2 July 2011 OS Explorer 172 Chiltern Hills North
Length: 20 minutes.
Prestwood was a small village until the late 1900s, when a major housing estate was built for overspill, radically changing its character to almost suburban. Nevertheless some surprising plants can be found even close to and among the new housing. Even rare Boletus fungi occur regularly in grass verges, somehow having survived from the former Prestwood Common enclosed around 1860.
(1) Collings Hanger Orchard, Prestwood SP873000
This (and the field to the south of it) is the main site for a plant that grows nowhere else in Bucks and is far from its normal distribution in south and west England
Corky-fruited water-dropwort
Fruiting umbel of corky-fruited water-dropwort
For more about this site see “Corky-fruited Water-dropwort (Oenanthe pimpinelloides) in Buckinghamshire” by Tony & Val Marshall , BSBI News, January 2009, 12-16.) Coming by car we would recommend parking in Lodge Lane, as the main road is not wide and very busy.
(2) Lodge Lane, Prestwood SP87330008
From the Oenanthe roadside we walked down the right-hand (south side) verge of Lodge Lane. Along the second strip of roadside grass verge, right next to the road, is a small patch of thrift Armeria maritima. This plant (originally one) has been established here since at least 1999, despite being a hundred miles from its coastal habitats. It presumably survives because of salting of the road occasionally in winter (and despite frequent mowing of the verge by residents). The deep (rather than pale) pink flowers tend to confirm what one would suspect – that it was originally a garden escape, but garden thrift plants (sold for rockeries) seem seldom to seed and spread even within gardens yet alone beyond them. It just might be that it is a native plant, carried as seed on the tyres of a car, as cars have occasionally been seen parked on the verge.
Thrift by Lodge Lane
(3) Peppard Meadow, Prestwood SP876002
This is the site of a naturalised flower that will not be found in Stace’s “New Flora of the British Isles ” or other major texts. Pratia pedunculata is a small pale blue flower sold in garden centres as a rockery-plant. At this site it has been established for many years in a lawn where it has spread to create a wonderful field of blue stars, especially in the second half of June.
Pratia pedunculata
We reached Peppard Meadow from Lodge Lane, going east from the last site. Just after a patch of grass and shrubs known as Greenside, the road called Peppard Meadow comes off to the left. Along here is a belt of trees and grass that was left when building the housing estate in the 1980s. The lawn in question is that in front of the first house behind this line of trees. The lawn is unfenced and easily viewed from the pavement.
Peppard Meadow is named after a local family (variously Peppard or Peppett) that purchased a few fields after the enclosure of the common.
(4) Westrick Walk SP874002
We followed Peppard Meadow to its end where a path on the left between houses took us to Greenside (at the farther end from Lodge Lane). Across this narrow strip of grass is another walkway, signed as Westrick Walk, which preserves a line of trees (some now felled) which used to be part of a hedge marking the edge of Prestwood Common. These are mainly oaks Quercus robur, with one beech Fagus sylvatica that had obviously been laid several centuries ago.
Westrick Walk oaks
Old laid beech, Westrick Walk
Four of the oaks have a girth of over 3 metres and must be 200-300 years old, while the beech has a girth of 2.43m. These old trees support rare fungi and insects such as the oak weevil, sawflies, and lichen-eating moths, despite being very close to housing.
Boletus fechtneri – one of the rare fungi along Westrick Walk
(taken in August 2010)
The walkway continues across Wren Road and eventually we returned to Wycombe Road opposite Colllings Hanger Farm, just north of our starting point. Collings Hanger Farm is registered organic and under Environmental Stewardship. There is a small diary shop at the farm.
No comments:
Post a Comment