Goddington Park and Lilly's Wood

Beech, Fagus sylvatica, with fused trunks.  Lilly's Wood, 28 April 2012.

Another drizzly and overcast day for this walk with the Orpington Field Club, which was well attended despite the weather.  I only took my Ixus 100 camera with me because of the rain, and I only got reasonable photos of a very few of the things we saw.

This, at the top, was one of two trees (or groups of trees, perhaps) with odd shapes and, apparently, fused trunks. It wasn't always clear whether these trees had split from a single base or whether different individuals had joined together.  This specimen seems to have some of both.

But we started in the park, a well-used recreational area which nevertheless had many plants in the grass and at the edged and hedgerows.  The grass was mown and trampled, but even so had lots of Bulbous Buttercups and even one lonely Cowslip.  On a fallen treetrunk were some fungi, King Alfred's Cakes (Daldinia concentrica) and some of these:

Coprinus species.  Fungus.  Goddington Park, 28 April 2012.

This is an Ink Cap, though I don't know what species.  Some of these specimens were breaking down and dripping their typical black inky fluid.  I got some good shots of a similar species, the Magpie Ink Cap, last October. 

On the way out of the park I saw this fly, not looking very active, which let me pick it up.

St. Mark's Fly, Bibio marci.  Goddington Park, 28 April 2012.

It's called a St. Mark's Fly because it comes out, often in swarms, around St. Mark's Day (25th April) and disappears soon afterwards.  This one seems to have got something sticky on its hairy eyes and thorax.

The first part of the wood was full of a rather pretty grass, light green, growing in clumps.

Wood Melick, Melica uniflora.  Lilly's Wood, 28 April 2012.

This is a typical woodland grass, and as you can see, here it is surrounded by bluebells, which carpeted this area.

Also among the bluebells was a lonely Wood Spurge.

Wood Spurge, Euphorbia amygdaloides, among Bluebells, Hyacynthoides non-scripta. Lilly's Wood, 28 April 2012.

This often grows in groups, but not here. 

My last photo for this trip was another Buttercup, much scarcer than the Bulbous Buttercup we had seen earlier, this one with the picturesque name Goldilocks. 

Goldilocks Buttercup, Ranunculus auricomus.  Lilly's Wood, 28 April 2012.

The Latin name also means "Golden Hair."  The flowers are in good shape, which is not always true of this species.  Often some of the petals are small or missing. But the typical deeply divided leaves are clear enough.