Folkestone Area, Kent - 20/06/20

 Having missed the Kent orchids in May due to lockdown restrictions, it was nice to get out and about in June to finally get to see some wild orchids (and other plants) up close.

Folkestone is backed by the chalk hills of the North Downs which soon become the White Cliffs familiar to many. Here is a selection of the wildflowers I found this day.

Early to mid June is the best time to see Common Spotted Orchids. Whilst still relatively common, I have already noticed them becoming scarcer in north Kent with two sites that held them gone within the last 5 years to house building which is ongoing on an industrial scale.

Dactylorhiza fuchsii

 

 

In the same area as the Common Spotted Orchids I found Chalk Fragrant and the hybrid between the two. For the long-winded scientific name, see the writing on the photo!

Here is a close up photo of one of the hybrids. This swarm produces several hybrids types, some closer to Chalk Fragrant, others more like Common spotted.

This one below was more akin to Chalk Fragrant with scent too, along with the three pronged lip and marking of a common spotted.

A few Bee Orchids were also present in the parched chalk turf. Given that Late Spider Orchids are nearby and they can hybridise with Bee Orchids, I always have a good look in this area to see if there are any unusual variants. I didn't find any hybrids or named variants, but this one was interesting in that it had lost all of its yellow markings in the lower half of the flower.

Ophrys apifera

Here's a more typical plant with yellow blobs of colour in the bottom half of the labellum.

A few Pyramidal Orchids completed the orchid selection here.

Anacamptis pyramidalis

From the Downs, I travelled a couple of miles to the beach for a walk and photographed a few shingle plants along the way. First up was Common Restharrow, common around the coasts though formerly it was also a troublesome arable weed prior to mass herbicide use. I love their small flowers which to me are reminiscent of rhino horns!

Ononis repens

 

 

There is an escaped colony of Hottentot Figs on the beach here. It's been here several years and it is slowly spreading, originally vertically down a cliff, but now horizontally along the shingle. However, it looked suspiciously like a similar plant, Carpobrotus acinaciformis which has these pink flowers. I took a photo of the leaves to double check and even brought a sample home. I failed to come to a firm ID and kindly, the East Kent County Recorder took it up for me and made her own visit to this known colony. From measurements of sepals and such like and advice from the BSBI referee she determined it was indeed Carpobrotus edulis (Hottentot Fig) and not Carpobrotus acinaciformis as I had suspected. It goes to show that even known plants should be questioned and verified. I found the leaves to have a mix of characters shown for both species so could not determine it myself.

 

Carpobrotus edulis var. rubescens

 

 

Here is the reply from the BSBI recorder for Aizoaceae which I found interesting:

 

"Thanks for sending the excellent photos. These look like perfectly ordinary C. edulis (var. rubescens) to me. I must confess that I never saw any living material of C. acinaciformis when I did a lot of fieldwork looking at the naturalised British and Irish plants, nor have I seen good photos of British populations.  But I can’t see any reason to call this other than C. edulis. I don’t think that any evidence has been found subsequently to support Lousley’s speculation about the purple-flowered plant having a hybrid origin".

 

One of the benefits of being a BSBI member is having access to experts for all the botanical plants one may find in the UK.  This was the second time I had used them this year, the first was for a Dandelion ID earlier in the year. You can also ask the County Recorders for IDs and I thank Sue Buckingham very much for her time. She is very dedicated and very helpful to  members and non members alike.

 

Dodgy leaves of Carpobrotus that led me to question this plant's identity. 

(C. edulis also normally has yellow flowers and C. acinaciformishas red).

 

Sea Lavenders are another difficult to identify group of plants with several species which all look similar. I was fortunate here in that these had already been firmly identified as Rock Sea-Lavender which are prevalent on this stretch of coast. On the salt marshes of the Thames Estuary to the north, you will only find Common Sea Lavender and this species below is entirely absent there.

 

Limonium binervosum

 

                                                                               

Below:  the small, delicate lavender coloured flowers of Rock Sea-lavender up close.

 

My final offering was the impressive Tree Mallow, a common find along the shores of south east Kent. It has very large flowers with an intense purple centre surrounded by lilac petals striped purple. I have seen them grow to about 8 feet tall in Thanet.

 

                                                      

Malva arborea

 So ended another day out hunting out the wildflowers of Kent. Now we are in a second lockdown at the time of writing (early November), so these Summer trips now seem like a lifetime ago.

Take Care

Dave

@Barbus59