2012 Newsletter 13

SOMERSET RARE PLANTS GROUP www.somersetrareplantsgroup.org.uk 2012 Newsletter Issue No.13 Editor: Caroline Giddens December 2012 This is the last Newsletter compiled and edited by Caroline Giddens. Caroline has done this task each year since our first modest issue in 2000 - a slim 4-page document comprising short accounts of the field meetings. Each year we have increased the content, which has reflected the variety of activities of the Somerset Rare Plants Group. We now include not only more extensive notes of our meetings but also plant notes, new Somerset and vice-county records, surveys that members have undertaken and other botanical news of interest to Somerset botanists. We thank Caroline for all her hard work over the last 12 years. Liz McDonnell (Coordinator) REPORTS OF MEETINGS, 2012 Annual Members Meeting and AGM Leigh Woods which had been collected by Saturday 28th January 2012 George Garlick during the 1950's. Liz gave a This was held as usual at the Lifelong short presentation on the SANHS Herbarium Learning Centre at Shapwick NNR. Twenty now housed in the Somerset Heritage Centre two members came to this annual social and asked if any members were willing to event, bringing a variety of exhibits, including help with its reorganization, as there are no books to sell and show, plants and displays staff at the centre with time or experience to too. Steve Parker welcomed everyone and undertake this important role. Our traditional Anne Cole gave a financial report and ‘Bring and Share’ buffet was magnificent, distributed a balance sheet showing a bank with tables full of delicious food. The annual balance of £1,300.79. Steve reported that it raffle and quiz (devised by Steve Parker) will be necessary to replace the SRPG concluded this excellent and well-attended computer in the near future and other survey members meeting. equipment may also be needed. We discussed types of field meetings, and feedback from Members Slide and Talk Meeting the group was that the mix of recording Saturday 18th February 2012 meetings and plant-hunting meetings was a This meeting was held in our usual winter good one. Trips to Minehead, Clevedon and venue at Shapwick NNR. 15 members Lytes Cary got special mention as favourite attended and we had seven short talks. Chris days. The meeting at Quants was Loudon showed us progress on the SRPG encouragement for further joint meetings with website. This is currently hosted by SERC, SANHS and workshops were very popular with the help of SERC staff member Tony with members. Helena gave a brief update on Price, but Chris, as SERC and SRPG the Somerset Rare Plant Register. The SRPG volunteer is responsible for its development website design and use was discussed. and design. Chris is very keen to know how Helena reported that the Bristol Naturalists members use the site and welcomes feedback Society used ours as a good model to follow. for further development. As we have a link to The use of ‘live’ distribution maps on the ‘Where’s The Path’ mapping website, it was SRPG website was discussed and data decided to send a contribution of £50 to that protection problems too. Clive Lovatt gave us site in an acknowledgement of its usefulness a short talk on historical aspects of Somerset to us. There was much discussion about plant botany including how Somerset Hair-grass distribution mapping and linking in to (Koeleria vallesiana) was found and re-found MapMate maps from the Somerset Rare in Somerset. He brought an old poster of a Plants Register page, but this is a complicated sale of maiden Elms at Langport in 1842, issue and it was decided that we could not leaf-prints of the Avon Gorge Whitebeams pursue this development at present. made in 1979 by Dr Mark Smith, the Curator Helena Crouch, one of the VC6 Recorders of Bristol Botanic Garden and a specimen of gave us a talk on botanical highlights of 2011. the recently named Sorbus leighensis from Space here will not allow for a full account, 1 but a few highlights are as follows. officinalis) seemed to be struggling. One plant Bolboschoenus laticarpus is a newly had died and two of the others failed to recognized taxon, similar to Sea Club-rush flower. Seedlings had been searched for in (Bolboschoenus maritimus), which is not both years, but none had been found, which formally described yet. The spikelets are was surprising since there had originally been long-stalked and there are differences in the four large plants, all of which had flowered nutlets of the two taxa. The plant we have and fruited well. Seed was collected from the been recording on the Somerset Levels and at one plant that had flowered and fruited in inland sites is likely to be the new species. 2011 in order to test seed viability. Finally Martin’s Ramping-fumitory (Fumaria there was some history of the site; it seems reuteri) was thought to be extinct in Somerset that the present fixed dunes were created in since 1920, but has been recorded in Bath and the 1980’s by pumping sand in from the bay is thought to be spreading, so it needs to be to create a sea defence against flooding. looked for elsewhere in the county. Greater Should global warming cause a rise in future Burnet-saxifrage (Pimpinella major) has sea levels then the bay and its habitats will disappeared from its Chapel Cross site, but change again, as will the plants! was recently found at Walton, Street. Lesser Ro FitzGerald talked about her experiences Water-plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides) is a in writing her new book ‘A Gardener’s Guide declining species in Somerset, but has been to Native Plants of Britain and Ireland’ recorded at Greylake on the Somerset Levels. recently published by The Crowood Press. As Orange Foxtail (Alopecurus aequalis) and a first-time author, Ro reported that this was Round-fruited Rush (Juncus compressus) are an intense task, involving not only writing both frequent at Hawkridge Reservoir and accounts of wild plants and their usefulness in Northern Yellow-cress (Rorippa islandica), the garden, but also dealing with the Golden Dock (Rumex maritimus) and technicalities and difficulties of preparing Mudwort (Limosella aquatica) have all been quality digital images from slides. She found recorded at Chew Valley Lake. the lack of personal contact in modern Margaret Webster’s talk was on ‘The publishing, without a caring guiding editor Changing Face of Sand Bay’. Sand Bay is an very difficult. Ro described the low point excellent botanical site where at least 15 Rare when she received the review copy, realising Plant Register species have been recorded that it was too late to correct two photos that over the last few years. Margaret reported that had slipped through the editing process and Yellow Horned-poppy (Glaucium flavum) were printed completely wrongly - hundreds which had appeared in 2008 had not been of copies of her book were already being recorded in 2011. There were images of shipped from Malaysia where they had been abundant and very tall Grass-leaved Orache printed. However, SRPG members were very (Atriplex littoralis) plants in 2009 while in complimentary about Ro’s book and several 2010 images showed how the second lot of copies were sold at the meeting. It is high tides washed piles of debris high up onto copiously illustrated with Ro’s own beautiful the fixed dunes. Later in the season this was photos and those of Bob Gibbons. where many of the plants normally found on Simon Leach gave an illustrated talk about the strandline germinated. This included a few his work on first flowering dates (FFDs), and plants of A. littoralis (with none on the in particular how FFDs in recent years strandline in 2012), some Frosted Orache compare with those recorded by Walter (Atriplex laciniata) and many Prickly Watson in the early 20th century. Simon is Saltwort (Salsola kali) plants; all of these are recording FFDs each year for 339 species, SRPR species. By 2011 blown sand had and his observations have shown that in every covered this debris and no SRPR strandline year since 2008, when he started, the FFDs species were found on the fixed dunes. for most species have been markedly earlier Atriplex laciniata and Salsola kali were than they evidently were in the 1920s and 30s. plentiful on the strandline so they are clearly In 2011 the extraordinarily warm February not at risk. No Atriplex littoralis was found and April (the latter almost 4 deg C above the anywhere in Sand Bay in 2011. Margaret also long term average) led to unprecedented early reported that Marsh-mallow (Althaea flowering of a great many species, with the 2 average FFD (all species combined) being to be seen in Somerset as they are northern about 20 days earlier than that recorded by coastal species. Watson, at least 8 days earlier than in 2008 and 2009, and 17 days earlier than in 2010. It Identification Workshop was indeed a remarkable spring, with many Saturday 17th March 2012 late-spring/early-summer species like White This was another in the series of plant Bryony (Bryonia dioica) and Zigzag Clover identification workshops that we have held at (Trifolium medium) coming into flower at the Lifelong Learning Centre at Shapwick least six weeks earlier than in previous years. NNR. This meeting, lead by Liz McDonnell, As an aside, Simon told us how Clive Lovatt was to help members identify plants in their had sent him copies of two letters written by vegetative state (which is useful for winter Walter Watson, one of which showed that recording), by using The Vegetative Key to Watson lived for a time at Pool Farm on the the British Flora by John Poland & Eric southern outskirts of Taunton – and on one of Clement (2009, BSBI).

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