A 2009 plant-hunter's diary

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by davidbr

This one, a garden escape of some kind, looks something like a Fritillaria to me, albeit with totally different leaves to our usual F. meleagris Suggestions welcomed, please

This is an Erythronium of some sort, I'll see if I can come up with anything more exact later

Originally Posted by davidbr

This non-flowering plant, by a path in Leigh Woods, seems somehow familiar, but I just can't seem to place it.

see Leaf ID. Fumaria? and Foliage ID

Originally Posted by davidbr

This is either Balkan Anemone, A. blanda, or Blue Anemone, A. apennina; I'd favour the latter because it seems a bit late for A. blanda, but in dull weather the flower wasn't open and I'm really not sure!

I can't see any hairs at the base of the sepals so it ought to be Anemone blanda - I saw some out today so it is not too late.

Originally Posted by davidbr

And a close-up of one of the many bluebells around the area; this one was well naturalised on the Gorge clifftop, though, and I can't make up my mind whether it's just another Hybrid Bluebell (Hyacinthoides x massartiana or whether it could possibly be the pure Spanish species (H. hispanica?

This looks like it could be really Spanish Bluebell to me - very close if not

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

This is an Erythronium of some sort, I'll see if I can come up with anything more exact later

Erythronium californicum (California Fawn-lily) or E. oregonum (Trout Lily) both look like possible candidates

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by davidbr

And, lastly, comes this spurge Euphorbia (yes, I know - yet another one!!)

I misidentified one as Coral Spurge (Euphorbia corallioides) yesterday, when it was pointed out to me that my plant was glabrous as opposed to pubescent, but this looks far more like the genuine article for E. coralloides - as can be seen from the photos, it's very hairy indeed! There aren't any decent pictures of E. corallioides on the Net, though (at least, none that I can find) so I'd be grateful for opinions either way?



Thanks in advance for any help provided

I found one picture that looks quite similar to your plant and it does seem to fit the description of E corallioides. I think you are probably right

[davidbr]

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

This is an Erythronium of some sort, I'll see if I can come up with anything more exact later

Thanks, Tiggrx; of your two suggestions, I reckon it's Erythronium californicum, California Fawn-lily

It's not listed as a naturalised or introduced species in Clement & Foster's Alien Plants of the British Isles, so I'm pretty pleased with that one

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

see Leaf ID. Fumaria? and Foliage ID

Cardamine impatiens hadn't even occurred to me, but this is a known site for Narrow-leaved Bittercress later in the year (though it's a big area and I've no idea exactly where it's supposed to grow). And, an online search turned up this picture here of a young C. impatiens plant which looks to be a perfect match

I was in two minds whether to bother to photograph this one - glad I did now

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

I can't see any hairs at the base of the sepals so it ought to be Anemone blanda - I saw some out today so it is not too late.

Thanks; I guess A. blanda must have taken over as the commonest blue Anemone species in the wild now, then? It certainly seems to be a favourite in gardens; the last time I went to a garden centre, they were on sale in numbers. The books I've got still list it as a rare introduction with only a couple of sites, but that's obviously now out of date.

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

This looks like it could be really Spanish Bluebell to me - very close if not

I'm glad it's not just me who thinks that

I suppose you can't ever rule out it having some hybrid genes within it, but the Avon Gorge ought to be a perfect location for H. hispanica to have clung on (this plant was nowhere near anywhere rubbish could be thrown out, that's for sure ) and, in the absence of DNA testing, I'm going to count this one as my first "definite" Spanish Bluebell

Thanks again, Tiggrx, for all your help and input

[davidbr]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me sort out some confusion regarding garden pansy hybrids

Up until now I'd always assumed that regardless of flower size/colour etc, all Garden Pansies were lumped together under Viola x wittrockiana. But now, on some seed suppliers' websites, I've come across two more hybrids, Viola x hybrida & Viola x williamsii, which they seem to be using for the smaller-flowered pansies known in gardening circles as "violas"

I can't find any information on these new crosses, or even which species they originate from; they're not listed on the BSBI database, or anything like that. Help!!

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by davidbr

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me sort out some confusion regarding garden pansy hybrids

Up until now I'd always assumed that regardless of flower size/colour etc, all Garden Pansies were lumped together under Viola x wittrockiana. But now, on some seed suppliers' websites, I've come across two more hybrids, Viola x hybrida & Viola x williamsii, which they seem to be using for the smaller-flowered pansies known in gardening circles as "violas"

I can't find any information on these new crosses, or even which species they originate from; they're not listed on the BSBI database, or anything like that. Help!!

According to various sources that I have looked at the Garden Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana) is either the triple hybrid between V. altaica, V. tricolor and V. lutea or is derived from the cross between V. arvensis & V. tricolor. This is the plant horticulturally called the Pansy.

The plant grown as the Viola or Bedding Viola is apparently the cross between V. x wittrockiana and V. cornuta and is usually called V. x hybrida. I had never come across V. x williamsii before but apparently the name has been around since 1897 and refers to the same plant. I am not sure which name has priority.

[davidbr]

9th April 2009 (Thursday)

Weather-wise it's been a pretty awful day down this way, with strong winds (a nightmare for photography...) and frequent heavy showers, but I was still determined to get out for a bit; yesterday had been a late night, fuelled by far too much liquid () and I reckoned some fresh air in my lungs would do me the world of good. And where better to get it, than a cemetery...?

I've visited so many churchyards & graveyards this Spring that my girlfriend says she's going to start calling me Dracula, but I find them thrilling places to explore; around each corner, you just never know what you're going to find

Unfortunately at today's venue, what I found was a couple of (expletive deleted) council workers mowing the feckin' grass - obviously not good for my hopes of finding anything naturalised from old gravestones! Thankfully they couldn't mow the tarmac, where a pretty little self-seeded crucifer was, thanks to Tiggrx's kind confirmation, added to the list as my first "wild" example of Virginia Stock (Malcomia maritima)



The best I could find elsewhere, though, were Hybrid Bluebells (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) coming into flower, a clump of Poet's Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus) and a huge patch of Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana) - it must have covered a good half-dozen square yards, probably the most extensive I've ever seen

The good news; tomorrow's weather forecast, and the weekend's, is meant to be better. The bad news; it's a bloody bank holiday, which means the North Somerset coast (which I'm planning to visit in search of Snake's-head Iris, amongst others) will be packed with people & their dogs Ah, well...

[KeenTeen17]

Originally Posted by davidbr

9th April 2009 (Thursday)

Weather-wise it's been a pretty awful day down this way, with strong winds (a nightmare for photography...) and frequent heavy showers, but I was still determined to get out for a bit; yesterday had been a late night, fuelled by far too much liquid () and I reckoned some fresh air in my lungs would do me the world of good. And where better to get it, than a cemetery...?

I've visited so many churchyards & graveyards this Spring that my girlfriend says she's going to start calling me Dracula, but I find them thrilling places to explore; around each corner, you just never know what you're going to find

Unfortunately at today's venue, what I found was a couple of (expletive deleted) council workers mowing the feckin' grass - obviously not good for my hopes of finding anything naturalised from old gravestones! Thankfully they couldn't mow the tarmac, where a pretty little self-seeded crucifer was, thanks to Tiggrx's kind confirmation, added to the list as my first "wild" example of Virginia Stock (Malcomia maritima)



The best I could find elsewhere, though, were Hybrid Bluebells (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) coming into flower, a clump of Poet's Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus) and a huge patch of Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana) - it must have covered a good half-dozen square yards, probably the most extensive I've ever seen

The good news; tomorrow's weather forecast, and the weekend's, is meant to be better. The bad news; it's a bloody bank holiday, which means the North Somerset coast (which I'm planning to visit in search of Snake's-head Iris, amongst others) will be packed with people & their dogs Ah, well...

nice find on the stock. I agree about easter weekend. I do geocaching and its best not to be seen when taking a cache out of a place and putting it back. thats why I can't stand it when people are out with their dogs. I just prefer empty places where I can do what I want

[davidbr]

10th April 2009 (Friday)

It'd been a couple of weeks since my last visit, so I reckoned it was about time I headed back to the nature reserve at Frenchay Hospital, north Bristol, in particular to see how the Snake's-head Fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris were getting on!



As you can see from the picture there were plenty in flower; mostly the standard checkered variety, but a few white ones like these too. Most of the other spring flowers that'd graced this site, though, were virtually over - just a few Balkan Anemones (Anemone blanda) hanging on.

A look around the rest of the reserve area saw me strike lucky with a pair of new conifers for the list; Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) & Deodar (Cedrus deodara), which I'm sure were once planted many years ago as part of the old estate here, but are now thoroughly integrated into the native landscape. There were also a few larches Larix sp. which I've so far been unable to identify; I took these photos of the cones & young leaves, hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice



Later in the morning I headed north into Gloucestershire, and Frampton-on-Severn (just along the coast from the Slimbridge WWT reserve); there's an old wood here which also seems to have been part of an estate and, as a result, contains quite a few interesting naturalised relic trees. The Black Walnuts (Juglans nigra) weren't yet in leaf, but several Weeping Crack-willows (Salix x pendulina) were looking quite green around the boating lakes, another new plant for the photo list. In the village, too, was a fine patch of Blue Anemones, Anemone apennina, plus the usual Cuckoo-flower, etc.

By far the day's most unusual find, though, was in an old quarry, now used as a rubbish dump and motorbike obstacle course by the looks of it, on the edge of the wood. In amongst heaps of dumped soil, in a location it looked almost impossible to plant anything... two trees, roughly 20 feet tall, of Tasmanian Snow Gum, Eucalyptus coccifera Where the heck did they come from!!??

Tasmanian Snow Gum, Eucalyptus coccifera

[davidbr]

I'm usually far from convincing when it comes to conifer ID () but from what I've managed to find out, the pink-edged green bracts to the young cones mark this one out as Japanese Larch, Larix kaempferi. So that's what I'm putting it down as

Anyone who thinks/knows differently, though, please feel free to disagree