Somerset Rare Plants Group

: 16^th – 22^nd April

Shall we see if we can keep this up for another week? In which case, there are five species to be carried over from last week, namely:

Ox-eye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare; Rowan, Sorbus aucuparia; Procumbent Pearlwort, Sagina procumbens; Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill, Geranium dissectum; Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum

To which we can add the following ten species:

White Clover, Trifolium repens; Black-grass, Alopecurus myosuroides; Sorrel, Rumex acetosa; Black Mustard, Brassica nigra; Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum; Pignut, Conopodium majus; Carnation Sedge, Carex panicea; Dogwood, Cornus sanguinea; Guelder-rose, Viburnum opulus; Spindle, Euonymus europeaus 

As always, I’d be very pleased to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or any other) species 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.

Please look after yourselves, stay safe, and I hope you all have a good week. Only another fortnight and the swifts will be back…

Simon

This morning I took delivery of Greenery: Journeys in Springtime, a new book by Tim Dee. If you haven’t read anything by Tim Dee, he’s well worth a try. His latest book is a fitting accompaniment to what we’re trying to capture about this particular spring, the spring of 2020, in our ownparticular neck of the woods. Tim Dee lives for much of each year in Bristol, and his parents live in Minehead. So our own neck of the woods is his, too. You’ll find references in Greenery to many familiar places – Dolebury Warren, Dunkery Beacon, Black Down, Burrington Combe, and Ham Wall – as well as to many less familiar, in East Anglia, Africa and Scandinavia, for example. It’s a book about places, yes, but it’s also a book about life and death, about happy coincidences, about loss and longing. About spring, but also about the meaning of spring.

My own week has included several highlights, not all of them botanical, but the best of the lot came on Bank Holiday Monday when Ben persuaded me to ‘break cover’ and dare to head out of town to Thurlbear Wood. In the car it took us nine minutes to get there, and seven to get back – being downhill on the return leg – so it was, I admit, marginally further away from home than the five-minute ‘rule’ for how far you can drive to reach a place for purposes of taking your daily exercise. It was strange to be sitting in a car again – my first trip out on four wheels in almost a month – and when we reached the wood I felt slightly light-headed, woozy. The wide open spaces seemed to me to be somehow wider than I remembered them, the lush greenery seemed greener and lusher than I had anticipated. The bluebells, carpeting the woodland floor, were somehow bluer – but the star-bursts of woodruff lining the paths were just as I was expecting them to be. We walked in the woods for about an hour, Gilly having a field day with sticks, me having a field day with flowers. We met one other person up there, so social distancing was a doddle. I think it may have been the bluebells, but I got a bit emotional; and it was a reminder – if I needed it – to never take a place like this for granted ever again.

So, spring continues its glorious gallop towards summer, a fact reflected over and over again in this week’s batch of first flowering dates.  Of course, the weather helps, doesn’t it? It’s been a dry week, and for the most part remarkably sunny and warm; here in Taunton we had four days in a row – Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday – with temperatures above 23°C. By my reckoning, it was the warmest, and sunniest, Easter weekend for at least a quarter of a century.  And while the sunshine has continued, the last couple of clear nights have produced grass frosts, even here in the middle of Taunton.

Let’s begin, like last week, with a few non-botanical happenings. It’s been another good week for butterflies: orange tips all over the place, plus our first green-veined whites on the 9th, speckled woods on the 10^th, and then this morning (15^th) the first small copper of the year. Flower bees and bee-flies continue to patrol the lungwort and primroses in the back garden, while mason bees emerged about a week ago and are busy around the ‘bee boxes’. We’ve also noticed large numbers of mining bees nesting on areas of bare, dry soil. Many such areas seem to be far less disturbed/trampled than usual, so this could prove to be an excellent year for mining bees.

On the bird front, last week’s ‘fall’ of willow warblers proved to be a transient affair; no sooner had they arrived than they left again – and I haven’t heard one since. But other summer visitors have taken their place. On the 10^th, sand martins were back at their little colony beneath a road bridge at Creech Castle, Taunton – their nest-sites situated in drain pipes set into a concrete retaining wall. Then today Vicki had house martins down near the cricket ground, while I enjoyed ten minutes listening to my first whitethroat, singing lustily from a hedgerow on the northern flank of Cotlake Hill, Trull. Whitethroats make me smile. They seem to take everything terribly seriously, and get so easily agitated – like me on a bad day.

Turning now to botany – “at last!” you cry – it’s been another bumper week for first flowerings. Very many thanks, once again, to everyone for sending in their records. During ‘Week 4’ we have made, between us, more than 130 records and at least 75 species. A fantastic effort! And who would have anticipated that this week’s offering would include rarities such as Petty Whin, Genista anglica (Langford Heathfield, on the 14^th, seen by Chris Loudon), Soft-leaved Sedge, Carex montana (Ubley Warren, on the 8^th, Georgina Shuckburgh), and Green-winged Orchid, Anacamptis morio (Stoke Camp, Mendip, on the 10^th, seen by Georgina’s niece, with a pin-sharp WhatsApp photo to prove it)?

This week we had 16 target species to look out for, four of them carried over from ‘Week 3’. Between us, we saw 11 of them during the week. Here’s a summary, in (roughly) alphabetical order…

The first report of Bugle, Ajuga reptans, was on the 5^th. It came from Libby Houston, who saw it in her garden – the proper wild plant, not a garden variety – but then she realised that it shouldn’t really count because she doesn’t live in Somerset! The first records for Somerset sensu stricto came a few days later, when Margaret Webster saw it at Winford on the 12^th, and then it was seen at Thurlbear (me) and near Wellington (Linda) on the 13^th.

I have still not seen Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus, flowering in Taunton – although my chances have diminished significantly as a result of Vicki’s enthusiastic weeding of the back path (a former stronghold for it) over Easter weekend! However, Linda produced a photo of it in flower which she’d taken in Wellington on 21^st March – a very early date for it – while Alastair Stevenson saw it flowering in Minehead a few days later, on the 25^th.  The only person to see it coming into flower during ‘Week 4’ was Andrew Robinson, who recorded it in Brent Knoll village on the 9^th.

And now for a few grassland species… I had my first Cat’s-ear, Hypochaeris radicata, on the 14^th, in a front garden on South Road, while two of you recorded Bird’s-foot-trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, this week – Andrew at Cross Quarry on the 12^th, and Hilary Brownett at Bleadon Hill on the 13^th. No doubt others will follow in the days ahead. Smooth/Spreading Meadow-grass, Poa pratensis/humilis, was noted on Taunton road verges for the first time on the 14^th, while Salad-burnet, Poterium sanguisorba, was one of a whole clutch of first-flowerers up at Thurlbear on the 13^th, although Andrew had already seen it flowering on Brent Knoll on the 10^th. 

Broad-leaved Dock, Rumex obtusifolius, and Common Comfrey, Symphytum officinale, were both found just starting to flower in Taunton, by the river Tone, on the 11^th. The comfrey was more than three weeks later than last year’s first flowering date (FFD), possibly delayed due to high river levels and flooding in February and early March. Other early-flowering comfreys reported during the week included White Comfrey, S. orientale, and Creeping Comfrey, S. grandiflorum.

Elder, Sambucus nigra, was seen in Henlade on the 12^th, the third earliest FFD for this species in the last twelve years. Pat Wolseley also had it on the 12^th, at Nettlecombe, while Andrew saw it on the 14^th, at Brent Knoll. Sanicle, Sanicula europaea, also recorded its third-earliest FFD, being about three weeks earlier than the average FFD for the last decade in the Taunton area. Helena and Jim Crouch were the first to spot it, ‘up north’ at Chewton Wood on the 12^th; this was followed in the next three days by records from Nettlecombe (Pat), Langford Heathfield (Chris), Thurlbear (me) and Postlebury (Gill Read).  

Lastly, Anne Cole recorded Lesser Trefoil, Trifolium dubium, at Hill Lane, Mendip, on the 9^th, while Pat had it at Nettlecombe on the 14th.

Of the target species from earlier weeks, you have been sending in lots of records this week for the likes of Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, Horse-chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, Sweet Vernal-grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Pendulous Sedge, Carex pendula, Woodruff, Galium odoratum, Yellow Archangel, Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp montanum, and Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana.  But the species with the most records, by a country mile, was Early-purple Orchid, Orchis mascula, with reports of it from Gill (Postlebury, 10^th), Anne (Littlestoke, 10^th), Georgina (Long Wood, Mendip, 11^th), Helena and Jim (Chewton Wood, 12^th), me (Thurlbear, 13^th), Linda (Wellington, 13^th), and Pat (Nettlecombe, 14^th).

While on the subject of orchids, two of us – me and Chris – recorded Common Twayblade, Neottia ovata, in flower on the 14^th. This compares with an average FFD over the last 12 years of 4^th May, and Walter Watson’s date from the 1930s of 23^rd May. Grey Sedge, Carex divulsa, was seen by me in Trull this morning (15^th), the earliest FFD for this species in the last decade, and (like Common Twayblade) more than five weeks earlier than in Watson’s time.

We’ve had several notable records of summer-flowering species ‘getting ahead of themselves’, so to speak. The most extraordinary, surely, has to be Linda’s record of Betony, Betonica officinalis, which she found on the 13^th near Wellington. To put her date into some sort of context, Watson’s average FFD for Betony in the 1930s was 9^th July, while my own average FFD for the decade 2008-17 was 5^th July. The earliest FFD in the last 12 years was 6^th June!  Almost as surprising was Andrew’s report of Fairy-flax, Linum catharticum, on the 12^th at Cross Quarry – a species that usually doesn’t start flowering until mid-May. Alastair’s Common Ragwort, Jacobaea vulgaris, and Pat’s Wild Carrot, Daucus carota, also seem to be in the same category; although some species, and maybe Common Ragwort is a good example, can sometimes continue flowering right through the winter, such that early flowering in the spring is perhaps best viewed as being exceptionally late flowering from the previous summer – since the flowers often continue to appear on the previous year’s shoots.

You recorded a number of other species during the week that are, broadly speaking, probably flowering at about the right time, but which weren’t on the target list due to a paucity of data from previous years – usually because they occur only very infrequently (or not at all) in the Taunton area. These included Lousewort, Pedicularis sylvatica,Heath Milkwort, Polygala serpyllifolia, Pill Sedge, Carex pilulifera, and Flea Sedge, C. pulicaris, all recorded flowering by Chris at Langford Heathfield on the 14^th, and Bitter-vetch, Lathyrus linifolius, seen by both Chris on the 14^th at Langford Heathfield, and by Linda on the 13^th, on a lane bank near Wellington. Also Thin-spiked Wood-sedge, Carex strigosa, seen by Gill on the 10^th at Postlebury, and by Chris on the 14^th at you-know-where. And lastly, as a follow-up to Linda’s Wood-sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, on the 7^th, there were two more records of it during the week, both of them ‘up north’: at Charterhouse (Georgina, on the 10^th ), and at Postlebury (Gill, on the 15^th).

Oh yes, and Pedunculate Oak, Quercus robur, was recorded coming into flower during the week too, the first records being from Chris Billinghurst by the river Chew on the 10^th and from Steve Parker in N. Petherton on the 11^th.  My own date this year was Easter Day, the 12^th, in Ruishton and Henlade. It’s not a species I routinely record – heaven knows why not – but the dates I do have for it suggest very little variation from year to year, the FFDs normally falling (like this year) between 10^th and 20^th April.

Right, that’s it! I’ve run out of steam, and need to get to bed. Apologies to anyone whose records should have been mentioned, but weren’t – like Andrew’s Buck’s-horn Plantain, Plantago coronopus, and Common Milkwort, Polygala vulgaris,Alastair’s White Ramping-fumitory, Fumaria capreolata, Margaret’s Soft-brome, Bromus hordeaceus, my own Yellow Oat-grass, Trisetum flavescens, etc, etc…

Right, here we go again! First, we have four spp carried over from last week, namely:

Bugle, Ajuga reptans; Common Comfrey, Symphytum officinale; Lesser Trefoil, Trifolium dubium; Elder, Sambucus nigra

To which we can now add the following 12 spp:

Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus; Smooth/Spreading Meadow-grass, Poa pratensis/humilis; Salad-burnet, Poterium sanguisorba; Ox-eye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare; Rowan, Sorbus aucuparia; Bird’s-foot-trefoil, Lotus corniculatus; Cat’s-ear, Hypochaeris radicata; Procumbent Pearlwort, Sagina procumbens; Broad-leaved Dock, Rumex obtusifolius; Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill, Geranium dissectum; Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum; Sanicle, Sanicula europaea

As last week, this hopefully gives you a decent range of species to watch out for in your local patch, whether that’s the back garden or slightly further afield while taking your permitted exercise – with or without a dog! You’ll see that I’ve included Ox-eye Daisy, even though on road verges in Taunton it’s been flowering – much like Yarrow, Achillea millefolium and Cock’s-foot, Dactylis glomerata – since the start of the year. It would be good, though, to see if we can get a date for it away from road verges, i.e. in ‘proper’ grassland.

I’d be very pleased to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or any other) species 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 should increase the likelihood of me getting to bed at an earthly hour! Tonight I’m still here, banging away on the keyboard at 1 a.m. The new weeks has already begun. Eeks!

Look after yourselves, stay safe, and I hope you all have a good week.

Simon

It’s amazing how no sooner than one week ends, the next one begins. There’s no let up, is there? A steady flow of emails and WhatsApp messages too! The spread-sheet is proving its worth, all the records neatly stacked and sorted. Without it I’d be in a complete pickle by now.

The warm weather, especially in the last couple of days, has really kept spring rattling along nicely. Not botany, I know, but yesterday several of you reported your first orange tips. (I saw my first this morning when walking out to Roughmoor.) Also yesterday we had our first small whites here, while two days ago there was a big arrival of willow warblers. We had one singing in a neighbour’s garden first thing in the morning; then along the river, between Obridge and Creech Castle, I counted at least twenty in full song where two days earlier there’d been none! Several of you have reported swallows, too, suggesting many summer migrants have been arriving in the last few days, no doubt helped on their way by the southerly breeze.

Despite the continuing ‘lock down’, 14 of you have submitted records during the week, which is a considerable achievement in the circumstances. It may be different in the countryside, of course, but in town the police are now a much more visible presence, with regular patrols of parks and open spaces to break up any gatherings and to check that no-one’s exercising further away from home than strictly necessary. For now, though, we have continued to be able to do our usual daily walks, which means being out of the house for about an hour-and-a-half. Having a dog seems to help, and it certainly feels easier botanising in town when Gilly’s trotting along beside me. It’s as if a dog provides an immediately obvious explanation for why one might be ‘out and about’, and so mucheasier to just say you’re walking the dog than having to admit that what you’re really doing is searching for flowers on some plant or other.

So, it’s been another good week for first flowerings. In all, we made more than 80 records in ‘Week 3’, and these included first sightings for more than two-thirds of the target species. But before we get to these, let’s have a quick look at some of the species you’ve found that weren’t targets. These include a few real rarities, like Spring Cinquefoil, Potentilla verna, which was recorded flowering at Black Rock (Cheddar) by Georgina Shuckburgh on 31^st March – so actually at the end of ‘Week 2’ – and Alpine Penny-cress, Noccaea caerulescens, also found by Georgina, this time at Blackmoor, on the 2^nd. And she attached a lovely photo to prove it, too. Such Mendip specialities seem a world away at the moment to those of us holed up in the ‘deep south’.

It’s also been a week of ‘strange umbels’, in that we’ve had some incredibly early sightings of three umbellifers (Apiaceae) that one wouldn’t expect to see in flower until late June, or even July!  Ro FitzGerald saw Wild Parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, in flower at Lilstock on the 5^th, while Georgina had Rough Chervil, Chaerophyllum temulum, at Ubley Drove on the 2^nd (both records supported by super photos); and then today, to cap it all, Andrew Robinson reported Upright Hedge-parsley, Torilis japonica, flowering at Brent Knoll. Extraordinary! Will these prove to be ‘one-off’ anomalies, I wonder? Certainly, it would be worth folks keeping an eye out for these species in the coming weeks.

An unusual record of my own, on the 6^th, was Subterranean Clover, Trifolium subterraneum, several patches of which were flowering nicely in a road verge near the roundabout by the Shell garage on Priory Bridge Road, Taunton. It was growing there with flowering Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill, Geranium molle, and Scarlet Pimpernel, Lysimachia (= Anagallis) arvensis. Another highlight of the week was Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes, seen by Pat Wolseley at Nettlecombe on the 5^th, while she was also able to confirm this week an earlier sighting of Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia, on 31^st March.

For some species I’ve been playing ‘catch-up’ this week, including Cuckooflower, Cardamine pratensis (Longrun Meadow) and Goldilocks Buttercup, Ranunculus auricomus (Cotlake Hill), both on the 5^th, and at last,Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum, on the 6^th, in a flower bed on Eastbourne Road, Taunton.

Turning now to the 15 target species for ‘Week 3’, the following 11 (names emboldened) were seen by one or more of us, either during the week or, in one or two instances, towards the end of the previous week. Running through them in alphabetical order…

Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, was recorded by David Hawkins on the 1^st, at a location ‘up north’ to such an extent that it was actually just in VC34 apparently. We’ll let him have it though, shall we? On the 7^th Anne Cole reported Sycamore flowering on Mendip, while I had two trees starting to flower in Taunton, also on the 7^th. (Incidentally, Caroline Giddens, in Minehead, had her first Horse-chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, flowers on 29^th March, and she says that her earliest blossom, like mine, always seems to be on the same tree each year.)

Barren Brome, Anisantha sterilis, was actually seen by Andrew flowering on Brent Knoll last week, on 30^th March, while this week we’ve had three more records for Sweet Vernal-grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum – Helena Crouch, in Paulton, Pat, at Nettlecombe, and me, in Longrun Meadow, all of them today. Helena has also notched up the first record of flowering Winter-cress, Barbarea vulgaris, on a road verge in Paulton, while interestingly David and Andrew both report having seen American Winter-cress, Barbarea verna, during the week. B. verna is actually quite a scarce plant in Somerset, and an alien, whereas B. vulgaris is a widespread native, pretty common through most of the county apart from in the far west. I’ve seen the latter in bud this week, but not yet in flower…

Chris Billinghurst had Greater Pond-sedge, Carex riparia, flowering in the Molly Brook – a tributary of the river Chew – on the 1^st, while I had it just starting to flower on the river Tone in Taunton on the 5^th. (Pendulous Sedge, Carex pendula, by the way, is now flowering in many places in the Taunton area, although it has yet to be reported from other parts of the county.)

I saw a just-opening ‘capitulum’ of Beaked Hawk’s-beard, Crepis vesicaria, in Taunton today, along with flowering Lesser Swine-cress, Lepidium didymum. Both of these I’d happily swap, however, for the Early-purple Orchids, Orchis mascula, seen this week – by Chris Loudon on the 2^nd at Langford Budville, by Pat at Nettlecombe on the 5^th, and by Hilary Brownett on Hutton Hill (nr Weston-super-Mare) on the 7^th. Linda Everton’s Early-purple Orchids were in bud in woodland below Wellington Monument on the 7^th, so will surely be blooming there by the middle of ‘Week 4’. (She also saw Wood Sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, on the 7^th. Has anyone else seen this in flower yet?)

Red Clover, Trifolium pratense, is starting to make its presence felt, with records of it flowering on the 2^nd and 5^th in Taunton (me) and on the 7^th in Wellington (Linda). Common Nettle, Urtica dioica, has also made its first appearance this week, being seen flowering in Taunton today (me).

And finally a couple of ‘V’s – Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana, which was seen by Anne at Hill Lane (Mendip) on the 2^nd, and by Andrew on Brent Knoll today. And while Andrew was busy racking up first flowerers on Brent Knoll – lucky sod – I was scuffing about the not-so-salubrious verges of Taunton, with dog by my side, where as well as Beaked Hawk’s-beard, Lesser Swine-cress and Common Nettle I also spotted a single but very ‘showy’ flower of Common Vetch, Vicia sativa. The plant was growing on the grassy bank beside Tangier car-park, just a stone’s throw from Riverside Chambers, where Natural England used to have its local HQ, and where I spent many a long year filling in spread-sheets, writing reports and generally keeping my nose clean.

Those were the days….

Week 3’ Preview : 1^st April

Right, here we go again. ‘Week 3’, if you’re up for it, runs from tomorrow, 2^nd April, until next Wednesday 8^th April. Five species are carried over from last week, namely:

Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus; Bugle, Ajuga reptans; Beaked Hawk’s-beard, Crepis vesicaria; Red Clover, Trifolium pratense; Common Vetch, Vicia sativa

To which we can now add the following ten spp:

Lesser Swine-cress, Lepidium didymum (= Coronopus didymus); Early-purple Orchid, Orchis mascula; Common Comfrey, Symphytum officinale; Barren Brome, Anisantha sterilis; Greater Pond-sedge, Carex riparia; Winter-cress, Barbarea vulgaris; Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana; Lesser Trefoil, Trifolium dubium; Elder, Sambucus nigra; Common Nettle, Urtica dioica

Hopefully this gives you a decent range of species to look out for, whether you’re out in the sticks or an out-and-out townie. Incidentally, if spring continues advancing at the same pace as it has up until now, we probably ought to have knocked all these off by about the 12^th. (By which time the swallows will be back! There’s always something to look forward to, thank goodness.)

As usual, I’d love to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or any other) species coming into flower in the next week, preferably by email simonleach@phonecoop.coop

Many thanks, take care everyone, and best wishes. Hope you all have a good week.

Simon

‘Week 2’ Roundup : 1^st April

Each evening I peer into my email in-box to view the little parcels of unopened treasure lined up in a column, with subject titles like ‘flowering dates’, ‘first flowerings’, ‘FFDs’, ‘Carex?’ and ‘Only Charlock!’. It’s like Christmas come early, and almost as good as having been there in the field with you and seen them myself! It’s been a remarkably good week for records, too, despite the extent to which daily activities have obviously been curtailed by the Coronavirus ‘lock down’. In fact, you’ve sent in so many records I’ve had to construct a spread-sheet to hold them all; which means that I can now sort the records by date, species, recorder, etc. Mind-boggling stuff….

Anyway, thanks to everyone for sending in their records, not just to those who contributed in ‘Week 1’, but now also Ann Fells, Anne Cole, Chris Billinghurst, David Robins, Dee Holladay, Jeanne Webb, Pat Wolseley and Val Graham, who all joined in the hunt at some point during ‘Week 2’ (Apologies if I’ve missed anyone out.)

In all, you submitted more than 100 records in Week 2, covering at least 50 species. If ‘Week 1’ was wood-rush week, ‘Week 2’ was cowslip-and-foxtail week. As reported last time, Cowslip, Primula veris, was seen by three of us on the 20^th, but these widely separated early records heralded a wave of first flowerings for this species across the county: Linda saw her first, near Wellington, on the 23^rd, Helena had them already flowering well in her garden in Paulton on the 26^th, and then there were records from Somerton on the 27^th (David R.), and Chewton Mendip (Ellen) and Winford (Margaret) on the 28^th. Meadow Foxtail, Alopecurus pratensis, wasn’t on the target list – omitted because it had already been found flowering exceptionally early, on the 18^th, in Taunton. That didn’t stop a surge of first dates for it during the week, though, from Brent Knoll (Andrew), Winford/Frog Lane (Margaret), Postelbury (Gill), Paulton (Helena) and Clevedon (Dee).

Turning now to the 17 target species for ‘Week 2’, a total of 12 were seen either during the week or, in one or two instances, towards the end of the previous week. Running through them in alphabetical order…

Horse Chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, began flowering in French Weir Park (Taunton) on the 30^th. It always seem to be the same tree each year, but still a very early date for a species that should be at its peak of flowering at the start of May, just when the swifts return. (Something to look forward to, eh?)

Glaucous Sedge, Carex flacca, was seen at Brent Knoll on the 30^th (Andrew) and at Kilve today, 1^st April (Ro). Very early dates! Pendulous Sedge, Carex pendula, has been seen too, in Wellington on the 29^th (Linda), and along the banks of the Sherford stream, Taunton, on the 31^st (Simon). In a matter of days we’ll probably find it popping into flower right across the county. (Also on the sedge front, Andrew recorded Wood-sedge, Carex sylvatica, flowering at Brent Knoll; that’s a third record to add to the two from Week 1.)

So far, just the one record of Woodruff, Galium odoratum, from Wooten Hall on the 24^th (Ellen). I saw it in bud in Thurlbear Wood on the 20^th, but haven’t been back since, for obvious reasons. I imagine some of the woodland paths up there will be lined with its star-burst of flowers by now; I absolutely love Woodruff, and it’s intensely frustrating that I can’t pop out there to see it…

Or maybe Week 2 should be called the ‘week of the Geranium’. We had three of them on our ‘hit list’, and all of them have been notched up by someone somewhere in the county. Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum, was seen by Margaret at Winford/Frog Lane on the 26^th, and by Steve in North Petherton on the 27^th. I’ve been searching hard for this in Taunton – as Vicki will testify – but maddeningly there’s been no sign of it in flower yet, although (slight digression) several patches of it have had leaf-roll galls caused by the mite, Aceria geranii. Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill, Geranium molle, is just starting to flower now in Taunton – first seen this morning, down near the cricket ground, while Andrew also had it today at Brent Knoll. The first sighting of it, though, was by Steve, in North Petherton, on the 28^th.  Hedgerow Crane’s-bill, Geranium pyrenaicum, too, was on my tally of ‘new flowerers’ this morning, down at Firepool Weir, but Jeanne actually reported it already in bloom last week, on the 21^st, on the roundabout at Tropiquaria – while, needless to say, she was out there sampling dandelions!

Meadow Buttercup, Ranunculus acris, has now been seen by three people: Caroline, in Minehead, actually saw it last week, on the 21^st, while Steve saw it in North Petherton on the 27^th and Gill, at Postelbury, on the 30^th. In Taunton there’s plenty of Bulbous Buttercup, R. bulbosus, on the road verges especially, but still no sign of R. acris.

Of the willows, Crack-willow, Salix fragilis, catkins are about the last to appear. Goat Willow, S. caprea, and Sallow, S. cinerea, were both ‘flowering’ in the last week of February, but it’s only this week that Crack-willow has finally made its appearance. Jeanne saw it on the 24^th in the community orchard in Old Cleeve, while I had it on the 28^th, on the banks of the river Tone. Today, during daily exercise, I noticed that many Crack-willow trees were now in catkin, and looking very splendid too.

Dee got in touch to say she’d recorded Charlock, Sinapis arvensis, flowering in Clevedon on the 19^th, at the start of ‘Week 1’, but the only other record for this species was today, from Helena. Ro had hedge Mustard, Sisymbrium officinale, at Kilve on the 22^nd, while it was also seen in Taunton on the 27^th (Simon) and North Petherton on the 28^th (Steve).

Common Chickweed, Stellaria media, is a plant you can find in flower pretty much at any time of the year, but its larger cousin, Greater Chickweed, S. neglecta, doesn’t tend to flower until the end of March or early April. And, as if on cue, two of you have seen it this week: Steve in North Petherton, and Linda in Wellington – and both on the 27^th.

Amongst the other noteworthy finds of the week were: Tormentil, Potentilla erecta, seen by Pat out at Nettlecombe on the 31^st; Hemlock Water-dropwort, Oenanthe crocata,also by Pat, on the 26^th, a very early record; Hemlock, Conium maculatum, by me, this morning, down at Firepool Weir where it was growing on waste ground close to the Hedgerow Crane’s-bill; and a second very early record for Wood Melick, this one by Anne from nr Rodney Stoke on the 25^th.

We have also had records this week for Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca, while three more records for Wood Spurge, Euphorbia amygdaloides, and five for Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, provide ample evidence – along with the Woodruff and Wood-sedge already mentioned – that spring is galloping along in our woods.

The strangest find of the week for me, though, was on the 29^th when I stumbled upon a young tree of Bird Cherry, Prunus padus, growing nr the river Tone in Taunton, in a strip of rough secondary woodland behind ‘Go Outdoors’. I was flabbergasted. And it was blooming nicely too! I was absolutely convinced this would be a new monad, and maybe even a new tetrad or hectad. No such luck; a quick look on the BSBI database showed that it had already been recorded, at that very spot, in 2019. What? I couldn’t believe it! Who could possibly have recorded it there? On my patch!

And then I looked again and saw, to my amazement, that the recorder’s name matched my own…

Week 2 Preview :25^th March

Week 2 runs from tomorrow, 26^th March, until next Wednesday, April Fools’ Day. We’ve had sunny days and frosty nights lately (frosts even in Taunton), and the forecast for the next few days is dry and sunny too – which makes it deeply frustrating that there is now an increasingly urgent demand from Government that we stay at home and only venture forth for essential journeys, and for purposes of daily exercise. Any continuation of this little project will obviously have to work within these understandable and necessary constraints.

If you live in the countryside, of course, you may be able to get out a little more easily (and have more botanically productive habitats close to hand) than those of us in the towns; but all of us, wherever we live, will be finding getting out to botanise less and less easy over the coming days and weeks. 

It’s amazing, though, how much one can see in one’s local street, hedgebank, park or road verge, and even, of course, in one’s own garden – as shown by Linda’s Common Dog-violet, Caroline’s Field Wood-rush,and Helena’s Lords-and-Ladies.This week, during my regular garden patrols (which now include, much to the amusement of the neighbours, a few press-ups and ‘standing runs’), I have seen bee-flies, flower bees, small tortoiseshells, comma, holly blue and brimstone. And whenever we sit on the garden bench, a friendly peacock (the butterfly, I hasten to add) comes and perches on the wall beside us.

On the botanical front, too, things are gathering pace in the garden – Lesser Celandines, Ficaria verna, are at full throttle, dandelions – yes, dandelions! – are starting to look their best too, and there are Primroses, Primula vulgaris, and Early Dog-violets, Viola reichenbachiana, everywhere. 

So, despite the constraints, I thought it would still be worthwhile sending out a ‘Week 2 list’ of 17 potential targets, seven of which are carried over from last week, namely:

Greater Chickweed, Stellaria neglecta; Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum; Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus; Hedge Mustard, Sisymbrium officinale;  Horse-chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum;  Crack-willow, Salix fragilis; Charlock, Sinapis arvensis 

But to these we can now add the following ten spp:

Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill, Geranium molle; Woodruff, Galium odoratum; Glaucous Sedge, Carex flacca; Bugle, Ajuga reptans; Pendulous Sedge, Carex pendula; Meadow Buttercup, Ranunculus acris; Beaked Hawk’s-beard, Crepis vesicaria; Red Clover, Trifolium pratense; Common Vetch, Vicia sativa; Hedgerow Crane’s-bill, Geranium pyrenaicum. 

And one more to look forward to, probably not until the 1^st or 2^nd week of April, but – who knows? – it could just make an appearance in March: Early-purple Orchid, Orchis mascula.

As last week, a few obvious candidates for the coming days are missing from the list, due to the fact that they’re already flowering, at least in the Taunton area: e.g. Ribwort Plantain, Plantago lanceolata, Wild Cherry, Prunus avium, Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, Southern Wood-rush, Luzula forsteri, Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, Marsh-marigold, Caltha palustris and Silver Birch, Betula pendula.

I’d love to hear from anyone seeing any of these (or any other) species coming into flower in the next week, preferably by email simonleach@phonecoop.coop

Many thanks, take care everyone, and best wishes.

Simon 

A fantastic response!  I’ve been inundated, and some really good records too. I’m starting to wish we’d set up something like this a few years ago!  Thanks to everyone who emailed, texted of ‘WhatsApped’ during the week – in no particular order, Steve Parker, Liz McDonnell, Ellen McDouall, Georgina Shuckburgh, Margaret Webster, Caroline Giddens, Ro FitzGerald, Christine Louden, Gill Read, Linda Everton, David Hawkins, Helena Crouch.  (Hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.)

In last week’s email I listed 9 spp that I had already seen in flower in the Taunton area, but which I would have expected, in a ‘normal’ year, to start flowering during the last week. Of these, no-one reported seeing Bluebellor Wood Spurge, but I think the rest were all mentioned ‘in dispatches’. Several people reported the first flowering of Moschatel: Margaret near Lords Wood on the 12^th, David in the Portishead area on the 15^th, Steve in N. Petherton on 16^th or 17^th, Gill at Postlebury on the 20^th, Caroline at Tivington (nr Minehead) on the 21^st, and Georgina at Nordrach on Mendip on the 23^rd. (My own date in the Taunton area was the 14^th, at Fyne Court.) 

Our Week 1 ‘target list’ comprised 19 spp, 12 of which were recorded in flower by at least one person during the week. This was clearly ‘wood-rush week’. Many people (although not me, sadly!) are starting to see Field Wood-rush, Luzula campestris,in flower. Unfortunately the places where I might go to see it here aren’t really within easy walking distance, and I now have no car – for reasons too complicated to explain here. (And not sure, now, how useful a car would actually be.) David had it – that’s Luzula, not the car! – in Portishead on the 15^th, Liz in Wedmore on the 18^th, Steve in N. Petherton around the 17^th, Gill at Postlebury on the 20^th, Margaret at Winford on the 21^st, and Caroline, on her lawn in Minehead, on the 22^nd. Hairy Wood-rush, Luzula pilosa, was also spotted in flower, by me on the 20^th, at Thurlbear, and by Caroline at Tivington on the 21^st. 

Cuckooflower, Cardamine pratensis, had already been seen by a few of you in ‘Week 0’, i.e. during the week prior to the start of Week 1: Georgina had it in flower at Hinton Blewett on the 11^th, and Margaret near Lords Wood on the 12^th. These are much earlier dates than my own in previous years for the Taunton area, but this is probably because it doesn’t seem to be terribly common around here – so the chances of stumbling across it when it’s just starting to flower are much lower as a result. 

Wood-sedge, Carex sylvatica,was seen just starting to flower at Thurlbear on the 20^th, and then on the 22^nd Margaret spotted it at Bithams Wood. She also spied a single flower of Goldilocks Buttercup, Ranunculus auricomus, and some (unusually early) Sweet Vernal-grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum. Also very early was Warfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana, seen by me near Corfe on the 19^th – 13 days earlier than my previous earliest, in 2012.Cowslips, Primula veris,have been popping into flower all over the place, amazingly with three of us all reporting them for the first time in flower on the 20^th: me at Thurlbear, Ro at Kilton Church, and David at Portishead. Caroline and Linda have both seen Common Dog-violet, Viola riviniana, with Linda spotting it in her garden – and she provided excellent photos to prove it! 

Only two people have so far reported Lords-and-Ladies, the species that set this hare running in the first place! Ro saw it, in all its glory, on the 22^nd in the Kilve area, while Helena had it in her garden on the 24^th, her delight at seeing it being pinged through as a WhatsApp message complete with a very nice photo!

As yet, we have had only singleton records for Common Stork’s-bill, Erodium cicutarium (Margaret, on the 20^th at Sand Bay), Yellow Archangel, Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp montanum (Linda, on the 23^rd in woods up near Wellington Monument), and Galium aparine (me, in Taunton on the 22^nd). 

Taken overall, these dates are mostly very early in comparison with 2008-17 average first flowering dates for the Taunton area. This week, Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, Common Dog-violet,Cuckooflower, Goldilocks Buttercup, Wood-sedge, Cleavers, and Bush-vetch, Vicia sepium, all recorded their earliest first flowering dates ‘since records began’ (i.e. since 2008!). And, last but not least, I had Wood Melick, Melica uniflora, on the 20^th at Thurlbear – an extraordinary date, almost four weeks earlier than my previous earliest back in 2008 and 2011.

Dear SRPG members —

I was walking Gilly down by the river yesterday morning, reflecting on the general grimness of our present situation, and expecting that many of us will now be taking steps towards self-isolation/social distancing. And reflecting, too, on the likelihood that our spring and summer meetings programme may also end up having to be substantially curtailed or cancelled.

I was also lamenting the fact that my recording of first flowering dates (which I’ve been doing since 2008) has been a bit lackadaisical lately, not least because I just haven’t really been feeling in the mood for it. And then I saw my first Arum maculatum, and immediately I felt I wanted to share the enjoyment of it with the rest of the group! Seeing something is one thing, sharing what you’ve seen with your mates is another thing entirely…

Anyway, I sat with the Arum while the dog chewed a stick, and it got me thinking that maybe others in the group might also enjoy helping to record some of this year’s first flowerings. What I’ve got in mind is something along the following lines: I would endeavour to send an email each week to Ellen, for onward circulation round the group. This would have a list of, say, 10-20 species needing to be looked for in flower during that week, and would ask anyone venturing out to let me know if they’ve seen any of them, by means of email to simonleach@phonecoop.coop. No need for lengthy details: just the species, date and a rough location will do. And then, following the first email, weekly round robin emails would summarise highlights of the previous week, and give a list of the next species to be targeted.

I floated the idea round a few in the group, and there was a general feeling that this might be a good thing to try. Several people have suggested more sophisticated ways of keeping in contact and ‘posting’ our observations directly on the website, so maybe this could morph in the coming weeks into something less ‘clunky’ than round robin emails. Who knows? But, for this week anyway, let’s just make a start with this email, and then see where it takes us. We’ll run the weeks from Thursday to Wednesday, so Week 1 starts tomorrow! But bear in mind this is supposed to be fun, so only take part if you really fancy it, and just dip in and out as you wish.

Now, as you’ll have noticed, this year spring seems to be very early. Looking at average FFDs for the decade 2008-17, I would have expected species coming into flower in the next week or so to have included Adoxa moschatellina, Anemone nemorosa, Stellaria holostea, Saxifraga tridactylites, Medicago arabica, Prunus laurocerasus, Viola hirta, Euphorbia amygdaloides and Hyacinthoides non-scripta. But none of these are on the first list of ‘targets’ because, at least around Taunton, they have already started flowering. Are they in bloom yet in your own area, I wonder?  If they aren’t, it might be interesting to see when they do start flowering – so do let me know your first dates for these if you get them coming into flower over the next week or two.

Right, here goes. Week 1, 19th – 25th March. And here’s a list of 19 species that could be ‘next in line’ to start flowering (probably in next 10-20 days or so), but which aren’t yet blooming in the Taunton area.

Stellaria neglecta, Luzula pilosa, Viola riviniana, Alliaria petiolata, Geranium lucidum, Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp montanum, Raunuculus auricomus, Carex sylvatica, Acer pseudoplatanus, Sisymbrium officinale, Primula veris, Luzula campestris, Erodium cicutarium, Cardamine pratensis, Aesculus hippocastanum, Veronica chamaedrys, Salix fragilis, Sinapis arvensis, Galium aparine. 

Have you seen any of these yet? If you have, or when you do see them, let me know! And also keep a note of anything that you think might be especially early – it may be on a later list and you’ll be kicking yourself you never noted it down…

Take good care, and best wishes. 

Simon

It is here! Everything that happened in 2019. Look under newsletters.