A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

We drove all over this area on this day, so here are some of the highlights we found. I've detailed Sussex plants first, then those found in Kent later in the day. This is Navelwort, very common in the West of the UK and very hard to find elsewhere. Somehow this species made its way into East Sussex and abounds in and around Winchelsea Church and on nearby Camber Castle. As you can see it likes old walls. When I saw it in Wales it liked growing out of slate cliffs as well. At Scotney Castle on the Kent/Sussex border it appeared in the bole of an old tree, so perhaps tourists can spread the seed in their boots? Umbilicus rupestris This is a very common plant found almost everywhere, it's Black Medick. Here it is growing on the shingle at Winchelsea Beach but it's just as much at home in gardens, pavements and arable field edges. When no seeds are present it can be confused with Lesser Trefoil. In

This joint field trip involved a hefty climb down, and then up several hundred steps on the steep chalk cliffs of Folkestone Warren. However a surprisingly large number of people still turned up to punish themselves physically in the name of botany. Above are some of the group this day with the joint leaders Owen Leyshon (2nd from left) and Sue Buckingham (3rd from left).  The photo below shows how high these cliffs were and our route would take us down to sea level. Folkestone pier is in the distance. Rather than try and recall the order I found things in, I''ll just post them here in alphabetical order, so as not to miss anything important! As most will know, I photograph the everyday flowers such as this Agrimony as well as the rarities. Agrimonia eupatoria Pyramidal Orchids just coming into bloom. Anacamptis pyramidalis  A hoverfly bee mimic on Field Bindweed Convolvul