Highdown Hill West Sussex Early Stagers Dandelion Look-alikes One Day Meeting
I received a telephone call from the leader, Clare Coleman, on the Thursday evening saying that she was unwell and would I lead the walk the following day! This was to be my first walk to an area I did not know, to a site that I had not been able to recce and not knowing how many people were going to be there!
The weather turned out to be atrocious, the only wet day that I had out whilst walking this year. I made it to Highdown Hill in West Sussex to greet five other intrepid adventurers, three of whom were new to the Society. Nonetheless we stepped out boldly and managed to spend a couple of hours on this chalk hill. The boiling heat of the summer had seared everything on the site and considering that this was to find dandelion look-alikes we did not find many species, not even a dandelion in flower! With a key that I had been given by another botanist we managed to identify Leontodon hispidus (rough hawkbit), L. autumnalis (autumn hawkbit), Hypochaeris radicata (common cat's ear) and Picris hieracoides (hawkweed oxtongue).
We found several other species in flower such as Campanula rotundifolia(harebell), Pastinaca sativa (parsnip), Euphrasia officinalis (eyebright) and unusually right at the top of the hill a clump of Eupatorium cannabinum (hemp agrimony).
After lunch I thought everyone would prefer to go home because the rain was still falling, but I had a couple of ace sites up my sleeve which Clare had told me of, and we decided to continue. Not very far away was Shoreham Beach and behind the harbour office there is a tiny reserve, one of only two known sites for Petrorhagia nanteitii (childling pink) and we found a few plants still in flower, along with Crambe maritima (sea kale), Trifolium arvense (hare's foot clover) and Mercurialis annua (annual mercury). The sea wall gave us Linaria purpurea (purple toadflax), Parietaria judaica (pellitory of the wall), Erigeron glaucus (seaside daisy), Senecio viscosus(sticky groundsel) and Conyza sumatrensis (Guernsey fleabane).
Our final destination took us to Botolph's lay-by just north on theA283 where we found along the inside verge many elegant plants of Senecio inaequidens (narrow- leaved ragwort) first established here in 2001 (according to Watsonia) and a large clump of Lathyrus latifolius (broad-leaved everlasting pea) in an unusual white form. By this time the rain had stopped and it was here that we took leave of each other to discover that it was almost 5 o'clock. Doesn't time fly!
STEPHEN CLARKSON