Under My Feet

Bourne Way, Hayes.  April 2016

This is a reason for botanists to keep their eyes open at all times.  I have found three plant species I was previously unaware of in the last couple of weeks.

They have probably been there for years, but I have simply not noticed them.

This is the first.  Not a showy plant, but quite interesting from the botanical viewpoint.  And literally under my feet.

Here is an asphalt pavement which has been down long enough to develop some cracks, and the cracks have little spots of greenery in them.

Bourne Way, Hayes.  April 2016

At first glance I thought this was Common Chickweed, and even a closer look did not disabuse me because this plant has a line of hairs along one side of its stem, a characteristic of chickweed.

However, even when it was only in bud, looking closer still showed that it was quite hairy, which meant that it had to be a Mouse-ear, not a Chickweed.

Little Mouse-ear, Cerastium semidecandrum.    Bourne Way, Hayes, 9 April 2016.

And the hairs, particularly on the buds, were glandular.  That means that they have a dot of something sticky on the end.  That reduces the possibilities to four species, one of which is very rare.  (It isn't that one.)

Little Mouse-ear, Cerastium semidecandrum.    Bourne Way, Hayes, 12 April 2016.

Luckily there was a warm sunny day soon after that sighting, which brought out the flowers.  Wide silvery tips to the bracts, and petals shorter than the bracts, narrowed it down to Little Mouse-ear.

I received some odd looks from passers-by as I knelt down to photograph this plant - which I did several times over the last few days.  But even though it is quite inconspicuous, I found it exciting to find something unexpected in such an unlikely spot.  It's close to the station, and quite a busy pavement in the rush hours.  The book says this species normally grows on open sandy ground.  This is not that!

I had help from people on the iSpot site in identifying this one.

(Later addition:  This specimen has now been weed-killed out of existence by the Council,  but never mind: now that I have my eye in for its appearance I have found a healthy bank of it about 50 yards away.)