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Amazing Plants from Folkestone to Dungeness, Kent - 20/05/17

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I'm afraid I don't have the time to recount this trip in detail, but I thought I would share the photos with you and a brief account of each.  For the Dungeness area photos I would like to thank Owen Leyshon, the Romney Marsh Ranger (and fellow KBRG member) for his valuable assistance in finding some of the plants here. Starting out at Folkestone Downs above the Channel Tunnel rail link, looking across Greatstone Bay towards Dungeness in the distance. Folkestone isn't well known for Man Orchids, but there's a few dotted around. Orchis anthropophora There were plenty of Small Copper butterflies on the wing. But the star of the show here is always the Late Spider Orchids, confined to just a few sites now in Kent, though common on the continent. Ophyrs fuciflora There were only two plants flowering at this site, hopefully more will be flowering by the time I write this. T...

Urban Botany, Northfleet, Kent 17/05/17

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TQ6273 is a grid square that covers much of the south of Northfleet, an urban/industrial area in North Kent. It had hardly any botanical records, so this day I set out to see what I could find. Much of the area comprises of houses and industrial estates (all kept neat and tidy) but a relatively new road now runs through what was an alkaline fen over chalk, so I concentrated on that area. It doesn't look too inviting does it! However, verges were wide on both sides of the road and largely left wild so I began my search. Near the industrial estate was a grassy area and within it I found these Bur Chervil plants both in flower and in seed.  They look very similar at first to Cow Parsley, but the former are mostly only a few inches tall. The seeds are also totally different to Cow Parsley so it's easy to identify it. Anthriscus caucalis I found several other species in the grass such as one would expect such as Spotted Medick, Daisy, Dandelion, Lesser Trefoil...

The South Downs near Lewes & Beyond 13/05/17

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I'm very much behind on my blogs and I apologise for posting these later than I had intended. It would be easiest to just not bother, but some of the wildflowers are just too beautiful to end up in the recycle bin after a single post on Twitter, so here is my next instalment on botany in the South East. It was with trepidation that we headed off to Mount Caburn in East Sussex. Not because of the very long steep climb to see some orchids, but because I had learned that cattle had been grazing the site for over a week. I was rather worried that there wouldn't be any wildflowers left to see. The views are spectacular with wide open grassland vistas, however, much of it is has constant livestock grazing so is of limited value for wildlife. It's also very different to the North Downs which is much more wooded with steeper scarp slopes and often miles long dip slopes. As we reached the top of the long climb I could see our target area of Caburn Bottom below us. You can walk...