A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

It's odd how sometimes, somewhere quite local to you can throw up a surprise, and in this blog I am writing about one right here. Here's a taster photo, the details of the find follow further down this blog.  I had noticed there weren't many records for TQ5572 and decided to spend an hour or so adding some to the BSBI database. I found a host of previously unrecorded species common on the chalk such as this Grey Sedge. Carex divulsa Grass Leaved Vetchling Lathyrus nissolia Bladder Campiion Silene vulgaris  But then I came across a plant that was somewhat puzzling - a mystery plant! There was a substantial colony of what looked like the white form of Vicia sativa (subspecies sativa) or Common Vetch  on both verges of the B260 for a hunded metres or so east of the A282 bridge.There were hundreds of plants in flower, which at first I thought were antho...

This day was split into two parts, a few under recorded monads near Bridge which is south east of Canterbury, and a monad near Junction 11 of the M20 at Postling Wents.  This area near Bridge had mainly woodland or woodland edge type habitats along with some interesting arable fields. There were plenty of additional records in the arable areas, but I didn't photograph any plants this time.   Bugles were commonplace in the woods. I particularly like them as they were one of the first in the family of Lamiaceae I found when I first started out looking at plants. By now, they were at their best and some were over a foot tall. Ajuga reptans  Sadly though, as I write this it is early June, they have all gone over and gone to seed in Kent. So I'll now either have to travel a long way north, or wait until 2020 to see them again in all their glory. This plant can also produce white or pink flowers, though this year,...

Marden Meadow is perhaps the most well known orchid meadow in the South East of England. It is justly famous for its displays of thousands of Green-winged orchids in the Springtime. Like most people who love orchids, I always tended to visit the site when the first one came into flower. This is a shame as it's far better to see this meadow when the flowering is at its peak. That's what I hoped to see this day and add a few records to the BSBI database whilst I was there. A photo just does not do this scene justice. Thousands of orchids of many shades, colours and hues dotted two of the four meadows in large numbers. However, here's a few other species I found this day. Celery-leaved Buttercup in a ditch near the railway line, a new record for this monad. Ranunculus sceleratus Adder's Tongue ferns were numerous in the meadow grasses, though difficult to see unless you look for the upright pointed ear shape of the fern. Ophioglossum vulgatum...