NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

The last of my brief 2020 round-ups involves plants. Although I was out-and-about in the field a great deal I cannot recall a year when I seemed to see so little botanically. But there were three stand-out moments... Denbies Hillside, May. I came across this striking colour variation of Scarlet Pimpernel. I've seen red, orange, rose and blue, but never a plum-coloured flower. It was my botanical highlight of the year. Norbury Park, June. I was too late to see many of them in flower, but the number of Green Hound's-tongue plants was staggering - an estimated 10,000 covering sections of the eastern wooded slopes. Box Hill, June. Always keen to see Ground-pine at a new site, this particular plant appeared courtesy of a small scrape that had been created to encourage the growth of Kidney Vetch.

I do love the colour variation in the flowers of Scarlet Pimpernel, with the intense blue being a firm favourite. However, on farmland at the base of Denbies Hillside I came across a plum - or mauve - coloured flower, the first ones that I have seen. The photos most probably do not do it credit, but it stopped me in my tracks. It was so good I went back for seconds later in the visit. No colour correction has been made to the images, the bottom photograph has a 'normal' coloured plant alongside for comparison.

This afternoon's visit to Langley Bottom/Vale Farm was enlivened by a fine show of arable flora, including a profusion of blue-flowered Scarlet Pimpernel, masses of Small Toadflax and both Sharp-leaved and Round-leaved Fluellen, up to a dozen Ground Pine plants and some 'well over' Common Cudweed (first image). Marvellous stuff! Ground Pine - up to a dozen plants are huddled in a corner of a field at Langley Bottom Farm this year. This species is doing really badly elsewhere. Scarlet Pimpernel of the blue-flowered form. There are fewer plants that stir the blood so much. The third photograph shows some Small Toadflax on the right hand side.

This morning was spent on foot - from the front door to the northern edge of Epsom Downs, across the race course to Langley Bottom Farm, then back again. This first part of the walk was dominated by Marbled White butterflies (below). It was only in 1999 that I saw my first one at this particular site, at a time when the species was starting to blaze its way into new areas locally. Since then it has really taken off, with at least 1,000 being counted this morning, the best area being the grassland that runs down along the road between the Grandstand and Langley Vale. There were moments when I must have seen 300+ butterflies in view at the same time, dancing around this grassy slope in a throwback to days gone by - mostly Marbled Whites but also good numbers of Meadow Browns and up to six Dark Green Fritillaries. A wildlife experience cannot be measured by volume alone, although there are times when sheer numbers can grab hold of you by the ears and shake you to attention. This was su...

Common Poppy in profusion, Langley Bottom Langley Bottom, Langley Vale, call it what you like - Walton Downs would do - the farmland that blankets much of this area has had a lot of coverage from me over the past few years. To recap: this farm was put up for sale and purchased by the Woodland Trust some three years ago. They plan to release the area into the public domain as a woodland reserve and intend to plant up a great deal of the open farmland, in so doing connecting existing copse and woodland together. So far, so good you may think - after all, private farmland is going to become countryside for the public to access and enjoy. Yes and no. Langley Vale has been farmed sympathetically down the ages, with a tremendous arable flora present as a consequence. It is like a botanical time capsule. When the Woodland Trust released their plans there was a great deal of fuss created by the counties botanists - why plants common trees on top of rare flowers? Meetings were arranged, ...

Elegant Tern at Pagham Harbour? Red-footed Falcon at Frensham Common? Squacco Heron at Dungeness? Nah... why not be perverse and stay local, you never know what you might find. And find I did - maybe not headline grabbing birds like those above, but species that got my juices flowing... Scarlet Pimpernel (blue form and maybe the ssp foemina) This is a 'normal' blue form, overlapping 'full' petals, shortish sepals Putative foemina, showing petals that do not overlap, are not as 'full', with seemingly longer sepals ssp foemina is meant to be smaller and slighter - these do look it to me compared to the red Pimpernels I have posted these images on a couple of botanical Facebook groups and emailed my trusted Surrey botanical contacts, but so far nobody has commented. Feel free to do so if you have any thoughts! Seen on farmland at Langley Vale, Surrey. Yellow-legged Clearwing The lawn was mowed, the sun was out and I thought "Why not put ...

A few plants from Priest Hill. First up is a showy spurge, about knee-high and clearly originally from cultivated stock. I cannot identify it, so if you are reading this and think that you know what it is, please let me know! The second species is the blue-flowered form of Scarlet Pimpernel (not the full-blown sub-species). I had not seen this before and was rather taken aback by the intensity of the blue - not quite Alpine Gentian, but not far off! Lastly is Henbit Dead-nettle, a remnant here from the days when it used to be cultivated farmland.

I don't need an excuse to return to Langley Vale Farm, home to a fine array of arable plant rarities. Compared to last year, my visits in 2016 have been not as frequent. Some field margins have been specifically spared the planting of crops to hopefully benefit the plants and, to a certain extent, this has delivered. This morning I luckily bumped into local botanist Dennis Skinner. He kindly informed me that Red Hemp-nettle, a species discovered here two summers ago, was showing once again. I know this plant from the shingle beaches of Dungeness and Rye, but not from arable Surrey - it is not common anywhere, and certainly not in my home county. I needed no encouragement to go and look for the three plants reported as being present. I found them easily... Apart from Small Toadflax and Sharp-leaved Fluellen, there was no representation from the other rare arable plants present. I did come across a few strikingly pale-pink Scarlet Pimpernel flowers. These didn't appear to...