Many thanks to Helena for sorting this one out. It’s a beautiful
plant, so worth googling if you don’t know it.
Other than that, I’ve
been playing catch-up for much of the week, with Lesser Trefoil, Trifolium
dubium, on the 24th,Greater Celandine, Chelidonium
majus on the 25th, Prickly Sow-thistle, Sonchus asper, on
the 26th, and Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum, on the 27th.
Many thanks, as usual,
for your records. And for your stories too. On days when every piece of news seems destined
to depress, there’s always fun to be had from peering into my in-box.
As always, I’d be delighted
to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or other) spp coming into flower in
the next week, by email to simonleach@phonecoop.coop. If you could please try to submit any
records by about 3 p.m. on the ‘seventh day’ – i.e. next Wednesday – that would
be really helpful.
This was the week when
someone, maybe flagging just a little, asked the question: how long, exactly,
is this first-flowering malarkey going to go on for? Until the end of spring,
perhaps? Well, yes. Certainly let’s try to keep going until the end of spring. But
what exactly is spring? And how can its end be best determined?
Meteorologists keep it simple – four seasons, each one precisely three months
long. For the weather-watcher, then, spring neatly starts, without fail, on the
first day of March, then carries on until the last day of May. Come June, come
summer! The rest of us do something similar, but using equinoxes and solstices
as our seasonal dividers; so the start of spring coincides with the
spring equinox, while the summer solstice marks its ending.
Tim Dee, on the other
hand, suggests in Greenery (p. 9) that the year may be more fittingly
divided into two seasons rather than four…
“But I see, and have always seen, the year in two
halves. I feel it like that: a coming, spring, and a going, autumn; six months
forward before six months back, six months up before six down, six months of
lengthening days before six of longer nights, six greening months before six
browning, six growing before six dying; in autumn things fall apart, in spring
things come together …”
Viewed this way, it’s
not that summer and winter don’t exist, exactly, but that they represent
moments of overlap between spring and autumn. So ‘summer’ becomes the
time when spring overlaps with autumn, while ‘winter’ is when autumn overlaps
with spring. Maybe that’s why we so happily, and productively, begin our search
for the ‘first signs of spring’ in the depths of winter. Equally,
though less obviously, why we might discern the last signs of spring at
the back end of summer, even though our chatter then is all about ‘mists
and mellow fruitfulness’, and the garden, each morning, is slung with spiders’
webs.
If anything speaks of
springtime it’s surely ‘first flowerings’, yet there are hosts of plants that
don’t start to bloom until long after the summer solstice, by which time many others
are – to use Dee’s terminology – ‘on their way down’. So, perhaps we should
stretch our notion of spring in both directions, not only by beginning it around
Christmas-time with the first flowering of, say, Spurge-laurel, Daphne
laureola, but also by not ending it until about the second week of September
when Ivy, Hedera helix, begins to blossom. Which means that we can keep
going for another four to five months if we want it to!
‘Week 5’ then: another
dry, sunny week, except for Friday and Saturday that were grey, chilly, damp
and, in Taunton at least, intermittently drenching. One of the stranger aspects
of the last five weeks of coronavirus ‘lockdown’ has been how for almost all of
this time we’ve been bathed in warm sunshine. It pains me to say it, but never
has there been such a perfect start to a cricket season, weather-wise. It’s
just the complete lack of cricket that’s the problem. Friday, on the other
hand, felt like a throwback to another life, a day sitting in the pavilion
watching covers being removed and replaced, removed and replaced, without a single
ball bowled; a time for ‘business as usual’, reminding us – just for a day – of
a pre-virus world marked by endless rain, rivers full to bursting, ground
saturated, mud everywhere. Who would have guessed that we might hanker after such
days, before the pause button was pressed, before the weather changed and
everything else changed with it? Anyway,
yes, it’s been another mainly dry, fine week – and, it has to be said, another truly
remarkable week for first flowerings too.
First, though, a nod to things
non-botanical. Vicki and I had
our first swallow on the 16th, then on the 17th we heard
newly-arrived reed warblers – several of them – chug-chug-chugging from
riverside bramble patches between Obridge and Creech Castle, in the reed-beds
and willow scrub behind B&Q, then on the 19th from the little
patch of reeds around Roughmoor pond. No sedge warblers yet, which seem to have
declined in this area as the reed warblers have increased. Still much activity
amongst the mining bees and mason bees, while Eve Tigwell says in her area St
Mark’s flies, Bibio marci, have been much in evidence in the last few
days.On the 21st Vicki and I spotted our first dragonfly: a
southern hawker, Aeshna cyanea, patrolling the herbage bordering the
footpath through Orchard Wood – the place where, three weekends ago, we were
due to hold our first field meeting of the year. My old dragonfly book suggests
A. cyanea should be on the wing mid-June to mid-October, while the
British Dragonfly Society website suggests May onwards. So, is 21st
April especially early for it, does anyone know? A sign, perhaps, that not only
wild flowers are quick to respond to such ‘unseasonal’ weather…
This week 21 of you,
including two friends of Caroline’s, Ruth Hyett and Sue Lloyd, contributed more
than 130 records involving 96 species. We had 15 target spp to look out for, 10
new ones and five rolled over from ‘Week 4’. Many of these were species of more
open habitats, so it felt like we were finally emerging from beneath the trees.
Early spring involves a lot of rooting around on the forest floor, but most
woodland herbs have now been ticked off, and indeed many – like Moschatel, Adoxa
moschatellina,Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa and Bluebell Hyacinthoides
non-scripta – are already at or well past their peak of flowering.
Of the 15 target spp, only
Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum, White Clover, Trifolium
repens, Black-grass, Alopecurus myosuroides, and Guelder-rose, Viburnum
opulus, have evaded us this week.Here’s a summary of the 11 we did see, arranged, as usual, in
(roughly) alphabetical order, with various others getting a mention here and
there…
Black Mustard, Brassica nigra, was seen by me coming
into flower on the bank of the river Tone at Creech Castle on the 19th,
but the more remarkable riverside find was the next day when Vicki and I witnessed
the first fully-open flowers of Yellow Iris, Iris pseudacorus.The
only sedge on this week’s list was Carnation Sedge, Carex panicea, recorded by Chris Loudon on the 20th
at Langford Heathfield (with Pale Dog-violet, Viola lactea, and/or
possibly the hybrid between lactea and Common Dog-violet, V.
riviniana). But other sedges seen for the first time this week included
Hairy Sedge, Carex hirta, at Longrun Meadow on the 18th, and
two records of Greater Tussock-sedge, Carex paniculata from VC6, one by
Steve Parker on a work trip to Shapwick.(And there’s Starved
Wood-sedge, C. depauperata, in my garden – but that probably shouldn’t
count, should it?)
Other‘C’ species
included the first records of Pignut, Conopodium
majus, seen by Linda Everton nr Wellington Monument on the 21st,
and Sue Lloyd nr Selworthy on the same day. We also had second sightings for
Rough Chervil, Chaerophyllum temulum, by David Hawkins on Tickenham Hill
on the 19th, while Steve had Hemlock, Conium maculatum, in N.
Petherton, also on the 19th.
Turning to shrubs… On
the 16th Andrew Robinson recorded flowering Dogwood, Cornus sanguineus, in
Burnham-on-Sea, while Vicki and I notched up Spindle, Euonymus europeaus, today, at Roughmoor. More of you are now
reporting Elder, Sambucus nigra, including Ro in Lilstock and Steve in
N. Petherton. Elder is one of a number of white-flowered shrubs/small trees –
others include Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna,
Wayfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana, Rowan, Sorbus aucuparia etc. –
that seem to be flowering earlier now than they did, say, fifty years ago. I see that neither Elder nor Rowan are
mentioned in the Ladybird book ‘What to look for in spring’, illustrated
by Charles Tunnicliffe; instead they’re featured in the companion ‘… summer’
volume, published in 1960, with the telling comment that Elder blossom “…
most distinctly speak[s] of June and midsummer…” Not any more, it doesn’t!
(Although it may still do in other parts of the country, of course.)
Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill,
Geranium dissectum, has
been recorded beginning to flower this week on grassy banks, verges and arable
field margins: the first sighting of it was on the 19th in Trull
(me), then on the 20th in Middle Street (Andrew), and the 21st
at Nettlecombe (Pat Wolseley).The plea for records of ‘proper’ Oxeye-daisy,
Leucanthemum vulgare, was
answered by Ro Fitzgerald on the 15th (Nether Stowey), me on the 19th
(Taunton, various places), and Alastair Stevenson on the 21st
(Hurlstone). Back beneath the trees, Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum, was spotted by two of you on the same
day, the 20th: by Linda, in Wellington, and by Gill Read at
Postlebury. I think Gill’s was probably first, though, as she’s usually
tramping around her patch while the rest of us are still fast asleep!
Docks aren’t especially
eye-catching, they’re easily overlooked and do little to raise the pulse. Nevertheless,
several of us have turned up Sorrel, Rumex
acetosa, this week: me and Andrew on the 16th, in Taunton
and Burnham-on-Sea respectively, closely followed by Margaret Webster on the 20th
in Winford, and Hilary Blewett on the 22nd at Uphill (where she also
saw Green-winged Orchid, Anacamptis morio, and picked up a second very
early record for flowering Betony, Betonica officinalis). We’ve also had
a couple of other docks, Clustered Dock, R. conglomeratus, and Wood
Dock, R. sanguineus, coming into flower this week, both on the 18th
in Taunton, and surprisingly early – certainly the earliest recorded first
flowering dates (FFDs) for these in at least the last twelve years.
Procumbent Pearlwort, Sagina procumbens, has now started
flowering in many parts of the county, including Minehead on the 15th
(Caroline Giddens), Taunton on the 17th (me), Wellington on the 21st
(Linda) and Burnham, also on the 21st (Andrew). An exciting discovery
was Sea Pearlwort, Sagina maritima, on the 22nd, growing on
the verge of the A38 in Taunton. Exciting,
not because it was flowering, but because this appears to be the first record
of it for the Taunton area. It was growing with Common Stork’s-bill, Erodium
cicutarium, Sea Fern-grass, Catapodium marinum, and large numbers of
tiny plants of (flowering) Bird’s-foot Clover, Trifolium ornithopodioides
– the last was a big surprise, being only the second inland locality for it in
VC5. (Also, while we’re on the subject of clovers…. Another of this week’s
highlights, for me, was a healthy colony of now-flowering Least Trefoil, T.
micranthum, within spitting distance of the Subterranean Clover, T.
subterraneum, found a couple of weeks ago. But, amazingly, still no Lesser
Trefoil, Trifolium dubium, in this corner of the county…)
Last but not least, I
can report that Rowan, Sorbus
aucuparia, was in full blossom in Taunton on the 17th, in
the ‘children’s wood’ by the river Tone. Helena Crouch says that in the ‘far
north’ many species seem to be behind in their flowering, but she reports that
her garden Rowan is in full blossom.
Other highlights this
week have included FFDs for (the highly photogenic) Herb-Paris, Paris
quadrifolia, in Harptree Combe on the 14th (Chris Billinghurst)
and at Long Wood, Mendip, on the 21st (Georgina Shuckburgh), and
Purple Gromwell, Aegonychon purpureocaeruleum (= Lithospermum), on the
18th (Anne Cole). Liz McDonnell had flowering Blinks, Montia
fontana, in two flower pots in Wedmore.In the far west of the
county Alastair recorded Sheep’s-bit, Jasione montana, at Hurlstone on
the 21st, and Grass-vetchling, Lathyrus nissolia, at Minehead
on the 20th. Amongst my own ‘earliest yet’ FFDs were Wood Millet, Milium
effusum, at Thurlbear on the 16th and Hairy Tare, Ervilia
hirsuta (= Vicia), in Longrun Meadow on the 22nd. Meanwhile, up at Portishead on the 17th,
David had an unusually early Brooklime, Veronica beccabunga. More
mundanely, we have two reports of (the easily ignored) Rough Meadow-grass, Poa
trivialis, in flower this week – in Taunton and N. Petherton.
Apologies to anyone
whose records I should have mentioned, but the night is no longer young and neither
am I.
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