On The Grassland

Patch primarily of Primrose, Primula vugaris.    Burnt Gorse, High Elms, 20 April 2013.

So, the last two posts were in Cuckoo Wood.  It will be full of bluebells soon.  Meanwhile, though, there are also early flowers on the patches of chalk grassland in the High Elms estate.

Primroses are among the first flowers people expect to see. 

Primrose, Primula vugaris.    Burnt Gorse, High Elms, 20 April 2013.

But if you look at the top photo, you can also see another early flower.  Several types of wild violet come out in Spring.

Hairy violet, Viola hirta.     Burnt Gorse, High Elms, 20 April 2013.

The fragrant Sweet Violet, the Early Dog-violet and the Common Dog-violet can be found in the woods, and this one typically grows on chalk grasslands.  This Hairy Violet and the Dog-violets are very much alike, but the dog-violets have pointier sepals.

Hairy violet, Viola hirta.     Burnt Gorse, High Elms, 20 April 2013.

The area known as Burnt Gorse, from a name on an old tithe-map, is grassland, but once it gets going you will have to look hard to see the grass amongst all the wildflowers.  Even now, about half of what looks like grass in the top photo is actually small sedges.

More Green Flowers

Green Hellebore, Helleborus viridis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

Following my post on the Moschatel the other day, it struck me how much of the woodland floor is covered with green-flowered plants at this time.

The Green Hellebore is a good example.  It's not exactly common, but there is a nice patch of it right next to those Moschatels.  As you can see, it's right next to the road.

Green Hellebore, Helleborus viridis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

 The flowers droop, but if you turn them up, this is what they are like.  The green spreading parts are sepals, not petals.

I posted a related plant recently - a Corsican Hellebore.

Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

This one, on the other hand, is really common.  The woods and hedgerows are full of it. 

Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

It's related to the Euphorbias you often see as garden plants, which have clusters of yellow-green flowers. 

As a contrast, here's one with no green at all:

Toothwort, Lathraea squamaria.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

This plant is a parasite on tree roots, usually Hazel,  and has no chlorophyll of its own. 

Toothwort, Lathraea squamaria.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

 You can find this next to paths and roads too. You have to watch out for it.  I missed it at least twice, but once I had my eye in I saw it next to a path I had walked down earlier the same day.  If you know what you're looking for, you have a better chance of seeing it.

Moschatel

Moschatel or Town-hall Clock, Adoxa moschatellina.  High Elms, 20 April 2013.

 I went up to High Elms recently to look at some Green Hellebores.  Near them, in the shade of the trees, were patches of this delicate woodland flower.

It's only a few inches high, and it only appears for a couple of months early in the year.  The name Moschatel comes from a musky scent that it develops in the evenings.

The other name, Town-hall Clock, comes from the flowers.

Moschatel or Town-hall Clock, Adoxa moschatellina.  High Elms, 20 April 2013.

There are always five flowers on the stem.  Four of them, five-petaled, face outwards in the four directions, like clock faces on a tower.  The fifth flower, four-petaled, faces upwards.

It's interesting that several early woodland flowers are green.  This particular patch of woods is full of Green Hellebores, Dog's Mercury and this one.

Some Moths At Last!

Double-striped Pug, Gymnoscelis rufifasciata.  Hayes, 16 April 2013.

Brindled Pug, Eupithecia abbreviata.  Hayes, 16 April 2013.

At last, some moths!  I saw a couple in January, but it has been so cold since that nothing has turned up.  But suddenly it is a bit warmer, and here are a couple of Pugs, tiny delicate moths that tend to not actually enter the trap, but settle on or near it.

The Double-striped was on the wall nearby, and the Brindled was on one of the plastic sheets that form the slippery slope to the interior.  Clearly, moths do not find it all that slippery after all.

Early Grey, Xylocampa areola.  Hayes, 16 April 2013.

The Early Grey was inside the trap, resting under an egg-box, but was readily persuaded to sit on some bark for a photo.

On the same night, the bigger and more powerful Robinson trap was put out on West Wickham Common.  Unfortunately its top blew off towards the end of the night.  Perhaps because of this, there were only two moths present, both of them Oak Beauties. (For scale, that's the edge of my thumbnail at top left.)

Oak Beauty, Biston strataria.  West Wickham Common, 17 April 2013.

But a bit of wind doesn't usually deter moths.  And this one was in the grass nearby, so the state of the trap was irrelevant to it.  So perhaps there was some other reason for the low count.

Anyway, we didn't see an Oak Beauty here last year, probably because we started trapping after their usual flight time, so this is an addition to the species list.  They are not restricted to oaks as larval food plants, but this site is on the edge of an oak wood, so these specimens probably grew up feeding on their namesake.

Sweet Violets

Sweet Violet, Viola odorata.  Hayes, 12 April 2013.

This pretty flower belongs in the woods, and I was surprised to see it here in Hayes.  It might be a garden escape, but it might also be a leftover from before the building of houses here. 

It grows in several patches at the side of a footpath between two roads, just a piece of rough little-tended ground between the path and a fence, as you can see here.  There are also patches of Lesser Celandine, another woodland species, in the same place.  But no trees.

Sweet Violets, Viola odorata, by a public footpath.  Hayes, 12 April 2013.

The flowers are small and inconspicuous, which would not make this an obvious garden plant.  You can only just see them in the second photo, among the clumps of roundish leaves.  The dandelion and the discarded drink can are more visible.  But they are delicate and sweet-smelling when seen up close.

Stranded Worms

Lobworm, Lumbricus terrestris (?).  Hayes, 12 April 2013

After a rainy night it is not unusual to see worms on the wet pavement next morning.  There were several when I went out today.

Some species come partly out at night looking for mates, and Lobworms, Lumbricus terrestris, also look for dead leaves to pull into their holes for later consumption.  You can see them on wet lawns at night, heads out of their holes and tails still well in.  They are sensitive to light and vibration and will quickly pop back in, pulled by their tails, if they get one of these danger messages.

It's not obvious why they should come right out of their holes when it rains, but clearly they do, and sometimes this leaves them stranded on pavements with no obvious way to get back to safety.  I usually pick them up and put them onto some grass or earth.

I am far from being a worm expert, so the one at the top might not be a Lobworm. It looks about right, but there are other species.

Blue-Grey Worm, Octolasion cyaneum.  Hayes, 12 April 2013.

Here is one such.  This was also on a pavement this morning.  The telltale feature of this species is the group of yellowish segments at the tip of its tail.

Like the other stranded worms, it was fully extended, trying in vain to travel to a safer environment.  It was lucky I came along.  There don't seem to be many worm rescuers round these parts.

Back at the Turn of the Year

White-flowered Camellia in Church House Gardens on 2 January 2013.

I'm writing on the 5th of April.  While we wait for it to stop snowing, here's a photo from the very start of January.

This shrub is in a park in Bromley.  It was a gloomy day, though not quite so gloomy as this flash photo, taken with my little Ixus 100, makes it seem.  I was surprised to find anything flowering like this at the turn of the year.  Definitely not a native plant!

Most garden Camellias are showy, multi-petalled, double-flowered types, but I like this better.