A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

West Malling is a small quaint town in mid Kent East of Maidstone. It has been well recorded over the years for wildflowers, but the area to the North hadn't, with only a few records from that area to date. So, this day, I parked in West Malling and walked through the town to a path that headed North out of the town.  Of course, along the way, I made a detour to see the famous Malling Toadflax. This alien introduction has grown on the same ancient wall of a priory since at least 1880, so can count as fully naturalised. However, it doesn't seem to have spread further within the town, which has many ancient walls as suitable habitat. As it is such an unusual and rare naturalised flower, I have included a few photos. Chaenorhinum origanifolium  As you can see, it's quite a bit different from the other alien naturalised wall invader, Ivy-leaved Toadflax. I found another interesting street "weed" on the way out of tow

This is a very brief blog to showcase some interesting photos I took on this recording walk on this acid soil topped big hill in West Kent. Calluna vulgaris Heather Goldenrod  Solidago virgaurea The long, narrow leaves of Fen or Stingless Nettle. Urtica dioica subsp galeopsifolia You know Autumn's coming when the spiders are out in large numbers. Ivy-leaved Toadflax on the old walls of the ruined manor garden. This one was an unusual white form variant. Cymbalaria muralis These are garden escapes that have long become naturalised in the wild. Here they were in shady deciduous woodland and also on the edges of the National Trust Toys Hill car park. Impatiens parviflora Unfortunately they do tend to spread in favourable areas in considerable numbers, so they may not be a good thing in the l

Shorne Woods is within Shorne Country Park and I was most surprised to find that a large part of it had not been botanically surveyed. As such, I set off the short distance for a walk around the area. There are two well known rare plants here which were well documented and that I saw a month ago here as well. The first is Greater Bladderwort, an aquatic plant with lovely yellow flowers popping up above the water surface. However, under water, the stems have vacuum filled bladders. When a passing small insect (such as mosquito larvae or daphnia) touches it, it implodes, sucking in the nearby insect with ease.  Utricularia vulgaris The second rarity known here is the beautiful Violet Helleborine which grows in a few places on shady paths under the Beech trees. Epipactis purpurata Given that these rare species thrive here, I was puzzled why the area hadn't been properly recorded before. The following plants are some of those I photographed on my walk here, rec