A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

This is a large piece of woodland South of Ashford in Kent, but we tend to walk the Southern end as it has wide open rides full of wildflowers, butterflies and other insects of interest. It's a lovely walk with a free car park, only ruined by some inconsiderate dog owners who leave copious amounts of dog mess on the paths, some of which I trod in this day. Apart from that, it's well managed for bio diversity. The first plant I noticed was one that 99.9% of people will never notice! Lots of Marsh Cudweed, an insignificant little green plant with dusty brown flowers, it grows on edges of well worn paths and other dusty places. It seems to thrive in places where it gets trodden on or driven over by tractors, perhaps because such activity eliminates the competition? The whole plant is usually only about 3" tall, but there's usually quite a few found after you spot one. Gnaphalium uliginosum Meadow Browns were abundant, as they are in m

Hoo is a small town on the West bank of the tidal River Medway. As you can see from this photo, there are numerous areas with tidal saltmarsh, so I thought I would have a look around this type of habitat for a change from the usual chalk grassland species. The silver grey looking plant in the centre of the photo is Sea Wormwood, a species on the Kent Rare Plant Register (RPR), mainly because saltmarsh habitats are being lost due to sea defences and development. They're not flowering yet though.     Artemisia maritima I was at least 2 weeks too early to see most plants of the saltmarsh at their best, but the first Golden Samphire was coming into bloom, another Kent RPR species. They are quite common along the Thames and Medway estuary but seem absent entirely elsewhere in the county and in much of East Sussex. Inula crithmoides This area was littered with the old wrecks of boats. Once upon a time someone no doubt took out a loan to b

Nightjars and similar rare birds are what Tudely Woods is managed for by the RSPB. There's also a rare butterfly they have tried (so far unsuccessfully) to reintroduce, but the modern RSPB had a bigger agenda than birds. They have transformed into a force for nature and manage their reserves for all wildlife now (not just birds). As such, I have become a member and I visited this reserve to see what wildflowers I could find and record. I had decided to record all species that I could identify South of the car park, so this covered two OS monad squares. Overall, I managed about 70 species per square, which is quite good going really. There were many grasses, rushes and sedges which unfortunateley I can't identify yet. I just don't have the time to learn them at the moment. A common woodland species which loves growing in the shade is Enchanter's Nightshade, a delicate tiny flowered spike rising from big dark green leaves, suited to the shade under woodland

The word "wasteground" tends to denote wasted space that could be put to better use. It is often applied to brownfield sites and as such no-one really cares if they're then developed or built on. After all, it was just "wasteground". Unfortunately, nature thinks otherwise, and wasteground sites are often abundant with a diversity of insects and plants that have been eradicated elsewhere, either by building houses, roads or industrial estates, or by being sprayed to the point of extinction in arable fields by modern farming practices. I have some "wasteground" near me in Longfield, which, no doubt in time, will become a housing estate. Ever increasing population means an ever diminishing place for nature. Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom! I spent about an hour here and this is some of what I found. The area is basically rectangular on a South facing slope on chalk, bounded by a railway line on one side, an arable field on another and 2 roads f