April 27th 2009 (Monday))
The weather so far hadn't been too bad, but that had all changed for this morning; heavy rain greeted us as we prepared for the long drive back to Bristol, and I do
mean heavy!!
Still, that didn't put us off having a look for the
Giant Butterbur (
Petasites japonicus) said to grow in St Mary's churchyard at Hale Park, in the north of the Forest. What I didn't realise was the church was about 3/4 mile from the road, so we were thoroughly soaked by the time we reached it - it was worthwhile, though, as not only did we easily find the
P. japonicus (although it'd just finished flowering), there was a fine display of
Water Avens (
Geum rivale) in the churchyard grass nearby and plenty of
Three-veined Sandwort (
Moehringia trinerva) along the access lane - three new species in the space of half an hour
(
Water Avens, Geum rivale)
(
Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinerva)
By the time we reached Somerset, and the Mells area, the rain had thankfully gone - hence we were able to dip out on
Coralroot (
Cardamine bulbifera) in the dry! It's supposed to be "spreading on both sides of the road" in the village of Trudoxhill, but if it is then it must be doing so in secret
Thankfully the
Common Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) was far easier to find, and just outside Mells village itself a roadside surprise presented itself -
Bridal-spray, (
Spiraea x arguta), a popular & attractive garden plant that'd probably resulted from dumped material.
(
Common Barberry, Berberis vulgaris)
(
Bridal-spray, Spiraea x arguta)
Finally, a group of roadside
Early Purple Orchids (
Orchis mascula) provided the last new plant of our four days. I'd added at least 35 species to the list (with some more still to be identified
); not at all bad, I'd say, even though I was disappointed to have missed most of the aliens for which I'd researched specific locations. Whether the info I had was out of date, or we were just plain unlucky, I don't know - I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes
(
Early Purple Orchid, Orchis mascula