1997 North Yorkshire Moors 21 - 22 June Main Meeting
It was a dull wet morning when eleven members met our leader Mike Yates in the car park of the mysterious Hole of Horcum, a huge hollow in Levisham Moor largeenough to contain two farms and their fields. The party set off along the eastern edge of the Hole to see the arctic-alpine relict plant Cornus suecica (Dwarf Cornel) at itsmost southerly site together with Trientalis europaea (Chickweed Wintergreen). We then descended into the Hole to Levisham Beck where Myosotis stolonifera (Pale Forget-me-not) was admired along with many commoner stream-side species.
We then walked on to Fen Bog, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve. This is a valley mire situated at the head of the glacial drainage channel of Newton Dale in the bottom of which post-glacial peat was formed to a depth of ten metres. Here we were shown many sedges, notably Carex limosa (Bog Sedge), and hybrid orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii x maculata (Common and Heath Spotted Orchids); also Drosera rotundifolia (Round-leaved Sundew), Pinguicula vulgaris (Common Butterwort) and the delightfully scented Myrica gale (Bog Myrtle).
After lunch a car drive took us to the outskirts of Whitby where at Upgang Ravine we saw several patches of Vicia bithynica (Bithynian Vetch), Serratula tinctoria(Saw-wort), Silaum silaus (Pepper Saxifrage) and Stachys officinalis (Betony). Moving on into Whitby, we walked to the cliff steps near the West Pier for Grindelia stricta (Coastal Gumplant) from north-west America, Brassica oleracea (Wild Cabbage) and the weird hybrid Pink Dianthus caryophyllus x plumarius.
We then took the Scarborough road to a moorland site known as Brow Cop. Here there were innumerable spikes of Dactylorhiza purpurella (Northern Marsh Orchid) with hybrids with D. fuchsii and D. maculata. An area of woodland with the quaint name of Turkey Carpet gave us Pyrola minor and P. media (Common and Intermediate Wintergreens). At Scalby were Cardamine bulbifera (Coralroot) showing only a few bulbils, with Fumaria muralis ssp. boraei (Common Ramping Fumitory) on the churchyard walls and Cardamine raphanifolia (Greater Cuckooflower) in Church Beck. In Forge Valley we saw Carex strigosa (Thin-spiked Wood Sedge), Scirpus sylvaticus (Wood Clubrush), and finally in a nearby quarry Carex digitata (Fingered Sedge).
On Sunday morning, we met in the car park at Sutton Bank. There can be little doubt that the top of this escarpment affords the finest view in Yorkshire, stretching from the Pennines in the west to Cleveland in the north and across to York in the south. We went down the hill and along a farm track to Lake Gormire, a lake forged by glacial action and looking magnificent with the sunshine glistening on its calm reflective surface. On the edge of the lake a single plant of Lysimachia x thyrsiflora was found in flower to the delight of Mike and of the rest of the party, together with Potentilla palustris (Marsh Cinquefoil) and, after much searching, Apium inundatum (Lesser Marshwort) in a small inlet. Returning to the cars, we drove to Rievaulx, the first Cistercian house in Yorkshire, founded in 1132, and on the way saw Ribes alpinum (Mountain Currant), Geranium phaeum (Dusty Cranesbill) and Lilium martagon.
After lunch we left our cars for safe-keeping with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Trachystemon orientalis, now happily naturalised on the grass verge near Ashberry Farm. From here we made our way to Ashberry Pasture, another Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, where the normally acid soils of the valley floor clay are modified by limestone gravels and calcareous springs. Among the many species, the following were of particular interest: a hybrid willow, Salix cinerea x myrsinifolia, Schoenus nigricans (Black Bog-rush), Scirpus setaceus (Bristle Clubrush) Danthonia decumbens (Heath Grass), Primula farinosa (Bird's-eye Primrose), Trollius europaeus (Globeflower), Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) and Rosa mollis (Downy Rose). Several of us were ecstatic at a second sighting of the delicate Pinguicula vulgaris (Common Butterwort). Ashberry Woods provided Actaea spicata (Baneberry) Cirsium eriophorum (Woolly Thistle) and the hybrid Geum rivale x urbanum whichwas on a grass verge. By now it was time to head back to the cars, with one slight deviation to see Hieracium oistophyllum for the hawkweed buffs, with Mike's interesting explanation of floccose, pilose and glandular hairs.
Our sincerest thanks go to Mike Yates for his patience and consideration, and for his gentle introduction to the rugged scenery and empty spaces of the lovely North Yorkshire Moors.
EVERALD ELLIS