Joyden's Wood, May 2012.

View towards The Ship at Puddledock from Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

This was a trip to Joyden's Wood, a Woodland Trust wood near Sevenoaks, with the Orpington Field Club.   This view looks open and countrified, but other edges of the wood abut suburban housing.  As well as woodland, there is a patch of heath, and the wood contains a couple of ponds.

There was a good range of flowering plants, most of them yellow, as well as a wide range of greenery and lots of invertebrates, and as with other recent trips I will split this into three posts.  But don't imagine that I ignored the leaves just because I wanted to capture the flowers.

Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

The Greater Celandine is quite different from the Lesser Celandine that is one of our first Spring flowers.  This one is more closely related to poppies.  If you have difficulty identifying it, break off a piece of leaf, and you will see beads of bright orange-yellow sap.

In an open area, this plant was creeping and spreading.

Tormentil, Potentilla erecta.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

This Potentilla is a relative of the so-called Barren Strawberry, which also has petals that tend to have gaps between them.  Later on, we came upon another low-growing yellow flower:

Yellow Pimpernel, Lysimachia nemorum.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

This is botanically a Loosestrife, though it is in the same family as the more famous Scarlet Pimpernel. 

Next, the tiniest flowering plant I have seen.  It's a Thyme-leaved Speedwell, which grew in little clumps by the side of the path.  I was liiking at something else entirely when this minute specimen caught my eye.

Thyme-leaved Speedwell, Veronica serpyllifolia.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

Just a single stem with half a dozen leaves and one flower.  Compare the sizes of the blades of grass next to it.  Not far away was a close relative, the much more robust and brightly coloured Germander Speedwell.

Germander Speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

This catches the eye much more easily, with its upright racemes of deep blue flowers.

I also got a reasonable shot of the flower of a Wood Speedwell, a plant I showed quite recently; I'll include it here so that you can compare the colours and see the general similarity of form.

Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

Last one for today.  This is a Hawthorn, and I think it is a hybrid of the Common Hawthorn, which has divided leaves and a single pip in its berry, and the Midland Hawthorn, which has rounded leaves and two or sometimes three pips.

Flowers of Crataegus x media, a hybrid between C. monogyna and C. laevigata.  Joyden's Wood, 12 May 2012.

In the flowers, each style and ovary will produce a pip.  So you can tell which species you are looking at by examining the leaves and counting the styles in the flowers.  This one has the rounded leaves of  Midland Hawthorn, and flowers with either one or two styles.  This mixed message is typical of a hybrid between the two.

Opium Poppy Seedhead

Opium Poppy seedhead from last year, Papaver somniferum.  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

Among the dried remains of last year's grasses and seeds at Nashenden Down were a few like this, mostly unremarked, which is a shame, because their bone-like beauty is exquisite.  This is not a normal field poppy like those whose image we wear every year in remembrance of the World War I dead.  The shape is typical of the much more flamboyant Opium Poppy.

Another Early Grey

Early Grey, Xylocampa areola.  Caught in my moth trap in Hayes on 7 April 2012.

Here's another Early Grey moth from my moth trap. I showed a frontal view of one in my last post.  This shot shows how the oval markings on its wings are doubled up, a good identification feature for this moth.

I am still getting tiny numbers of moths in my trap, or none at all; on April 7th it was two of these. This one is photographed against a background of Silver Birch bark. That works much better for this grey moth than the brown bark I have been using for moths from the last few traps.

More Early Moths

Early Thorn, Selenia dentaria. Caught in my moth trap in Hayes on 30 March 2012.

There are still very few moths in my trap. Warm and dry weather, if we ever get any, should improve that. Here are three from March, including two I had not seen before. The Early Thorn is particularly pretty and is one of the few moths that holds its wings up over its body when at rest, like a butterfly.  This one has lost a few scales.  The larvae eat a variety of woodland plants, including Hawthorns, which I have in my garden.

Early Grey, Xylocampa areola.  Caught in my moth trap in Hayes on 30 March 2012.

The larvae of this one eat Honeysuckles.

The third is one which I have now seen a few times, but this is a particularly fresh and clearly marked specimen.  I caught one in September last year, probably belonging to that year's third generation.  Not many moths breed that fast.  Its larvae eat many different plants, and that together with three broods a year are good qualifications for a survivor. It's one of the smaller so-called macromoths. Here, it is photographed against my grey measuring paper, which is set out with 5mm squares.

Double-striped Pug, Gymnoscelis rufifasciata.  Found resting on top of my moth trap in Hayes on 19 March 2012.

Unlike the placid Noctuid moths, but like almost all the other Geometers, it won't be moved around without getting alarmed and flying away. I was lucky enough to find it resting on one of the perspex top plates of my trap, so I could just pick up the perspex and set it down on my paper, perfectly aligned.

One Tree Hill Invertebrates

Fly, Bibio species, on a Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

I saw several invertebrates at One Tree Hill.  This is a Bibio species, related to the larger St. Mark's Fly that is usually so common at this time of year.  I am not good enough to get the species of this one.  It looks particularly slim and alien from the side! 

Hawthorn Shield Bug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This shiny creature was spotted by Sue Buckingham on a Cherry Laurel.  It's a true bug, with sucking mouthparts. Those shoulders look very aggressive.

I always like to photograph hoverflies; there is a wide variety of them, and most of them look pretty impressive.

Hoverfly, Cheilosia species, with one deformed wing.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Unfortunately, I don't think this fuzzy fly will do very well with that malformed wing.  It probably didn't expand properly when the adult emerged.

While I was photographing the hoverfly, I was called to exercise my mothing skills on this creature, which was crawling around in the grass:

Adela reamurella.  Male.  Micromoth.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It's a shiny micromoth and has very, very long antennae, which means that it is a male.  The males need long antennae to sense minute quantities of the female mating pheromones.  I hadn't seen one of these since last summer, so I had to look it up on my iPhone to bring its name back to mind.

We only saw two butterflies. One was an Orange Tip, which I didn't manage to photograph, but Sue pointed out one of its eggs on the larval food plant, the Cuckooflower:

Cuckooflower or Lady's-Smock, Cardamine pratensis, with one egg of an Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines.
One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The single orange egg is on the leaf petiole just right of centre, the highest of those with no petals left.  Unlike many butterflies, the Orange Tip works on the basis of one plant, one caterpillar.

The last invertebrate of the day was this woodland moth:

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

A pretty creature, and quite well camouflaged when it settles on a footpath or among dead leaves.

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

You can often see pairs of males battling in woodland glades.  They're usually quite wary, and when they settle it's usually with wings spread, so I was doubly pleased to get this shot of the underside of its wings.

One Tree Hill - Green

Llama. One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The llamas were still there.

This is more from my recent wild flower course day, run by the knowledgeable Sue Buckingham.  As well as the flowers, which I showed some of in my last post, there were many leafy sights.  After all the recent rain, it was quite lush.  This one was new to me:

Beech seedling, Fagus sylvatica.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It's a newly sprouted seedling of a Beech tree.  Those broad leaves are the cotyledons, the seed leaves that are held in the seed until it germinates, and which then give the new plant its first dose of sunlight energy.  More typical leaves are just beginning to sprout in the centre.

Foxglove leaves, Digitalis purpurea.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Here is a Foxglove, among the Bluebells and with a Dandelion to one side. 

Grey Sedge, Carex divulsa ssp. divulsa.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Sue is good at sedges; we had a lesson on them last winter, but most of them still look very similar to me.  This one stands out to the experienced eye (Sue's) because it looks greyer than the surrounding leaves.

Here's the flower of one sedge I do know:

Pendulous Sedge, Carex pendula.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

The male flower is at the top, shedding pollen.  Female flowers are lower down.  This sedge stands out because it is so large, and has the creased leaves that are typical of sedges.  There is a mnemonic: "Sedges have wedges, rushes are round, grass stems are hollow wherever they're found."

Dog's Mercury is green, always green, with green flowers and green fruits.

Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis, female.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

It is a very common woodland plant and often covers swathes of ground early in the year.

This next one is a humble little plant that looks much like a chickweed.  This specimen has one flower, which has lost a petal.

Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

You can see a single central "nerve," and two more which curve to either side.

This, too, has flowers, but the green leaves are its predominant feature.

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis acetosella.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This is not related to the Common Sorrel, Rumex acetosa, which is sometimes used in soup; eating this one is not advised.  This one normally grows in these small clumps, but in one place the whole woodland floor was covered.

Lastly for today, a Wood Sage. I think this plant is edible, or at least not poisonous, but the leaves do not seem particularly aromatic when crushed.

Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia, among Bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

All today's photos were taken with my EOS 60D and 100mm macro lens, with ring flash.

One Tree Hill, April

View over the Weald from the lookout point at One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

I was at One Tree Hill with the Orpington Field Club in March.  This new visit was part of the summer extension to the wild flower course I have  been taking.  We covered part of the same circuit and it was interesting to see how things had moved along.

This time the weather was better, often with sunshine, and only a smidgeon of rain.  I took my SLR with me and I was able to get plenty of decent photos of some of the things I had missed out on the last time. It's a good site for wildflowers; there are quite a few even round the edges of the car park.  It was there I took this:

Fresh Oak leaves and immature catkins.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

New leaves, glossy and delicate, look delicious.  The background wasn't really that dark but the use of flash makes it seem so.

Early Dog Violet, Viola reichenbachiana.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This is a side view of the flower of the Early Dog Violet.  We also saw another species in flower, the Common Dog Violet, distinguishable (usually) because the spur of this one is dark, and that of its Common relative is white.  But you can also find hybrids ...  Luckily there are also other distinguishing features.

This was the first time I saw the little Wood Speedwell, in the grass by a path:

Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana. One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

There are quite a few Speedwells, some of them looking very similar until you bend down for a closer look. 

There were plenty of Bluebells in the woods, with here and there a white specimen.

White bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

This is just a sport or form of the native Bluebell species, not a hybrid or garden escape.  You can see the flowers all tending to one side of the stem, and they have long tubes which do not open much at the ends, both typical signs of the native.  These do not seem to crop up in every wood.  I saw none in Lilly's Wood the other day.

This next is the flower spike of a Cherry Laurel.

Cherry Laurel, Prunus laurocerasus.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

That's rather pretty, but the tree as a whole is a bit of a nuisance in our woods.  It's an invader, and with its robust prolific habit and big leaves it tends to out-compete and shade out our natives.

We saw some Wild Strawberries and some Barren Strawberries, plants that look very similar but are of different genera.

Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

Sue Buckinhgham identified this as a Wild Strawberry, though to my much less experienced eye it has some of the signs of being a Barren Strawberry.  But Sue really is an expert so I will go with her ID.

Last flower for today: a Wood Forget-me-not.  These self-seed in my garden, so I know them well.

Wood Forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.

And to finish, a fungus.  We found a fallen Elder branch which was covered with these, which these days are called Jelly Ears.  They are soft, floppy and gelatinous to the touch.

Jelly Ear, Auricularia auricula-judae, on fallen Elder, Sambucus nigra.  One Tree Hill, 27 April 2012.