1996 Basingstoke Hampshire 27th July One Day Meeting
Back on 18 May - ages away from this dead of winter as I write! - Mr Robert Wilson took ten people on a springtime walk in woodland near Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria. The cold, dry spring had kept the plants back, and the party enjoyed many early flowers which might have been over in a different season. Also Lysichiton americanus (Skunk Cabbage), Cardamine raphanifolia (Greater Cuckoo Flower) and Matteucia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) were all doing well in a damp shady environment. Later in the day Meathop Moss was found to be unusually dry, but still produced specialities, including Andromeda polifolia (Bog Rosemary) and Vaccinium oxycoccos (Cranberry). All agreed that they had had a most enjoyable day.
We skip to late summer for the next local meetings reported to me. On 27 July, Mrs Dorothy Brookman took 12 members for a circular walk round Fleet Pond, near Basingstoke in Hampshire. They enjoyed the flora of the damp habitat - especially when the hot weather had by then dried up so much of the country - the 'wet' speedwells, for instance, Veronica anagallis-aquatica and V. catenata; and there was a large number of sedges of which Carex curta was perhaps the most unusual. Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia, the 'bulrushes', were an interesting pair, and the party were glad to find Eleocharis acicularis (Needle Spike-rush) as, although it is a known plant for the site, it is not often seen and recorded.
I am not competent to appreciate, let alone to discuss, the Rubi seen at Mr David Earl's meeting on 28 July at Reddish Vale, Cheshire. All I can say is that in the short report sent to me 20 are named, a good tally on any reckoning. Light relief, however, there was in the shape of a visit to the famous Dewsnap sidings, a botanical 'hotspot' where Linaria x sepium, the hybrid between the purple and the yellow toadflaxes, Verbascum x incanum (black and woolly mulleins), and Coincya monensis ssp. recurvata (Wallflower Cabbage) are but a few of the local specialities. Finally for this season, Mr Mike Poulton led a large band of 18 members to look at the aquatic flora of the Wyreley and Easington canal near Walsall. There were plenty of spectacular plants, Butomus umbellatus (Flowering Rush) and Sagittaria sagittifolia, for instance; and lots of less eye-catching ones in the water. Elodea canadensis had almost been displaced in the canal by E. nuttallii (two Waterweeds) but it had taken refuge in a pond nearby. There were three Pondweeds, three Duckweeds, Azolla (Water Fern) and, in a nearby pond, Apium inundatum (Lesser Marshwort). After this, the afternoon was spent in the Sandwell Valley looking at some interesting birdseed plants. These included several umbels and among them Dill, Buckwheat, a number of grasses and the Flax Linum usitatissimum. To end the day, the party checked out some of the permanent plants of the area and saw Crown Vetch Securigera varia. Early Golden-rod Solidago gigantea and fine specimens of Salix eleagnos (Olive Willow) and Medlar Mespilus germanica, a beautiful tree which I am glad to find turning up here and there in people's reports.
I think I have said before how much to be recommended these nice easy-going meetings are. I make no apology for doing so again.
E. NORMAN