‘Week 6’ Roundup : 29th April
When I’m kerb-crawling I always think of Clive. I mean this, of course, in the nicest way possible. He and I share, along with many others in the group, a particular fondness for road-verge botanising, and this week I’ve been reflecting on why this might be so. It may have something to do with the lure of the unexpected. Absolutely anything can pop up on the kerbside, so you never quite know what you might come across next. It could be a scarce alien, like the (flowering) plants of Annual Toadflax, Linaria maroccana, I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago on the edge of Canal Road, near the site of Taunton’s old livestock market – only the third record for this species in VC5 this century! Or what about the Woolly Clover, Trifolium tomentosum, found last year, and again this, on the cut-and-scalped verge outside Wickes?
Aliens are all well and good, but often it’s roadside coastal plants that generate the greater excitement. This week’s offering (after last week’s Sea Fern-grass, Catapodium marinum, Sea Pearlwort, Sagina maritima,and Bird’s-foot Clover, Trifolium ornithopodioides) has included (fruiting) Sea Stork’s-bill, Erodium maritimum, on Trenchard Way – the new road on the south side of Taunton railway station – and Lesser Chickweed, Stellaria pallida,a sand dune annual masquerading as a pavement weed in Bridge Street near the wholefood shop. Botanically, these verges often have a distinctly maritime feel to their flora; so if, like me, you’re an inland dweller desperate for a whiff of sea air, a stroll along a (relatively) deserted highway could be the answer. You can’t go to the seaside, so why not investigate your local road verge and see if the seaside’s come to you?
Still on verges, several of you are noticing that flowery roadsides have (so far) escaped their usual ‘spring cut’. Not so in Taunton, where the mowing gangs – and the gang mowers – have been much in evidence this week; frustrating, I agree, if the plants you were willing into flower end up decapitated before their time, but a pleasing sight, for Clive and me at least, since many of the little annuals in these places – Knotted Hedge-parsley, Torilis nodosa, and Small-flowered Buttercup, Ranunculus parviflorus, for example – seem to thrive on a regular close shave – plus, ideally, a combination of spring/summer drought and the odd pinch of de-icing salt in winter.
Week 6. Another dry, warm week, until a late hiccup of rain yesterday and today which, in a parallel universe, annoyingly led to the final day of the championship match between Somerset and Hampshire being a wash-out. It would have fizzled out as a draw, probably. In this universe, Steve Parker spotted his first swifts while clapping for carers in N. Petherton on the 23rd. Maureen Webb, who lives in Priorswood – a real hotspot for breeding swifts – had two flying over her house on the 25th, while we had high-altitude ‘screamers’on two evenings, the 24th and 27th, but despite much sky-scanning we have yet to actually see them. Anyway, the main thing is: THEY’RE BACK! Which, as Ted Hughes says, “… means the globe’s still working, the creation’s/still waking refreshed, our summer’s/still all to come …”
Other summer migrants touching down this week have included lesser whitethroats (Eve Tigwell’s on the 26th, mine on the 27th) and cuckoos (Eve, in Mendip, on the 24th; Maureen, on Cothelstone Hill, on the 25th). Still no sedge warblers though. And as for tree pipits, pied flycatchers, redstarts and wood warblers; well, for those of us unable to visit wooded combes on Exmoor or the Quantocks, these birds are the stuff of dreams…
Turning now to ‘first flowerings’, it is interesting to see how varied first flowering dates (FFDs) are from different parts of the county. Several of you have noted how onset of flowering is affected by altitude, distance from the coast, aspect, etc. As Ellen McDouall and Eve will testify, anyone high up on a north-facing slope a long way from the sea should expect to be perhaps 2-3 weeks behind the rest of us. Even in the ‘deep south’, this is the case. The moment of ‘peak bluebell’ at Thurlbear Wood (80-90 metres a.s.l.) was about 10 days ago, but at Cothelstone Hill (250 metres a.s.l.) they’ve only just begun to look their best, with the peak probably still a few days away. It is noteworthy, though, that since the middle of March everyone has seen something in flower before anyone else – even those who feel that they’re generally trotting along about two weeks behind the rest of us.
This week, the sixth since ‘lockdown’, was another bumper week for first flowerings, with seventeen of you contributing more than 110 records involving 86 species. Our target list for ‘Week 6’ comprised 24 species, of which 14 were seen and 10 weren’t. Here’s a summary of the 14 we did see, arranged, as usual, in roughly alphabetical order, with others of particular interest getting an honourable mention in passing…
Starting with the ‘C’s… Welted Thistle, Carduus crispus, was just starting to flower near Roughmoor on the 28th, where it grows in a scrum of tall herbage on the banks of the river Tone. Remote Sedge, Carex remota, is yet to start flowering in Taunton, but Andrew Robinson had it in Brent Knoll churchyard on the 21st. Other sedges have been widely noted, and it’s been a good week, especially, for Grey Sedge, C. divulsa: Steve had it in N. Petherton on the 23rd, while Caroline Giddens, also on the 23rd, saw it flowering in Alcombe, followed by Dee Holladay in St Mary’s churchyard, and Liz in Wedmore, on the 25th.
Following my (bracketed) mention of back-garden Starved Wood-sedge, Carex depauperata, Fred Rumsey – from his tiny enclave of would-be Somerset within a region otherwise known, apparently, as Hampshire – reports no fewer than 18species (or hybrids) flowering in his sedgecollection. Many are northern ‘exotica’ that aren’t found in Somerset, and, frankly, shouldn’t really be in Hampshire either, like Fibrous Tussock-sedge, Carex appropinquata, String Sedge, C. chordorrhiza, Bird’s-foot Sedge, C. ornithopoda and Sheathed Sedge, C. vaginata. Not to mention a Lady’s-slipper, Cypripedium, called ‘Hank Small’. On the 23rd, he saw Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum, and Marsh Valerian, Valeriana dioica, in a nearby local nature reserve. Talking of which… Back in Somerset proper, Gill Read encountered Marsh Valerian on the 28th at Postlebury. A really interesting ‘first’, this one, as it’s probably not something many of us are likely to come across on our home patches. It’s certainly not on mine!
Returning to ‘C’, the large form of Fern-grass, Catapodium rigidum,subsp. majus, was found flowering as a pavement weed on Holway Avenue, Taunton, on the 26th. It had been ‘in bud’ for about 10 days, and then suddenly – overnight – the yellow anthers emerged. These made the whole inflorescence look ‘gritty’, as if it had become covered with minuscule sand grains.
Moving on to ‘E’. Just the one this week, Broad-leaved Willowherb, Epilobium montanum, which was seen by Steve in N. Petherton on the 20th, in Week 5, but its identity wasn’t confirmed until the start of Week 6. I had it in Taunton, another pavement weed, on the 26th. Then there’s a couple of grasses. Yorkshire Fog, Holcus lanatus, was seen in Taunton on the 26th and by Linda Everton in Wellington on the 27th, while on the 25th Andrew had Rye-grass, Lolium perenne, on Brent Knoll. Within a week or so it will probably be everywhere…
We did well with the ‘P’s: we had two to find and we found them both. Graham Lavender recorded first flowers of Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum, on the 23rd, and close-up examination of the hairs on the involucral bracts identified his plants as subsp. euronota(described in ‘Sell & Murrell’, but not in ‘Stace’). Andrew also saw it on the 23rd, at Uphill, Dee had it in Clevedon on the 24th, Linda in Wellington on the 25th, and finally, finally, I saw it just coming into flower at Thurlbear on the 27th. Silverweed, Potentilla anserina, was spotted by Andrew in a lay-by at Webbington, while Linda saw it in Wellington, both on the 25th. Helena Crouch, also on the 25th, dashed past it while on a two-mile run with her daughter Jenny. Doubtless spurred on by the Silverweed, Helena notched up a new ‘personal best’ of 20 minutes 45 seconds.
We did even better with the ‘R’s. Two of you reported Celery-leaved Buttercup, Ranunculus sceleratus: Andrew in Brent Knoll village on the 19th (so actually in Week 5), and Liz McDonnell in Wedmore on the 28th. Dog-rose, Rosa canina(agg.), was flowering at Roughmoor on the 28th, and at Obridge on the 29th. I anticipate a flood of Dog-rose records during Week 7. The first Curled Dock, Rumex crispus, was on the 24th, in Taunton, although Graham or Clive might well have determined it as a ‘probable hybrid’. But as it was me determining it, this simplified things enormously!
One species I thought we wouldn’t get this week was Wild Clary, Salvia verbenaca. Certainly, its sites around Taunton are all too distant or difficult to get at easily. Anyway, I needn’t have fretted, as Andrew turned it up on his visit to Uphill on the 23rd – along with Honewort, Trinia glauca: another of those Mendip specialities that, to me, feel like the half-forgotten inhabitants of a former world, a world where Somerset would doubtless have trounced Hampshire within three days…
White Clover, Trifolium repens, on the other hand, is a plant we can all relate to, and one we’re all bound to get sooner or later. Probably sooner, since Andrew and I both had it on the 24th – me near Taunton railway station, and Andrew on Brent Knoll. Four days later it was coming into flower more widely in Taunton, including in Longrun Meadow.
And finally, our ‘V’ of the week was Guelder-rose, Viburnum opulus, reported from Bossington by Caroline’s friend Ruth Hyett on the 21st, Brent Knoll churchyard on the 24th (Andrew) and Roughmoor on the 28th (me).
Amongst the other more interesting FFDs this week: Kidney-vetch, Anthyllis vulneraria, at Uphill on the 23rd (Andrew); Lesser Pond-sedge, Carex acutiformis, and Oval Sedge, C. leporina, at Wedmore on the 28th and 27th respectively (Liz); a second FFD for Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes, this time at Ubley Warren on the 23rd (Georgina Shuckburgh); Swine-cress, Lepidium coronopus, in Trull on the 25th (me), and Wedmore on the 28th (Liz); Ivy Broomrape, Orobanche hederae, in Clevedon on the 23rd (Dee); Lousewort, Pedicularis sylvatica, at GB Gruffy nature reserve on the 26th (Georgina), and near Wellington on the 27th (Linda, with Tormentil, Potentilla erecta); Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor, at Uphill on the 23rd (Andrew); Ragged Robin, Silene flos-cuculi, at Rew Mead nature reserve, nr Wellington, on the 25th (Linda); Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius, in N. Petherton on the 23rd (Steve); a second record of Brooklime, Veronica beccabunga, this time at Nettlecombe on the 29th (Pat Wolseley); a second record for Yellow Flag, Iris pseudacorus, near Wellington on the 25th (Linda), following a record on the river Tone in Taunton on the 20th; and, lastly, Biting Stonecrop, Sedum acre, on Priory Bridge Road, Taunton, on the 24th – that’s almost four weeks earlier than my previous-earliest FFD for it, and more than six weeks earlier than Walter Watson’s FFD in the 1920s/30s.
Contender for the strangest find of the week, though, was a Camassia, a single plant of which was discovered in a field/wood-border in Trull. I’m hopeless on garden plants, so didn’t have a clue what it was, but a WhatsApp photo pinged across to Helena produced an immediate response. The key in the European Garden Flora indicated that the Trull plant was most probably C. leichletlii, rather than C. quamash which curiously is the only Camassia species mentioned in ‘Stace’. Many thanks to Helena for sorting this one out. It’s a beautiful plant, so worth googling if you don’t know it.
Other than that, I’ve been playing catch-up for much of the week, with Lesser Trefoil, Trifolium dubium, on the 24th,Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus on the 25th, Prickly Sow-thistle, Sonchus asper, on the 26th, and Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum, on the 27th.
Many thanks, as usual, for your records. And for your stories too. On days when every piece of news seems destined to depress, there’s always fun to be had from peering into my in-box.