A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

As usual at this time of the year, I am hopelessly behind on my blogs, so I'll keep them short on words in a vain attempt to catch up. I hope you like the photos and it encourages you to go and see these plants for yourself. Starting off with early May finds at Sandwich dunes. Green-winged Orchids  - Anacamptis morio   Thyme Leaved Sandwort trying to impersonate Small Mouse-ear. Arenaria serpyllifolia s.s. Carpets of Sea Sandwort coming into flower - Honckenya peploides  The tiny flowers of Early Forget-me-not, numerous in the short turf - Myosotis ramosissima Early May habitat photo of Sandwich, doesn't look much but the wildflowers like it. Yellow Rattle - Rhinanthus minor Wild Clary coming into flower - Salvia verbenaca The larger form and flowers of Common Vetch - Vicia sativa subsp segetalis Look for a much smaller vetch and you might find the diminuitive Spring Vetch - Vicia lathyroides We

The sandy, poor soil on Dartford Heath supports several interesting and some rare botanical species; some I'd lready found and others which were waiting to surprise me. Cytisus scoparius / Ulex europaeus Broom (left) and Gorse (above) are common on the heath and are perhaps the only wildflowers that the ordinary members of the public actually notice, for in the short grasses were thousands of tiny flowers. I was looking for Upright Chickweed,a very tiny inconspicuous flower that nestles in the grasses unseen. Fortunately, I had found it before so knew where to look. It's very uncommon to find one with its flower wide open, so I was very fortunate indeed to find one.   Moenchia erecta   All over parts of the heath were the delightful flowers of Birdsfoot. Amazingly for such a brightly coloured flower, these are so small they are all but invisible from a standing height. In the photo above ther

I'd always wanted to see a wild Pasque Flower since I saw it in my first wildflower identification books, so, I decided on a trip to Therfield Heath in Hertfordshire to see them, being one of the nearest venues to Kent. Another place I wanted to visit was Breckland in Suffolk and as Therfield is over half way there, I thought I'd combine the two venues in a single day trip. It didn't take too long to get there via the M25 and M11, yet some days it could take hours! On arrival, we parked in the reserve car park. It didn't look too promising as the only wildflower I could see were lots of Cowslips and not much else. There was a golf course and a horse galloping area, neither of which looked promising. Fortunately I had asked those in the know where to go and we set off for an area called Church Hill (not marked as such on the OS maps). This area was unimproved and it didn't take long to see the beautiful Pasque flowers dotted around the slope. For a sma