2005 Langton Maltravers Dorset 3rd May One Day Meeting with BSBI
Twenty members of the BSBI and the WFS, together with two recently appointed National Trust staff, had an exhilarating walk in the rainless breeze, serenaded by skylarks. We were sorry that eight others who had booked failed to show, some perhaps deterred by heavy rain inland. We divided in two with David Leadbetter leading the second party.
The first stop was at Spyway Bam to view the National Trust's pictorial display of features of the area. We continued southwards on to the SSSI recently named The Purbeck Wares. It consists of Purbeck Limestone grassland and scrub sloping to the south from around 110m to the cliff-tops at around 35m. It extends from Durlston Country Park in the east to and including Seacombe Valley in the west. There are traces of old quarries in the grassland, and Portland limestone quarries on the cliffs, part of the recently designated geological Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
The first species of interest was Rumex pulcher (fiddle dock) in leaf. Next we saw Cerastium pumilum (dwarf mouse-ear) on ant hills on top of an overgrown spoil heap, together with the first few Ophrys sphegodes (early spider orchid), a species which appeared at regular intervals during the walk, sometimes in many hundreds. Turning down the slope beautiful patches of Polygala calcarea (chalk milkwort) appeared, and the differences with P. vulgaris (common milkwort), which was seen later in the walk, were described. Entering White Ware the party enjoyed the large colony of Orchis morio (green-winged orchid), and then plenty of Brassica oleracea (wild cabbage) also in full flower on the cliff-top. Under the east side of a stone wall the leaves of Arum italicum ssp. neglectum (Italian lords-and-ladies) were seen, but no flowers. The leader wonders whether at least some of it is the hybrid with A. maculatum.
We moved west passing Dancing Ledge, and came to a colony of Valerianella eriocarpa (hairy-fruited comsalad) just north of the coast path. The party then descended by an easy path into Hedbury Quarry, best known for its one cannon left over allegedly from the Napoleonic Wars. There we stopped for a late lunch. When the second party arrived they told of seeing Gentianella anglica (early gentian) and Thesium humifusum (bastard toadflax) on the slopes. The first party tried to counter with the little owl which had flown off as they entered the quarry! The friendly rivalry continued after lunch when the parties met after viewing Asplenium marinum (sea spleenwort) and other species at opposite ends of the quarry. One said, 'We've seen two wall lizards', to which they received the reply, 'We've seen two wall lizards too'. (This continental species was introduced to one of the cliff quarries a few years ago, and has found the habitat to its liking, spreading all along the limestone cliffs).
Another smaller colony of Orchis morio was visited to see albinos together with a remarkable piebald specimen. On the way back up the slope Steve Clarkson spotted an unrecorded clump of the Arum italicum. Also on the return route we visited a pond to see Ranunculus trichophyllus (thread-leaved water-crowfoot) in flower and Lotus glaber (narrow-leaved bird's-foot trefoil) in leaf.
The Purbeck Wares are open country. I would like to record our thanks to the National Trust, and to their farming tenants for that part, Paul and Tricia Earley.
EDWARD PRATT