Recent Highlights from Huntingdonshire

A few recent records sent in by others. Barry Dickerson has found a new site for Adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum) at St Neots, where 31 plants were seen in grassland by the railway. Barry provided the following photo.

Barry also reports and sends pictures of a white-flowered Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) seen at Hampton Newt Reserve. White-flowered plants turn up occasionally and sometimes form small colonies, where they can cause initial confusion.

Peter Walker has been busy in the south of the county. Unfortunately I cannot disclose locations, as this is a requirement of his access permission, but he reports a new location for Soft Shield-fern (Polystichum setiferum), as well as 100's of Herb-Paris (Paris quadrifolia). The latter updates a location for this county rarity where it was last reported in 1978, so an excellent find.

 Photo by BerndH as published on Wikimedia Commons

Huge Colony of Adder's-tongue

It is always nice to get a good batch of records through the post, and this week I received a valuable batch of monad records from Peter Walker. These included details of an exceptional population of Adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum) at Little Less Wood (VC31), where it is estimated that the population stood at around 1000 in the plantation. Makes me want to go for a look next year. No photo unfortunately, but here is one from just over the county border at Ailsworth Heath, Castor Hanglands (VC32) - another good place to see this small fern.