NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

More 'old' rare plants. More blog filler. Diapensia ( Diapensia lapponica ) Fraoch Beinn, Grampian 26 June 2006 Only known from this very site, a mountain top at 760m. Try as we might to find a flower, it was over, apart from a couple of buds that had not yet opened -  a few mostly covered petals being seen. Desperate botanising. It's a fair climb and descent, no paths, so I doubt that I'll be going back! Drooping Saxifrage ( Saxifraga cernua ) Ben Lawers, Perth 12 July 2008 Recorded in fewer than 15 different 10x10km grid squares in the British Isles since 1987. I know I said that there would be no Ben Lawers stuff in this mini-series, but I've not published this image before, as it isn't that good. And the reason for it not being that good is that it was taken in driving rain in a force 6-7 wind, so it's surprising that the image came out at all! A terribly shy flowerer, most botanists just get to see the red bulbils, as this photograph sho...

This is a Deptford Pink flower, very much a decreasing species in the UK. If you look at the current distribution maps it has but a few, and widely scattered, populations. Kent is a county where it can still be reliably found. This picture was taken in July, at a place where it is not really wild, but has been grown from seed that was taken from a native site in the same county. I don't know the correct stance to take on the deliberate planting or propogation of species, but I suppose that if one site loses the species then the seed bank continues to survive elsewhere - after all, most local extinctions are down to man's interference in the first place. Also, is this spreading of the seed any different from a plant spreading by the agency of birds? I can just look on and enjoy, regardless of the plants provenance.