1997 East Head West Sussex 14 June Local Meeting
Of our ordinary one-day meetings, the first this season was at Selborne on 12 April, and was led by Mr and Mrs Rollinson. The 20 members attending on a fine and sunny day saw a variety of lovely spring flowers, among them Allium paradoxum (Few Flowered Garlic), Cardamine bulbifera (Coralroot), Ornithogalum nutans (Drooping Star of Bethlehem) and some well-naturalised plants of Narcissus medio- luteus (Primrose Peerless) sheltering at the edge of a wood. During the afternoon, the party saw Arum italicum ssp. neglectum in a 'wild' part of Selborne rectory garden, and, in woodland, Helleborus viridis (Green Hellebore) and a Pulmonaria which could not be firmly identified, about which Lady Anne Brewis writes as follows:
I sent the Selborne Pulmonaria to Alan Leslie who has taken a lot of trouble and has sent me this reply:
"I am returning your Pulmonaria specimen and am still somewhat in two minds as to what it is. On balance I don't believe it is P. obscura but a form of P. officinalis. 'The latter can have paler spots, but when spots occur in my plants of P. obscura here (originally from Sweden) the plain green leaves are noticeably more oblong than your plant and very similar to the illustration in the Watsonia paper describing the Suffolk population. The differences between the two are rather subtle. Chromosome number seems as definitive as anything else, but I see that P. obscura loses all its leaves in winter while P. officinalis usually retains some foliage right through the season. This would be another character to look for. P. obscura is very rare in gardens (it has little horticultural merit) so is an unlikely alien. I am bound to say that some Pulmonaria thrown out by somebody in the wood near me looks exactly the same as the Selborne one."
On April 13, a hot and sunny day, Paul Green had an attendance of 25 members for a walk around Ston Easton in Somerset, starting at Great Elm for a wooded river walk to see such plants as Staphylea pinnata (Bladdemut) and Polygonatum multiflorum (Solomon's Seal). At a different site the young fronds of Matteucia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) were a splendid show under the trees with the sun shining on them, and other plants of interest seen during the day were Sambucus racemosa (Red-' berried Elder) and Corydalis cava, a carpet of white and pink spikes.
The sand dunes and mudflats of East Head in West Sussex were the venue for Miss Hilda Horder's meeting on 14 June. Twelve participants saw a fine selection of the plants expected in the habitat, the less usual ones being Hypochoeris glabra(Smooth Cat's-ear) Eryngium maritimum (Sea Holly) and Frankenia laevis, this latter not in flower. Later the group moved on to meadows on the edge of Chichester harbour. Miss Horder writes that the Ornithogalum pyrenaicum (Bath Asparagus) seen there is fortunately holding its own in spite of road widening in a former area. Among other plants seen that afternoon, Alopecurus bulbosus (Bulbous Foxtail) was worthy of note.
Mrs Grimshaw's day near Maidenhead on 21 June was preceded by a week of cold and wet weather, so only three members turned up - a pity because there was plenty of interest to be seen. The chalk escarpment of Winter Hill is unfortunately heavily grazed by rabbits but Euphrasia pseudo-kemeri was a welcome find and there was also, to quote the leader, "a beautiful abundant display of Asperula cynanchica (Squinancywort) which the rabbits obviously dislike". Cockmarsh, at the foot of the hill, has dried up a lot in recent years, but there was time to see a fine display of Hottonia palustris (Water Violet) before a heavy downpour drove the little party to the shelter of their cars. By the afternoon the sun was shining and they were able to enjoy the plants of a variety of habitats which have developed in a disused brickworks. One clayey pond had Stratiodes aloides (Water Soldier) and, less welcome, Crassula helmsii. There were several orchids in the scrubby areas and one plant of Epipactis phyllanthes was discovered in a place where the shade was thick enough. Tea in Mrs Grimshaw's garden rounded off a very good day.
In Devon on 13 July, Mrs Greenwood's party of nine people were luckier with the weather, their meeting ending just before a run of heavy showers. In the morning they did a circular walk through acid woodland where there was a good display of ferns including Scaly Male Fem Dryopteris affinis and a number of sedges. After lunch a more open part of the wood was explored and this yielded Sedum telephium (Orpine), Scirpus sylvaticus (Wood Clubrush), Lythrum portula (Water Purslane), Agrimonia procera (Fragrant Agrimony) and many more, one member adding 31 records to her diary.
There should be a few more reports to go in the spring magazine of 1998. Just now this seems a very long time ahead!
E. NORMAN