23/3/10: Dartford throws up my first local record of Danish Scurvy Grass

First noted under the crash barrier along Bob Dunn Way (just over the border from London in Dartford Borough) on 10th March, I was able to confirm the identity of Danish Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia danica), a small native member of the cabbage family that is salt-tolerant and naturally inhabits marshes and sandy areas. The leaves tend to be slightly ivy-shaped. Some plants were now in flower, with a slight lavender tinge to the petals, and there was a lot of it, all the way from the Thames Rd junction to the crossing of the Darent.

The one place I found it in Bristol was in the central reservation of a modest dual carriageway, and another local recorder there who had a particular interest in its distribution said most of his records were from along motorways in the area, so this Dartford record - my first for my 'local-ish patch' fits the same pattern for inland colonisation.