Crofton Heath, April.

A burnt patch at the west edge of the wood.  7 April 2012.

Another outing with the Orpington Field Club, and once again it was overcast with the likelihood of rain. In fact there were a few spots, but no serious wetness. Given that we are in a drought and there are hosepipe bans, I would have hoped for some better weather for these trips.

Crofton Heath connects several differently named woods, including Sparrow Wood, which I walked through part of in March last year.   The top photo shows a patch at the edge of the wood which had burnt sometime in the last few days. There was no serious damage, but if it spread this far it shows that the wood might be vulnerable to a larger fire, especially if there is a hot dry spell.

These woods are right next to suburbia, with gardens backing onto them in several places, and garden refuse has clearly been dumped around the edges. This plant is one result.

Variegated Yellow Archangel, Lameastrum galeobdolon ssp. argentatum.  7 April 2012.

It's a variegated subspecies of a very pretty dead-nettle that is found in ancient woodlands, the Yellow Archangel, but this garden variety is very vigorous and invasive and not really welcome in the woods. There were some genuine indicators of ancient woodland scattered around, though; lots of Wood Anemones and English bluebells, and some large patches of Wood Sorrel.

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis axetosella.  7 April 2012.

It was interesting to see some small shrubs of Midland Hawthorn in flower.

Midland Hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata.  7 April 2012.

Unlike the common Hawthorn, there are two or sometimes three seeds in each berry on this shrub, and although the camera has not captured much detail in the flowers you can just about see two distinct styles in this one.  Each style will produce a seed.  The leaf shape is also different, but the two styles are the best diagnostic feature in the absence of an actual berry.

It was still early spring, and only a few flowers could be seen. It was cool, so few insects were about, though I did see a couple of queen bumblebees, Bombus lucorum, and a moth flitted past at one point too fast to be identified. There were some odd pieces of old brick and concrete work in places, near a site which was once an isolation hospital, and near the entrance to the woods was this sign, in Victorian metalwork:

A metal sign saying "Isleworth Blue School Governors", on the edge of Gumping Common.  7 April 2012.

This is surprising An Isleworth Blue School does exist, but it is on the far side of London and the connection isn't obvious.  Perhaps they had some long-lost investment in these woods.

The last photo for today is a closeup of some fungus found on the underside of a fallen branch.

Split Porecrust, Schizopora paradoxa.  7 April 2012.

This photo was taken by incident light, falling at an angle, and the structure of the pores shows up much better than my ring flash would have done, though for most of these pics I longed for my SLR, but given the weather forecast I didn't take it with me.  It would have brought out much better detail in the white flowers.  The first four photos were taken with my iPhone, and the last two with my Ixus 100.