Ashdown, Part 3

Waterfall in the Ashdown Forest, 17 August 2012.

This pretty stream and small waterfall were at the bottom of the depression we had been on the sides of, in my last two posts.  Just out of sight of this photo were some Lemon-scented Ferns.

Lemon-scented Fern, Oreopteris limbosperma.  Ashdown Forest, 17 August 2012.

They are not rare, but are scarce in Kent, where there are not many places humid enough for them.  This is the underside of a frond, showing the sporangia around the edges of the fronds.  These fronds do smell of lemon when crushed.

Out of sequence, now, I want to show some Dodder, a very interesting plant which is completely parasitic.  It germinates from seeds and, using the seed's store of food energy, immediately latches onto a host plant and inserts specialised organs called haustoria into the host.  These start to extract its nutrients and the Dodder's original stem then dies off. 

Dodder, Cuscata epithymum, on Gorse, Ulex europaeus.  Ashdown Forest, 17 August 2012.

The reddish strands that lead in from the right are the stem of the Dodder, and those are its flowers, created with energy stolen from the Gorse. 

There was a small group of Dodder plants in one small area on a dry heath slope.  We didn't find any more.  It's an annual, so next year it will probably be somewhere else nearby.

Finally, a plant we saw near a small stream.  This is yet another that I had never seen before.

Lesser Skullcap, Scutellaria minor.  Ashdown Forest, 17 August 2012.

I thought these small, delicately coloured flowers were very pleasant.

The photos from this and the last two posts, and a few more, are on line here:  Ashdown Forest plants and insects, 17 August 2012.