A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

I'd been to Vigo woods on the North downs many times as it's not far from home. In the Spring it's carpeted with native Bluebells and the scent is fantastic. On the Southern edge is the scarp of the Down with superb chalk grassland, where I had looked in vain for Autumn Lady's Tresses is years gone by. As such, it came as a surprise to find there was a large colony of Violet Helleborines tucked away on a footpath in the woods that I had somehow missed on my previous visits. My thanks to Dawn and Jim ( @ jml2665 ) for the tip off. It didn't take long to find them, though to the casual walker they would be easily missed in the deep shade of the woods. Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata However, I had seen plenty of these in other North Kent locations, but Dawn and Jim has said there was a variant here lacking all colouring. I looked long and hard but never did find the tall plant they described. Instead, I found a second one, quite small and I

A walk from the East of Herne Bay towards Bishopstone along the cliffs and coastal area with nice views East towards Reculver (shown) and West back to the town of Herne Bay. This beautiful flower below was rather out of place as it was growing in a crack in the sea wall/kerb of the main road in Herne Bay. It's a Pot Marigold, escaped from nearby gardens no doubt. I've seen these in a few locations in the wild now. Calendula officinalis Another garden escape, but this time sprawling across wild cliff faces, the Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea. It's bright colours make it an obvious choice for gardens. Being a sprawling plant rather than a smothering one, it doesn't seem to impact other species over much. Lathyrus latifolius Up until this day, I thought these were Canadian Goldenrod, another garden escape species. However, a friendly guide on Twitter corrected me as the leaves weren't hairy, that it is actually Early Goldenrod (another al

Managed by the National Trust, Scotney is best known for its castle, house and formal gardens around the old castle moat.  However, there are several circular routes you can walk around the estate and the one we chose today started off with the blue route, then hopped onto the orange route back to the car park (should anyone wish to replicate the walk). I had to be very careful with recording here as botanical Sussex and Kent overlap and the border doesn't appear to make sense. However, I was very careful to only record Kent side, though I photographed interesting plants in both counties of course. I have put these on the blog in alphabetical order (scientific name) and not in the order we found them, done like that so I don't miss any. Here's what we found. This and the following 3 photos are of Sneezewort, becoming a rarity in Kent. The flowers are very similar to the very common Yarrow though more open, but the leaves are completely different to Yarrow.