Worcestershire Record No. 28. April 2010
Bert Reid
2009 was another quiet year for plant recording in Worcestershire with fewer records than usual submitted, but there were still around 135 new post-1987 hectad records (including 51 dandelions). These records included no less than 9 new county records and several other very good finds.
The ruderal site of the year, found by Bert Reid, was by the B4624 near its junction with the A44 north-west of Evesham, where the road had been altered at the juction a few years ago, leaving about 100m of parallel roads. Following unauthorised parking by travellers, an earth bund was dumped between the roads, with more soil being added in 2009 giving a linear barrier about a metre tall. This produced a quite extraordinary mix of plants throughout the season. Some of the soil had clearly come from market garden land, with an abundance of Raphanus sativus and Lactuca sativa (a mix of red and green var. crispa plants) coming up. Two new county records here were French bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, and garden carrot, Daucus carota ssp. sativus. Other uncommon plants presumed from the same source included Cicer arientum, Coriandrum sativum, Cucurbita pepo, Lepidium sativum, Pisum sativum and Spinacia oleracea.
Another group of plants here are normally associated with bird-seed. Phalaris canariensis and Helianthus annuus were common, being joined by a few Cannabis sativa, a fifth county site for Carthamus tinctorius, a fourth site for Guizotia abyssinica and a few plants of Nicandra physalodes. Add to this horticultural plants like Cerinthe major (4th couinty record), Clarkia unguiculata (3rd county record) and Sidalca malviflora (5th county record), a cultivar of Malva sylvestis and the hybrid Viola ‘Jackanapes’ and it is clear that this site is quite exceptional. Interestingly, our 3rd site for Guizotia abyssinica was also in 2009, found by Keith Barnett at the edge of a maize field by Lower Howsell.
Keith Barnett has an excellent eye for garden escapes and this year was no exception. Just outside the entrance to the sewage treatment works at Madresfield, he found 2 plants of Knautia macedonica, a distinctive red-flowered garden escape never before noted in Worcestershire. An even more extraordinary record by Keith was a well-established patch of Lysimachia thyrsifolia in a field pond near Hanley Swan. This is a native plant of fens and swamps in the Scottish Borders and (very rarely) Northern England. It has never before been seen in the county and is clearly an introduction with us, though its history here is not known.
John Day had his usual crop of good records, including a first county record of Doronicum x willdenowii on a road verge at Tutnall, and a second record for Aethusa cynapium subsp. agrestis in stubble near Himbleton Manor. He also found several new hectad records such as Agrostis vinealis, Cerastium diffusum, Juncus tenuis and Luzula x borreri.
New dandelion records seem to come up every year, and 2009 was particularly good. John Day found three new county records, Taraxacum caloschistum, T. semiglobosum and T. speciosum. These are all rare alien dandelions, with the first not being seen in Britain during the last 20 years and the last with only 4 previous British records. John was also responsible for most of the new hectad records including second county records for T. edmondsonianum, T. fagerstroemii, T. fusciflorum and T. porrigens. Bert Reid was rather less active during the year but still managed one new county record, T. ostenfeldii, a half share with John with the T. porrigens record, and a good re-find of T. tamesense in its only county site.
Roger Maskew gave us our first record for Chionodoxa luciliae, from Cofton Hackett churchyard (and re-determined our earlier records of the species as the more common C. forbesii). He also found our third county site for Festuca altissima, in Seckley Wood. His new hectad records included Carex vesicaria, Rosa sherardii var. resinosoides and second recent record for Rosa x involuta. With Keith Barnett he also found Viola x bavarica, the third recent confirmed record of this difficult violet hybrid.
Other notable records were new sites for Epipactis phyllanthes and Heleborus viridis (c. 50 plants) found by Mark Jannink, a new hectad for Trifolium subterraneum by Mike Poulton, and the first post-1987county record of Veronica austriaca found by Terry Knight on the dismantled railway line at Church Honeybourne.
It is usually hard to select any record for plant of the year but 2009 was much easier than usual. There are a few old records for Pyrola rotundifolia, the most recent being in 1910 from Avlechurch, but Roger Maskew has re-determined most of these old records from herbarium specimens as P. minor or P.media. It was therefore a great surprise when Roger Bates sent a photograph of what was clearly this species, taken at Top Barn Farm, Holt. He later took John Day and Bert Reid to see the plants growing in sandy deposits among willow scrub. As a nationally scarce native plant where the inland subspecies is considered near threatened, not seen in the county for virtually 100 years and where some doubts had been raised on the early records this was very clearly 2009 plant of the year.
KEY
* First published record for vc37 / Worcestershire
# First post-1987 for hectad concerned
+ Species which is not a native / archeophyte of the British Isles
0 Specieswhich though native / archeophyte in some parts of the British Isles
is not so in the locality where recorded
Nomenclature follows the second edition of Clive Stace’s New Flora of the British Isles (1997), and finds were made in 2009 unless otherwise stated. All references to first, second etc. records refer to published records only.
0 Achillea
ptarmica: # 1136, a few plants of forma
lingulosa (garden discard?) on verge of
Buckle Street near Fish Hill Quarry (AWR).
Aethusa cynapium
subsp. agrestis: # 9458/9558, frequent to
occasional in fallow cereal stubbles in field north of Himbleton
Manor (JJD). 2nd
post-1987 site.
Agrostis
vinealis: # 9668, locally frequent, neglected
wall-top bed, Sherwood Road, Aston Fields Industrial Estate (JJD)
+ Ambrosia
artemisiifolia: # 7748, disturbed ground,
development site, Leigh Sinton Road (B.Laney)
Asplenium
trichomanes ssp. quadrivalens: # 0061,
Feckenham Church (JJD)
Calystegia
x lucana (C. sepium x silvatica): #
9467, natural garden of end house, Foley Gardens, Stoke Prior (JJD)
Campanula
patula: 8245, about 9 plants scattered along
c.50m of boundary ditch of Dripshill Wood (AWR). Re-find on old site
for this endangered species.
+ Cannabis
sativa: # 0245, 2 large plants on earth bank
between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR)
Carex
distans: # 9746, locally abundant in meadow
by Lench Ditch, Lower Moor (AWR)
Carex
vesicaria: # 5760, pool opposite Honger Grove
(RM)
+ Carthamus
tinctorius: 1non-flowering plant on earth
bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 5th
county record
Cerastium
diffusum: # 0566, small colony, central
reservation close to roundabout, Old Forge Drive Redditch vc 38 (JJD)
+ Cerinthe
major: # 0245, several plants (vegetative) on
earth bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR conf. JJD).
4th county record.
Chara
globularis: # 9173, locally abundant, pond in
Chaddesley Wood (JJD)
* + Chionodoxa
luciliae: # 0175, Cofton Hackett churchyard
(RM). 1st county
record.
+ Cicer
arientinum: # 0245, about 10 plants on earth
bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 3rd
county record
+ Clarkia
unguiculata: # 0245, 1 flowering plant on
earth bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR det. KB).
3rd county record
+ Coriandrum
sativum: 0245, 2 plants on earth bank between
old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 6th
county record
+ Cucurbita
pepo: # 0245, 1 fruiting plant (courgette) on
earth bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 4th
county record.
+ Cyclamen
repandum: # 7740, several flowering, Little
Malvern Priory (JJD)
* + Daucus
carota ssp. sativus: # 0245, 1 plant on earth
bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 1st
county record.
* + Doronicum
x willdenowii (D. pardalianches x plantagineum): #
0072, small stand on verge of Wheeley Road Tutnall (JJD). 1st
county record.
+ Epilobium
brunescens: # 9245, 2 plants on edge of main
ride, Tiddesley Wood (AWR). 1st
record in south of county, presumed accidental introduction on
forestry equipment.
Epipactis
phyllanthes: # 6567, roadside at Highwood (MJ
conf. RM as nearest to var. pendula)
Equisetum
fluviatile: # 1078, Priory Fields NR (JJD)
Festuca
altissima: # 7678, Seckley Wood, vc39 (RM).
3rd county site,
1st in Wyre Forest
area.
Filipendula
vulgaris: #1243, 1, dismantled railway,
Church Honeybourne (TDK)
Fumaria
capreolata: # 0744, 1 patch on open land at
side of orchard against tarmac footway of B4085 at Blackminster
(TDK): # 8453, several plants on garden / pavement interface,
Coventry Avenue at Bromwich Road junction (AWR)
+ Guizotia
abyssinica: # 7848, 2 flowering plants on
margin of maize field just east of Lower Howsell Road (KB): # 0245,
1 plant on earth bank between old and new
roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR) . 3rd
& 4th county
record.
Heleborus
viridis: # 7273, about 50 plants by Tanners
Brook, 2007, (MJ)
+ Helianthus
tuberosus: # 9438, wide and dense patch round
most of edge of arable field by track from Westmancote up Bredon Hill
– crop relic or conservation planting? (AWR).
+ Juncus
tenuis: # 9173, single clump in trackway,
Chaddesley Wood (JJD)
* + Knautia
macedonica: # 8048, 2, waste area outside
entrance to sewerage freatment works, Madresfield (KB conf.
E.J.Clement). 1st
county record.
+ Lactuca
sativa: # 0245, locally frequent on earth
bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 2nd
county record – all var.crispa, both red (Lolla Rossa?) and pale
green (Lolla Bionda?)
0 Lepidium
latifolium: # 9165, dominant stand over about
10m of M5 slip road (JJD)
+ Lepidium
ruderale: # 0445, at least 10 plants on road
edge of A46 Evesham Bypass (AWR)
+ Lepidium
sativum: # 0245, 1
plant on earth bank between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR).
5th post –1987
county record.
Luzula x borreri
(L.forsteri x pilosa): # 9173, woodbank, with
both parents, Santery Hill Wood (JJD)
* 0 Lysimachia
thyrsiflora: well established patch in field
pond near Merebrook Farm, Hanley Swan (KB conf E.C.Clement). 1st
county record.
+ Nicandra
physalodes: # 7845, 2, pavement / foot of
wall, Barnards Green (KB): # 0245, 2 plants on earth bank between
old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR)
* + Phaseolus
vulgaris: # 0245, 1 plant on earth bank
between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 1st
county record.
+ Pisum
sativum: # 0245, 3 plants on earth bank
between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 6th
post-1987 record
+ Pratia
pedunculata: # 9436, weed in garden lawn,
Kemerton (GHG det. AWR). 6th
county record.
Pyrola
rotundifolia subsp.rotundifolia: # 8361, good
patch, willow scrub in sandy deposits of established settling pool
from sand and gravel quarry, Top Barn Farm, Holt. (Roger Bates conf.
JJD & AWR). 1st
county record for over 100 years.
+ Raphanus
sativus: # 0245, frequent on earth bank
between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 7th
county record.
Rosa
sherardii: # 6949, Acton Green (RM).
Recorded as var. resinosoides.
Rosa
x involuta (R. sherardii x spinosissima): #
9655, field hedge near Grafton Wood (RM). R.
sherardii female parent. 2nd
post-1987 record.
Saxifraga
tridactylites: # 8463, 1, pavement by
churchyard, Ombersley (JJD & AWR).
+ Sidalca
malviflora: # 0246, 1 plant on earth bank
between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 5th
county record.
+ Spinacia
oleracea: # 0245, frequent on earth bank
between old and new roads, B4624 near A44 (AWR). 2nd
county record
+ Taraxacum
altissimum: # 8264, hedgebank with sandstone
outcrops, lane Brook Farm to A4133 at Powers (JJD & AWR conf.
A.J.Richards). 5th
county record
* + Taraxacum
caloschistum: # 0260, grass verge, lane by
Tarbridges Holberrow (JJD det. A.J.Richards). 1st
county record, not seen in Britain for 20 years.
Taraxacum
edmondsonianum: # 9264, arable headland,
Astwood Dodderhill (JJD det. A.J.Richards). 2nd
county record.
+ Taraxacum
fagerstroemii: # 8866 grass verge of track to
Hampton Farm on railway bridge (JJD det. A.J.Richards). 2nd
county record.
+ Taraxacum
fusciflorum: 9861, grass verge, Church Road,
Bradley Green (JJD det.AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 2nd
county record.
Taraxacum
glauciniforme: 9146, road verge between
Ramsden and Crabbe Lane (AWR det. A.J.Richards). 4th
county record.
+ Taraxacum
incisum: # 9758, arable near Hill Farm,
Grafton Flyford (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards): # 8965, arable
headland / pathside near Highstank Pool (JJD det. AWR conf.
A.J.Richards). 3rd
& 4th county
records.
+ Taraxacum
macranthoides: # 8264, grass verge of lane
Brook Farm to A4133 at Powers (JJD & AWR det. A.J.Richards). 4th
county record
+ Taraxacum
nitidum: # 9663, woodland glade, Oxpasture
bank (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 3rd
county record.
* Taraxacum
ostenfeldii: # 9049, trackside in Stoulton
Community Woodland (AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 1st
county record
+ Taraxaum
pallescens: # 9758, grass verge of lane from
Grafton to Stock Green (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 3rd
county record.
+ Taraxacum
pannulatum: # 9962, rye-grass ley, Stock &
Bradley Parish (JJD det. A.J.Richards. 4th
county record.
+ Taraxacum
porrigens: # 8363, grass verge, Parsonage
Lane Ombersley (JJD & AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 2nd
county record
+ Taraxacum
pulchrifolium: # 0072. grasss verge of
Wheeley Road Tutnall (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 3rd
county record.
Taraxacum
sagittipotens: # 9467, garden flower bed,
Brickhouse Lane Stoke Prior (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards). 5th
county record.
* + Taraxacum
semiglobosum: # 9062, grass bank on Holloway,
Droitwich (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards).. 1st
county record
* + Taraxacum
speciosum: # 9858, grass verge, Middle Road
Stock Green (JJD det. A.J.Richards. 1st
county record , 5th
British.
Taraxacum
subcyanolepis: # 9272, grass verge of
Woodland Road Dodford (JJD det. A.J.Richards): # 8163, grass verge of
A4133, Holt (JJD det. AWR). 4th
&5th
county record.
Taraxacum
tamesense: 8530, 1 small plant, Chaceley
Meadow (AWR conf. A.J.Richards).. Only known local site, where last
seen in 1988.
+ Taraxacum
tenebricans: # 0870, grass verge of Seafield
Lane (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards).. 3rd
county record, 2nd
in vc37.
+ Taraxacum
valens: 0260, grass verge of lane by
Tarbridges Holberrow (JJD det. AWR conf. A.J.Richards).. 3rd
county site, 2nd
in vc37.
Trifolium
subterraneum: # 8280, several
well-established patches in short mown grassland (with Ornithopus),
Wolverley High School (MWP)
+ Trigonella
foenum-graecum: # 8450, abundant in 2 planted
strips along arable field, Open Barn Farm, Kempsey Upper Ham (AWR).
Presumed planted as green manure by spinach crop. 2nd
county record.
+ Verbena
bonariensis: # 8540, several in small waste
area outside house, Upton upon Severn (KB)
+ Veronica
austriaca: # 1244, small patch on dismantled
railway line, Church Honeybourne (TDK). 1st
post-1987 record.
Viola
x bavarica (V. reichenbachiana x riviniana): #
8145, large patch in
Guarlford churchyard, seen in flower and fruit (KB & RM det. RM).
3rd recent
confirmed record.
AWR - Bert Reid
MJ - Mark Jannink
GHG Harry Green
MWP - Mike Poulton
JJD - John Day
RM - Roger Maskew
KB - Keith Barnett
TDK - Terry Knight