26th April 2009 (Sunday)
Today started with us getting hopelessly lost, as we totally failed to find Mogshade Hill and its' supposed duo of alien cotoneasters. That's how we came to end up at Beaulieu Road Station, another place I'd known as a birding site, and by suffering wet feet in silence we were able to find several interesting plants in & around the boggy areas.
It's far from the right time of year for most of them, but you tend to look at the leaves of sundews rather than the flowers and both
Round-leaved Sundew (
Drosera rotundifolia) &
Oblong-leaved Sundew (
Drosera intermedia) were found;
D. rotundifolia was common, but I only managed to find one specimen of
D. intermedia in amongst them. More
Bogbean (
Menyanthes trifoliata) & Round-leaved Crowfoot (
Ranunculus omiophyllus) added a touch of white to the bog, with
Heath Dog-violet (
Viola canina),
Heath Milkwort (
Polygala serpyllifolia) &
Lousewort (
Pedicularis sylvatica) on drier, short-grass areas nearby.
The highlight of the day, though, proved to be a chance stop in the centre of Lyndhurst to have a look at the shops; where, on a brick wall in Church Street (surprisingly enough, next to the church...
) was festooned with
Fairy Foxglove (
Erinus alpinus) - a really stunning little plant
(
Fairy Foxglove, Erinus alpinus)
Another couple of newies were added on the way back to Avon Tyrrell; the leaves of
Orpine (
Sedum telephium) in Ivy Wood, a lovely patch of ancient-looking woodland, and
Juneberry (
Amelanchier lamarckii) in a hedge on the edge of the village of Burley. I'd heard it was a common alien in the Forest, and we did end up finding a few more specimens.
(
JUneberry, Amelanchier lamarckii)