‘Week 5’ Roundup : 22nd April
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.