Vegetated verges

Roadside verges can be a rich source for recording wild flowers. Here in Banstead we are lucky enough to be in an area where the housing planners of the 1930s considered that green spaces were advantageous to residents - thus we have many grassy strips that are allowed to grow (largely) unchecked - mainly due to council cutbacks that do not stretch to frequent mowing. A ten-minute walk from home provided me with 60 species of wild flower utilising these areas. Although this morning's list was not populated by anything surprising, I have found Common Broomrape, Small Toadflax, Pignut, Blue Fleabane, Pyramidal Orchid and Bee Orchid on these Banstead verges in the past. The underlying ground is chalk, so it is quite usual to find plants that would usually be associated with calcareous grassland on these suburban havens.

Comments

Ric said…
The question I'd ask is are the plants growing from dormant seeds or from seeds transported in by some means?
24 May 2021 at 16:00
Steve Gale said…
A bit of both I’d say Ric. Some of the verges have been laid/relaid over the years while other portions of grass are large enough (and on awkward slopes) to be remnants of what was there before the housing appeared.
24 May 2021 at 17:03
Rob Butlin said…
I’m reasonably sure that some of the yellow-rattle in Lloyd Park in Croydon came with the gang mowers used elsewhere in Croydon.
25 May 2021 at 20:21
Steve Gale said…
Hi Rob, you may well be right.
26 May 2021 at 17:56
Tim Saunders said…
We really appreciate how you don't go far to observe natural wonders Steve.
My road in Sutton boasts an array of flora including common whitlowgrass, thale cress, ivy broomrape, henbit deadnettle, keel-fruited cornsalad and common storksbill.
Great to see the shieldbugs too in the absence of birds, though good to have the small mercies of a wren, nuthatch and greater spotted woodpecker in the garden this morning.
28 May 2021 at 11:29
Fleetwood Bird Observatory said…
I wish the local authority would leave the verges alone outside my house Steve. They're continually mown to within a couple of cms of their life!
Cheers, Seumus
1 June 2021 at 14:21
Steve Gale said…
Tim - I have walked the roads around your part of Sutton in the past looking for (and seeing) Ivy Broomrape. One large colony on the Brighton Road in particular.

Seamus - our local authority leaves them alone more down to cutbacks rather than a wish to be green.
3 June 2021 at 08:01
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