Recent Sighting

Milk Thistle

milk thistle
Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) Photo: Bob Ellis

There were a couple of typically large plants growing in a roadside hedge on the outskirts of Attlebridge. An easy plant to spot and identify with its marbled-white veined leaves and large capitula with spiny phyllaries.

White Sedge

white sedge
White Sedge (Carex canescens)   Photo: Bob Ellis

It was good to see White Sedge, Carex canescens doing well at East Ruston Common SSSI after scrub clearance in recent years.

Shore Horsetail

horsetail
Shore Horsetail (Equisetum x litorale)   Photo: Bob Ellis

A small colony of this hybrid Horsetail was found near a ditch in Carlton St Peter. The hollow stem and pattern of side branches alerted me to the possibility that this may be a hybrid.

Small-flowered Catchfly

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Small-flowered Catchfly (Silene gallica) Photo: Suki Pryce

Small-flowered Catchfly now flowering profusely on the hot sandy cutting on the Weaver's Way near Felmingham. There look to be thousands of flowering spikes at the moment - a lovely and unusual sight.

Hard Fern

Hard fern
Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant)  Photo: Suki Pryce

One of a group of at least twenty well established clumps along an old bank on damp stream valley-side, south side of Bryant's Heath, Felmingham.

White Hedgerow Crane's-bill

hedgerow cransbill
White Hedgerow Crane's-bill (Geranium pyrenaicum)  Photo: Bob Ellis

This very attractive white-flowered form of Hedgerow Crane's-bill made a lovely display, extending over 10 meters at the base of a hedge bordering an agricultural field, climbing through Barren Brome (Anisantha sterilis).

Abundant Water Violet

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Water Violet (Hottonia palustris)  Photo: Janet Higgins

This is the first time I have seen Water Violet flowering in this ditch which was dug out about five years ago, although it is known to flower intermittently in ditches throughout Marston marsh.

Bogbean

bogbean
Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata)   Photo: Suki Pryce

Bogbean growing like a weed in a pond north of Felmingham, late April. I've never seen it growing like this before.