Leybourne Lakes, Mid-June

Grassland at Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

I have posted pics from Leybourne Lakes a few times.  It's a varied and very pleasing environment.  Although it's often busy near the car park, it is much less so once you get around to the other side of the lakes - which are not all that large, really; I can walk around them in an hour.

The top photo shows a low flat area next to the lakes.  It is mostly typical grassland, that is, some grass and a great many wildflowers.  The tall plants in this shot are Wild Teasels.

Creeping Cinquefoil, Potentilla reptans.   Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

Just past that scene is this carpet of yellow Creeping Cinquefoil.  There are also splashes of purple Selfheal and bright red Scarlet Pimpernel.

It's not all lovely, though.  I found a dead rabbit that had been scavenged by birds.  I won't show the photo!

Yellow-wort, Blackstonia perfoliata.  Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

I usually find this bright yellow flower on the chalk.  It's unusual in the way the stems appear to grow right through the middle of the leaves.

Horseradish, Armoracia rusticana, in flower.   Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

This is uncommon.  I have seen Horseradish on this site before, but not in flower.  It doesn't usually flower in this climate and instead has just a display of broad, dark green leaves. If you chew them, they bite back.

Water Figwort, Scrophularia auriculata.  Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

Water Figwort likes damp soil and often grows actually in the water's edge, like this.  Ditches suit it, too.

Car park with European Rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus.  Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

I arrived while the car park was mostly empty and there were several rabbits mooching around.  I couldn't get close, though.  They moved away if I tried.

Field Madder, Sherardia arvensis.  Leybourne Lakes, 16 June 2016.

There are wildflowers even in the grass of the car park - this Field Madder was one.  The flowers look white from a distance, but are actually a light mauve.

I have read that the word "mauve" was invented for the first ever aniline dye, which was produced in the mid-19th century.  But that is not correct.  It was indeed the name applied to that dye, but the word comes from the French for Mallow, and originally meant a much more saturated purple than this light shade.