Common Stork's-bill in Northants. Image: B. Laney |
Tonight one of those volunteers, Holly Sayer, has provided the following summary of the day's finds. Holly is a Field Botanical Surveyor for Aberystwyth University and runs an Agroforestry consultancy business with her partner. She lives on the coast of West Wales and in her spare time is usually river swimming, hiking or growing food. She is also active on Instagram.
Over to Holly for this evening's blogpost:
"Day 2 of the 2022 New Year Plant Hunt and with almost 500 surveys sent in so far, it seems that the unsettled weather hasn’t put a stop to plant hunters across Britain and Ireland getting outside and sending in their records. I suspect many have followed Debbie Alston's example and put the #stoptheclock to good use, ducking into a pub or cafĂ© to avoid the rain.
Daisy in Nevern Churchyard, West Wales Image: H. Sayer |
"New Year Plant Hunt findings over the years show that flowering plants are a combination of both ‘autumn stragglers’ (approx. half the species), early blooming spring flowers (a quarter of species) and all year-rounders or ‘weed species’. Here on the coast of West Wales, we have yet to see a frost this winter season. As these record high temperatures become more common place during winter it will be interesting to see how records of flowering plants change and whether these trends continue.
Self-heal blooming in Cornwall Image: D. Ryan |
"Meanwhile, there have been plenty of interesting plants that do not generally make it into the top 20 list, from Barren Strawberry Potentilla sterilis and Common Stork's-bill Erodium cicutarium in Northamptonshire to Self-heal Prunella vulgaris in Cornwall to Common Centaury Centaurium erythraea on the Atlantic shore in Connemara, as well as a putative Coral Spurge Euphorbia coralliodes found by James Common and the Natural History Society of Northumbria at Walker Riverside.
"This year so far records have been sent in from as far north as Dunnet on Scotland's North-east coast and as far south as Fauvic on Jersey, from urban Dublin and from the rural heights of the Brecon Beacons. The New Year Plant Hunt accepts records from cities and countryside and is open to all, from botany experts finding rarities and setting records and those new to the world of wild flowers with little experience in ID-ing. See a plant that you’re not sure about? Take a snap and tweet it using the hashtag #WildFlowerID: the twitter community is filled with friendly experts happy to help.
Fool’s parsley, foolin’ no one image: David B |
"Today a beautiful, easily mistaken and aptly named, fool’s parsley Aethusa cynapium was confirmed on twitter, using a photo that had captured the bracteoles and more rounded fruits of the A. cynapium, which help to distinguish it from cow parsley Anthriscus sylvestris.
"Currently, the list of longest lists shows 'Bath NYPH by Helena & Fred' to be in the lead with a whopping 92 flowering plants found, including arable edge favourites, cornflower Centuarea cyanus and corn marigold Glebionis segetum. In 2020, the top of the list of longest lists had identified 115 flowering species, so there’s still a chance that Helena and Fred might be moved from the top spot (not that it’s a competition!).
Hawthorn, West Dulwich 2/1/2022 Image: P. Hedge |
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