Botanising in Huntingdonshire, Yorkshire and Beyond

I am the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) Vice-County Recorder for Huntingdonshire (VC31) and Mid-West Yorkshire (VC64). I've set-up this botany blog to more readily share news on recent wildflower discoveries made by myself and others, to encourage wider recording, and as a way to challenge myself to take more photographs of the plants I find. See the BSBI website for more information on the work of the society and the diverse range of botany projects currently in progress.

Monday 24 August 2015

Lesser Centaury at St Aidan's

Phyl Abbott sent me news the weekend before last that Lesser Centaury (Centaureum pulchellum) had been found at St Aidan's (VC64), so I couldn't resist going for a look. This a rare plant in the county with only one other known location at Fairburn Ings. Sure enough I found it, the tiniest of tiny plants edging the causeway at the spring high water mark. Just a shame the flowers were closed that day.

The drawdown zone was carpeted with the non-native Buttonweed (Cotula coronopifolia), while elsewhere the gravelly edges of tracks supported some good stands of Hare's-foot Clover (Trifolium arvense).