2003 St Ives Cross Cornwall 27 April One Day Meeting
Three members and a husband joined Paul Green for a walk along some of the lanes of his home parish. The village of St Ive (pronounced 'eve') is situated in East Cornwall near Liskeard and is not to be confused with the town of St Ives much further west.
One of the most interesting plants we saw was the first one, the double form of Cardamine pratensis (cuckoo flower, florepleno), a very showy and attractive plant. A considerable number were growing alongside the village car park where we met. When we arrived outside Paul's home he showed us Sibthorpia europaea (Cornish moneywort) growing in the shady hedge bank opposite his front gate. Careful searching revealed one flower. Paul helped us to distinguish a variety of ferns, among them hay scented fern and scaly male fern. Despite April showers we continued our walk along lanes full of the flowers typical of Cornish hedges at this time of year: Silene dioica (red campion), Anthriscus sylvestris (cow parsley) and Stellaria holostea (greater stitchwort), with the first Hyacinthoides non-scripta (bluebells) also appearing. We identified finds such as Claytonia sibirica (pink purslane), Moehringia trinervia (three- nerved sandwort) and Orchis mascula (early purple orchid) as well as various grasses.
A circular route brought us back to Paul's house where we saw Listera ovata(common twayblade) growing in his wood, Barbarea intermedia (medium-flowered winter-cress) growing as a garden weed and Polypodium x mantoniae growing on a bank behind his house. Tea and biscuits was a welcome end to an informative afternoon.
MIKE STEPHENS