2003 East Hampshire 12 April One Day Meeting
Twelve members met the leader Peter Rollinson in the car park at Selborne on a fine day in mid-April. The programme for the morning involved visiting several sites in cars and because of narrow lanes and difficult parking the party managed to pack into three cars. The small convoy set off for the most distant location at Liphook where Allium paradoxum (few-flowered garlic) was flowering in great profusion. Whilst there the two common sub-species of Ranunculus ficaria (lesser celandine) were examined.
Then on to see Cardamine bulbifera (coralroot) mingling en-route with several dozen cyclists all endeavouring to outdo each other. As it so happened we were inseparable all the way though they didn't dismount to see our plant which was only just showing pink buds.
Turning back towards Selborne we duly arrived at the village of Blackmoor to see, in the churchyard, Claytonia perfoliata (spring beauty) and the fem Ceterach officinarum (rustyback) on a wall where it has grown for at least twenty years. Outside the churchyard a solitary beautiful blue flower was showing in rough grassland. After much discussion and with the help of Pat Verrall it was determined as Chionodoxa luciliae (Boisser's glory-of-the-snow).
The next stop was to see Ornithogalum nutans (drooping star-of-Bethlehem) which involved a short walk during which Roy Sherlock pointed out a variety of the white- flowered Viola odorata (sweet violet). The drooping star-of-Bethlehem was nicely in flower and although somewhat battered by the weather and passing traffic there were enough plants in good condition to satisfy the photographers.
Near to Hartley Maudit we viewed Lathraea squamaria (toothwort) from the cars as we slowly trickled up a very narrow lane through a miniature rocky ravine before seeing Narcissus pseudonarcissus (wild daffodils,) in a wood near West Worldham.
After lunch at Selborne we abandoned the cars in favour of walking, at botanists rate, to various more local sites. Our first stroll took us to the foot of the Selborne Hangers to see a large spread of Symphytum grandiflorum (creeping comfrey) growing in woodland and nearby both shield ferns Polystichum setiferum and P. aculeatum and a rather strange Pulmonaria. At a previous meeting this was thought sufficiently unusual to wan-ant seeking expert opinion and Lady Anne Brewis sent a sample to
Alan Leslie who decided it was most likely to be a garden variety. Retracing their steps the party then went to Dorton Wood and the Long Lythe. Drifts of Chrysosplenium oppositifolium (golden saxifrage) and Cardamine pratensis (cuckooflower) were flowering alongside a stream and nearby was a hybrid mint, Mentha x piperita (peppermint). Adoxa moschatellina (moschatel, or as I prefer, townhall clock) was growing under the bushes and further on Lathyrus linifolius(bitter- vetch) was scattered on banks in open woodland. It took a little time to find several plants of Helleborus viridis (green hellebore) growing under high trees on a steep and high slope.
Some members then went to see Gilbert White's last resting place in Selborne Churchyard before retiring to the Gilbert White Tea Rooms for tea and cakes which was always the tradition at the end of earlier WFS meetings when possible.
PETER ROLLINSON