A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

 Well it's been a long time since I wrote a blog. With the Winter carrying on well into Spring combined with a second consecutive year of Spring drought, the wildflowers weren't doing so well, again! Here's a selection of the more interesting plants I photographed this month from assorted venues.   One of my favourite Springtime wildflowers is Toothwort, which looks like a sickly pink mini triffid sprouting out of the base of (usually) Hazel trees. I often miss these little luvvies, but I managed to see some at Ranscombe Farm near Cuxton in April. Sure enough they were parasitising Hazel trees. They're too small to harm the tree, though if you get a huge swarm of them, the tree will be somewhat stunted and may not fruit. Lathraea squamaria The plant below doesn't look like much and it won't be in flower fully until mid-May providing no one picks it, tramples it or steals it. It's a Lady Orchid, a Kent speciality. This plant was all on its own so is vulnerabl

 As the year progressed, I took fewer photographs as, due to ill health, I am finding it difficult to get down low to do so and very difficult to get back up again. As such, only rare or unusual plants got their photos taken. Here is a small selection from those late season trips and this blog concludes my botainical adventures from 2020. I will use my blogs in later years to revisit the best bits of 2020, I'll try and forget everything else about it..... From Farninhgam Woods Bugloss - Anchusa arvensis The last flowering Deptford Pink - Dianthus armeria - a Kent RPR species Here's the Dianthus habitat in the photo below. It shows the area becoming very overgrown with Sweet Chestnut, Oak and other common shrubs such as Dog Rose all crowding out Dianthus . This is of concern as Dianthus requires some disturbed ground for seed to germinate and trees from the adjoining woodland were in danger of swamping it. As such, I contacted Natural England and sent them this photo highlight

 This is primarily a wildfowl reserve run by the Kent Wildlife Trust near Sevenoaks. There are several lakes with paths around them, though until recently these paths did not circumnavigate the lakes. A recently opened 2 mile long path did go all the way around and so tempted us to take a walk and see what flora might be there. This is what we found of interest.   Heath Speedwell Veronica officinalis   We found a few stands of the alien Yellow Balsam with its pretty though small flowers, offset by its very large leaves.   Impatiens parviflora   The image below shows the tiny flowers and large leaves of this plant. The invasive alien New Zealand Pygmyweed in a semi dried up pond. Crassula helmsii     Marsh Woundwort, a plant I had not found here before the new path was opened up. Unusual in west Kent. Stachys palustris               Meadowsweet was present in some lake marginal areas. Filipendula ulmaria         Gypsywort's leaves give it's identity away even without flowers, th