A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

Day 2 of the New Year Plant Hunt took me alone to an industrial road in Swanscombe to see what was in flower. This was also a repeat venue from previous years so as to enable comparisons to be made. It has to be one of the most ugly plant hunt venues one could pick. It's been neglected for many years and is full of litter from lorry drivers parking up overnight. This year there's an additional attraction of a dumped HGV trailer as well. What I have found though is that plants don't care about this mess and will pretty much carry on regardless. Of course, for animals this waste can be extremely hazardous. The flowers follow. Yarrow Achillea millefolium Yellow crucifers can be difficult. This is Hoary Mustard, a common plant in flower in North Kent at this time of the year. Hirschfeldia incana A solitary Common Knapweed survived the few frosts we haved had to date. Centaurea nigra agg.    Fat Hen Chenopodium album

Despite my current illness I was determined to participate in the BSBI's New Year Plant Hunt which ran over 4 days from 29th December to 1st January inclusive. Full details of the purrpose of the hunt can be found at BSBI.org but it's basically a way to determine what is in flower at this time over the whole of Britain and Ireland, with results compiled by groups and individuals and collated by the BSBI. Where possible I try to re-visit the places I recorded in previous hunts as I think this will give the data more meaning over the years. For this first day of the hunt, I went with my partner and two grand daughters to the Kent coast, first to Folkestone Leas then a short stop at St Margaret's Bay afterwards. I didn't photograph everything, but here's some of what we found in flower. A dodgy photo of Shepherd's Purse. Capsella bursa-pastoris   Red Valerian, unfortunately at distance in a breeze, so a blurred photo! Centranthus ruber A comm