Englandshire - Part 1

I recently spent almost two weeks away from Skye, mostly gallivanting around in the far south of England but with a sneak attack across to Inverness to scoop a whole bunch of garden-escaped squills beforehand. I cleared up on all target species, these being Scilla luciliae at Lewiston, Scilla bifolia, Scilla sardensis and Scilla forbesii at Inverness and Scilla siberica at Culloden, all in full flower and all looking decidedly lovely. Assuming, of course, that you enjoy looking at escapee plastic dross plants (which I most certainly do). Asian Skunk Cabbage also threw itself onto the trip list a little south of Drumnadrochit. Job done with the aliens, I headed southwards and out of Scotland for the first time this year.

Uncontrollable "squills"....

Whilst passing through the north of England I dropped in to admire the Yellow Star of Bethlehem colony at Gainford Spa. They were looking absolutely fabulous and were flowering in better numbers than I've ever seen here before. Technically, they were looking just a bit too fabulous, not a sniff of the associated rust fungus to be seen on this occasion. It was fast approaching dusk by the time I reached the site, hence the pics are rather grainy and underwhelming. It's still a very smart little plant though, even in the gloom. I slept in the car that night, somewhere south of Birmingham.

The next day I called in at Watkins and Doncaster to collect some glass tubes I'd ordered a few days previously. Living in the Highlands & Islands area of Britain sees me hit with a frankly ridiculous postage fee every time I order from Watkins, even though a typical order of, for example, assorted micropins and some nu-poly strips will easily fit into a standard sized jiffy bag. So I saved myself the extortionate p+p and collected the tubes in person, adding Stock Dove and a number of Brimstone butterflies to the yearlist in the process. There has been just one Stock Dove record for Skye (I dipped it the following day) and Brimstone simply doesn't exist this far north (there's no foodplant for them up here), so I was inordinately pleased to see both. 

My next port of call was Minehead where I had hoped to find Inland Club-rush in the ditch opposite McDonalds. Sadly all that was on offer were last year's dead stems, hence uncountable on my quest to see 2500 living species this year. Maybe I'll have another opportunity later in the year, though it does seem a tad unlikely. However, I did yeartick the mighty Moorhen, Navelwort and Alexanders (plus its rust), so Minehead wasn't a complete waste of a journey. Heading ever westwards, wondering if my car would survive the ridiculous inclines of the A39 around Lynton (I had to whack it into first gear several times!) I eventually entered my favourite county in England - Cornwall! 

I began racking up a good number of additions to my burgeoning yearlist, delights such as self-sown Aubretia in the pavement below a garden wall, spotted whilst sitting at temporary lights, Adria and Trailing Bellflowers on the sides of buildings, Garden Grape Hyacinth and Winter Heliotrope in roadside verges. Occasionally, though not often, I would spot a native plant too.

I don't really know my way around the eastern part of Cornwall very well at all, other than the section I traversed last October as I neared the end of my John O' Groats to Land's End Walk (it took me 58 days to complete, just in case you're interested, all on foot - and with a broken toe from Kinlochleven southwards - and entirely unsupported. That generally counts as pretty fast. Next time I'm aiming to complete in 50 days, ideally without breaking any toes...) 

So I carried on westwards until Bodmin, then got lost trying to find Cardinham Woods. A few u-turns later I was there, ready for my next target plant.

This is Rockery Willowherb Epilobium pedunculare. It's recently become very well-established along the woodland tracks at Cardinham Woods, which is the only place I've ever encountered it. The purplish undersides to the leaves, plus the toothed leaf margins help distinguish it from New Zealand Willowherb, or so the books tell you. In reality it's a far larger, chunkier beast than NZ Willowherb and looks nothing like it at all. In fact, at a quick glance, it looks remarkably similar to the Germander Speedwell plants that also grow along these woodland tracks.

I headed down to Tywardreath, very close to where my long-time PSL buddy Danny the Pirate lives. Danny was currently in France, but was due back in a few day's time and we had provisionally made plans to get out and see some stuff together. Dan is brilliant, I literally never know what idea he's going to throw my way next, but it's almost always a goodun, however unexpected it may be. My target here was yet another alien plant, Western Sword-fern. I took a few wrong turns but eventually found the alleyway in question, despite this being my third time here. 

This is Western Sword-fern Polystichum munitum

And a nearby smaller example

Western Sword-fern has been known from this alleyway for at least 30 years, presumably originating from garden material which no longer occurs. If I wasn't such a numbnut I would have properly researched what the hybrid looks like and checked for that too. It's been known to occur further down the alleyway since 2001, one for next time...

I won't bore you with more just yet. The whole of the week was spent in Cornwall, plus a daytrip across to Scillies which is worthy of a blogpost all its own. Stay tuned, it does get better!