18 July 2016 OS Landranger 164 Oxford
Half day
We parked in the
car-park of The Trout at Godstow, as we planned to eat there on our return, it
being open all day, which relieved any time pressure.
We walked over the
road bridge (wall-rue Asplenium
ruta-muraria and pellitory-of-the-wall Parietaria
judaica) to the path to the ruins of Godstow Nunnery or Abbey, built
originally in the 1130s out of local limestone on what was then an island in
the Thames .
Following dissolution in 1539, it became a private house and farm, but was
ruined in the course of the Civil War, since when just these rather plain
outline walls remain.
Godstow Nunnery
On, and at the
base of, the walls were pellitory-of-the-wall, fern grass Catapodium rigidum, common (mostly) and Oxford ragworts Senecio jacobaea and S. squalidus, white stonecrop Sedum album, long-headed poppy Papaver dubium, round-leaved cranesbill Geranium rotundifolium (sticky with
dense long glandular hairs all over), thyme-leaved sandwort Arenaria serpyllifolia, black horehound Ballota nigra and good king henry Chenopodium bonus-henricus.
Round-leaved cranesbill,
thyme-leaved sandwort and fern-grass
Black horehound &
Good King Henry
|
Pellitory-of-the-wall
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The grassland is
rough but not remarkable, having musk thistle Carduus nutans, burnet-saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga, lady's bedstraw Galium verum and hoary plantain Plantago
media. A dry ditch going west from
the ruins, mostly occupied by a hedge, however, is the most renowned site for
the rare alien birthwort Aristolochia
clematitis, scrambling stems with heart-shaped leaves and strange narrow
yellow trumpet flowers. There was much
of it for a short stretch, but does not seem to have spread far, given that it
has been here for centuries, introduced it is said by the nuns for its
medicinal properties, supposed to assist childbirth, but its toxicity perhaps
indicates a more covert use for abortions.
Birthwort
Between the ruins
and the Thames to the east is a large white
poplar Populus alba.
White poplar
We walked south
from here along the west bank of the Thames, surprised to see two posts in the
river each surmounted by a resting common tern.
Swallows were swooping over the water.
After passing through a lock we were again in rough meadow, with yellow
rattle Rhinanthus minor and
infrequent pyramidal orchid Anacamptis
pyramidalis and woolly thistle Cirsium
eriophorum.
Woolly thistle
|
Musk thistle
|
Much more
vegetated were the banks of the Thames with meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, gypsywort Lycopus
europaeus, water figwort Scrophularis
aquatica, purple loosestrife Lythrum
salicaria, great willowherb Epilobium
hirsutum, marsh woundwort Stachys
palustris, hemlock water dropwort Oenanthe
crocata, water forgetmenot Myosotis
scorpioides, water mint Mentha
aquatica, wood horsetail Equisetum
sylvaticum and common club-rush Schoenoplectus
palustris.
Marsh woundwort
|
Meadowsweet and purple
loosestrife
|
We only saw a
little Indian balsam Impatiens
glandulifera, presumably indicating regular efforts at control. Some of the trees at the bank were black
poplar Populus nigra hybrids and one
very large old specimen had conspicuous leaf galls caused by the fungus Taphrina populina, with yellowish bulges
above and bright yellow hollows beneath.
Hybrid black poplar and
fan
|
Galls of Taphrina populina on hybrid black
poplar
|
There was little
aquatic vegetation because of frequent boat traffic, although there were large
flocks of greylag geese with occasional domestic hybrids (regularly chased from
the banks into the water by dogs, much to the birds' annoyance), the odd Canada
goose, frequent mute swans and a heron flying by.
Greylag and domestic geese
A pair of pied
wagtails were calling in a riverside bush and goldfinches liked the rough
meadow. Dragonflies in evidence were the
banded agrion Calopteryx splendens
and common blue damselfly Enallagma
cyathigerum.
Common blue damselfly
Other regular
aerial traffic were Globemaster troop-carrier planes from nearby Brize Norton. The shells of swollen river mussel Unio tumidus were common in shallow water
edges.
Globemaster
|
Swollen river mussel
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Near Binsey we
passed chicory Cichorium intybus,
lucerne Medicago sativa and fly
honeysuckle Lonicera xylosteum.
Chicory
|
Fly honeysuckle
|
At Medley Weir to
get to Port Meadow we crossed two bridges, as the Thames
is here split into two streams.
Instead of going
straight across Port Meadow, we walked south along the Castle Mill Stream which
is free of boat traffic and by far the best place for water plants, which
included amphibious bistort Persicaria
amphibia, Canadian pondweed Elodea
canadensis, yellow water-lily Nuphar
lutea, great and creeping yellow-cress Rorippa
amphibia and R. sylvestris,
brooklime Veronica beccabunga, pink
water-speedwell V. catenata, marsh
cudweed Gnaphalium uliginosum, and
reed sweet-grass Glyceria maxima.
Amphibious bistort
Creeping yellow-cress
|
Pink water-speedwell
Great yellow-cress
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Undisturbed by the
flocks of geese, this was also a harbour for smaller birds like the mallard and
moorhen. At the southern end of Port
Meadow we left the stream and walked across to the concrete path that takes one
some way north on the east side. Port
Meadow was being grazed by sizable herds of both horses and cows, while a large
part was still under water from the river flooding its banks earlier in the
year.
The shallow lake
attracted a large flock of mature and juvenile black-headed gulls, accompanied
by a pair of little egrets. Overhead
flew red kites. In the event, our path
along the east side was halted by deep water half way along and we had to
return to the south side and proceed up the west side, not far from the Thames , which provided the only dry route to the north
end. While on the east side, however, we
recorded water-plantain Alisma
plantago-aquatica, tubular water-dropwort Oenanthe fistulosa, hard rush Juncus
inflexus, slender spike-rush Eleocharis
uniglumis (usually a coastal species), fool's watercress Apium nodiflorum and fan-leaved
water-crowfoot Ranunculus circinatus. We were surprised to see a single plant of
flowering rush Butomus umbellatus in
bud, a species we had not seen here on previous visits.
Tubular water-dropwort
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Flowering rush
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At the marshy edge
of the lake below the embankment along which the path ran we were also pleased
to find several plants of creeping marshwort Apium repens, the rare highlight of this site, noticeable at first
by the slightly differently-shaped leaflets from fool's watercress, but
confirmed by many bracts at the base of the flower umbel, which was
long-stalked, and the creeping stems rooting at each node.
Creeping marshwort
Tiny black rove-beetles
with prominent eyes proved to be the common wetland species Stenus juno. At the north end of Port Meadow we could exit
through the car-park at Wolvercote and complete the round trip by walking a few
hundred yards west to the Trout.
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