Giant Spotted Medick

I first noticed a giant form of Spotted Medick (Medicago arabica) in St Aidan's Nature Park (VC64) a few years back, where it is widespread, early into growth and achieving a high biomass early in the season, and it can form huge stands to the complete exclusion of pasture grasses. It flowers and fruits early and then dies back for the summer, before having a second flush in the autumn. Annoyingly though I have never been able to put a name to it, despite it having all the characteristics of a useful fodder variety. 

This year I have noticed it starting to spread out of St Aidan's, and have also found it widespread around the stables and horse paddocks at Royds Green (VC63). Clearly, someone is growing it and distributing it in wildflower seed mixtures and for agricultural use. 

Motivated to try again for a name, I've trawled Google and persevered against initial results indicating that this species is rarely cultivated and has no known cultivars. Eventually I stumbled on an old agricultural publication from 1951 (the thrillingly titled Harvesting and Cleaning Grass and Legume Seed in the Western Gulf Region). Finally someone acknowledges that three cultivars were developed in the United States (clearly so long ago that no one remembers their names) and one is called 'Early Giant'.  Could this be it? Well, details are thin but it was considered notable for its early growth and seed production, and it must be called 'Giant' for a reason. So that sounds promising and it will certainly do as a name for now. If anyone knows different please let me know.

February Highlights (VC31)

Brian Laney has sent the first records for 2017, following a recent botanising session at Peterborough Services of all places. However, as I know from my own experience, it is such places that often turn up the goods. Brian definitely did.

Brian's best find was Knotted Clover (Trifolium striatum), spotting it in its vegetative state. He sent this photo.

He also found several rosettes of Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera), offering the promise of flowers to come.

Other good finds for this part of the county were Spotted Medick (Medicago arabica) and Knotted Hedge-parsley (Torilis nodosa).

Knotted Hedge-parsley (photo by Pancrat, Wikimedia Commons)

Spring at Temple Newsam

A glorious sunny day last week took me across to Temple Newsam (VC64), mainly for the walk but also to see if I could spot anything not noticed previously - including any late spring daffodils.

The first good find of the day was a few plants of Spotted Medick (Medicago arabica). A new hectad record for the BSBI Atlas 2020 project. The low spring sunshine prevented me taking a decent photograph, as it did with the normally photogenic Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris). The latter, while still widespread, is now much diminished as a result of the drainage of its wet habitats, so it was good to find a new site.

The planted Juneberry (Amelanchier lamarckii) near the golf course was looking great, with its coppery new foliage and pristine white blossom.

By the Menagerie Ponds, a few distant pearls of white on the opposite bank caught my eye. Further investigation revealed a naturalised colony of Summer Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum subsp. aestivum). These were probably introduced when the Estate was in its heyday, but now they are in an unmanaged area sandwiched between open water and dense stands of Rhododendron cultivars.

Another relict from the old Estate was found in the unmanaged woodland along The Old Walk. Here were some fine old bushes of a shrub that gave me pause for thought, as it was clearly a Skimmia but not the species favoured today i.e. Japanese Skimmia (Skimmia japonica). Further research led me to Hybrid Skimmia (Skimmia x confusa). The blossom was very fragrant and attracting plenty of bees. While this species is clearly of planted origin, its setting meant that it was a legitimate target for recording in accordance with BSBI Recording Guidance.

Elsewhere I found two naturalised colonies of Siberian Squill (Scilla sibirica) in areas of rough grassland with a range of native flora. This species does not appear to have been recorded here previously, so this was another useful record for the Atlas.

So on to the daffodils! There was a fine stand of Pheasant's-eye Daffodil (Narcissus poeticus) in an area of woodland (photo below) and among it a few plants of its hybrid - Primrose-peerless (Narcissus x medioluteus). The latter was present as the old fashioned plant, and not one of the modern cultivars that are widely planted on road verges (such as 'Geranium', which I passed on route to Temple Newsam at Swillington Bridge, and its double-flowered sister 'Cheerfulness').

On the woodland edge I was surprised to find a clump of Cyclamen-flowered Daffodil (Narcissus cyclamineus), this may have been planted more recently but as it was clearly going over there may have been other plants in the wood that I missed.

To round off the day there was one more daffodil on the way home, where I found a fine naturalised stand of the multi-headed (or at least normally multi-headed, it can be single-headed) Campernelle Daffodil (Narcissus x odorus - Narcissus jonquilla x pseudonarcissus agg.) on a rural road verge at Leventhorpe. 

St Aidan's Part II

There is much more to St Aidan's than obscure species of rush! The wetland habitats are extensive and surrounded by grasslands that are in peak bloom at the moment.

One of the most prominent species currently in flower is Chalk Knapweed (Centaurea debeauxii) which is not uncommon on the lighter soils to the east of Leeds, but the plants here undoubtedly came in with the seed mix that was sown over most of the site during restoration of the former colliery.

The grasslands also support a range of legumes, including several robust fodder forms of native British species such as Bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus var. sativus), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense var. sativum), and White Clover (Trifolium repens var. grandiflorum). There were also several large monospecific stands of a very large form of Spotted Medick (Medicago arabica), again probably a fodder selection. The Medick had gone to seed and was smothered in its characteristic coiled seed pods.

Another native legume present was Zigzag clover (Trifolium medium) with its large bright pink flowers and distinctive elongated leaflets.

I wasn't the only one enjoying the flowers.