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Thursday, May 18, 2006

Sand point

Always an enjoyable walk. Much still to come but the Honewort (Trinia glauca) was really at its peak and quite a sight.

I still get caught out by the easy ones though. A Sorrel plant caught my eye and I realised I didn't have much in the way of photographs of this; only to find when I got back that it may be subspecies biformis I had found. I should go back when the flowers are more open.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Purbeck Coast

A BSBI meeting at Langton Matravers to explore some of the local coast. Delightful (and knowledgeable) company, Early Spider Orchids and more. I think my highlight was a lone pure white Orchis morio in a field of dark ones.

Chalk Milk-wort was a good thing to get sorted as well. I have twice now got thoroughly confused in the field by misreadings of my Rose and only realised on return that it couldn't have been the Chalk one as it doesn't grow where I was looking ! (I think this is now firmly embedded at last in the ancient brain box).

Nice also to see Rock Sea Spurry on proper cliffs. I know it not a mile from where I sit growing at the edge of tarmac on Weston front ! I was very unsure I had got it right when I first investigated it but then the Bristol Region Atlas confirmed the location.

Completeness

It may not be the most spectacular flower ever but it is another British Isles Family represented - so I had to get the flowers of Sea Buckthorn. The berries later in the year are much more worth the effort - and many vast tracts of the shrub on the coast around here bear neither flowers nor berries - being content presumably to invade the dunes vegetatively.

Spring Squill

A long-held "want" of mine this. Grows on cliff tops around the Southwest Coast but maddeningly not anywhere very near my base. Eventually I settled on a trip to the Gower for it.

Well worth it - carpets of the stuff and magnificent scenery as well. I spent a full days walking around Port Eynon and maybe the species count was small but it was a day well spent.

I am particularly collecting Squills - a bit strange really when it seems the genus is to be split up...