A First Hunt 2007

North Cheshire 7th March 2007

By now the light was beginning to fade a little and I reckoned there were probably two hours left of the last day of the Last Hunt. There were several plants which I had been seeing around during the winter months but which hadn't been obvious on the Great Orme so I started to look nearer home in North Cheshire.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) flowers all year round but my observation is that it doesn't open up unless the ambient temperature is greater than about 10 C. I caught one just about to close for the night. Nearby was that bane of the bedding gardner Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua) another plant which can usually be found in flower in every month of the year.

Walking down the lane I soon spied a nice patch of Lamium maculatum (Spotted deadnettle) and although it was quite near a house there was none growing in the garden. The first of the native Speedwells was beginning to flower but the Ivy-leaved Speedwell (Veronica hederifolia) has extremely small flowers even when fully out but the photograph revealed a glimpse of the stigma.

On some nearby allotments ht commonest weed is Small Nettle (Urtica urens) which love the rich manured soil and flowers through the winter. A small patch of a white crucifer turned out to be Thale-cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) another early spring weed of flower beds and waste places.

A full flowering Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) was next, a good three feet tall and in good condition apart from a slight "burning" of some lower leaves due to frost damage. Although it flowers in May you can usually find a few of these in flower during the winter months but this was the only Cow Parsley I saw.

A patch of rough ground next to a brick wall held a surprise for both Dove's-foot Crane's-bill (Geranium molle) and Black Medick (Medicago lupulina) were in flower here - it must be a sun trap.

In a hedge close by were both female and male flowering plants of Dog's-mercury (Mercurialis perennis) The male plants are the most obvious with their long "catkins" but the female flowers were also at a similar stage of development with stigmas showing on top of what will eventually be the fruits.

When the light had nearly gone the last flowering plant of the Hunt, Scentless Mayweed (Tripleurospermum inodorum) with one rather tatty, small flower was found by a wall.

Botanising for only about 5 hours altogether there were 44 countable flowering plants in this First Hunt which isn't a bad total but not high considering the publicity given to the mild winter. I was surprised to find some flowers like Mexican Fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) but sometimes summer flowers will continue until the very severe weather kills them off and there have been only a few short frosts during the winter. My verdict for this year? Spring is a week or so early but not much more.

Peter Llewellyn 9th March 2007