Clovers and Crowfoots

I started off the morning by visiting Blake's Pond on Epsom Common, a charming small waterbody that looks as if it has a touch of the past about it. I can imagine that geese, horses and Victorian raggamuffins used to poach its edges to enable all sorts of good plants to survive. Most of these agents of disturbance have gone now, replaced by dogs and Elizabethan raggamuffins who deposit empty cider bottles into the water instead. All is not lost however - there is still a fine selection of plants present, hence my visit. First target was Adder's-tongue, which evaded me even though I carefully checked all of the cleared areas around the edge. Next I examined the flowering Water Crowfoot, expecting Common (R. aquatilis) but seemingly finding Pond (R. peltatus). The floating leaves were not deeply lobed (see picture) and the petals on the flower were 11-12 mm long (they should be shorter than 10mm on Common apparently). So, have I got it wrong or are both species present? Any help will be gratefully received.


I then moved onto Reigate Heath. When I visited two weeks ago the cricket pitch was devoid of flower, but today stuff was showing - not much, but enough. Firstly was Upright Chickweed, quickly followed by Bird's-foot Clover, Burrowing (or if you prefer, Subterranean) Clover and, confusingly, Bird's-foot. This area of grass is home to a fine selection of small flowered goodies. Well worth a visit, but you will probably end up prostrate on the ground. Take a hand lens...

Bird's-foot Clover, glabrous with leaves like a palmated birds foot
Burrowing Clover - hairy leaves and quite plentiful

 In other news: an aberrant Redwing has been seen in Margate Cemetery

Comments

Gibster said…
Hi Steve, sorry - a bit late into the fray! I know Blake's Pond very well. It was I that initially found the colony of Adder's-tongue a good few years ago. In an amazing lack of foresight, we cleared the overhanging hawthorns to allow the colony to flourish. This year they are being "lost" amongst the tall, rank grasses which have grown up in the absence of cover...ho hum, more work needed! I checked the Water-crowsfoot again, there are two species present. Pond (which you noted and I scooped afterwards, ta muchly!) and Common, which is present in a much smaller quantity.

Steve, whenever you fancy a trip across to Epsom Common just let me know. I'm more than happy to do the whole guided-tour mallarkey. If nothing else I can show you those Adder's-tongues! Seriously, be great to meet you. Cheers, Seth.
5 June 2013 at 23:03
Steve Gale said…
Thanks for all that info Seth. I will certainly take you up on that kind offer in the near future. Regards, Steve.
6 June 2013 at 08:28
Gibster said…
ping me an email whenever - widerscope(AT)hotmail.co.uk and we'll figure something out :)
6 June 2013 at 22:14
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goldfinches and Lavender

Image
We have three medium-sized Lavender bushes in our back garden. Throughout the summer the flowers (which last for several months) are a magnet for insects and give off a most restful aroma. As tempting as it is to cut the dead stems in the autumn, we always leave them, as we know that during the late winter we will get visitors to feed on the seed heads... This video was taken from the kitchen window this morning. We will normally see one or two birds over a few days, but have had up to 14 at once. We never tire of watching them. Lavender is a wonderful plant to have in the garden, with year round natural history benefits. So what are you waiting for? They are readily available at a garden centre close to you right now! There is an historic association with Lavender in this part of northern Surrey and south London. Lavender fields have been harvested for many years, with one particular field close to Woodmansterne being very popular with day trippers. A significant proportion o...
Read more

Welcome back!

Image
In November 2005 I purchased a pair of Swarovski 10x42 EL binoculars from The London Camera Exchange shop in Guildford, for the then princely sum of £899. These bins have served me well, with almost daily use in all types of weather, testing their durability to the maximum - salt water spray, deluges of rain, 38C temperatures, dust, dirt, slight knocks... and apart from the armour coating that had started to bubble and come away from the body, nothing to be alarmed about. Then, in the summer of 2022, I noticed that I had a problem when close focusing - the outer focusing wheel would lose grip and it would take me an age to regain a middle-ground distance of focus - plus, over the next few weeks this outer focusing wheel became loose. I resorted to the use of tape to keep it all in place, but realised that I had to do something about it in the long run. For a while I did consider buying a new pair - after all, they were then 17-years old - but they were still optically superb. It seemed...
Read more

A special day

In birding, timing can mean the difference between an average day in the field and that of a spectacular one. Good timing can be helped by reading the weather conditions correctly, or understanding local conditions but it is more often down to pure luck. In this case, I just got lucky... I had not visited Dungeness since March 2022, quite a gap for me. It was high time that I once more trod the shingle and my timing of a visit was down to several factors, mostly a personal liking for mid-late autumn but also because I needed to be at home until September 20th and could not make the journey south until then. I also chose to stay at the bird observatory for a few days rather than make it a day trip. All this conveniently found me stepping outside the observatory's back door in the breaking dawn of Sunday 22nd September, quickly making my way to the fishing boats, an area I prefer to stand to best appreciate any visible bird migration, an aspect of birding that I find exhilarating.  A...
Read more