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.

More from Leybourne Lakes

Bristly Oxtongue, Helminthotheca echioides.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

There were some lovely specimens around the lakes which were not particularly water-loving, but which were growing big and lush in this friendly enviromnent.  Some were so large that I could not take a representative photo which still allowed you to see any details; that's why there is no Teasel in this post.

This Bristly Oxtongue was as tall as I am, and I usually see it two or three feet high.  It's easy to recognise in leaf because they are covered with those little blisters, each with a prickle in the centre. The flowers are cupped by very distinctive bracts.

Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca serriola.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

A tall Prickly Lettuce.  Another prickly plant.  The prickles on this one run along the centre of the underside, of the leaves, and are larger than you might expect.

Weld, Reseda luteola.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

Weld, Reseda luteola.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

This is Weld, a plant that used to yield a yellow dye.  I expect it still does if you know how to extract it.  Apparently, lush green specimens like this were not favoured by the dyers, who wanted yellower plants grown in less forgiving environments.  In the closeup you can see the clusters of stamens, not yet open, surrounding the stigmas.

Welted Thistle, Carduus crispus.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

Welted Thistle, Carduus crispus.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

And finally, there were several lovely specimens of this pretty Welted Thistle.  Creeping Thistle and Spear Thistle are very common, Marsh Thistle and Welted Thistle less so, and this is much prettier than the Marsh Thistle. 

Leybourne Lakes 2015

Himalayan Balsam, Impatiens glandulifera.   Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

I led a walk at Leybourne Lakes in mid-July, and went for a look around a week before to be prepared for whatever might be there.  These photos are from that recce.

Leybourne Lakes has been a country park since 2004.  It began as gravel diggings and has been converted to a wildlife and recreational centre.  There is also a good range of water-loving plant life to be found and I took photos of some, but not all, of it.

This first shot is an invasive species, Himalayan or Indian Balsam.  It has colonised just one side of this small stream.  It is sometimes called Touch-me-not, because when its seed pods are ripe they will explode when touched and throw the seeds a good distance.

Yellow Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

   Yellow Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

Yellow Loosestrife is a good waterside species to find.  There is a similar garden species, Spotted Loosestrife.  As you can see, it grows quite tall and bushy, very unlike its two close relations Yellow Pimpernel and Creeping Jenny, both of which never leave ground level.  The Yellow Pimpernel is a woodland plant, but Creeping Jenny likes it damp, and we found a patch actually growing under some Yellow Loosestrife.  (No photos, sadly.  We found that on the walk, and I don't take my camera when I am leading a walk.)

Totally unrelated to the Yellow Loosestrife is Purple Loosestrife, which grows freely in wet environments in this area.  There are great stands of it at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve.

Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

It's from a different family.  These are not as big and lush as some I have seen, but they are well established.  Here are some closeups of Purple Loosestrife flowers, showing their odd pollination arrangements: Heterostyly.

Marsh Woundwort, Stachys palustris.  Leybourne Lakes, 12 July 2015

This rather weedy specimen is Marsh Woundwort, a close relation of the common Hedge Woundwort.  Hedge Woundwort is said to have an unpleasant smell when their leaves are crushed, but that is very variable, and actually I rather like the smell which at its best is strong, aromatic and rather medicinal in quality.  This marsh species does not have the same smell.

Other water-lovers seen, but not photographed, included Clustered Dock and Water Figwort.

Next time, some plants from Leybourne Lakes which are not particularly water-loving.

Some Winter-flowering Nettles

Lamium purpureum, Red Dead-nettle, white flowered form.   Hayes Street Farm, 1 December 2014.

In December my wild flower class takes a break, and the pupils look for any wild plants that are actually showing flowers in the middle of winter.  There are many more than you might think, though many of them are ragged and there might only be a few blooms. 

I live near a farm which must be one of the closest to London.  Hayes Street Farm is always worth a visit for winter flowers.  It is bounded by houses, a main road, and some woods, and has a few nice agricultural weeds of its own.  This plant is not far from the houses and might possibly have escaped from a garden, though I don;t think many people would plant it.  It's a white-flowered variety of the Red Dead-nettle.  Dead-nettles are so called because they have no sting.

Lamium album, White Dead-nettle.   Hayes, 1 December 2014

For comparison, here is a White Dead-nettle, a much more robust plant.  You can see that the leaves are shaped differently and have more pointed serrations.  The calyx that surrounds the flowers is larger and more spiky.  This looks a lot like the common Stinging Nettle, except for the flowers.  It's worth knowing the difference.  Both grow in waste ground and at roadsides as well as in the country.

Urtica dioica, Stinging Nettle.  Hayes, 2 December 2012.

Here are some Stinging Nettle flowers I photographed in 2012.  The leaves are similar but the flowers are totally different.  This has a couple of common relatives, as well as another harmless lookalike called Gypsywort that grows by water.  One of the relatives has an even nastier sting:

Urtica urens, Small Nettle,.  Hayes Street Farm, 17 December 2013.

The Small Nettle.  Hayes Street Farm has a field full of it this year.  The flowers are similar to those of the Stinging Nettle, but the clusters are smaller.  In fact the whole plant is smaller.  The leaves are more rounded, and look at those stinging hairs!

Lycopus europaeus, Gypsywort.  Leybourne Lakes Country Park.  27 July 2012.

Just for comparison, here is the harmless Gypsywort, which you are not likely to see in flower in December.
It has small clusters of white flowers at the stem nodes.

Leybourne Lakes in Winter

Roaden Island Lake.  Leybourne Lakes, 2 January 2014.

Leybourne Lakes is a group of old gravel pits by the River Medway that have been converted into a country park, a leisure centre and a housing complex.  Like other old gravel pits, it is a good spot for birds, and there is also some interesting botany on the site.

The lakes are not actually very large at all, even though the biggest is known as the Ocean Lake.

There are three characteristics found in many country parks in this area.  They are: golf courses, land unsuited to agriculture, and power lines.  You can see power pylons in the background here.  This park is clearly too wet for either agriculture or golf.

Path between The Ocean and Roaden Island Lake.  Leybourne Lakes, 2 January 2014.

Of course, there isn't much botany to see in the winter, but it's still a pleasant walk, even where, as here, one lake is flowing into another across the path that separates them.  That's only about half an inch deep along the right hand side, and quite walkable if you can jump a few feet.  Normally, it's dry, but we have had wet weather recently.

Rose bush with hips on a flood plain.  Leybourne Lakes, 2 January 2014.

At one side of the lakes is an area of flood plain with scattered rows and clumps of bushes, and strange paths that lead straight to nowhere.  I'll have to come back in summer and see if this makes more sense!

The rose hips show that there is at least some pleasant botany.  And so does this:

Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, with seedlings growing from the seed head.  Leybourne Lakes, 2 January 2014.

There were hundreds of these dried Teasels, many with little seedlings like this growing directly from the seed heads.  Interesting and quite pretty.

The Teasel was taken with my EOS 6D and 100mm macro lens; the others, including the flood plain panorama below (complete with power line), with my iPhone.  Panoramas are very smooth and easy to take with the iPhone.

Panoramic view of a flood plain.  Leybourne Lakes, 2 January 2014.