25th April 2009 (Saturday)
Our second day in the Forest started off at Holmsley, hunting for
Narrow-leaved Lungwort (
Pulmonaria longifolia) along the old railway embankment there. For once a target plant was both easy to find and, for a rarity, quite common, underneath any bushes where they were safe from the ponies
Boggy areas nearby held more
Bog Myrtle (
Myrica gale), tiny
Ivy-leaved Crowfoot (
Ranunculus hederaceus and the smallest-flowered specimens of
Bogbean (
Menyanthes trifoliata) I've ever seen - again, I'm guessing, the result of those ponies
As far as I'm concerned, though, plants don't have to be in flower to count - hence the leaves of both
Marsh St John's Wort (
Hypericum elodes) &
Marsh Lousewort (
Pedicularis palustris) were photographed and added to my list
Two more new "ticks" were also easily found;
Heath Dog-violet (
Viola canina) proved to be fairly plentiful in and around the Forest, and we'd come across
Changing Forget-me-not (
Myosotis discolor) several more times as well; seemingly absent in Somerset, it must be far more common down here.
The afternoon brought a total change of habitat, as we headed to a coastal site I knew well from my birding days; Keyhaven Marshes, a reliable spring site for Little & Common Terns and a range of passage waders (we saw both the terns, and waders today included Whimbrel & summer-plumaged Dunlin & Black-tailed Godwits). I wasn't really looking for birds, though; the path fringing the estuary is good for a range of coastal species, and I soon added
Sea-purslane (
Atriplex portulacoides) &
Sea-milkwort (
Glaux maritima); two common enough seaside plants I'd somehow missed last summer
Subterranean Clover (
Trifolium subterraneum) was more of a welcome surprise, its' small white flowers being quite a challenge to photograph in the annoyingly strong wind, and there was also a pepperwort (
Lepidium sp.) that as of yet I've failed to name. A few aliens also brightened the afternoon;
Kohuhu (
Pittosporum tenuifolium) in flower in a hedge near the car park,
Cypress Spurge (
Euphorbia cyparassias) &
Lavender-cotton (
Santolina chamaecyparissus) actually in the car park and, in amongst (painfully stinging
) nettles by the sea wall, a flowering bush of
Tartarian Honeysuckle (
Lonicera tatarica).
(
Cypress Spurge, Euphorbia cyparissias)
(
Lavender-cotton, Santolina chamaecyparissius)
Heading back inland I failed dismally to find
American Skunk-cabbage (
Lysichiton americanus) at Brockenhurst Weirs; it was far from a wasted trip, though, because a roadside pond at the South Weir held both
Common Water-crowfoot (
Ranunculus aquatilis) &
Round-leaved Crowfoot (
Ranunculus omiophyllus)... and in places had been turned red by an expanse of
Hampshire-purslane (
Ludwigia palustris), a local rarity that hadn't even been on my radar
It's actually a very interesting area, even if we missed the target alien;
Creeping Willow (
Salix repens), in one of the ditches with fresh catkins, was another new tick and the only example of the species we'd see in the Forest; strange for a plant I'd been told was very common here