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.

Sunday, 29 January 2017

Hybrid Woundwort

Its that time of year when I need to delve back into the archives to keep the blog ticking over. Here is a nice find from back in July at Clumpcliffe (VC63). If only all hybrids were so satisfyingly intermediate.

Hybrid Woundwort (Stachys x ambigua) is the cross between Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) and can maintain itself through vegetative spread. This clone has the flowers of the former, and the foliage of the latter BUT with petioles of intermediate length. The foliage has some of the pungency of Hedge Woundwort, but this trait is much reduced,

It is a widespread hybrid (see BSBI Distribution Database) so is worth keeping an eye out for in damp places.

Tuesday, 17 January 2017

A Magnificence of Mulleins (VC31)

Sarah Lambert has recently provided an exciting list of plants found on the old Conington dump (no public access), which she has been studying for a number of years. This really is a botanical hotspot and supports a variety of species more typical of the chalk, no doubt arriving with imported substrate. This includes Wild Candytuft (Iberis amara), Wall Bedstraw (Galium parisiense) and an exciting number of Mulleins (Verbascum species). Many of the latter are known no where else in the county.

See Sarah's blog for an account in her own words and from which I have borrowed a photo (below) of Hoary Mullein (Verbascum pulverulentum).