2005 Shropshire 6th and 7th August Main Meeting
On a beautiful sunny morning, 20 members met our leader Rob Stokes just south of Much Wenlock. After a warm welcome he outlined the itinerary for the weekend. The first morning was to be spent exploring the Silurian limestone of Wenlock Edge. We started by walking up onto the Edge from the car park passing on the way Nepeta cataria (catmint), Allium vineale (crow garlic), Allium oleraceum (field garlic) and Clinopodium vulgare (wild basil).
Our destination was a small Shropshire wildlife reserve, where we found Anacamptis pyramidalis (pyramidal orchid), Cirsium acaule (stemless thistle) and a good display of Cirsium eriophorum (woolly thistle).
After retracing our route we organised ourselves into the minimum number of cars and moved to the next site. Here we again climbed up onto the Edge above a large, active quarry which was not visible from the road. In a small enclosure Rob showed us Kickxia elatine (sharp leaved fluellen) at its only site in Shropshire. We then walked north along the path above the quarry to see Campanula trachelium (Nettle- leaved bellflower), Malva moschata (musk mallow), Clinopodium acinos (basil thyme) and Geranium columbinum (long-stalked cranesbill).
From our next stop we walked along the road past Centaurea montana (perennial cornflower), Leucanthemum x superbum (shasta daisy) and Sorbus torminalis (wild service tree) to reach a field which contained a profusion of Genista tinctoria (dyer's greenweed). Our main aim was to find Galium x pomeranicum (lady's x heath bedstraw), although Rob pointed out that as it was late in the season this might not be easy to identify amongst its' parents. He explained that we were looking for plants with pallid yellow leaves, which are thin like those of Galium verum (lady's bedstraw), but with the white flowers of Galium saxatile (heath bedstraw). Fortunately after much searching a member of the party found a good example of the hybrid.
Following lunch at a good viewpoint on the Edge we had a short stop at Windmill Hill (north of Much Wenlock) to see Hyoscyamus niger (henbane). We then drove on to Coalbrookdale where we walked into a wooded valley to see Epipactis purpurata (violet helleborine). Our final site for the day was Benthall Edge, for Geranium nodosum (knotted cranesbill) and Lamium maculatum (spotted dead-nettle).
The following day we met at a lay-by in west Shropshire, and after again minimising the number of cars we moved to Llanymynech Quarry. Around the car park, we found Mentha x villosa (apple mint), Lysimachia punctata (dotted loosestrife) and Symphytum x uplandicum (Russian comfrey). In the quarry we found Senecio erucifolius (hoary ragwort), Gentianella amarella (autumn gentian), Poa compressa (flattened meadow-grass) and remnants of Danthonia decumbens (heath grass). Clinopodium ascendens (common calamint) occurs on the ledges in the quarry, but Rob was disappointed that we could not find any specimens on this occasion.
Our next stop was Sweeny Fen, where a few plants of Epipactis palustris (marsh helleborine) were still in flower. We then moved on to the Jones Rough Reserve, and after a scramble up a rough hillside were rewarded with Galeopsis angustifolia (red hemp nettle) and Carex muricata ssp. muricata (prickly sedge).
We returned to our initial meeting place via a brief stop to see the leaves of Sinacalia tangutica (Chinese ragwort) in Craig Llewyn Quarry. It was unanimously decided to delay lunch until we reached Colesmere Country Park east of Ellesmere, our final site of the weekend. Here we were able to sit on the grass in the sunshine overlooking the mere.
After lunch we searched for and eventually found a colony of Cirsium dissectum (meadow thistle), but flowering had finished apart from one solitary specimen. There followed a walk around the mere looking for Nuphar pumila (least water-lily). Rob told us that the plant had almost disappeared from Colesmere, but we were lucky and saw a few leaves and one flower. We thanked Rob for showing us many interesting plants, despite the late stage in the season.
ROY HILTON