2005 Early Stagers Grasses Millers Dale Derbyshire 2nd July One Day Meeting
This meeting was over-subscribed and had to be restricted to twelve members. It began on three picnic tables at the disused railway station, with a brief talk on the structure of grasses. The emphasis, however, was on recognising commoner species by their general appearance. To this end, each participant was provided with specimens of about fifteen previously gathered taxa and tips were given on methods of separating them. A recommendation was made to start looking at the group from early in the spring. A short list was given of those grasses that survive the winter in recognisable form, followed by one for commoner grasses in their flowering order.
Living plants were then examined, including some of nearby woodland/scrub. After pausing to admire Linaria repens (pale toadflax) and Pyrola minor (common wintergreen) there was a longish walk along the disused railway line before descending between long lines of Poa nemoralis (wood meadow-grass) to Litton Mill.
The return route was based on a minor road, with diversions to a couple of limestone grassland outcrops. On the major one, Ravenstor, was a great deal of Koeleria macrantha (crested hair-grass) and Helictotrichon pratense (meadow oat- grass) was compared with H. pubescens (downy oat-grass). Some specialties of the area were also encountered, including Silene nutans (Nottingham catchfly), Geranium sanguineum (bloody crane's-bill), Filipendula vulgaris (dropwort), Galium sterneri(limestone bedstraw) and Ribes alpinum (mountain currant).
JOHN HAWKSFORD