Spring 2012 Published January 2012 Flora News Newsletter of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s Flora Group Dear Flora Group Member, The Flora Group committee members hope that you had an enjoyable time botanising in 2011 and we look forward to seeing you at Flora Group events during 2012. This year our Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Sunday 13 May 2012 on the Longdown Estate on the eastern edge of the New Forest. As usual we are always keen to receive your suggestions for events and activities. Please raise your suggestions at the AGM or pass your ideas to any of the Committee members. We are always keen for more people to provide contributions to Flora News on any relevant botanical topics. If you have particularly enjoyed one of the Flora Group events and would like to write a report on it for Flora News, we would be very pleased to receive it. Please send your articles, notes or reports to me at [email protected] (full contact details are given on the back page of this newsletter). Distribution of Flora News Many thanks to everyone who has agreed to receive their copy of Flora News via e-mail. This has significantly reduced the cost of printing and distributing it. A number of people who still need to receive hard copies have indicated that they would be happy to make a financial contribution to cover the costs of printing and postage. If you would like to make a contribution, please send your donation (cheques payable to Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust) to Debbie Whitfield at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, Beechcroft House, Vicarage Lane, Curdridge, SO32 2DP. Please mark your envelope ‘Flora News contribution’. Thank you. Catherine Chatters Flora Group Secretary In This Issue Forthcoming Events. Compiled by Catherine Chatters. 2 Reports of Recent Events. 5 Features Another Trip to Alderney. Peter Billinghurst. 14 Get To Know Your Cotoneasters. John Norton. 15 Recording Hampshire Rare Plant Register. 21 VC11 Records . Martin Rand. 21 VC12 Records . Tony Mundell. 30 Membership and Recording Information. 34 newsletter goes to press. For details of timing and the Forthcoming Events meeting point, please contact [email protected] closer to the day. There is normally no need to book a place on Flora Group Sunday 13 May 2012, 10.30am events beforehand, unless the text specifically requests it. Visit to the Longdown Estate A contact ‘phone number is only given in case you wish to Leader: Clive Chatters know more about the event. The leader can be expected to turn up whatever the weather (although it may then be We will be walking through the extensive complex of ancient mutually agreed to cancel the event)! woodlands on this private estate on the eastern edge of the New Forest. The woodlands are large (about 1,000 acres) Saturday 25 February 2012, 9am – 4pm so please be willing to walk several kilometres. The history Sunday 26 February 2012, 10am – 12.30pm of the woods is complex with areas of former coppice as Conifers Workshop and Field Meeting well as occasional really ancient trees. The richer areas Leader: Martin Rand of wood are known to support Wild Service trees Sorbus torminalis, together with New Forest specialities such as The aim of the weekend will be to familiarise you with Narrow-leaved Lungwort Pulmonaria longifolia. the main genera of conifers introduced to Britain, and to enable you to identify the species most commonly found The Flora Group AGM will be held during the lunch break. planted on a commercial scale or regenerating in the Please bring a packed lunch. Please dress appropriately countryside at large. for the weather, including stout shoes or boots for walking. Saturday will be spent at the Hillier Gardens. The morning Meet at the Longdown Estate office car park (SU 354 098) session will be a workshop in the Education Centre (part of at 10.30am. Those with satnavs try SO40 4UH. You enter the main Visitor Centre) learning about basic structures and the estate at the entrance to the New Forest Wildlife Park developing recognition skills. The afternoon will be spent (signposted off the A35) but go to the car park on your in the gardens examining a small part of the magnificent right (south). If you need to contact the leader on the day conifer collection. Participants found searching for the please ring 07770 923315. labels before looking at the trees will be sent home early with a note to their parents. Saturday 26 May 2012 Porton Down Refreshments will be provided at the Education Centre. Leader: Tony Mundell Lunch will be available from the Centre if you wish, and a menu and lunch booking form (along with fuller details of For this meeting booking is essential and numbers are the weekend) will be sent to you once you have booked. limited, so first-come, first-served. To book, contact Tony Alternatively, bring a packed lunch. at [email protected] with details of full name, nationality, date of birth and car registration. Sunday morning will be spent visiting West Wood (plantation on ancient woodland site), part of the Farley Porton Down is a huge area of pristine chalk downland, scrub Mount complex west of Winchester. Here we shall be able and woodland that straddles both sides of the Hampshire/ to examine a small but varied range of introduced species Wiltshire border. The flora is rich, including specialities in maturity and at sapling stage. such as Lady Orchid, Burnt Orchid, Yellow Bird’s-nest and Meadow Clary. There are thousands of Juniper bushes Prior booking (by 12th February) is essential for this and some scarce roses such as Rosa agrestis and some meeting, numbers will be limited, and there will be of its hybrids. We will take the opportunity to record every a charge of £3 per person (on the Saturday) as a vascular plant we see, gathering data for the national BSBI contribution to expenses. Entry to the gardens, and Atlas update. Note that even after you have booked a workshop notes, are included in this charge. We are place, because the meeting is on MOD land it is possible grateful to the Wildlife Trust for supporting this meeting that it may have to be cancelled at short notice (in which financially. case efforts will be made to notify you). Contact: Martin Rand [email protected] (07531 461442). Sunday 10 June 2012, 10am – 4.30pm Joint BSBI / Hampshire Flora Group Survey Meeting: Sunday 29 April 2012 Milkham, New Forest Visit to Bisterne Manor Leader: Martin Rand Leader: Clive Chatters This is a tetrad that somehow escaped survey during the We hope to visit the sandy grasslands and farmland of recording for Atlas 2000, and the vice-county database Bisterne Manor, the New Forest estate on the eastern showed only 60 species recorded here (which the meeting terraces of the Avon Valley. This private estate cares leader was able to increase to 120 during an hour and a for parched grasslands and seasonal ponds with an half in mid-November, so it’s not as species-poor as it might exceptionally rich flora, including Mossy Stonecrop sound!). The list includes good New Forest axiophytes such Crassula tillaea, a great diversity of clovers and curiosities as Bog Pimpernel Anagallis tenella, Intermediate Water- such as inland ‘dune’ communities of Sand Sedge Carex starwort Callitriche brutia subsp. hamulata, Soft-leaved arenaria. Access arrangements are being finalised as this Sedge Carex montana, Meadow Thistle Cirsium dissectum, 2 Few-flowered Spike-rushEleocharis quinqueflora, Floating family members (particularly the genus Carex) using keys Club-rush Eleogiton fluitans, English Eyebright Euphrasia and field guides. anglica, Heath Pearlwort Sagina subulata, Saw-wort Saturday will be spent at Blashford Lakes, where the Serratula tinctoria, Heath Dog-violet Viola canina and morning and early afternoon will be spent in the Study Pale Dog-violet Viola canina. We can expect to find more Centre, devoted to talks and practical sessions examining such, as well as bumping up the overall species count. a wide range of material. We shall round off the day with The area includes some interesting valley-head mires as a walk, seeing what we can find in the Blashford Lakes well as a large block of conifer plantation that is now being reserve. Refreshments will be available at the Centre but returned to grazed heathland, providing interesting damp participants should bring their own lunch. and dry open habitats in the process. Sunday will be a day spent on a field trip in the Wilverley Although the main aim of the meeting is tetrad recording, it and Holmsley area of the New Forest, when participants will be less intensive than the New Forest sessions in 2011 will be able to get to grips with a large number of species and will provide a good opportunity for relative beginners including New Forest rarities. to familiarise themselves with southern heath and bog Prior booking (by 30th April) is essential for this meeting, plants, and to become better acquainted with some of the numbers will be limited, and there will be a charge of conifers that are most widely planted (and regenerating) £3 per person (on the Saturday) as a contribution to in lowland Britain. expenses. Workshop notes are included in this charge. After the end of the formal meeting there will be a chance, We are grateful to the Wildlife Trust for supporting this for anyone who wishes, to visit the extraordinary old meeting by making the Blashford Study Centre available. airfield site at Ocknell nearby, where we can try to find, Contact: Martin Rand [email protected] amongst other things, Small Adder’s-tongue Ophioglossum (07531 461442).