Hutchinson's Bank

Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

As you walk onto Hutchinson's Bank from a convenient parking spot, the sides of the path are lined with wild strawberries.  These should be fruitful later on.  The fruits are small, but tasty.  However, I am wary of eating fruits which are positioned where dogs can be walked.

Beefly, Bombylius major.   Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

In the chalk cutting, there is what looks like a discarded piece of concrete, though it might have some purpose; this is a well-cared-for spot and rubbish would have been removed.  This Beefly was basking on it.  It might look a bit like a bee, but closer up it can be seen to have a fly's antennae and only two wings.

Beeflies lay their eggs in the holes made by solitary bees, and their larvae eat the bee larvae when the eggs hatch.   That long proboscis is not a sting.  It is used by the fly to eat pollen while hovering above a flower.

Horseshoe Vetch, Hippocrepis comosa.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

Horseshoe Vetch and the rather similar Kidney Vetch grow here.  These are the larval food plants for Chalkhill Blue and Small Blue butterflies.  The butterflies are only found in association with these chalk-loving plants.

Sainfoin, Onobrychis viciifolia.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

Along the top path is a stretch rich in Sainfoin, a plant in the pea family that looks similar to a Lupin. 

Woodruff, Galium odoratum.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

A triangle of woodland at one end of the bank has several ancient woodland indicator species, including lots of Woodruff, its white flowers making light patches in the shadier spots.

Wood Sanicle, Sanicula europaea. Chapel Bank, 24 May 2016.

Across the road is another special site, Chapel Bank.  The path leads through an area rich in Sanicle, another ancient woodland indicator species.

Grizzled Skipper, Pyrgus malvae.  Chapel Bank, 24 May 2016.

On a chalk slope on Chapel Bank I photographed this Grizzled Skipper, another butterfly with a limited distribution. 

An unusual feature of Chapel Bank is a swathe of Marsh Thistles on one of the slopes.  When mature they can overtop me, and en masse they can be quite imposing.  At the moment they are still quite immature.  There is a much smaller stand of these plants in Beacon Wood, and even they were impressive.

Bank of Marsh Thistles, Cirsium palustre.  Chapel Bank, 24 May 2016.

Glanville Fritillary

Glanville Fritillary, Melitaea cinxia.  Female.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

Glanville Fritillaries are rare in the UK, occurring naturally in the Channel Islands and the south coast of the Isle of Wight.  There is a small colony on the Hampshire coast, probably re-introduced there, and two other sites where it has been introduced.  One of these happens to be a couple of miles from my house.

They are pretty creatures.

Glanville Fritillary, Melitaea cinxia.  Male.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

I actually went there to look for Small Blues, but didn't see any.  What I did see was people in search of the Glanville Fritillary.  I knew it was there, but I did not know that this was its peak time.  There were at least half a dozen specimens flying and basking in a small chalk cutting, and I photographed three.

Glanville Fritillary, Melitaea cinxia.  Male.  Hutchinson's Bank, 24 May 2016.

I was told that they were introduced here in 2011.  Five years is the blink of an eye for a species, but so far they seem to be doing well.  This cutting catches the sun, and I have seen other scarce-ish species here; the Small Blues that I missed this year, and Chalkhill Blues.

It's a nice spot and I took some other photos too, some of which I will show in my next post.

Glanville hunters in a chalk cutting on Hutchinson's Bank.  24 May 2016.

Scale

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  West Common Road, Hayes, 17 April 2016.

 Just a brief post to illustrate one of the diffculties in identifying even the most common plants.  This is a Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  In fact it is a bank of many plants at the side of a road. 

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  West Common Road, Hayes, 2 May 2016.

 Step back a bit and it looks like this.  This group is six feet across.

Then we have ...

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  Saville Row, Hayes, 28 April 2016.

This, which is three inches across in a crack in a pavement.  It's the same species.

Often the same plant can adapt to a range of environments, growing differently to suit each one.

Small-flowered and Dove's-foot Cranesbills, Geranium pusillum and Geranium molle.
Farnborough Crescent, Hayes, 2 May 2016.

But some environments suit more than one species.  There are two small geraniums here, Small-flowered Crane's-bill below and the larger Dove's-foot Crane's-bill above.  You can see here that there are differences in their general appearance, but each one might look different again in a different environment.  At first glance, the small specimen above looks a lot like the Small-flowered, but it's not.  That's why it is useful to know what specific things to look for.  In this case it's the hairs on their leaf stems, illustrated in a recent post.

More Verge Plants

Wall Speedwell, Veronica arvensis.  On the verge opposite my house in Hayes, 6 May 2016.

In the last week or two, more little plants have come into flower in the "grass" verge opposite my house, adding to those shown in this earlier post about my verge.

The tiny blue flower in the first picture is Wall Speedwell.

Not far away is the plant on the right, a Thyme-leaved Speedwell, with flowers that are violet and white. 

With the Common Field Speedwell shown in the last verge post, that makes three species of Speedwell so far.

Last year I saw the Wall Speedwell on a wall, which seemed fair enough; and the Thyme-leaved Speedwell was growing in a local park.  It's good to have them here.

In the background of the picture on the right is the Parsley-piert I showed in the previous verge post, linked to above.

In the first picture there are also some clover-like leaves.  These belong to ...

Spotted Medick, Medica arabica.  On the verge opposite my house in Hayes, 6 May 2016.

Spotted Medick.  Those tiny little yellow flowers are more like pea flowers than clover, and tell you that this belongs to the pea family, Fabaceae.  (So do clovers, but it's less easy to tell.)

Daisy and Oxeye Daisy.  Bellis perennis and  Leucanthemum vulgare.
On the verge opposite my house in  Hayes, 6 May 2016.

Last for the moment - two daisies.  The common daisy on the right pops up everywhere, like dandelions.  The larger leaves belong to Ox-eye Daisy.  It seems to be well established, but is not likely to flower because its tall flowering stems will be mown off.  This one might be a bit of a cheat, because I sowed some in my tiny front plot a couple of years ago and they have probably seeded across the road here.

Wilberforce Oak

The Wilberforce Oaks, near Keston.  4 May 2016.

A path leads south from Keston Common past Holwood House towards Downe. It passes a dead oak tree and a seat; this is the Wilberforce Oak. 

It was here that William Pitt the Younger, who lived nearby, met with one William Wilberforce, member of parliament for Yorkshire, on 12 May 1787.  They talked beneath this oak tree, and Wilberforce decided to take action to abolish the slave trade.  His efforts led to the eventual introduction of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

The stone seat opposite the tree was, according to its inscription,  "Erected by Earl Stanmore 1862 By Authorisation of Earl Stanworth." This seat is fenced off now, so you won't be able to sit there.  There's a wooden seat on the path for the likes of us.  (Touches forelock.)

The original Wilberforce Oak, near Keston.  4 May 2016.

This is all very well, and quite historical, but the tree you see growing there now is a replacement, planted in 1969.  The old one whose remains are shown here is supposed to have blown down in 1991, though it must already have been dead, or why plant a replacement 22 years earlier?

The Wilberforce Oak commemorative seat on 5 February 2010.

Here's the stone seat showing its inscriptions.  The one in the cartouche says "I well remember after a conversation with Mr. Pitt in the open air at the root of an old tree at Holwood, just above the steep descent into the vale of Keston, I resolved to give notice on a fit occasion in the House of Commons of my intention to bring forward the abolition of the slave-trade."  

This is supposed to be an extract from Wilberforce's diary, though other sources have it that the entry refers to a conversation with William Pitt and the future Prime Minister William Grenville.  Maybe it was edited for this inscription, to make it refer just to the local dignitary.

The inscription is hard to make out, but it is reproduced clearly on another more modern sign nearby.

As a final bit of mood, here's a photo from February 2010 showing a fragment of the old tree still almost upright.

The Wilberforce Oaks, near Keston.  5 February 2010.

Tough Stuff

Cones of Common Horsetail, Equisetum arvense.   Hayes station car park, 24 April 2016.

It's pretty tough stuff, though it doesn't look it.  This Common Horsetail shoves its cones up through asphalt as though it isn't there.

Accompanying it up against the bricks is one of these:

Bristly Oxtongue, Helminthotheca echioides.  Leaf rosette.  Hayes, 24 April 2016.

a Bristly Oxtongue, recognisable even as a small rosette by the pustular appearance of its leaves.  This slightly larger specimen is a few feet away.  It will put up a tall flower spike later (or try to; once it becomes really noticeable it might suffer.)

Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum.  Hayes station car park, 24 April 2016.

I think Herb Robert is the prettiest of our local wild Geraniums, and it's probably the commonest, occurring in woods and other wild places as well as in car parks like this one.

Pellitory-of-the-Wall, Parietaria judaica.  Hayes, 24 April 2016.

This is Pellitory-of-the-Wall, and indeed it grows out of cracks in several of the local walls.  Here, it has found a crevice at the edge of a path.

Dandelion plus. Saville Row, Hayes, 6 May 2016.

I can't really ignore this pretty plant.  Even though it's so dry here that it can only afford to support five small leaves, this Dandelion is putting out two full-sized flowers.  With it are a grass, which I might identify when it flowers, and a Bitter-cress which is so dry and stressed that it has mostly turned purple.  These are actually on my front door steps.  Botany is literally on my doorstep. 

There are many other plants that are tough enough to survive in suburbia.  I had to go hardly any distance to find the groups in this and the last two posts.  There are other communities that grow on walls in particular, in grass verges, on the dry ground in a local farm, and in the local woods.  The variety is very cheering, and I hope the weedkiller sprayers never get more thorough than they already are. 

More Survivors

Three-cornered Leek, Allium triquetrum.  Hayes, 25 April 2016.

Some plants just need a very little open ground to thrive.  This Three-cornered Leek gets its name from the fleshy leaves, which are more or less triangular in cross-section.  It's an invasive pest in woodlands but bright and cheerful in unregarded corners like this one.

It is edible in all parts and tastes garlicky.  So this is one plant that no-one should feel guilty about foraging from the woods.  But don't take it from places like this, because the chances are that dogs have peed on it.

Cleavers, Galium aparine.  Tiepigs Lane, Hayes, 26 April 2016.

Shoots of Cleavers appeared as interlopers in two photos in my last post.  This is what it can do if given a little space to grow.

Some of these survivors will flower later in the year, and are already well on their way.

Purple Toadflax, Linaria purpurea.  Hayes station, 10 April 2016.

The edges of car parks are good places to look for these often unregarded plants.  Purple Toadflax - no relation to the Ivy-leaved Toadflax in the last post - is quite happy under this fencing.

Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris.   Hayes station, 10 April 2016.

This Mallow doesn't need much space, either.

Petty Spurge, Euphorbia peplus.  Tiepigs Lane, Hayes, 26 April 2016.

Although it doesn't look it from afar, this Petty Spurge is in full flower.  The flowers are small and green, a common feature of the Euphorbiaceae.

Next time I'll post just a couple more of the really tough ones.