Tiny Flowers from Ranscombe Farm

Mixture of cornfield wildflowers at Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

At Ranscombe Farm there is a cornfield, currently growing wheat.  It's on chalk and there are thousands of tiny wildflowers growing there, mostly around the edge nut also extending deep into the field.

In the photo above, the dandelion looks like a giant.  With it are flowering some Field Pansies (white with a yellow centre), some Common Field Speedwells (three stripy blue petals and a white one), one Venus' Looking-glass (purple), and several clumps of Field Madder (light mauve).

Field Madder, Sherardia arvensis.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

Here's the Field Madder in more detail.  The mauve is often not very apparent. The flowers can look white in the sunlight, and you have to shade them to see the tint.

Venus' Looking-glass, Legousia hybrida.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

Not like this, which would be showy if it wasn't tiny.  It only opens in the sunshine.

Of course there are larger flowers in the wheat too, but looking for tiny flowers, you can find some in the grass nearby.

Black Medick, Medicago lupulina.   Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

This sometimes grows in profusion, so that even though the flowers are so small, you can see yellow patches in the grass.  You can tell this from similar-looking Medicks and Clovers by the mucronate point at the leaf tip; a tiny point in the slightly incurved tip.

Wall Speedwell, Veronica arvensis.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

There are several Speedwell species in this area, and this is one of the smallest; its flower is noticeable smaller than the Common Field Speedwell in the top photo.  You can distinguish this Wall Speedwell from the equally small Thyme-leaved Speedwell by the hairiness of its stem and leaves.

I'll finish with another from the cornfield; a relative of the Three-nerved Sandwort I have seen recently in a couple of woodlands.

Thyme-leaved Sandwort, Arenaria serpyllifolia.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

All photos were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with an EF 100mm macro lens and ring flash.

Orchids at Ranscombe Farm

Man Orchid, Aceras anthropophorum.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

On May 25th I was at Ranscombe Farm on a trip led by Sue Buckingham, one of her summer wildflower lessons in the field.  It's chalk country not far from the River Medway. 

We saw many interesting and beautiful plants, some of them tiny and some less so.  I will cover some of the agricultural "weeds" next time, and here I will put the rarest of the plants we saw.

The Man Orchid isn't at all spectacular, and in fact it can be quite hard to pick out among grass and other wildflowers, even when it's in full bloom. The specimen below on the left is just about as big and obvious as they get.

Once you have your eye in, you can pick them out, but it would be very easy for an unknowing person to trample them.  I saw an interesting butterfly, a Green Hairstreak, flitting over the patch these were growing in and it was tricky to follow it while at the same time being careful of what I trod on.

Close up, it's quite unusual. It gets its name from the flowers, which dangle something that looks as though it has arms and legs. They can be seen clearly in the top photo.

The Lady Orchid, on the right, is much more flamboyant and really stands out, growing among sparse vegetation deep among the trees.  We saw 21 flowering spikes in one small area.

Lady Orchid, Orchis purpurea.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

Here are the flowers in close-up.  These are supposed to look like a woman in a fancy dress, but to me they are clearly pantaloons.

As well as these two orchids, we saw White Helleborines; some growing near the Man Orchids, and some near the Ladies.

White Helleborine, Cephalanthera damasonium.  Ranscombe Farm County Park, 25 May 2012.

I like these the best of the three.  The complex interior of the flower, with its appearance of a spilled egg yolk, was only visible on those few of the flowers that were fully open.

These orchid are regarded as an endangered species, so I was surprised to see that  they are not listed among the plants that are given special protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.  However, the Act gives all wildflowers protection against being picked, uprooted or destroyed, so that is a start.