astridbiddle.bsky.social
Joint BSBI and BBS recorder for Hertfordshire.
🌱Celebrating the joy of Botany and Bryology.
❤️Aquatic plants & many other. Scarce Tufted-sedge. Plant ecology. Rivers, ponds & lakes.
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There's a hope the caterpillars may help control it.
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Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris) sat in a ditch. It's a plant I know well as I had it in the lawn when I lived in the Ashdown Forest.
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Carices of binervis and echinata, and elsewhere demissa, nigra, panicea. Astonished to see Eleocharis multicaulis, but a look later at the database, saw it has been recorded there previously.
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C. riparia is also quite variable.
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Looks trigonous (three stigma) because the utricles look fat. I think you have C. riparia?
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Leaves are also inconsistently pointed (not mucronate).
Stem: very short, downward pointing prickles.
The plant has colouration which continues through stems to flower buds.
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YAY! Distinctive pink tinges to the flower buds. The panicle branches are held at right angles with terminal and axillary flower clusters. Linear leaves with rounded, often obtuse leaf tips. Forward prickles on the leaf edges (same as G. aparine).
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Josh Styles and I were on a quiz team called the Bastard Toadflax. It got vetoed by the electronic scoring system.
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I'm going to say it very quietly; "I really love R."
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Oh that looks exciting! 😍
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How exciting Jake! I hope you get a great response! @bsbibotany.bsky.social
@bsbiireland.bsky.social
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Do you think the paddock had been very poached during the winter? It would be interesting to think that horse-i-culture can promote rare plant species.
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Here it is feeding.
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Second jelly blob in fridge was the stunning Chaetophora lobata, with finger-like growths.
This really was an alga.
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It could well be the more mobile of the Water-crowfoot species which grow in ponds; notwithstanding your efforts David. 😀
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I found it rather unexpected that in all the ponds I've visited, R. trichophyllous is the most frequently found so far this year. I wonder if can cope better in the rapidly receding waters the drought has given us. Water-crowfoots in ponds really do need particular conditions.
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As expected for this area of the countryside, Common Spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris subspecies Waltersii) with larger stomata.
What a lovely place!
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The tiny flowers of R. trichophyllus in the upper shallows.
• Immature achene hairy
• Petals up to 6 mm long
• Receptacle hairy
• No laminar leaves
• Nectar pits lunulate
• Capillary leaves divided > 4 times
• Penduncle > corresponding petiole
• Stamens < 10
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Prepared for floating onto paper for my voucher.
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• Immature achene hairy
• Petals 7 mm long
• Receptacle hairy
• Some laminar leaves (too few for characterising leaf shape)
• Nectar pits circular
• Capillary leaves divided > 4 times
• Penduncle < corresponding petiole
• Stamens 12 to 16
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Did your C. nigra have pale leaf sheaths?
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I am interested in returning to BM in the autumn when the field season is over to complete an investigation on C. bulb.
I have a fair amount of stuff to write up too.
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There is then the issue of ploidy level- two in C. pratense, and the difference in the herbivory between the two plants by O-t. C. bulbifera is octoploid, the same as the higher ploidy level C. prat. However, the height: fruit factor needs consideration!
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Under such circumstances, the Orange-tip finds this an unattractive food plant, being drawn to the flowers. I have records where O-t were seen.
There is a correlation between the number of silique & the plant height. Droughting is a factor which reduces the plant height, so again is poor this year.
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This year was very strange, the downy mildew, Hyaloperonospora dentariae did not take hold. This systemic fungus emerges through the stomata when fruiting. I wonder if sporulation is induced through flowering as the flowers are usually the first victim, causing senescence of both flowers & fruit.
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Hi David, very interesting. I visited all the populations of C. bulb in the Chilterns in 2020. Then, there were Orange Tips on the plants, but there were large areas of dampish meadows to the east with good populations of C. pratense, which was definitely preferred. Perhaps explainable by year...
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I was rather taken by it too, but unfortunately, it was just a tiny relic in Wormley Wood, along with a scant amount of Chrysosplenium opp. It's an SSSI, but the spread of a nice plant assemblage only amounts to 10 x 30 m. The rest has plants that are no different to other woods in that area
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Looks good. 😀
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It's the sixth UK location.
Beautifully clean water, grazed and poached edges, fantastic submerged aquatic plants.
Super clean water + grazing = amazing results!
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Eleocharis palustris subspecies palustris!
Despite an entire morning last year searching for this across Swavesey, trying to refind the current location of the subspecies identified from herbarium sheets, it was immediately obvious why it should be found at this location.
Stomata 47 µm.
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I found it last week and have just checked my samples for the week.
Separating the fine-leaved submerged aquatic species at home to be later floated onto paper and pressed as vouchers.
And a lovely find too...
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Euthrix potatoria (?) at Wormley yesterday on Pendulous sedge.
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Wow I was tired! Forgot photo. I'm hoping it's not going to be Hieracium grandidens.
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Yes, a very nice place. I hope the water levels here are good.
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Where is this Nic?
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A nice, unassuming little plant.