2002 New Forest 20 - 21 April Main Meeting
Following a long drive in the rain it was very pleasant to gather as a group of 18 WFS members with clearing skies, for the first visit of the weekend, to the water meadows known as Bickerley Common at Ringwood. Here Gill Read our leader showed us several nice wetland species including Carex disticha (brown sedge), Geum rivale(water avens) and minute plants of Ranunculus hederaceus (ivy-leaved water- crowfoot). This idea of minute plants was to haunt us on this meeting once we were in the Forest proper where pony grazing is a strong threat to some wild flowers.
On to Moyles Court Sandpits, an impressively high sand cliff where children enjoy themselves destabilising the habitat by running down the slopes. However there were vegetated edges where we found Teesdalia nudicaulis (shepherds cress) and much Crassula tillaea (mossy stonecrop) looking most attractive with its red fleshy leaves but not in flower yet; also Ornithopus perpusillus (common birdsfoot), the smallest specimens I have ever seen. Moenchia erecta (upright chickweed) was found sheltering from the ponies by a large oak. A pleasant picnic lunch in the sun was followed by a drive to Hale Park with its interesting churchyard seeing a stand of Allium paradoxum (few-flowered garlic) en route. Here the treasure had in fact jumped over the hedge from an adjacent wood. Petasites japonicus (giant butterbur) had just one small inflorescence still open for us. The wood melick grass was looking most attractive.
A delightful verge near Redlynch gave us two exciting flowers to end the day: Asarum europeaum (asarabacca) and fourteen lovely blooms of Tulipa sylvestris (wild tulip)
Even better weather greeted us on the next day and enticed two members into shorts. Yes, it was only April! From Lyndhurst we drove to a site with colourful crab apple trees in a close grazed grassy area where creeping willow was in flower and sweet-smelling camomile leaves were seen. Viola canina (heath dog violet) was found and about three flower heads of the Carex montana (soft-leaved sedge) protected by a large rose bush; the ponies object to the prickles although they had fed on surrounding plants! Really hidden under a bush, Gill was able to show us the brilliant blue Pulmonaria longifolia (narrow-leaved lungwort).
Osmund Bushes out in the open heath was our really boggy site for the day and members leapt from clump to clump searching for Viola palustris (marsh violet). We were pleased to find 20 plants of adder's tongue fern, as we later needed to compare this with a rarity. The leaves of Thelypteris palustris (marsh fem) were unfurling. Myrica gale (bog myrtle) was in full flower giving a chestnut hue to the large area of it. Gill told us that as a child she remembered having to collect it for her grandmother to put under the beds to 'keep the room sweet in pre-indoor toilet days'! A walk over the heath led us to the site for Myrica cerifera (bayberry) a North American Bog Myrtle that has been there for many years.
Our final stop was to see the very small Ophioglossum azoricum (small adder's tongue) in a disused car park, a new species for almost all.
An excellent weekend very competently planned and led by Gill who even organised the weather! A really friendly atmosphere with all the car sharing needed to help with parking. No cars got lost and the group was also most grateful to Gill's husband for guarding the cars at the vulnerable stopping places.
PAM MILLMAN