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 — Tansy – *Tanacetum vulgare* – Reculver steps – July 2020

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 — Tansy – *Tanacetum vulgare* – steps by seaside view to Herne Bay Kent – July 2020

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 — Meadow vetchling – *Lathyrus pratensis* flower – Reculver Kent – July 2020

Pink flowers in the grass – Red clover and mallow

red clover trifolium pratense reculver kent july 2020 — Red clover – *Trifolium pratense* – Reculver Kent – July 2020

common mallow malva sylvestris reculver july 2020 — Common mallow – *Malva sylvestris* – Reculver – July 2020

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 — Grassy wildflower meadow – hogweed – *Heracleum sphondylium* – Reculver towers – July 2020

wild carrot daucus carota flowers reculver july 2020 — Wild carrot – *Daucus carota* flowers – Reculver – July 2020

Thistles on the clifftop

common knapweed centaurea nigra reculver july 2020 — Common knapweed – *Centaurea nigra* – Reculver – July 2020

creeping thistle cirsium arvense reculver grass jul 2020 — Creeping thistle – *Cirsium arvense* – Reculver grass – Jul 2020

Sea purslane by Reculver towers carpark

reculver info kent jul 2020 — Reculver info Kent – July 2020

sea purslane atriplex halimione portulacoides reculver jul 2020 — Sea purslane – *Atriplex (Halimione) portulacoides* – Reculver – Jul 2020

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 — Goji berry flower – *Lycium barbarum* – Reculver walls – July 2020

everlasting pea lathyrus latifolius reculver roman walls jul 2020 — Everlasting pea – *Lathyrus latifolius* – Reculver Roman walls – Jul 2020

butterfly bush buddleja davidii bee reculver walls jul 2020 — Butterfly bush – *Buddleja davidii* with bee – Reculver walls – July 2020

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 — Common ragwort – *Senecio jacobaea* with moth – Reculver – July 2020

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 — Alexanders – *Smyrnium olusatrum* seed heads – Reculver – July 2020

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.

1 thought on “Wildflowers of Reculver near Herne Bay Kent in July”

amanda says:

at 8:58 pm

Thanks for the beautiful pictures and informative post! I’m due to have a herb walk there with fellow herbalists and this has given me a good idea of what we may find. Many thanks – I’d say you were spot on with your i.d too!!