A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

A recent field trip to Dover by the Kent Botanical Recording Group found the previously almost extinct plant of Western Eyebright, though the plants found may turn out to be hybrids of that species with another found there.  Some samples were collected and sent to the Euphrasia BSBI referee, so we'll have to wait and see.  Eyebrights are particularly difficult to identify and I wished I could have made the field trip at that time to help me identify them when out on my own. Anyway, I knew roughly where they were so we parked at the White Cliffs NT car park and I walked down to the tramway area. On the way down, I photographed several plants of interest. This is the Harebell, unfortunately this is rapidly declining throughout the country, though still common where it is found.  As such it is a Kent RPR species. Campanula rotundifolia It was quite breezy and these wouldn't stay still, so I was reasonably pl...

The arable area is locally called The Gallops and may soon be lost to intensive farming, such is life. The ruderal area could be described as a chalk grassland area that no-one seems to own and public access it freely. It's likely to be built on within the next decade as locals think it's waste ground. As such, I took a couple of hours this day to photograph and record the species I saw for posterity. As usual, I'll post them alphabetically (scientific name) for my ease of writing! Kidney Vetch, seeds and flowers. Anthyllis vulneraria A not too brilliant photo of Thyme-leaved Sandwort, but they are tiny flowers. Arenaria serpyllifolia  subsp serpyllifolia  The nicely scented Mugwort. Rub a leaf then smell your fingers, beautiful! The flowers lack petals, so they don't look impressive, though the plants often grow to 4' tall. Artemisia vulgaris A surprise find of a saltmarsh plant by ...