Spotting flowers growing wild in South East UK
Wildflower spotting in late summer 2024 Since my previous post about the Wildflower Society diary, things have been a bit quieter. This isn’t due to the lack of flowers, more about my lifestyle! I’ve been on two campervan trips since I last wrote – to see my brother in Somerset, and to Latitude Festival –…
Two Water-Lilies and a Small Teasel We stayed in Arundel for the weekend for our wedding anniversary and had a lovely time looking round the Castle and Wetland Centre. After a very dry month (see my previous post) it was actually drizzly the day we went to the wetland centre! Small Teasel – Dipsacus pilosus…
Still some plants in flower Despite being a dry month there were still some species flowering Rosebay Willowherb – Chamaenerion angustifolium Wild Carrot – Daucus carota gall – Keifferia pericarpiicola This was the first time I’d found these little pink balls on Wild Carrot, and I had to look up what they were. Old mans…
I was up on Seaford Head in August again for the Moon Carrot survey. There were about ten of us and the numbers of Seseli libanotis were good. I haven’t included photos of them here because I did that last year! In 2022 we had a very dry late summer and the Moon carrots were…
In August we took Ethel the campervan for a long weekend to Hayfield in High Peak, Derbyshire which is directly west of Sheffield and not far from Kinder Scout. The pic above was taken from out of the van window only ten minutes from Sheffield – glorious! It was beautifully lush compared with the arid…
Wildflowers on a nature walk A week after counting Moon Carrots on Seaford Head I was back up there with Seaford Natural History Society on a nature walk lead by Sussex Wildlife Trust. As for the last few posts, I have marked any chalk grassland indicator species with an L. I didn’t photograph last weeks…
Wildflowers of Short Cliff and inland Short Cliff is the next cliff along from Hope Gap travelling East. If you head inland towards South Hill Barn you cross a large area of short grass which is managed by Sussex Wildlife trust using grazing. This area is bounded to the West by an area of scrub…
Wildflowers of Hope Gap After counting Moon Carrots on Seaford Head Nature Reserve in Sussex, I kept my phone at the ready for photography and walked home slowly. This post is in two parts because I took so many photos! This part will be about Hope Bottom and the area around Hope Gap where we…
Seseli libanotis is a rare UK wildflower Seaford Natural History Society counts wild plants of Moon Carrot every year to monitor numbers. Being a clifftop plant, coastal erosion means that the whole colony is in danger of failure in a single rock fall. Moon carrot grows on our chalk cliffs The plant is found right near…
Last August we visited the river Thames We camped by the riverbank and went on nature walks We took our campervan to a campsite by the river in Chertsey in Surrey and found a spot that was great for watching groups of canoers taking on the weir for sport. It’s a lovely area and there…