Summer flowers on the North Kent Coast
Reculver is a grassy clifftop on the North Kent Coast just a few miles East of Herne Bay. I went for a lovely walk there in July with my big camera amongst swathes of rippling wild carrot and swooping sand martins.
![tansy tanacetum vulgare reculver steps july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/tansy-tanacetum-vulgare-reculver-steps-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
New to me – Tansy flowers and Meadow vetchling
There are some steps up the cliff from the seafront with views back to Herne Bay.
![tansy tanacetum vulgare steps seaside kent july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/tansy-tanacetum-vulgare-steps-seaside-kent-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
I hadn’t seen tansy in the wild before but spotted it as a Tanacetum after drying some bunches from a florist for work at daisyshop.co.uk a few years back.
The pea family is massive but I was determined to break the back of the vetches, so when I got home I sat down with my copy of Rose and soon realised it was easier than I thought, because only one of the vetches had mutiple yellow flowers combined with long pointy leaves (sorry but I’m not a botanist). And the great thing about hi-res pics is you can zoom in on parts of the plant for ID from your armchair.
![meadow vetchling lathyrus pratensis flower reculver july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/meadow-vetchling-lathyrus-pratensis-flower-reculver-july-2020-e1605451767791-1024x738.jpg)
Pink flowers in the grass – Red clover and mallow
![red clover trifolium pratense reculver kent july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/red-clover-trifolium-pratense-reculver-kent-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
![common mallow malva sylvestris reculver july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/common-mallow-malva-sylvestris-reculver-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
White umbellifers in the grass
I haven’t positively identified hogweed before but I think this must be it – it certainly isn’t cow parsley, giant hogweed or wild carrot!
![grassy wildflower meadow hogweed heracleum sphondylium reculver towers july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/grassy-wildflower-meadow-hogweed-heracleum-sphondylium-reculver-towers-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
![wild carrot daucus carota flowers reculver july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wild-carrot-daucus-carota-flowers-reculver-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
Thistles on the clifftop
![common knapweed centaurea nigra reculver july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/common-knapweed-centaurea-nigra-reculver-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
![creeping thistle cirsium arvense reculver grass jul 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/creeping-thistle-cirsium-arvense-reculver-grass-jul-2020-e1605452701866-1024x878.jpg)
Sea purslane by Reculver towers carpark
![reculver info kent jul 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/reculver-info-kent-jul-2020-1024x683.jpg)
![sea purslane atriplex halimione portulacoides reculver jul 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sea-purslane-atriplex-halimione-portulacoides-reculver-jul-2020-1024x683.jpg)
Wildflowers by the Roman Wall
You can still follow a lane around the outside of the fort where the wall still stands. In this more sheltered area I found some hedgerow plants.
![goji berry flower Lycium barbarum reculver walls july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/goji-berry-flower-Lycium-barbarum-reculver-walls-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
![everlasting pea lathyrus latifolius reculver roman walls jul 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/everlasting-pea-lathyrus-latifolia-reculver-roman-walls-jul-2020-1024x683.jpg)
![butterfly bush buddleja davidii bee reculver walls jul 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/butterfly-bush-buddleja-davidii-bee-reculver-walls-jul-2020-1024x683.jpg)
Descending the slopes – ragwort and alexanders
On my way back down to the seafront for part two of my walk, I took a last couple of pics.
![common ragwort senecio jacobaea insect reculver july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/common-ragwort-senecio-jacobaea-insect-reculver-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
I think the moth must be a Six spot burnet moth rather than the cinnabar which one might expect to find on ragwort.
![alexanders smyrnium olusatrum seed heads reculver july 2020](https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/alexanders-smyrnium-olusatrum-seed-heads-reculver-july-2020-1024x683.jpg)
Seed heads are not my strong point so if you think I’m wrong about the I.D. (or any others) do get in touch!
See my next post for a map and Part 2 of my walk, in which I visited the wildflowers in the grassy seaside area known as Herne Bay Downs.
Read more about identifying alexanders, carrot, vetches, buddleja and clover.