2005 Suffolk Lungwort 2nd May Main Meeting
Sunshine and a balmy breeze in the setting of a mral Suffolk village were good omens for our day. A ten-minute hayride took us to one of just three woodlands in which Pulmonaria obscura (Suffolk lungwort) grows. One, very private, ancient wood is opened annually, for one day only, to raise funds for the local church. We were here courtesy of Mr David Howard and his excellent organising committee who arranged for a private showing prior to the public open day and our thanks go out to them for a splendid effort. The lungwort was in prime condition and there were enough plants for people to make their own close examinations without hurry. Being ancient woodland there was much else on show.
Paris quadrifolia (herb Paris) showed particularly well- developed plants standing as tall as the bluebells. Great swathes of Allium ursinium(ramsons) dominated one side of the track. On the other smaller delights like Adoxa moschatellina (moschatel) and sundry woodland speedwells and violets were up for inspection. Flowers of Orchis mascula (early purple orchid) drew a number of comments due to the range of colours present. These ran from the usual deep purple through lighter shades to a very pale and dappled pink. The reason for this became obvious when Geoffrey Norman found the genetic variant albiflora, which is pure white. It crops up fairly frequently and has the local name butchers' plant. Observably it cross-fertilises and what we saw were colour-only hybrids. All too soon it was time to go. David had laid on some excellent light refreshments for us after another hayride back to the cars.
Suitably refreshed, the group were up for more of the rare and unusual, foregathering in Tesco's car-park at Thetford. A walk of a mile or so brought us to the urban setting of a roadside reserve. Quite a contrast to the earlier exploits, but there, hanging on, were late plants of Veronica triphyllos and Veronica praecox (fingered and Breckland speedwells). To complicate recognition five other speedwells were also present, not to mention the early forget-me-not which has a vicarious honorary status when examining plants as diminutive as these. We could all recognise Vicia lathyroides (spring vetch) though. It was all great fun and as we returned to Tesco there were all the plants along the lane which we had not bothered to identify in the rush to get to the prime site.
As a footnote - this meeting was well over-subscribed. The 16 people who missed the cut were given location and map-reference so that they could attend the public open day. We hope you all had as good a visit as the main group did.
BILL AND CAROL HAWKINS