SOMERSET RARE PLANTS GROUP 2005 Newsletter Issue No. 6 December 2005. How time flies! This is the sixth annual newsletter we have produced and it seems only a short while since we were considering our first issue. We thank all who have sent in contributions and reports for this newsletter and again appeal to all members to send in short items for inclusion in the next issue. Anything botanical with relation to Somerset will be considered. Items can be sent at any time to Caroline Giddens, either by post or e-mail: [email protected] Deadline 20th October, 2006. REPORTS OF MEETINGS, 2005. _________________________ Saturday 8th January A.G.M. INDOOR MEETINGS: We started our New Year with our Annual As stated at the AGM, work on the Somerset Winter Meeting and AGM. As on previous Red Data Book/Rare Plant Register occasions, this took place at English Nature progresses slowly and more help is required Offices at Roughmoor at 11 am. Eleven from members. Workshops were held at EN members attended and apologies were offices on 22nd Jan., 5th March., 29th Oct. and received from several others. The morning 12th Nov. The work is being divided with was taken up with a video of the Gardeners various members to be responsible for writing World programme in 2004 which dealt with up allocated species. growing wild flowers in gardens and featured Steve has conducted two MapMate work- our member Lady Ro FitzGerald talking on shops to help overcome problems with site about some of the rareties of The Lizard entering and extracting data from our in Cornwall. computers. This was followed by an excellent We have again benefited from Liz’s expert buffet lunch provided by members and after tuition and advice on mounting herbarium lunch the short A.G.M. took place. Steve specimens and trust our amateur efforts have Parker opened the meeting and advised that been of some use. he was about to become joint BSBI Recorder Visits to the Somerset County Museum for VC5. He said the work on the Somerset Herbarium in Taunton have also been Rare Plant Register will occupy our group for interesting and beneficial and we are grateful several years and more help from members to the organizers. would be appreciated. Any records of Somerset plants will help. It was felt that our Saturday 19th February Weston-super- membership may have dropped a little over Mare. the last 12 months and we should all make an With spectacular views of Wales across the effort to recruit new members. Our Treasurer, Bristol Channel and to Steep Holm, it felt as Anne Cole was not able to be present but Liz though you could walk out to the island on McDonnell said she understood there were a what must have been one of the clearest days healthy £300+ in the bank. I have ever encountered at Weston-super- The remainder of the afternoon was Mare. A group of five walked along the sea taken up with members slides. Margarete lawns. As we went we found rosettes of Earle and Liz showed pictures of the group Trifolium suffocatum (Suffocated Clover) and visit to Scotland and Margarete also showed Rumex pulcher (Fiddle Dock). We did find slides taken in the Dolomites where we have a Stellaria pallida (Lesser Chickweed) and group visit planned for 2006. Brian Laney Sedum album (White Stonecrop) flowering. from Northamptonshire had a selection of On reaching the area of the lawn where the plants from the many sites he visited in 2004 model railway is and being careful not to be and Jean Webb also showed some interesting run over by a train we got down on all fours pictures. in search of Poa infirma (Early Meadow- 1 grass). It was found last year by the leader On revisiting Nyland Hill in August, I was new for Somerset. After a long search we did delighted to see hundreds of Autumn Lady’s manage to find one plant of the grass standing Tresses (Spiranthes spiralis) on the south- at a mighty 6mm high. Another specimen was facing grassy slopes. The 2005 Red List lists found but even smaller. We were just about to head back to the cars for lunch when a very large example of the grass compared to the other two already seen was found next to the track of the railway, disappearing out of sight each time the train passed over it. The afternoon was spent at Uphill where we Autumn Lady’s Tresses searched for Hornungia petraea (Hutchinsia), (Spiranthes spiralis) without success on the steep rocky outcrops. We did see plenty of flowering Erophila verna agg. (Whitlowgrass) and the leaves of Filipendula vulgaris (Dropwort). Paul R. Green this small orchid as Near Threatened, so Sunday 10th April – Nyland Hill Nyland Hill is an important site for this Several members met at Wedmore for lift species. I also recorded dozens of Nit-grass sharing to Nyland Hill, a small outlying (Gastridium ventricosum) individuals at its ‘island’ of carboniferous limestone near the bare, rocky location near the base of the hill. Mendips. It is a steep sided conical hill Liz McDonnell clothed on the northern side with Ash/Field Maple ancient woodland. The grassland is Saturday 23rd April - Joint SANHS/SRPG species-rich as its steepness has prevented Field Meeting to Lime Ridge Wood, Orchard agricultural improvement. Fiddle Dock Wood, Piddle Wood and Young Wood (Rumex pulcher) is frequent here and the Early rain no doubt deterred many from attending rosettes were easily identified by the ‘violin- this joint meeting with members of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society, but by shaped’ basal leaves. On the steep south- 11 a.m. it had subsided to a fine drizzle. As our facing slope on the bare open areas amongst small party headed up the track to the northern the rock outcrops, Early Forget-me-not edge of Lime Ridge Wood the sky cleared for the (Myosotis ramosissima) was abundant, with first time, and for the rest of the day we were other small ephemerals such as Common bathed in warm sunshine. No doubt those that Whitlowgrass (Erophila verna), Rue-leaved decided not to join us would have felt cheated by Saxifrage (Saxifraga tridactylites), Field the weather! Madder (Sherardia arvensis) and Knotted The aim of this meeting was to investigate a Clover (Trifolium striatum). We found several group of more or less contiguous woodland blocks patches of the nationally scarce Spring on the Liassic (somewhat calcareous) northern Cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanniana) on the slopes of the Blackdown Hills. All the woods lie within about 6 km of Taunton town centre, and so grassy slopes, which were flowering are within the 7 km radius covered by the profusely. proposed Taunton Flora. As such, we decided to In the wooded part of the hill, Ransoms concentrate on making species lists for the Flora, (Allium ursinum) dominated the ground flora attempting to record all taxa encountered within but other species of note included Goldilocks each of the six ‘quartads’ (½-km squares) visited: (Ranunculus auricomus), Enchanter’s ST/24.19 (SW, SE, NW & NE); ST/25.19 (NW); Nightshade (Circaea lutetiana), Nettle-leaved and ST/24.20 (SE). Bellflower (Campanula trachelium) and We had a productive six hours, with a final Moschatel (Adoxa moschatellina). Several tally of more than 170 taxa for the day (including specimens of the unusual Earthstar fungi – one or two subspecies), and certainly a much (Geastrum ?pectinatum) were found amongst improved record of the species present within each ‘quartad’. For some, this level of square- the litter. bashing might have seemed like overkill, and this was the first time that several of the group had 2 recorded in this way. But there is always a certain perhaps the rarest plant of the day, the one satisfaction at finding new species (never mind producing the greatest whoops of joy, was none whether the square is large or small – it’s still a other than Vicia cracca (Tufted Vetch)… new record!), and by recording in ½-km squares Simon J. Leach we were able to have that satisfaction six times over in a single afternoon! The results speak for Sunday 8th May – Brean Down themselves: The purpose of this meeting was to map the distribution of rare and scarce plants within Quartad No. of taxa Total no. of taxa the SSSI boundary for use in English Nature’s recorded following visit on Site Dossier Project. before 23rd 23/4/05 April Brean Down is well known for its ST/24.19 1 79 assemblage of rare and scarce species. The SW new 2005 Vascular Plant Red List gives ST/24.19 27 98 European threat categories to all the native SE plants in Britain and this changes the status of ST/24.19 1 41 several plants found on Brean Down. White NW Rock-rose (Helianthemum appeninum) and ST/24.19 35 136 Somerset Hair-grass (Koeleria vallesiana) are NE now the only Red Listed plants on Brean ST/25.19 94 130 Down, with a category of ‘Vulnerable’. NW Dwarf Mouse-ear (Cerastium pumilum), Pale ST/24.20 48 89 St John’s-wort (Hypericum montanum) and SE Green-winged Orchid (Anacamptis morio) are No great rarities - we didn’t visit the ‘Near Threatened’ and the other Brean Down Cephalanthera damasonium (White Helleborine) specialities such as Dwarf Sedge (Carex and Platanthera chlorantha (Greater Butterfly- humilis), Bird’s-foot Clover (Trifolium orchid) sites in nearby Pridley Plantation - but we ornithopodioides), Slender Trefoil (Trifolium were pleased to see good quantities of a number micranthum), Small-flowered Buttercup of species typically associated in the Taunton area (Ranunculus parviflorus), Moonwort with woods and hedgerows on the Liassic clays, (Botrychium lunaria) and Goldilocks Aster including Rubia peregrina (Madder), Equisetum (Aster linosyris) are all of ‘Least Concern’, telmateia (Great Horsetail), Iris foetidissima even though some of these may be nationally (Stinking Iris), Sorbus torminalis (Wild Service rare or scarce.