Nature Reserve

On Thursday I walked over to the Nature Reserve at the southern edge of the area.

I additionally noted plants on the way there and the way back.

I set out along the old railway line at the back of my house. The other end of that is at the parish boundary where the Florula area starts. From there I followed a country lane to the next village, where I recorded 32 species, and 6 plants only identified to genus. These include as new records for the Florula area honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), greater stitchwort (Stellaria holostea), and yew (Taxus baccata). The first was probably just overlooked last year, and the second would have been out of flower before I started recording plants last year - I did know of another locality from previous years. Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) is also present; this wasn't added to the list last year as I wasn't sure that I had any wild occurrences, but I have concluded from this years observations that it's widely established in the wild. There was also a poplar (Populus sp.) which may be grey poplar (Populus canescens).

In the village 21 species were recorded, including as new trailing snapdragon (Asarina procumbens) and flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum). (At least the former was seen in previous years, but they were left due to the question as to whether they were wild.)

In the retail and industrial estate at the far end of the village over 30 species were recorded, including Swedish service tree (Sorbus hybrida), also seen last year. Wallflower (Cheiranthus cheiri) provides a new record.

To reach the nature reserve from here requires crossing a couple of fields. The second field had two species of mouseear (Cerastium spp.) present, which allowed one to be identified as sticky mouseear (Cerastium glomeratum), which is a new record.

The nature reserve itself had over 40 species recorded, including 6 new to the Florula area - wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), wavy bitter cress (Cardamine flexuosa), opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (Chyrsoplenium oppositifolium, yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon), dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis) and wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosa). These will have be overlooked last year due to the late start in recording plants. There is also a 2nd species of oak present in addition to common oak (Quercus robur).

Hairy bitter cress (Cardamine hirsuta) is also probably present in the Florula area, but with the difficulty of distinguishing it from wavy bitter cress it has not be positively identified as present.

After wandering around the nature reserve I set off for the supermarket, which took me through the woods surrounding the fishing ponds on the west side of the town. This adds pink purslane (Claytonia siberica) and Solomon's seal (Polygonatum sp.). There is also a Cardamine, which looks similar florally to lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis), but which has more robust foliage with a purple cast.