A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

I remember going to this hoverport at Pegwell Bay when I was a teenager watching the giant hovercraft head across the mudflats towards the continent. For whatever reason hovercraft fell out of fashion and a giant concrete apron of several acres was left behind. Over the years, nature has reclaimed it, pushing through cracks in the concrete and growing on thin soils that now cover large areas of what was concrete. The almost white flowered plant and the almost black flowers below belong to the same species of plant, Sand Lucerne. It can be all manner of colours, often metallic as well, though to date I'd not seen the black flowered version. When I saw those below they looked black to the eye, but the photo shows it's a very deep purple. Very similar to Lucerne (which is always blue) and Sickle Medick (always yellow), these can be told by the seed pods if the flower colour confuses.  Medicago sativa subsp. varia Purple Toadflax is a long escaped ga

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