Recording all plants growing wild in Somerset, not just the rarities!
We have had to postpone our visit to the Taunton Herbarium at the Somerset Heritage Centre. The staff there cannot support any visits this autumn and winter because of their involvement with repairs and changes to the displays at the Museum of Somerset. The museum will close shortly and re-open in Spring 2027 with the exciting Chew Valley Horde on display. A further visit will be planned when circumstances allow. Here is some Golden Money(wort) to look at while you wait for that.
The Guardian published an article on Calaminarian Grassland this week focusing on Northumberland. This special habitat is the result of heavy metal contamination from historic mining of lead, zinc and other heavy metals. Only a limited range of plants can survive although other species slowly gain a foothold as the metals are leached out. While the North Pennines, Peak District, mid-Wales, and Devon and Cornwall hold the main Calaminarian Grassland sites, there are small patches on Mendip particularly at the Blackmoor Reserve, Priddy Mineries, Shipham, and Sandford Hill. More details are in this report from 2017 which includes a summary of the situation on Mendip. In Somerset, these areas are strongholds of Sabulina verna Spring Sandwort, Noccaea caerulescens Alpine Pennycress and Silene uniflora Sea Campion. Other rare plants that are tolerant of these conditions include Botrychium lunaria Moonwort, Gymnocarpium robertianum Limestone Fern, and Ditrichum plumbicola Lead-moss.
Clockwise from top left: Silene uniflora Sea Campion (Priddy Mineries), Noccaea caerulescens Alpine Pennycress (Blackmoor Reserve), Sabulina verna Spring Sandwort (Blackmoor Reserve),and Botrychium lunaria Moonwort (Priddy Mineries). All photographs © Helena Crouch.
The 26th SRPG newsletter is now available. It contains all our meeting reports for the year and articles including tributes to two long-standing and much missed members of the group.
The new programme of field meetings from April to October is now available. This year we are visiting sites across Somerset from the extreme north-west (Pill Saltmarsh near Avonmouth), the west (Minehead and Haddon Hill), the south (Yeovil Sutton Bingham Reservoir), the Mendips and the Levels. The habitats visited will include saltmarsh and coastal habitats, heathland, woodlands, wetlands, calcareous grasslands and urban areas.
The winning photos for 2025 are shown below. Click on a photo to get a full size image.
Copyright to all photographs belongs to the photographer. All were taken this year within the group’s recording area.
Below are some of the lovely photos taken by members at meetings this summer. If you have photos of any meeting please let us have them for use in the reports, newsletter and on the website. You may also want to enter them in our annual photography competition. All photos supplied are shared on Google Drive – contact Val Graham for a link. If you do supply a photo please send full size files, not composites, without captions. Please ensure you include your initials and a brief description in the filenames. Store them in the appropriate meeting folder. Copyright remains with the photographer. You can also see all the meeting reports as soon as they are written here.
Clockwise from top: Members examine Small-flowered Sweet-briar (Rosa micrantha) , Purn Hill © Fred Rumsey; Sanfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), Lilstock © Fred Rumsey; Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) © Val Graham, Shapwick Heath; Heath Dog-violet (Viola canina), Berrow Dunes © Helena Crouch; Oblong-leaved Sundew (Drosera intermedia) © Helena Crouch. The links are to the BSBI plant atlas which shows the plant distribution and has a useful brief description of the plant, its habitats, and its population trend.
The programme for our 2025 field trips is now available. We have eight meetings in the south and west of the county (VC5) and eight in the north (VC6). In addition to the usual searches for rare plants and more general recording, they include a day on grass ID and a visit to the Taunton Herbarium. Thanks are due to all those who have volunteered to lead these outings. If anyone has a special place they would like to visit in future years please get in touch with the committee. Below are some photos from our 2024 outings. All photos © Val Graham.
The 2024 SRPG Newsletter is now available thanks to the hard work of our editor Karen Andrews and all the contributors to meeting reports and other articles. Reports on each of our 19 field and indoor meetings in 2024 are included covering fascinating visits to sites right across Somerset from the Ashton Court Estate on the edge of Bristol, to Blackmore Farm near the Dorset border and from Robber’s Bridge on Exmoor to King’s Castle Warren on the eastern border. There are also five short articles on botanical subjects and a tribute to the late Rob Randall. Finally, there is the list of new and interesting plants records made during the year.
Some of the many lovely photographs from our meetings in 2024. Clockwise from top left: Wood Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum) at Britty Common, Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria) from Brean Down, Green-winged Orchid (Anacamptis morio) from Babcary Meadows, and members at Pitney © Val Graham, Nicky Hodges, Fred Rumsey, and Helena Crouch respectively.
Where we went in 2024
I’ve occasionally peered at a lovely piece of species-rich grassland and wondered a) how all the different species co-exist and b) what benefit the many different leaf shapes convey. Answers on a postcard please. However, I came across some information on one tiny facet of this issue while browsing information about the methods used to infer climatic conditions in the ancient past.
Early in the 20th century two Harvard researchers – Irving W. Bailey and Edmund W. Sinnott – wanted to establish whether there were patterns in the distribution of leaf shapes across the world’s climatic zones. Through this they hoped to use fossil remains of leaves as a guide to the prevailing climate at the time of their preservation. Their work showed that there is a correlation between cooler climates and toothed leaves in woody dicots. This has now developed into a mature and well-tested method called Leaf Margin Analysis as one of many methods for determining past climatic conditions – which has immense practical relevance in the current climate crisis.
Fuller explanations can be found here and here. These two papers explore some of the reasons for this trend and consider some of the confounding factors. There appears to be a strong link between deciduous trees and toothed margins, perhaps linked to the need to establish photosynthesis in the early spring, but a weaker correlation for other types of plant.
Our programme of winter meetings is now available including our traditional contribution to the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt, our AGM and social day, a day focussing on recording and a repeat of our very popular Vegetative Identification Workshop with John Poland.
