A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

Ranscombe Farm is always worth a visit to lift the soul and I have been there many times. It is full of wildflowers of all descriptions and well recorded. However, as this day proved, you might find something new and never recorded there before. However, I'll start with the more usual species to be found. Barbarea vulgaris The shape and form of the upper stem leaves differentiate the Wintercresses, so always have a look at them. White Hellebroine are a Kent RPR species, but there are plenty of them at Ranscombe (in a few places). Look in heavy shade on the chalk but under Beech trees to find them.  Cephalanthera damasonium Just North of Ranscombe in Cobham Great Wood was a small patch of Lily of the Valley. I'd looked for this last year and failed to find it, yet it's right by the main path running East/West through the wood. It's another rare plant in Kent.   Convallaria majalis Fly Orch

Longfield is a small unremarkable town a few miles South East of Dartford on the edge of the urban fringe. As such I am fortunate that within a few minutes I can walk into arable field, Beech woodland or chalk grassland. Here's a few species I found on this walk, culminating in a first record of a nationally rare and endangered plant for Longfield itself. This is the uncommon Field Mouse-ear, which is in decline. There is plenty of it in a disused meadow close to the town, but I fear it will be built on within a few years. Cerastium arvense There were also large stands of Crosswort with its bright yellow flowers, another Kent RPR species due to habitat loss. Cruciata laevipes Lots of flowers means insects and seeds and this Corn Bunting was one of several I saw. Hawthorn was now in flower, though this pink tinged tree was not what it seemed at first to be. It was a Midland Hawthorn with all its flowers having 2 styles.

This belated blog will show some of the amazing plants that we discovered on a Kent Botanical Recording Group field trip to a a private woodland in East Kent. Permission had been given to survey the flora which in turn will assist the landowner in managing his land for the wildlife. This trip occurred at the end of Spring when it was warm with rain every few days, unlike now (mid July) where it has been dry for over a month with roasting temperatures. As such, I was pleased to find a very late flowering Wood Anemone at the edge of the above clearing. Anemone nemorosa Another straggler from the Spring were several clumps of Cuckooflower, with their delicately veined pink petals. Cardamine pratensis Crosswort and Bugle made attractive contrasting stands in a field at the woodland edge. Cruciata laevipes and Ajuga reptans In the same field were numerous Houndstongue plants in flower. They are quite frequent on chalk and also in coastal