A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

Just a few days on since my last blog and the mild weather this last week has brought forth several more delightful Spring flowers, bringing an uplift to the soul after months of Winter blues. This half day was a visit to the National Trust's Ightam Mote and its estate and nearby Kent Wildlife Trust's Ivy Hatch nature reserve, all in a few hours before work. I was hoping to find some early Rue-leaved Saxifrage on the old walls around the Mote but it was too early yet. However, I knew that the boggy streamlets running into the lake would now be full of an early flowering Spring plant. This tiny plant is Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, quite common and easy to find.  It has no petals, but the golden anthers catch the sunlight and look like golden specks of Spring. Chrysosplenium oppositifolium   Not quite what I was expecting in Spring, but interesting nonetheless. I don't have time to identify fungi now, but I'm fairl...

It's been a very slow start to Spring in Kent, following a prolonged cold snap in January and February. Most plants are flowering 2-3 weeks later than they did in the preceeding three years. Thus it's been quite a challenge to find anything to write about, but as I do write this, Spring has finally arrived in Kent. Each week now, more species will come into flower. Today's blog details those found in the last 2 weeks at various sites. I'll start off with a trip to the Sandgate and Folkestone Leas area on the South coast of the county. This is a garden escape long naturalised on shingle here. It's Three-cornered Garlic. It has drooping sprays of white flowers with obvious green lines running down the petals. And if you crush any part of it you get a lovely Garlic smell akin to being in a French restaurant perhaps! Allium triquetrum I found the plants flowering below, in the car park at Sandgate and also along the base of the s...