Cicerbita at Clapham

Friday was the last day of the BSBI Summer Meeting and the rain finally returned. On route home I thought I would stop in Clapham to check out a Pirri-pirri-bur (Acaena) record that need a second look. Perhaps more on that later.

I had not visited Clapham in summer before, so I thought it a good opportunity to poke around the village for other plants of interest. Of course the Common Blue-sowthistle was in full bloom, so an easy tick for Cicerbita macrophylla subsp. uralensis. After all, all the Floras will tell you that this is our plant.

Cicerbia macrophylla subsp. uralensis

A little further on I found a new stand, but it didn't sit right. Huge plants towering over my head, stupidly large terminal lobes on the basal leaves and altogether too robust. It was also very glandular in the inflorescence which I did not remember noticing before in this species. So back again I went to the first stand for a second look, and yes half the height, more flimsy, smaller foliage and scarcely hairy in the inflorescence. Quite a different jizz. So what was it?

I was expecting one of the other naturalised species, but the leaves were wrong. So next stop with an alien is to visit the excellent Alien Plants of Belgium website, and lucky for me I was straight to an answer. Cicerbita macrophylla subsp. macrophylla. Key below.

• Terminal lobe of basal leaves up to 40 cm long. Lowermost inflorescence branches 2-3,5 mm wide at base. Glandular hairs in inflorescence very dense, unequal in length (0,5-2 mm long). Stem up to 300(-350) cm tall === subsp. macrophylla

• Terminal lobe of basal leaves up to 25 cm long (often less). Lowermost inflorescence branches 1-2(-2,5) mm wide at base. Glandular hairs in inflorescence often less dense, subequal in length (ca. 1 mm long). Stem up to 200 cm tall === subsp. uralensis

This seems to be the first record for Britain. Is it likely to prove more widespread? Perhaps. It is probably no coincidence that it is naturalised in Clapham, given it was the home of legendary plant hunter and collector Reginald Farrer. Still, one to look out for elsewhere regardless of received wisdom.

Cicerbita macrophylla subsp. macrophylla

New for Yorkshire

Just back from an enjoyable week at Malham for the BSBI Summer Meeting. More on this to follow soon, but also see the daily accounts on the main BSBI blog.

The first good find of the week didn't take very long. With a little time to kill on the first day, while I waited for everyone else to arrive, I had a stroll round the grounds of Malham Tarn House. Examining the rock cutting by the driveway I found what looked a very odd Caucasian-stonecrop (Sedum spurium - conscious use of the old name here as the database is yet to catch up with Stace 4). The plant looked far too delicate, and the leaves a little too petiolate. So into the pocket it went to look at later.

It didn't take too much effort later to get it to Lesser Caucasian-stonecrop (Sedum stolonifera). The obscurely* papillose leaf margins providing the final confirmation. A first for VC64 and Yorkshire. Surely a species to actively search for elsewhere, as it is probably overlooked.

*correction from original post, stolonifera is obscurely papillose i.e. small raised bumps. In comparison spurium is obviously papillose with long papillae (longer than wide). You can feel them with your finger towards the tip of the leaf.

Stylish Shrubs

Spring is nearly here so time to get back into this blogging lark. As a warm-up for me, I am going to start with a random assortment of attractive and/or quirky shrubs found over the last month or so in VC64.

Starting with a native, I can't really beat Howard Beck's find and photos of Mezereon (Daphne mezereum) near Selside.

Also from Howard was this unusual form of Yew (Taxus baccata Argentea Group) at Holden. The fastigiate form is common in churchyards, and sometimes you find the golden form, but I have not seen this cultivar before. Hopefully it will survive and grow into a fine tree.

Keeping with the variegated theme, but with added spines, was this curious Holly I found at Ilkley - Ilex aquifolium 'Ferox Argentea'. It appears to be a bird sown occurrence, as the location suggests a planted origin is unlikely.

Next a climber, this is the third most common ivy in VC64, rivalled for distribution only by Hedera helix f. helix and Hedera hibernica Hibernica Group. This is Hedera helix f. pedata (deliberately avoiding use of 'Pedata' given all the wild occurrences are bird sown and therefore not the true garden selection) which I found in two locations around Ilkley, one in Heber's Ghyll and one near Cow and Calf. Photos of both in that order.

Finally, the attractive red buds of Darwin's Barberry (Berberis darwinii) from The Tarn, Ilkley Moor.

Curiosities Part I

I recently had a day botanising in the Clapham area (VC64), including around The Lake where Reginald Farrer introduced so many new exotic species to his estate.

Heading up to the Caves this fabulous form of our native Ramsons (Allium ursinum) caught my eye. Several clumps all with the same bright yellow midrib. If anyone knows the name for this variant (assuming it has one) then please leave a comment as I would love to know.

Whether it is a chance mutation at this location, as it grows with the typical form, or a prized introduction from elsewhere is hard to know. It deserves greater appreciation as at present it is slowly disappearing under dense regenerating tree saplings.

Green Hellebore

Howard Beck has been to Threshfield Moor to see the Green Hellebore (Helleborus viridis) and has kindly shared details and the following photograph. This is a welcome update given the last record from this location is now more than 20 years old.

Green Hellebore (photo by Howard Beck)

This colony seems to be doing well along the banks of a small beck. This remote location is far from what would ordinarily be considered typical habitat for the species. It seems likely that it is a long established garden escape, from the days before the modern hybrids supplanted this species in gardens or perhaps even from when it was still valued as a medicinal plant. Its value being as a powerful antihelminthic, as well as a cure for boils and 'melancholicke' diseases. It is possible this colony derives from a wild gathering from nearby Grass Wood, where this species is also known (last reported in 2002). 

Stainforth

Last weekend, before summer went on strike, I went over to Settle (VC64) again on the train and then headed off into the countryside on foot. As usual the strategy of a planned route quickly gave way to whim with serendipitous results. The original plan was Winskill Stones which is somewhere I have wanted to visit since a teenager when Plantlife ran its campaign to buy the site. A nice site but one that could not match the image I had painted in my head, and still a little too early for the peak of the flowers. So a headed back into the shelter of the valleys below, with my attention drawn to Catrigg Force on the map - not on the planned route but too close to a waterfall to ignore so off I went.

This deep gorge had much of interest with Golden-scaled Male-fern (Dryopteris affinis sens. str.) in the humid woodland, along with Pyrenean Scurvygrass (Cochlearia pyrenaica), Large Bittercress (Cardamine amara) and Goldilocks (Ranunculus auricomus). While the beck above the falls had an abundance of Hybrid Monkeyflower (Mimulus x robertsii) in peak bloom.

Pyrenean Scurvygrass

Hybrid Monkeyflower

I then headed down Goatscar Lane towards the village where the banks were lush with Smooth Lady's-mantle (Alchemilla glabra). That's when the big surprise came. I have been keeping my eye out for the obscure non-native Various-leaved Hawthorn (Crataegus heterophylla) for a number of years and never expected it to pop up in this setting. How it got here is a mystery, an obscure location for a planting or for a bird-sown bush. But then I thought that with Sorbus x liljeforsii a few weeks previous. I had been starting to feel that I had been overlooking this hawthorn, so it was great to not only find it but also to see that it exactly matched the only two images (see here and here) I had managed to track down. This species is only known in cultivation, and its origin has been lost to time. It keys out in Sell and Murrell with patience and not a little trial and error, but you need enough material to understand the "stipules of leaves of flowering shoots more or less irregularly denticulate-serrate or more or less denticulate" character. Most of the stipules had no teeth (so more of the less!), a few had minute teeth (denticulate) and a few had more obvious ones (denticulate-serrate).

Then down into the village with more plants of definite or likely cultivated origin. No apologies for these. The native flora of the Dales are relatively well recorded, but little attention has been paid to the villages. You can't have a full picture of a region's flora without including artificial habitats.

The first thing to catch my eye on the edge of the village was three plants of Wood Crane's-bill (Geranium sylvaticum) under scrub. This is a native plant and indeed it occurs in meadows just up the hill. However, in the case the flower colour looked off for the wild plant and I think this is the cultivar 'Amy Doncaster'. A trail of plants (more typical in flower colour) led back to a garden and may support an origin as a garden escape.

The road edge nearby yielded Spanish Stonecrop (Sedum hispanicum). The common name is a bit literal, and ignorant in the process, given this species is not a native of Spain. Next to it was Malling Toadflax (Chaenorhinum origanifolium).

The villages of Dales are exceptional for the diversity and luxuriance of plants dripping from the limestone walls. Amongst all the usual suspects were the more notable Colarado Stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco') and Cobweb House-leek (Sempervivum arachnoideum).

Grassington (VC64)

Grassington is not somewhere I have ventured for a few years, and with the priorities for the New Atlas it was not on the hit list of hectads to visit as it is already adequately re-recorded. But my mind has been on Potentilla lately and this is a key location for the 'Yorkshire Dales' problem. But that is a post in its own right, so more on that later. There is more than enough at this botanical hotpsot to fill a post, so a few highlights below.

My route took me first down to Linton and its falls (Potentilla wild goose chase), then along the river to Ghaistrill's Strid, into Lower Grass Wood, Grass Wood proper, back across the fields towards Grassington and up to Bastow Wood, before back to the village. A good route, with each location having its own special interest and enough to remind me that I need to get into this part of the Dales more often.

Starting at Linton Falls the sheer riverside cliffs had a small population of a distinctive hawkweed, and not only could I identify it (that's four now out of the 90 recorded from VC64, baby steps) but I knew I was right as there was a record in the database from an expert. This stunner, distinctive by hawkweed standards, was Wood Hawkweed (Hieracium silvaticoides). Later to be seen again on rocks by the river in Lower Grass Wood. The photo is a plant in situ growing out of vertical rock, what a tough plant.

There was a second hawkweed here, not in flower yet. I had a fair idea of what it should be and it is not to be collected under an circumstances, I suspect herbaria are already full of it.  So admired at a distance and as far as is known this is its only surviving population, and it occurs no where else in the world. I only saw two plants! A precarious existence, water on one side, sheep and tourists on the other. This is Linton Falls Hawkweed (Hieracium lintonense).

The River Wharfe here has some exceptionally good stands of Opposite-leaved Pondweed (Groenlandia densa)

photo David Perez (Wikimedia Commons)

In Grass Wood I was really pleased to stumble over some Herb-Paris (Paris quadrifolia) in full bloom. Flowering plants have eluded me for so long, normally it is well into berry and past its best. Sure I could have twitched it somewhere it if I wanted, but I am quite happy to wait until something wants to reveal itself to me. A memory based on a sense of time and place has much more meaning.

Finally, at the base of a drystone wall on the way back to Grassington was an abundance of Brittle Bladder-fern (Cystopteris fragilis).

Stackhouse and Langcliffe (VC64)

With the weather forecast suggesting the west would be best on Saturday I headed over to Settle on the train to see what I could find. I had originally planned to head up to Winskill Stones, but going up Giggleswick Scar first it quickly became apparent that spring was not as far on as it is on my home patch to the east of Leeds. So I'll save the Stones for another day and regardless my meanderings soon went off plan with serendipitous results, including the discovery of Castlebergh Crag in Settle. Great views and some nice plants, including Wallflower (Erysimum cheiri), Alpine Currant (Ribes alpinum), and the pink-flowered form of Hybrid Bluebell (Hyacinthoides x massartiana). The latter very much a recurring theme of the day. But back to the subject of this post ...

The orange flowered form of Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica 'Aurantiaca') was lighting up verges in several locations. 

In Stackhouse I found this fine stand of Pheasant's-eye Daffodil (Narcissus poeticus subsp. recurvus). This subspecies is the last of the daffodils to flower, no doubt a reflection of its origins in Switzerland. It must pay to delay your flowering up there.

In and around the churchyard in Langcliffe there was the pink-flowered Hybrid Bluebell, a striking naturalised Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor 'Aureomarginata'), Scarce London-pride (Saxifraga x geum) and Spring Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum subsp. aestivum). 

Heading up onto the high ground above Langcliffe, the limestone turf was studded with Mountain Pansy (Viola lutea).

And then great views back towards Giggleswick Scar.

And finally, the surprise of the day and at a completely incongruous location, a mature tree of the rare Liljefor's Whitebeam (Sorbus x liljeforsii) in Old Plantation. No idea if it was planted or bird sown, but its been there a long time. The leaves of sterile side shoots had 6 free lobes, distinguishing it from the more usual (and in my experience more grey-green) Bastard Rowan (Sorbus x thuringiaca).

Alexanders in Giggleswick (VC64)

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) is a rare plant in VC64 and indeed Yorkshire in general. It is a more familiar plant further south, particularly in the southeast and southwest of England. See the BSBI Distribution Database for its current distribution.

Mike Canaway adds a new dot to its distribution, having found it in the Dales at Giggleswick. He forwards the following photographs.

Shoal of Minnows

See the daffodils springing into bloom reminded me of some photographs sent by Bruce Brown a few weeks back. He has known a stand of vegetative non-native daffodils at Grass Wood (VC64) for a number of years, but was finally able to grow an offset to flowering in 2016.

Setting aside (the desire to rant about!) the need of certain sectors of society to introduce non-native bulbs into native wild habitats, this is certainly an interesting find. It is clearly a member of the tazetta group and appears to match the cultivar 'Minnow', a popular cultivar registered in the early 1960's.

The origins of 'Minnow' are obscure but the Daffodil Register suggests that it is a backcross to N. tazetta from an earlier cross of cultivars that may have involved N. poeticus in the parentage. Perhaps involving parents similar to 'Canaliculatus' (probably a form of tazetta subsp. tazetta) and 'Poetaz' (tazetta x ?poeticus), between which it seems intermediate. If true it has a similar but more complex origin to Primrose-peerless (Narcissus x medioluteus), but this name as currently used has a rather narrow concept. Whatever the origin it is a charming little daffodil.

Stackhouse Detour (VC64)

I took advantage of the favourable weather forecast on Thursday and headed out to Settle. I'm not sure why I had not made it there sooner given it couldn't be easier by train, but my trips to the Dales have been all too infrequent as I focus efforts elsewhere for the New Atlas. Halfway round my planned circuit to Giggleswick Scar and back, I came to the little hamlet of Stackhouse and thought it worth a brief detour. Its fair to say the "spidey senses" were tingling and I've learnt not to ignore those! The gut-feeling didn't disappoint particularly when I found a little track that went round the back of the village between some high, old limestone walls.

First up was a fine stand of Hairy Bindweed (Calystegia pulchra), a bit of a thug but a very fine thug. I last saw this species 10 years or so ago in Wales, so a re-encounter was long overdue. This is a rare plant in the county and the historic records have a very low level of detail associated with them, so it was good to find a new location and record it accurately.

Next up was an even scarcer species and a new one for me - Lamb's-tail (Chiastophyllum oppositifolium). Just a shame I had missed it in bloom, as this huge colony must be an impressive sight when covered in yellow flowers. Previously this species has only been reported from Bowland, so this is a marked range extension.

Here's what I had missed earlier in the season ...

Photo from the website for Kevock Garden

My luck was still in when, just round the corner, were two large plants of Elecampane (Inula helenium). This is another rare plant and predominantly found in the east of the county.

Elsewhere, I almost discounted the Yellow-flowered Strawberry (Potentilla indica) for the Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) which is common on the scars above Stackhouse. Luckily there was a single flower and then I clocked the distinctive fruit. This is only the second record for the VC, and the first record lacks a detailed grid reference.

Final mention must be made of the uncommon white-flowered form of Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis subsp. muralis) that was adorning some of the walls.This goes by the cultivar name of 'Pallidior'.

Photo by Paul Ruddoch from the Nature Spot website