Getting wet

My early forays to explore the local botany seem always to end up focussing on pools.
Exploring The Begwns - a local National Trust open area above Clyro - I soon stumbled upon one and spent the next hour or so getting soaked as I strove for the best angle on the delights around the shore.

Shoreweed doesn't throw up a flower stem unless conditions are right (and then only a male one) so on spotting this I had to get a good picture. It's only when you get up close (and wet !) that you can appreciate that this is a flower of standard construction - just rather differently proportioned from most - and a very unusual Plantain (because that is the family) in having a solitary flower on each stem - hence the Latin name Littorella uniflora. Then I got wetter trying to get a good shot of the female flower lurking at the base of the plant.

...And of course all achieved with minimal disturbance - a principle I try to be true to whatever the problems - I know flower photographers have a bad reputation with some wildlife conservationists.

Not that the sheep who graze the area have such scruples - the Marsh Speedwell was holding on bravely despite them.

Local sites you never quite get round to

Eighteen years in the West country and I never once went to see the "Bath Asparagus" in it's flowering season.

So, now that I live in Wales, I decided that I must make a slight detour from a trip to a meeting in Radstock and see them. Well worth a drive through the lanes south of Bradford on Avon at this time of year. The local name reflects the fact that people used to eat it cooked like Asparagus. Maybe they still do - but if it was really great then wouldn't the TV chefs be using it ?

Reminds me of the reports that "Alexanders" used to be eaten as a vegetable "before the introduction of Celery" (I read somewhere). A correspondent who has tried it told me that, now he has done so, he understands why Celery replaced it !

Oh and I noticed that it (the Bath Asparagus) was still showing in the hedgerows towards but not right up to Radstock going back west - in lanes I have often travelled - but that would have been on the way to the pub...

Nice examples

It isn't all about finding rare and obscure flowers. Getting to know my new locality I soon found some old favourites on the Wye bank plus a really attractive spray of a Water Forget-me-not I have seen before but always in less than ideal conditions. So it's nice to be able to add a picture of which I am somewhat proud of a splendid species.

(What's more it is one that you would expect to find in such a location - unlike the Philadelphus near it - must be a garden escape from the houses nearby.)

Back now I hope

Installed in new house and the boxes emptied - and a lot of botanical opportunities missed during the period...

But some were grabbed - see Sticky Catchfly for instance and Lesser Marshwort found while exploring a botanically rich pool that is now "close to home".

But the tragedy was realising - just a little too late that I now live not at all far from one of the four known stations for Rock Cinquefoil - it had finished flowering when I got there !

It's not just the rarities that matter though - I am already enjoying finding relatively common flowers that were not common (or maybe just not spotted) in my old haunts. See the recent additions list.

Getting going again

Life is fraught - with the consequences of house moving (or rather trying to) but it is important to get out now that spring is springing.

Howard Parsons very gamely offered to take me to a Hutchinsia site he had been to on a field meeting I couldn't make. The forecast was dire but we set out down Nightingale valley and along the Avon river path. You need to be shown this plant - or be one of the eagle eyed and expert botanists that first found it - and with Howard's help we indeed found it again. I would not have spotted it I am sure. This is one flower for which I would blow my own trumpet about the calibrations on FloralImages - you need to know how small and delicate it is !

Then as a bonus we thought we would give Bristol Rockcress a try - despite it being a little early for it - success ! The weather was far better than expected and plants were (just) flowering - in fact I nearly trod on one quite far from the rocks and growing in grass nearby as we arrived at the location.

Then to a BSBI meeting to learn more about conifers - long an interest but also a mystery to me. A great meeting - haphazard in the best way - because there was always more to comment on before resuming the plan. FloralImages now has many more trees in it's collection including the rare in the wild Fitzroya. And an amazing illustration of the fact that Coast Redwoods can regenerate from low down on the trunk / stump - see this !

Searching for the few that flower now

It's hard to find much new for FloralImages at this time of year - but Mezereon is one flower that has eluded me so far and should be flowering soon if not now.

Well I failed in the location I tried yesterday. Plants were there in the 1990s but apparently not now (and the woodland in question seemed very denuded of all undergrowth by deer).

But nearby Green Hellebore was flowering beautifully at one of it's native sites - so all was not lost.

Radnor's own flower

A long wait for anything new and therefore well worth a longish drive to the only UK site for Gagea bohemica in Wales.

Howard Parsons and I set out soon after 8.00 am on the 25th January to meet the warden, Andrew Ferguson at the site, having been told by him earlier in the week that a few flowers were now out. It was invaluable having Andrew there to tell us the background and warn us how to avoid damaging the environment in our enthusiasm.

It turns out that "few flowers" does not mean "few plants" as the vast majority of the plants do not flower. The flower was overlooked by Victorian botanists (probably because they botanized in the months when G. bohemica is not visible at all (even leaves). The leaves, even when they are about, are very thin and insignificant.

It's a species which is able to exploit pockets of thin soil on acidic rocks where the likelihood of dessication in the summer is great. Reproduction is largely by bulbils that tend to form in most plants instead of a flowering stem and there is even doubt whether the plant can set seed. The species also grows in isolated sites in Europe - but with significant variations between the sites. A species for which there is more to learn !

We were lucky enough to visit two flowering locations - one easy with the flowers not fully out (despite waiting an hour for midday sun to coax them) and a perilous (ish) location high up at the reserve with two fully open flowers.

Notes on Gagea

Desktop wallpaper

Or does calling it that make me at least several weeks out-of-date ?

An obvious thing for FloralImages to offer and I took the trouble to look at my stats and find what screen sizes 99.9% of my visitors have. So images are pre-prepared at every build for these sizes (20 in all) and a bit of Javascript ensures that those who try this get the size for their screen.

The image to start with isn't the one I would have chosen - but I decided to make it randomised and so stick with it. The image should change each weeks and sometimes wide-screen users will be offered a different one from that for normal aspect ratio monitors. (Some images are suitable for wide screen, some for 4:3 and some for both.)

Fungi

How did I miss Draycott Sleights for so long ? A superb reserve and a must for next year for flowers.

But now, the reserve and the close-by Draycott Horsegrounds are home to several interesting fungi. I hope I got the IDs about right - I'm learning but still nowhere on the fungus "jizz" recognition curve.

Only realised on return I may have had a Magic mushroom - did I break the law taking a sample for a spore print ?

Back in business

The Camera is back - repaired free of charge by Nikon :-). It was the dreaded BGLOD failure that they are honouring repairs for even out of guarantee. (See the DPreview Nikon forums).

And Malcolm Storey sent a long email of IDs for my Quarantine fungi - plus some corrections for ones I thought I had IDed. Very good of him and FloralImages depends so much on unsolicited help like this.

Spurred me to try hard to get my fungus Iding up to scratch with a new overnight one in the lawn. Brown spore print and I think therefore it is Conocybe tenera.

I will go out tomorrow and find something to photograph if I possibly can !

Camera broke

Only a walk in November at Hestercombe Gardens so not the disaster it could have been. Or seemed ? As with most digital equipment the symptoms at first seemed to preclude any picture taking but further investigation revealed that all that was actually wrong was the metering (causing the display to generate alarmingly random messages / indications).

So I spent the rest of the afternoon exposing by trial and error - easy when you get used to it of course with an on-camera histogram to feed back the results of each attempt - and flowers, as I have said before, stay there for further attempts.

Vice Counties

I believe that one of the problems of a site like FloralImages is that it can be quite hard for users to find what they want. I try to help with this by having several different types of index and also several different browsing pages.

Just added are browse by Vice County pages - Vice Counties are a botanical recording concept - designed to be roughly all similar in size since the mid nineteenth century and unchanged (for consistency) since. I am only dimly aware if I am in North or South Somerset (vice county) much of the time (often erroneously thinking I was in South because I had driven quite a way south from Weston-super-Mare!) and even less sure where Mid Cork starts and West Cork ends. So it has been useful creating this additional categorisation for me.

See the BSBI website for more about Vice Counties and how they are used.

Slime moulds

Patches on the lawn when I wake up recently. What dog has been getting in and weeing ???

No - it's slime moulds. The first to appear was yellow. I think some species of Mucilago. Then two days later the more common (I am told) dark Physarum(s) appear.

Apparently they spend most of the year practically invisible. These are the fruiting bodies.

Porlock

There may not have been much in the way of flowers but a very worthwhile walk. One perfect Indian Balsam flower by the stream and Black Spleenwort up the hill.

The view from above of Porlock shingle bar and the river Horner building up for its spectacular break through (maybe) later this winter made the trip worth it. Plus there were some interesting fungi and little lumps of jelly (lots of it) on the northern hillside which I can only assume is some type of alga.

Oh and Dodder on the gorse at the top.

Silent season

Silly really - I have let this lapse. The solution I am sure is to make it more regular.

A bad year botanically with many trips called off due to ... boring personal reasons. (But death to all estate agents and solicitors - and fickle buyers lower down the chain - plus never accept the advice of a hearty biology professor to wear wellingtons when you know walking boots make more sense - and getting wet feet is preferable to a strained hip - end of rant.)

But the highlight was at the end (of the season proper), thanks entirely to David Fenwick nosing around a local (to him) golf course development - simply the most botanically abundant site he or I have ever seen. See my recent images from Nettle-leaved Goosefoot back to Bugloss - and that's only a half-day's sample of the delights at this site which will be all covered over with clinical grass soon.

David thinks that the demolition waste dumped there for landscaping included the clearance of a defunct bird-garden.

Chasing Orchids

Recently I visited Homefield Wood and Hartsfield Reserve - both near the Thames in Oxon and Bucks. Great displays of nationally rare orchids. Now all on the site.

More recently I have missed further opportunities in Wiltshire - pressure of "events" at home.

But the star accession to floralimages has to come from a guest in the last few weeks. Howard Parsons sought out the very elusive Lesser Twayblade on Exmoor.

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.

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...