Berkshire: Cholsey & Aston Upthorpe downs

26 August 2013                                OS map 174 Newbury & Wantage

All day

This walk was a replica of the spring visit we made here in our post for 27 May, so that the description of the route there will suffice.  Many of the summer flowers that had emerged since then had by now gone to seed, unfortunately, so that at an early August visit would generally be preferable - although that would miss the Chiltern gentian, which was just coming into flower, and the peak period for clustered bellflowers.

         A full list of chalk flowers seen on this occasion is appended; only the more interesting highlights are mentioned here.
          Beside the track up Kingstanding Hill was a tall clump of the alien cotton thistle Onopordum acanthium, still statuesque although the flowers were over, ghostlike in its downy whiteness.  We also passed several plants of vervain Verbena officinalis, whose narrow spikes of small flowers were much more difficult to distinguish from the background vegetation, and spurge laurel Daphne laureola in the shade of the hedgerow.  There were many plants of another of the majestic thistles, woolly thistle Cirsium eriophiorum, which on our last visit were only leaf-rosettes, but all were now in seed.  Apple mint Mentha x villosa was a well-established garden escape , enjoyed by a variety of bees, flies and beetles.

Traveller's joy in seed

Ploughman's spikenard

Apple mint with Eristalis pertinax drone-fly

Woolly thistle gone to seed

By the open track, Fair Mile, was tall grass with pale toadflax Linaria repens, golden melilot Melilotus altissimua, tufted vetch Vicia cracca and even a patch of the rarer spiny rest-harrow Ononis spinosa surviving on a less overgrown bank. Near the latter scuttled the black carrion beetle Silpha atrata, with a narrow head used for attacking snails. A lizard was basking in a bare patch until we surprised it.  Red-legged partridges abounded, sometimes running for hundreds of metres along the path in front of us instead of flying off into scrub at the side.  Buzzards flew above.

         A corner of an arable field with a maize crop had a number of interesting casuals, such as small nettle Urtica urens, field pansy Viola arvensis, common fumitory Fumaria officinalis (subspecies officinalis and wirtgenii), common poppy Papaver rhoeas, luxuriant black bindweed Fallopia convolvulus, the unusual common amaranth Amaranthus retroflexus (with very hairy stems distinguishing it from green amaranth), and the increasingly scarce henbit dead-nettle Lamium amplexicaulum.

Common amaranth

Common fumitory

Common poppy

In the Aston Upthorpe combe clustered bellflower Campanula glomerata dominated in patches, perhaps the greatest concentration we had seen of this plant, comparable to the chalk milkwort seen here in the spring.  There were also many patches of harebell Campanula rotundifolia and seedheads of dropwort Filipendula vulgaris, which had come and gone since spring.  Similarly, the orchids were now difficult to identify spikes of seed-pods but would seem to include pyramidals Anacamptis pyramidalis.  On the other hand, the autumn gentians Gentianella amarella were still mainly in bud. 

Harebells

Clustered bellflowers

Juniper and Aston Upthorpe combe

Autumn gentian and dropwort in fruit, with seed from woolly thistle

Many butterflies were enjoying the sunshine - meadow and hedge brown, small heath, large white, peacock, small tortoiseshell, brimstone, common blue, small copper, speckled wood and even a, presumably migrant, clouded yellow, still in good condition.  The abundance of flowers even at this late date attracted many of the greenish Lucerne Plantbugs Adelphocoris lineolatus.  The old juniper Juniperus communis bushes also harboured many insects, particularly the small shiny domed black ladybird with two vague reddish spots, Heather Ladybird Chilocorus bipustulatus, and the Juniper Shieldbug Cyphostethus tristriatus.  (We searched for caterpillars of the rare Juniper Carpet moth but did not find one.)  Many of the clustered bellflowers had galled spikes where the flowers were replaced by swollen leafy clusters, caused by the mite Aculus schmardae.

          This former reserve was the only place on the walk with short enough turf for the thymes Thymus polytrichus and pulegioides and squinancywort Asperula cynanchica.
          Surprisingly, it was not until we walked into Aston Tirrold that we saw any dark mullein Verbascum nigrum at the roadside.  In the village were also pellitory-by-the-wall Parietaria judaica.
          On our return we diverted, as before, to Riddle Hill, where there was little in the way of short turf as at the Aston Upthorpe reserve, but did have lots of devilsbit scabious Succisa pratensis, clustered bellflower and many other chalk grassland plants seen earlier.  Here we saw a brown hare.
          By the lane going up to Aston Upthorpe reserve there was the alien rose with sprays of small flowers Rosa multiflora in the hedge.  A chalk bank beside an arable field just below the reserve had chicory Cichorium intybus and long-stalked cranesbill Geranium columbinum.  We searched here for evidence of the elusive blue pimpernel Anagallis arvensis ssp foemina seen here ten years ago, but saw only the red sub-species.
          Native catmint Nepeta cataria has been recorded from many places along this walk in the past, but we were disappointed not to find single plant.  It seems to disappear from known sites and re-appear at new ones, so that we have only seen it when expected on some of our walks.

Lower end of Aston Upthorpe combe

List of flowers of chalk grassland and scrub
Bartsia, red Odontites vernus
Basil, wild Clinopodium vulgare
Bellflower, clustered Campanula glomerata
Buckthorn, common Rhamnus catharticus
Burnet-saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga
Campion, white Silene latifolia
Carrot, wild Daucus carota
Chicory Cichorium intybus
Cranesbill, hedge Geranium pyrenaicum
Cranesbill, long-stalked Geranium columbinum
Dropwort Filipendula vulgaris
Eyebright, common Euphrasia nemorosa
Flax, fairy Linum catharticum
Gentian, autumn Gentianella amarella
Harebell Campanula rotundifolia
Horehound, black Ballota nigra
Juniper Juniperus communis
Knapweed. chalk Centaurea debeauxii
Knapweed, greater Centaurea scabiosa
Marjoram Origanum vulgare
Mignonette, wild Reseda lutea
Mullein, dark Verbascum nigrum
Orchid, pyramidal Anacamptis pyramidalis
Parsnip, wild Pastinaca sativa
Ploughman's spikenard Inula conyza
Rest-harrow Ononis repens
Rest-harrow, spiny Ononis spinosa
Rock-rose, common Helianthemum nummularium
Salad-burnet Sanguisorba minor
Scabious, devilsbit Succisa pratensis
Scabious, field Knautia arvensis
Scabious, small Scabiosa columbaria
Spurge laurel Daphne laureola
Squinancywort Asperula cynanchica
Thistle, dwarf Cirsium acaule
Thistle, musk Carduus nutans
Thistle, woolly Cirsium eriophiorum
Thyme, large Thymus pulegioides
Thyme, wild Thymus polytrichus
Toadflax, pale Linaria repens
Traveller's joy Clematis vitalba
Vervain Verbena officinalis
Vetch, tufted Vicia cracca
Wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana