NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

In the spring of 1999 I was walking westwards along the North Downs Way at the base of the scarp slope, just past Juniper Hill. In the distance I could see a patch of vivid inky-blue which I assumed would be a grounded helium balloon or, less exotically, a plastic bag. As I got closer this colouration revealed itself to be a small group of large gentian flowers. They did not match anything in my botanical field guide so I took some photos and carried on walking, perplexed as to what these gentians could be. Later in the day I was able to refer to some literature - and it was Stace's second edition of his 'New Flora of the British Isles' that solved the puzzle - they were revealed as being Gentiana clusii (Trumpet Gentian)*, planted and naturalised along that very same section of the Surrey North Downs since 1960. Since then I have, on a number of occasions, revisited this clump of gentians, plus another patch (some half-a-mile further west and higher up the scarp slope) - e...

I've got a bloody cheek really. I drone on about the abuse of Wheatear imagery on blogs but then do the same with pictures of Koch's Gentian. Yes, for every year that I've been bogging, sometime during the month of April, I will go and visit the Buckland Hills, seek out Koch's Gentians, take some photographs and post them here. I'm a hypocrite... These were planted c1960 by a homesick Swiss employee of the chemical firm Beechams. They have happily taken to this section of the Surrey North Downs, and have even spread a little. For some time they were identified as Trumpet Gentian ( Gentiana clusii ) but have since been re-identified as Koch's Gentian ( Gentiana acaulis ). And if you do keep lists, be they pan-species driven or not, these plants are countable ...

A proper North Downs wander this morning, between Colley Hill and Buckland.The unseasonal warmth of the past ten days had given way to what we would expect from late March. There was little insect activity over the cropped turf which, although to be expected, was never the less disappointing. Back in the mid twentieth century someone decided to plant an exotic gentian on the downs close to Buckland. When I first stumbled across it in the late 1990s I was unaware that it existed, but research soon revealed that it was already known about and had been identified as Trumpet Gentian ( Gentiana clusii ). The latest edition of the botanical bible known as 'Stace' has revealed that this species has been re-identified as Koch's Gentian ( Gentiana acaulis ). It grows in three close spots, two of which I looked at today. Flowers are starting to unfurl (see picture above on the left). Over the years quite a few botanists have visited and paid their respects, even if their noteboo...