Arum 'Chameleon'

My serious plant hunting got off to a good start this weekend with this stunning Lords-and-Ladies cultivar emerging from a hedge in Ben Rhydding. Arum 'Chameleon' is a relatively new cultivar, so its not one that I would expect to be planted (this plant was emerging out of the church boundary hedge) or to self-seed true to form.

The consensus seems to be that this cultivar is likely to be derived from a cross between the native Arum maculatum and the non-native Arum italicum subsp. italicum (increasingly commonly naturalised). However, no one knows for sure.

Alpine Cotula Expands its Range

Bruce Brown has been busy over the last few months processing an exceptional number of records collected by the Wharfedale Naturalist's in 2020, a very large number of which are directly attributable to Bruce and Carmen Horner. I have only just started to look in detail at what they found, but one record that immediately jumped out as interesting was a new location for Alpine Cotula (Cotula alpina).

Photo by G. Richards, Assynt Field Club website

Alpine Cotula is a native of Australia and was added to the British List as recently as 2009. It shows a strong affinity with grouse moors and is widely established in the North York Moors, and the moors of Nidderdale to the north of Pateley Bridge. Linda Robinson provides an account of the discovery of this species here, and further images can be found here.

Bruce and Carmen have now extended this species distribution to the grouse moors of Wharfedale, having found it August 2020 on Burley Moor (VC64). Time will tell how established it is in that area, one to look out for as it is probably more widely established.

Ilkley to Addingham Moorside

My trip over to Ilkley (VC64) at the weekend proved more eventful than I could have hoped. First slipping off a boulder and falling backwards into the beck at Heber's Ghyll and then, after salvaging my notebook from the water, regaining my composure and checking for broken bones, finding a particularly nice bramble in the wood.

Following advice from David Earl this seems to be Thornless Blackberry (Rubus canadensis), a native of North America. It has impressively tall, and typically biennial, arching canes with no prickles. In this case the flowers were particularly large and impressive, and from a distance I thought I was approaching a bush of Mock-orange (Philadelphus sp.) as it was so showy. This is the first record for VC64, and also seems to be the first for Yorkshire.

In a wooded ghyll in Ilkley proper there was a small colony of this enormous Lord's and Ladies. A problem for another day but looking too big to be Italian Lord's and Ladies (Arum italicum) proper, despite the veining on the leaves. For scale, the OS map in the photo is approximately 22cm tall.

At the Old Bridge it was nice to finally see the thriving Fairy Foxglove (Erinus alpinus) colony in flower. I had not appreciated that there was a mix of pink and white flowered plants here. Photo of the latter (var. albus) below.

Elsewhere as a street weed was a double-flowered (technically semi-double so fertile) form of Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica 'Flore Pleno') that I had read about but never seen before, despite the abundance of this species as a naturalised plant in the VC. Terrible photo but you get the idea.

In Panorama Woods there is an abundance of Persian Ivy (Hedera colchica). It is well known here but I don't think anyone before has noted this as being the original introduced form i.e. var. dentata or 'Dentata' (depending on preference). Note the small teeth on the leaf margins.

Over at Addingham Moorside I stumbled over some nice mire and species-rich grassland communities. Some of the highlights included Bulbous Rush (Juncus bulbosus subsp. kochii), Creeping Forget-me-not (Myosotis secunda) and (Pedicularis sylvatica subsp. sylvatica).

To Addingham and Back Again (VC64)

Time for a bit of a catch up on local news. Last week I took a trip over to Ilkley as I had always fancied a walk along the river towards Bolton Abbey, but had never quite made it. Spring was definitely springing in Wharfedale, but not as advanced as on my local patch. So I enjoyed a second final hurrah from the daffodils, while also being able to enjoy some of the species just starting to come into there own.

It was nice to see the thriving colony of Fairy Foxglove (Erinus alpinus) on Old Bridge, Ilkley. Far too early for flowers though.

(photo by Jerzy Opiola, Wikimedia Commons)

Not a rare plant, but I forget how prolific Few-flowered Garlic (Allium paradoxum var. paradoxum) is along the Wharfe. All those bulbs where there should be flowers.

A surprise find on a tree stump well away from gardens was Trailing Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana), but this is not my first find of this species on an isolated river bank.

On the river bank at Addingham, and likely of planted origin, was Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides).

Moving up hill away from the river towards Langbar, I was surprised to find a Chameleon ... i.e. Sweet Spurge (Euphobia dulcis 'Chameleon'). The hedgerow along Langbar Lane also had the hybrid hawthorn Crataegus x subsphaerica (to be seen again later in the hedge bounding Ilkley golf course).

Another nice find on Langbar Lane was a particularly robust lush clump of Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage (Chrysosplenium alternifolium).

A rubbish photo but this odd Daffodil (Narcissus 'Pipit') lit up a shady beck bank at Nesfield. I'm not even going to try linking this to a named Daffodil species or hybrid! Google it for a better image.

Back towards Ilkley were Garden Solomon's-seal (Polygonatum x hybridum) and this striking, and very early into bloom this year, Broom (Cytisus scoparius subsp. scoparius f. andreanus).

Ilkley Moor Baht 'at

I finally made it, after 7 years of not really trying, up Ilkley Moor this week in the heat of Tuesday and probably unwisely without 'at. This is of course a well botanised site so I was not expecting to add much new to the plant list, and in this light I did quite well.

The first good find was a new stand of the non-native Silver Lady's-mantle (Alchemilla conjuncta), extending its range into a new tetrad.

Not a new location, but of interest to me was the enigma that is Cut-leaved Bramble (Rubus laciniatus). No one really knows this species origins, or whether it is native or endemic to Britain. It is certainly not native in Yorkshire, but in comparison with the thug that is Himalayan Giant (Rubus armeniacus), I am more than happy to welcome it.

By far the best find of the day, apologies in advance for the over-exposed photo I blame the low late season sun!, was a colony of Knotted Pearlwort (Sagina nodosa) along the the historic alignment of Keighley Road. From the data available to me, it does not appear to have been reported from the Moor for decades, so I am pleased to have refound it. The associated Eyebright (Euphrasia) is giving me headaches and is one for the BSBI referee.

To end with, here is the view from Addingham High Moor where the carpets of Heather (Calluna vulgaris) were at peak bloom. Scenic as it is, it is important not to forget what an impoverished habitat this is for native flora. Over a century of over-management for grouse does not leave room for much else, and it is not a very satisfying habitat for a botanist. That said, Ilkley Moor seems to be suffering the opposite effect i.e. a legacy of under-management resulting in an ever increasing dominance of Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum). There must be a middle ground somewhere, but it is a challenge to find the most favourable balance in the modern world where traditional agriculture and land management is no longer economic.

Drumsticks and Squills

I spent Good Friday in the sunshine of Wharfedale (VC64), primarily to have a look at snowdrops before they completely go over with the aim of finding some more locations for Hybrid Snowdrop (Galanthus x valentinei). This was achieved with ease, it really is very common and under-recorded, with some fine stands in and around Denton and in Ilkley cemetary. There were even a few double-flowered clumps. So that's another new hectad, and a dot for the BSBI Atlas 2020 project.

Heading down into Middleton, I was surprised to find a few plants of Drumstick Primrose (Primula denticulata) on some rough ground by a barn. They had not been planted and must have arisen from seeds or discarded plants spread with soil or spilt garden waste from a nearby garden. There was one pink flowered plant and two white flowered ones, and they looked like they had persisted for at least a couple of years.

Heading into Ilkley, on the way back to Ben Rhydding railway station, I took the opportunity to pop into the cemetery where I knew Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica) had been reported in the past. I found several fine stands with ease, naturalised over old graves and spreading in the adjacent grassland.