No. 226 1 April - 30 June 2017 Editorial Panel: Helen Ikin, Steve Woodward, Jim Graham. Honorary Secretary: Sue Graham, 5 Lychgate Close, Cropston, Leics. LE7 7HU (0116-2366474) LOUGHBOROUGH IN BLOOM The civic gardeners and park keepers do a great job in Loughborough (Queen’s Park looked fantastic this summer) but this article is about the effort to record the ‘wild’ plants in our town. Local botanists are working hard to update the distribution of plants for a new national atlas – a project promoted by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). The emphasis is on wild plants, but all species that have found their way into ‘wild’ places are within the scope of the survey. Three LNC members have been particularly active in the Loughborough area: Steve Woodward, Helen Ikin and Hazel Graves. The recording unit is the tetrad, a grid square measuring 2x2 km, and the objective is to make a complete list of vascular plants (flowers, trees, IN THIS EDITION grasses, ferns, etc.) for each one. The town is spread across nine tetrads, centred on SK51J. Steve and Helen have made a point of visiting all of them CLASSIFIED RECORDS (see map), though none has been covered thoroughly. Hazel, accompanied by Sara Botterell, Ÿ Mammals Page 3 has concentrated on a couple of adjacent squares Ÿ Birds Page 4 (SK52L Stanford and SK52R Hoton). Of course, any unusual plants are recorded with better precision, Ÿ Reptiles and Amphibians Page 9 typically a 100 m grid square. Details of all records go the BSBI via the Vice-county Recorder. Ÿ Fish (including Crayfish) Page 10 Included in the nine tetrads are well-known sites Ÿ of botanical importance: Loughborough Big Dragonflies and Damselflies Page 11 Meadow, the River Soar, Burleigh and Holywell Woods, The Outwoods and Tom Long’s Nature Ÿ Butterflies Page 11 Reserve (formerly known as “Meadow”) in Quorn. Ÿ Moths Page 13 In this article, however, I will draw attention to plants at other sites, or ordinary places like Ÿ Beetles Page 16 roadside verges that barely qualify as ‘sites’. Ÿ Town centre streets support a community of Other Insects Page 20 weeds, many of which are predictable: including Ÿ Groundsel Senecio vulgaris, Petty Spurge Euphorbia Plants and Ferns Page 23 peplus, Black Medick Medicago lupulina and Procumbent Pearlwort Sagina procumbens in the Ÿ Other Records Page 25 pavement cracks. Less familiar plants that are common (or increasing) in Loughborough are Ÿ Weather Page 25 Shaggy Soldier Galinsoga quadriradiata, Canadian Ÿ Acknowledgements Page 27 Fleabane Conyza canadensis and Eastern Rocket Sisymbrium orientale. In disturbed, weedy places LNC Heritage Edition 226 Page 1 we have encountered Deadly Nightshade Atropa Colonisation of local walls usually involves belladonna, Borage Borago officinalis, Henbit several ferns in the genus Asplenium (Quorn Deadnettle Lamium amplexicaule and, in March seems particularly good for them), Pellitory-of- 2017, one rosette of Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera. the-wall Parietaria judaica and Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis. Less frequent The influence of winter salting of roads has plants that we have seen on walls include Rue- been mentioned before in Heritage – these leaved Saxifrage Saxifraga tridactylites. Odd ‘seaside’ plants are not uncommon on kerbs: plants of the latter species have also turned up Buck’s-horn Plantain Plantago coronopus, on pavements in Nicholson Road, King Street Danish Scurvy-grass Cochlearia danica and and in some abundance on the concrete banks Reflexed Saltmarsh-grass Puccinellia distans. We of the Black Brook near Derby Road. have noted other kerbside plants (not related to salt) including Field Madder Sherardia Closely-mown grass is a good place to look arvensis, Marsh Cudweed Gnaphalium for Speedwells - Thyme-leaved, Wall, uliginosum and Narrow-leaved Pepperwort Germander and Slender Veronica serpyllifolia, Lepidium ruderale. arvensis, chamaedrys and filiformis. I am not sure that the keepers of the bowling green in Routes taken by Steve and Helen for BSBI Atlas 2020 recording, 2016-2017. Each square is a tetrad, 2 x 2 km of the national grid. Map produced in QGIS, © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA. LNC Heritage Edition 226 Page 2 CLASSIFIED RECORDS Records submitted for Heritage have been checked as far as possible by the writers of the various sections. They have not all been formally validated by County Recorders (as this is not practical on a quarterly basis). Full details of the records are submitted to Leicestershire & Rutland Environmental Records Centre LRERC, County Hall, Glenfield, Leics. LE3 8RA, either as Field Madder © Steve Woodward spreadsheets or as scans of paper records. Once validated, selected records will be added to the Queens Park appreciate the following, noted in LRERC database and made accessible to the August 2017: Yarrow Achillea millefolium, Daisy public. Bellis perennis, Lady’s Bedstraw Galium verum, The original records are archived. All of the Selfheal Prunella vulgaris and Lesser Trefoil older paper records have been deposited at the Trifolium dubium. A small lawn (complete with Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and a picnic table) at the petrol station on the A512 Rutland, Long Street, Wigston Magna, Leics. at Snell’s Nook Lane has attracted us twice and LE18 2AH, accession number DE9392. Most produced interesting plants! Grassland in pre-2011 paper records are also available on a ‘amenity’ areas is usually very dull, but among disc (see Heritage 205). Recent paper records the plants we found here were Creeping Jenny will reside with Helen Ikin, until a batch is ready Lysimachia nummularia, Spreading Meadow- to go to the Record Office. grass Poa humilis and Changing Forget-me-not Myosotis discolor. On a second visit we noticed the large dog lichen Peltigera hymenina around MAMMALS a flower bed. A Hedgehog was seen on the verge of a busy Our list of wetland and aquatic plants is short road in Rothley village just a few feet from the – probably because we have been elsewhere in traffic on 28 April. A large one was crossing late summer. Like most canals these days, the Belton Street in Shepshed at 7 am in mid-May. Grand Union appears to have a poor flora. We Another large adult was spotted in Mountsorrel hoped that a walk around Nanpantan Reservoir at the end of May at 9 pm. One, crossing a road (28 Sept 2017) would add some, but we were in Groby, ran when a car approached which disappointed. On the other hand, the recently- seems a better strategy than rolling into a ball disturbed grassy banks yielded a fairly long list and getting flattened! Four more not-so-lucky of common and not-so-common weeds – Viper’s hedgehogs were squashed on roads in Bugloss Echium vulgare was a surprise. Not far Woodhouse, Newtown Linford and on Park from the reservoir, in the hedge by a footpath Road and Derby Road in Loughborough. PJD saw connecting Nanpantan to the Outwoods (near one or two every night throughout the quarter the football ground) Hazel found Dwarf Elder at her garden feeding station in Quorn and the Sambucus ebulus. The fruits are held erect, camera trap recorded three adults Hedgehogs unlike the common Elder. together on two nights at the end of April. There are plenty of common and easy species Moles were active in DAP’s Swithland garden missing from our tetrad lists. As these nine throughout the quarter but mainly near the squares are where most LNC members live, they stream – worms may have moved towards the really ought to be well-recorded! I encourage all damp soil of the stream in the dry weather. members to have look around their Molehills were recorded at Morcott cemetery, neighbourhood and send in records to boost the Loughborough, Syston playing field, Stonesby, totals. The Drift, Netherseal, Hambleton, Oakham, Steve Woodward Owston, Castle Hill Park at Anstey, Walton Thorns, Barton in the Beans Baptist churchyard, LNC Heritage Edition 226 Page 3 Belvoir, Barkestone Wood, Tilton, Brooksby, and yet another on a road verge in Swithland on Roundabout Spinney near Leicester Forest West 24 April. where there were 12 mole traps set and Vowe’s A live Badger was crossing the road near Gorse near East Norton. Cropston Leys one evening in late April and road A small Bat, probably one of the three kills are reported from Frisby, Freeby, Roecliffe, Pipistrelle species, was flying around PJD’s Swithland, Shepshed, Allexton, Twycross, house on Barrow Road, Quorn in late June and Swinford, Ab Kettleby, Sinope, Sharpley Hill and the uncommon Leisler’s Bats have been Groby (the last two both cubs). Dung pits and identified in Woodhouse Eaves. diggings were seen at Loughborough Moors, Swithland Wood, Newtown Linford, Morcott, Brown Hares were seen at Coston, Shenton, Newbold, Belvoir, Tilton and Launde. Swinford Corner and four in Saxelbye Park. At the Allerton Project farm at Loddington there There was a dead Muntjac on Warren Hill in was a hare in a very nice species-rich meadow early April – this was a young male which had and another on the Belton road nearby. Live not yet grown antlers and the long canine teeth Rabbits were noted at Bradgate Park, were still quite small. Live ones were noted at Woodhouse Eaves, near Cropston Reservoir, Mountsorrel Common and Groby Pool and the Swithland, Muston, Netherseal, Measham Brick characteristic tiny slots were seen in damp Factory, Shawell, Shenton, Belvoir Castle, Tilton ground at Loughborough Moors and in Chestnut Cutting NR, Brooksby, Morcott, Wing, Wood near Moira. A live one was crossing Brand Roundabout Spinney, Thurlaston Lodge Farm, Lane one morning in mid-May. DAP disturbed Lutterworth, Swinford Corner, Wymeswold three Fallow Deer does crossing a road near Lodge and signs – burrows or droppings - were Oakley Wood at 9 am on 1 May.