Slender Hare's-ear find is first for more than a century

A specimen of one of the 'unusual' plants that I brought to the attention of my companions on my most recent visit to Crayford Marshes (22/9/09 - see separate posting), because I didn't recognise it, was subsequently sent by one of them, Margot Godfrey, to the chap who is writing a paper on rare plants of London. She has rung me to say that he is very excited because he has confirmed that it is Slender Hare's-ear (Bupleurum tenuissimum), a small, very slender umbellifer. Apparently this species has not been recorded this far up the Thames, nor within the London boundary, since the nineteenth century.

In the light of this development, Margot made a subsequent visit and counted over 100 individuals of this annual plant. I can also report (4/11/09 update) that the herbarium specimens collected at this site were held up as the highlight of the plant material exhibited at the London Natural History Society's AGM / Flora of London Project talk which I attended.

A photo of this species, taken in East Sussex, can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsaboyd/2771952492/

25/10/09: Wood Mouse watching

23.30 - I disturbed a Wood Mouse foraging amongst fallen Fuchsia flowers on the path under the covered way at the back of my home in Barnehurst. So I sat out of sight and it pretty quickly re-appeared.

23/10/09: Bloomsbury Polypody, bracket on Birch

Polypodium sp. fern in the wall of a nice community garden on Ridgmount Gardens, London Borough of Camden

Bracket fungus on Silver Birch, by the long-closed Finsbury Park - Alexandra Palace railway line, south of Highgate station

Charing Cross station and the London Eye

19/10/09: Lewisham, Cornmill Gardens

The most interesting find for me was a single specimen - just about still in flower - of Hemp Agrimony, which seems to be very infrequent in the areas I've looked at to date.

Water plants on the riverbank included Water Cress, Water Figwort and Flag Iris, also an Alder seedling.

There was a white-flowered Michaelmas Daisy (Aster novi-belgii) and some Coltsfoot.

19/10/09: Eltham verge surprise

Although heavily mown, there was a short 'strip' of Tansy shoots in a grass verge on Glenlea Rd, Eltham. This isn't a common plant in those parts of South East London I've covered to date.

Also present were Buck's-horn Plantain, Spotted Medick, Yarrow and Cow Parsley.

19/10/09: Eltham Park north - Wild Service trees

I hadn't been through Eltham Park North before, and only traversed a couple of paths just to the north of the railway line.

There was no sign of the Gorse, Broom or Wood Spurge that can be seen below, on the cutting bank on the north side of the railway line just west of Falconwood station.

The most interesting find was a circa 6 foot tall Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis) and two small seedlings very close by, though there was no sign of a mature tree. Perhaps there is a specimen in the mixed plantings along the side of the A2 on the other side of the railway line, from which the seed might have come? But three together, of different size, seemed odd - unless they were suckers of a long since disappeared adult. There were also a number of Swedish Whitebeam.



Three Wild Service trees - a sapling and two apparent seedlings - growing in close proximity in Eltham Park North

Beside the Swedxish Whitebeam , other non-native trees were Sweet Chestnut, mature Turkey Oak and some Norway Maple seedlings.

Nice bracket fungus on an old sawn log

This hollow old Oak, which some moron had at some point lit a fire inside, was still alive

Tar Spot fungus (Rhytisma acerinum) on Sycamore

The 'field' at the western end of the side, immediatly north of the railway line, had clearly been managed so as to allow a large circle of long grass and herbs to develop over the summer, bisected by a wide mown path with a circle at its centre. Plants found here included a couple of Black Knapweed, Ribwort Plantain, Sorrel, Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) and Bird's-foot Trefoil.

There were Mallard and 5 Moorhen in and around the pond beyond, and from here, fine views towards Canary Wharf and central London bathed in the afternoon sun.

19/10/09: Lots of Turkeys and no Falcons at 'wood, and more unsympathetic vegetation management ....

I had previously recorded Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris) in the former 'up' bay at Blackheath station. There must also be one or more somewhere near Barnehurst station, as the Pedunculate Oaks there get Knopper galls, for which Turkey Oak is a necessary alternate host for the Gall Wasp concerned. But this was the first time I'd got off at Falconwood station to take a proper look at the flora. And it's 'Turkey Oak central', at least behind the 'down' (towards Dartford) platform .

Turkey Oaks (Quercus cerris) tower over the platforms at the west end of Falconwood station on the Bexleyheath line. Given the unsympathetic vegetation mangement highlighted below, it's ironic that the billboard advertises rare wildlife on another continent

Closer view of Turkey Oak

This substantial Swedish Whitebeam (Sorbus intermedia) on the bank behind the 'up' platform could have been planted or self-sown


The vegetation at the foot of the bank behind the 'up' platform has been so hard strimmed that bare earth is exposed

The even steeper bank behind the 'down' platform had been treated the same way, despite the 'ducting' meaning that the vegetation would have to get pretty long to flop right over onto the platform surface and pose any sort of hazard - and in the dry summer we've just had it wouldn't have taken more than a basic trim or two to make sure this didn't happen

Annoyingly, this 'modern' (=lazy) approach to vegetation management is also practiced at Barnehurst , Bexleyheath and Erith stations, possibly more. If all this bare earth was about fostering rare burrowing bees or wasps etc. I might be persuaded, but the cynic in me sees it as yet another example of a fetishistic obsession with 'tidiness' and an over-the-top approach to 'health and safety'. Moreover it can only lead to more rapid erosion of the banking, and lots of dirt being washed onto the platform for someone to sweep up.

Oh yes, and what else do we find - the standard 'jobsworth' finish so beloved of public and private 'utilities' whereby the vegetation is trashed but the trash is left firmly in plain sight. And in this case some of it looks suspiciously like asbestos.

For the record, the other species within the station area included those typical of the Bexleyheath line such as Hazel, Perennial Rocket, Hogweed, Cow Parsley, Mugwort, Black Medick and Purple Toadflax.

Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits and a Wren were also seen.