Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire: Chiltern Bluebell Woods around Stokenchurch

13^th May 2012                         OS Explorer 171 Chiltern Hills West

Length: All day.

Bluebells, Cowleaze Wood

Woods in the Chilterns vary from chalk to clay subsoil and even more considerably in terms of management.  The best-managed can have a rich and colourful under-storey of spring flowers, but many are merely green swathes of dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis or woodland grasses, and others are virtually devoid of ground vegetation altogether.  All types occur in this walk.  There are also many steep slopes (it is the Chilterns!).

          We started from the car park at Cowleaze Wood SU725955 in Oxfordshire.  This is one of the finest native bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta woods in the vicinity, but we initially left it by walking south along its western edge and then crossing the road to take the footpath to the open access area on Shirburn Hill (the second of the two paths, leading SW).  The strip of woodland reaching the road here has wood anemones Anemone nemorosa. 

Wood anemone

The path leads across improved pasture dominated by bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus, where we disturbed a pair of red-legged partridge, but also crowds of black march-flies Bibio marci that were emerging from the wet grass and blundering into our faces clumsily.  Fresh leaves were just emerging on oak Quercus robur, ash Fraxinus excelsior and beech Fagus sylvatica. 

Ash leaves emerging

Young beech leaves

The path crosses a short section of private beech and larch woodland on the Chiltern escarpment, where bluebells were mixed with yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon, which always makes a good sight, like a disordered Swedish flag.

 Yellow archangel

We soon reached an open area of south-facing escarpment past some old beeches on the right.  This would presumably once have been typical chalk grassland, with a mixed scrub of extensive juniper Juniperus communis and spreading box Buxus sempervirens (native?) on the mid-slope, and leached-out soils above with many acid-soil indicators like tormentil Potentilla erecta and patches of heather Calluna vulgaris. The heathers were just over the fence at the top (the crest of the hill is not part of the open access area), 

Juniper and box scrub

The open area is full of mossy old anthills (still active with their inhabitants, the yellow ants Lasius flavus). 

Shirburn Hill: anthills and view

A close look, however, reveals that virtually the whole turf is covered with rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, unfortunately only just coming into bud at this time.  Given that rock-rose is a woody plant that is really a dwarf shrub, then one could say that the whole hillside is covered in scrub.  Indeed, Shirburn Hill is one of the favourite haunts of mycologist Penny Cullington, who finds a huge variety of rare woodland fungi here associated with the rock-rose rather than the more usual beech, oak and other trees of the Chilterns.  This site may well be ecologically unique.

          Several trees are scattered around, especially towards the top – including evergreen oak Quercus ilex, white beam Sorbus aria (a splendid old one with multiple trunks sprawls low to the ground in one place, its grey-white leaves just unfurling looking very attractive at this time of year), beech, and pedunculate oak. 

Whitebeam on Shirburn Hill

One of the oaks had a good covering of lichens such as Xanthoria parietina, Ramalina fraxinea, Parmelia sulcata and P.caperata, along with dark orange growths of a dry fungus Tremella mesenterica (“Yellow Brain” from its colour when fresh). 

Lichens and Yellow Brain fungus

This was the micro-haunt of a small brown bristly weevil Strophosoma melanogrammum, which is common on oak and can be a forestry pest.  It is interesting for the fact that only females are known and it reproduces parthenogenetically (but obviously very successfully).  There were also shrubs of spindle Euonymus europaeus, many of the fresh leaves already having the typical rolled leaf margins caused by the mite Stenacis convolvens.

          Still competing successfully with the rock-rose, especially on the anthills, were wild strawberry Fragaria vesca,

Wild strawberry

glaucous sedge Carex flacca,

Glaucous sedge

spring sedge Carex caryophyllea (with their top male spikes conspicuously bulbous while in flower),

Spring sedge

field woodrush Luzula campestris, common dog-violet Viola riviniana, last year’s carline thistles Carlina vulgaris, dwarf thistle Cirsium acaule, common milkwort Polygala vulgaris, biting stonecrop Sedum acre, mouse-ear hawkweed Pilosella officinarum, rosettes of ploughman’s spikenard Inula conyza, salad burnet Sanguisorba minor, bugle Ajuga reptans, common valerian Valeriana officinalis, sheep’s sorrel Rumex acetosella, and, a rarity in the Chilterns, early forgetmenot Myosotis ramosissima, its tiny flowers needing a close look to see, but far more abundant than field forgetmenot Myosotis arvensis here. 

Early forgetmenot

This was a strange mixture of chalkland and heathland plants – despite the leaching of the soil the chalk was very close to the surface, as shown where rabbits or badgers had dug holes.  Also frequent all over the slope were delicate little dandelions Taraxacum Section Erythrosperma, of which we identified a couple, T. fulviforme and T. rubicundum.  

Taraxacum Section Erythrosperma

Cowslips Primula veris were only to be seen beside the footpath along the bottom of the slope.

          It was too early to see the wealth of toadstools associated with the rock-rose.  There was a little Amethyst Deceiver Laccaria amethystea, normally only encountered in woodland, but the others seen were the usual meadow or heath species such as Meadow Puffball Vascellum pratense, Common Funnel Clitocybe gibba (large amounts in one patch), and Psathyrella obtusata.

Common funnel

Dwarf Bell Galerina pumila, delicate and slender, was associated with the moss, which enlivened the anthills with a patchwork of greens, yellows and golden-browns, including Montagne’s Cylinder-moss Entodon concinnus (the golden species) and Broom Fork-moss Dicranum scoparium (fresh green), while the general turf between the hummocks was dominated by Spring Turf-moss Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, with its distinctive reflexed leaves.  Out of the moss, when examining it, came the tiny black staphylinid beetle Stenus brunnipes with its eyes so large that the head was wider than the rest of its slender body.

Rock-rose growing through moss (mostly Montagne’s cylinder-moss)

Over all flew the red kites, brazenly sweeping low around us, birds that would be conspicuous all day.  Stonechats were heard in the scrub, while a herd of roe-deer was both “heard” and seen.  With the recent rainy overcast weather, and it being before 10 o’clock in the morning, we saw hardly any butterflies, just a single Dingy Skipper.  With a long walk still ahead we had to move on, taking a last look at the wide view of the plain below the escarpment before retracing our steps.

          Arriving back at Cowleaze Wood we walked north to the public footpath and took that east to the far tip of the wood.  Now we had time to take stock of the wide swathes of bluebells, many wood anemone leaves (though few in flower), wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella, three-nerved sandwort Moehringia trinervia, and woodruff Galium odoratum, typical of the more floriferous Chiltern woods. 

Cowleaze Wood, where the trees have orange eyes

There is a sign from the path to the Bomber Memorial, a concrete pillar to commemorate the Halifax bomber that crashed here on 31 March 1944 after a successful raid over Nuremberg, killing all seven Canadian crew.  No-one knows why it came down here, only a few miles from base.  There used to be many wood and metal constructions around the wood, part of a sculpture trail, but there is no sign of these any more.  Begun in 1990 the trail was very popular with visitors (about 80,000 a year), but was abandoned in 2007 when funding ran out, many of the works being sold at auction.  So man’s touches soon disappear, but the bluebells still lord it over all.

          At the end of the wood the path descends steeply through arable and then sheep pasture to a drive leading to Lower Vicar’s Farm, where there were cowslips in the verge.

Sheep pasture

Cowslips in verge

We turned left and then right, passing just south of the farm – a cluster of houses, of which the original barn is a listed building, and where house martins were flying. 

Lower Vicars Farm

The grass slope to the east has plenty of scattered cowslips, but is also planted with garden daffodils Narcissus sp.  Here the red kites were mewing and mobbing a lone buzzard.  At the top of the slope the path enters Langleygreen Plantation, a young wood with lots of new planting, dominated by dog’s mercury, with plenty of wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides spikes standing up proudly in flower, several clumps of blackcurrant Ribes nigrum, their leaves with that unique aromatic smell that can only be described as “blackcurrant”, and a little bugle.

Wood spurge

Blackcurrant

Reaching the top of the hill within the wood, the path then descends again into the next dry valley through pasture created out of recently cultivated land.  A lone brimstone flew past us. 

The slope up the other side is wooded and the wood-edge marks the boundary of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, into which we now ascended, taking the left-hand fork to the north side.  This is again a dog’s mercury wood with little else other than wood spurge, although we did see the odd primrose Primula vulgaris.  Only at the far NE corner at the edge of the wood, on the clay plateau, did we pass through a carpet of bluebells.  Here we emerged eastwards through rather rough arable land where we started looking for the rare cornsalad Valerianella rimosa that has been seen around Stokenchurch, but there were only ordinary annuals like parsley-piert Aphanes arvensis, field pansy Viola arvensis, and red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum.  A hedged track then leads into Stokenchurch village, a community sandwiched between the A40 and the M4 motorway, the noise of which is inescapable.  The path crosses through a little industrial estate where there is wasteland with plants like common storksbill Erodium cicutarium (which seems to be rare generally in the Chilterns), green alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens and goat’s-rue Galega officinalis. 

Common storksbill

Green alkanet

An orange-tip was inspecting the plants of garlic mustard Alliaria petiolata.  Crossing the Ibstone Road leading to the M4 interchange the path reaches a lane that bears north then east (Green Lane) parallel to the motorway and to a footbridge over the M40 into the centre of Stokenchurch.  Cuckooflowers Cardamine pratensis flowered at the side of this path, and so did hedgerow cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum on the ramp up to the bridge.

          On the other side of the bridge are allotments and clumps of common winter-cress Barbarea vulgaris in flower.  The lane leads past the cricket pitch to the A40, where we turned right and then crossed to Church Street.  Just past the church is the Royal Oak pub and here we could pick up the Chiltern Way, although it is not signed until you get further along, so is hard to find.  We followed the Chiltern Waythrough grassland and then an arable field with lots of black grass Alopecurus myosuroides and other common arable plants like field madder Sherardia arvensis and field pansy. 

Chiltern Way

through wheatfields

At a hedgerow the Chiltern Wayturns eastwards along it and beside more cultivated fields with parsley piert before crossing a farm track and more arable to reach a track called Collier’s Lane on the OS map.  We followed this east all the way to Bennett End where we turned left up Horseshoe Lane to the Three Horseshoes at the top of the slope, a good place for lunch.

Three Horseshoes, Bennett End

We returned down Horseshoe Lane to the footpath opposite it, which ascends a sunken lane by a few houses, with wood melick Melica uniflora and goldilocks buttercup Ranunculus auricomus flowering by the path, shrubs of red currant Ribes rubrum and spindle, and mature beech trees.  Along here we came across patches of flowering ramsons Allium ursinum, explaining why “wild garlic” had been in our risotto at lunch!  There were also patches of moschatel Adoxa moschatellina, a few plants still in flower, woodruff and wood-sorrel, as we bent round through a small wood to the top of the slope and eventually reached a lane past a war memorial surrounded by field woodrush.  We turned left and then right along Green Lane, a plant of shining cranesbill Geranium lucidum on the right, but then with houses both sides, apparently called “The City” according to the OS map. 

At the end we turned right down towards Ashridge Farm, where three footpaths start at the end of the paved lane.  We took the left-hand one which leads to Bottom Wood, a Nature Reserve well managed by the Chiltern Society. 

Bottom Wood

Male fern uncoiling in Bottom Wood

A wide ride leads along the bottom of the wood, although this is also a bridleway and gets very chewed up by horses.  It was pleasing to be back in another flowery wood with extensive bluebells, yellow archangel, woodruff, goldilocks buttercup, wood melick, wood sedge, and wood millet. 

Woodruff

Goldilocks buttercup

In many places the main ground carpeting plant seems to be lesser celandine Ficaria verna.  Towards the east end, where the bridleway runs along the southern edge of the wood, a path goes off to the left to an area that is being managed as chalk grassland, although it is still obviously recovering from having become wooded over at some stage, as the main grass was the common woodland one, false-brome Brachypodium sylvaticum.  A sparrowhawk flew over as we looked around to see the vigorous shoots and spotted leaves of common spotted orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii emerging amid a scattering of cowslips.  Muntjac slots in bare muddy places showed that it was going to be a problem protecting the orchids from being eaten off.  Indeed, having returned to the track where we turned off, we saw a small notice about violet helleborines Epipactis purpurata that appear here later in the year and wire-cages that unfortunately have to be used to guard them from the deer.  We were too early to see the beginnings of the shoots of these orchids.

At the end of Bottom Wood a belt of beech woodland runs south and we followed the bridleway uphill through it to reach Studley Green.  This woodland is a stark contrast to the one we had just left, the ground totally bare of vegetation, let alone flowers.  Just before we left there was a patch of gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa, making up the trio of Ribes species one can expect to see in these Chiltern woods.  In this case, however, it looks likely to be an escape from the nearby houses.  We emerged on a short stretch of the Old Dashwood Hill (or Old Oxford Road) that has been by-passed by the modern A40, and along here was a milestone dated 1744 giving the distances as Oxford 20, London 34.

At Studley Green there is a choice of return route.  The choice is either “call a friend” and get a lift back to Cowleaze Wood, or take footpaths back towards Bennett End and pick up the morning’s route, or cross the A40 and follow footpaths south of Stokenchurch along a totally new route.  The problem with the last choice is that the paths are not very direct and zigzag a lot, most of the paths are also bridleways and dense horse traffic has made them uncomfortable for walking, and, while the route passes through a lot of woodland, most of this is of poor quality botanically.  (On the other hand, you have a good chance of seeing red deer!)

We took the third option but found it a bit of a drag.  Thirds Wood beside the A40 at Studley Green was muddy and uninteresting, and at the far west end had been invaded by a huge expanse of garden yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp argentatum, hybrid bluebells Hyacinthoides x massartiana and clumps of drooping sedge Carex pendula, the fate of many Chiltern woods too close to habitations.

East Wood was quite fresh green with wood spurge and was a pleasant enough walk.

East Wood

UNTIL, that is, we reached the west end (separately demarcated as Hedgepit Wood) where a wide “road” of builder’s rubble extended along the route of the public footpath for hundreds of metres, making for an exhausting and dangerous walk over brick and tile rubble, broken glass and ceramics, and even cutlery (!).  It is incredible that someone has not been prosecuted over creating such a safety hazard.  This is apparently part of a plan to build a large sports stadium here, although it seems highly unlikely that the District Council would give permission for it in Green Belt and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Penley Wood is another woodland dominated by dog’s mercury with few other flowers, although there were primroses along the north-south footpath through it.  When we emerged on the west side of Penley Wood, south of Studdridge Farm there was a herd of ten red deer hinds and young bucks in the open fields.  They are regularly seen in this area apparently.  A few years ago one would not have seen red deer in the Chilterns, but they have begun colonising, following the muntjacs and roes, probably descended from park escapes.  While welcome in themselves, all deer pose a conservation problem in the Chilterns, where the woods, grasslands and their associated plant communities have evolved over centuries of being completely devoid of their grazing and browsing.  A chalk grassland bank at the top of the first field, on the north side of the footpath, is under Countryside Stewardship.  It has not been grazed or cut although it is no doubt used by the deer. We could only see a single clump of cowslips.

Commonhill Wood near Lower Studdridge Farm has extensive bluebells by the footpath.  The farm is now used as a base for a removals firm, but there is a high fence separating the woodland and the latter is relatively unspoiled.  We finally reached Langleygreen Plantation and could follow our morning route back to Cowleaze Wood and its welcoming bluebells.

         

Our shadows in the evening light

Oxfordshire: Oxford Centre to Iffley: Fritillary Meadows

12 April 2012
Length: All day        A good town centre map is adequate for this walk

We started from the Old Parsonage Hotel in Banbury Road.  This is next to St Giles Church. 

Old entrance to hotel

St Giles Church

The churchyard had plenty of spring beauty Claytonia perfoliata, white comfrey Symphytum orientale (easily picked out at this time of the year before common comfrey begins to flower) and hybrid bluebell Hyacinthoides x massartiana, as well as the usual cultivated daffodils Narcissus spp. 

Spring beauty

White comfrey

On the church walls and stone tombs were yellow corydalis Pseudofumaria lutea, maidenhair and black spleenworts Asplenium trichomanes and A. adiantum-nigrum, and hart’s tongue fern Phyllitis scolopendrium. 

Yellow corydalis

Maidenhair spleenwort

 Another churchyard at the end of St Giles street was similarly full of spring beauty, which the feral pigeons were enjoying as a fresh salad.  It seems to be a common weed here.  Jackdaws were also scavenging here.  Some shiny cranesbill Geranium lucidum was flowering at the base of a street wall. 

Shining cranesbill

We continued due south down Cornmarket.  These central streets are prohibited to private cars, but there are continual streams of buses, taxis, delivery vans and bicycles, so we were still aware of traffic.  We turned along Market Street, downTurl Streetand across the High Street down Alfred Street to Blue Boar Street and Bear Lane in search of old walls with interesting vegetation.  Most walls are kept rigorously “clean” these days and it is difficult to find many plants, but in Blue Boar Street we came across buddleia Buddleja davidii, ivy-leaved toadflax Cymbalaria muralis, blue fleabane Erigeron acer (flowering in April – unusual for this late summer flower) and Mexican fleabane E. karvinskianus, yellow corydalis, wall-rue Asplenium ruta-muraria, hart’s tongue fern, and wall lettuce Mycelis muralis. 

Blue fleabane flowering in April

At the end of Bear Lane we turned into Oriel Square and here found ivy Hedera helix and pellitory-of-the-wall Parietaria judaica. 

Pellitory-of-the-wall

At the far end through a gate there was a courtyard with more plants at the base of the walls – white comfrey, garden strawberry Fragaria x ananassa, greater celandine Chelidonium majus, drooping sedge Carex pendula, petty spurge Euphorbia peplus, and creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens. 

Garden strawberry

The comfrey here had the striking yellow and black caterpillars of the scarlet tiger moth Callimorpha dominula, which hibernates as a small caterpillar and feeds up in spring. 

Scarlet tiger moth caterpillars on white comfrey

Along Merton Street (which is still cobbled) the walls of Merton College had more Mexican fleabane, along with thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana (a common pavement weed here), red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum, Adria bellflower Campanula portenschlagiana, shepherd’s purse Capsella bursa-pastoris, prickly sow-thistle Sonchus asper, chickweed Stellaria media, common field speedwell Veronica persica, and box Buxus sempervirens.  We saw no wallflower surprisingly, although this used to grow on these walls.

Cobbled Merton Street

Returning to the end of Magpie Lane, a path opposite led between Christ Church and Merton College to the expanse of grass known as Merton Grove, where we saw a mistle-thrush, while, at the far end, trees with the plant that shares it name, mistletoe Viscum album, were visible. 

Christ Church from Merton Grove

Entering Broad Walk, Christ Church Meadow lay ahead, although fenced off.  There are various old flower records from here, including fritillary and wild tulip, but now it appeared to be a flowerless expanse of rushes grazed by cows and Canada and greylag geese, although there were some cowslips Primula veris out near Broad Walk.  Turning south down New Walk we followed the western boundary of the meadow.  A stream coming across here had flowering lady’s-smock Cardamine pratensis, near which was a large patch of winter aconite Eranthis hyemalis, now in seed, with a single flower-head of bird-in-a-bush Corydalis solida protruding from among them.  The path leads to the Thames and a row of old plane trees Platanus x hispanica, commonly planted in Oxford as in London.  There were many more geese with coots, mallards, moorhens and mute swans. 

Coot on Thames

In a hawthorn Crataegus monogyna bush on the south side of Christ Church Meadow a blackcap was singing.  There were also alders Alnus glutinosa along here, and eventually a stream with greater pond sedge Carex riparia. 

Greater pond sedge

A very large tree, a raoul Nothofagus procera, just coming into leaf, stood near a side-stream of the Thames, across from the university boathouses. 

Raoul

On the river banks here were blue anemone Anemone apennina (including the white variety) and garden pansy Viola x wittrockiana.

White "blue" anemones

We returned from here back along the Thameside path to the main road St Aldates at the Head of the River Pub, where we saw Oxford ragwort Senecio squalidus which, like white comfrey, flowers before its commoner relatives.  This Mediterranean native originally escaped from Oxford Botanic Gardens, hence its English name. 

Oxford ragwort

We crossed the Thames by means of Folly Bridge, and then descended to the towpath along the south bank of the Thames, part of the long-distance Thames Path.  (There are two streams under the bridge: we had to be careful not to go down to the boat jetties on the island between the two.) 

The river was busy with boat-crews practising, coaches following by bike along the towpath to shout their instructions, so again one has to watch for cyclists. 

There was little of botanical interest along the banks, apart from occasional clumps of young leaves of goat’s-rue Galega officinalis, so we stretched our legs in earnest along here until we reached Donnington Bridge Road, climbed up to cross the bridge over the Thames and then turned left down Meadow Lane.  At the end of the allotments a path strikes left through grassland and scrub, and we then turned left and south towards the end of a small triangular peninsula between the Thames and a short side-stream where housebots were moored.  It was necessary to push through a rough nettle patch to reach the wet Iffley Meadow, where hundreds of fritillaries Fritilloria meleagris were crowded in full flower, mostly purple, a few per cent the white variety.  Some of the purple ones were very dark, almost black.  It was a lovely sight and protected by its seclusion.  The site is diligently managed by the Oxford Conservation Volunteers.

Fritillaries, Iffley Meadow

We returned to Meadow Lane and followed this south towards Iffley.  Meadow Lane Nature Park on the right had nothing of special interest, at least at this time of the year.  The road bends left and goes up to Church Way, where we turned right and followed this road right up to the church.  Along the way there was much cornsalad beginning to flower at the base of the walls – too early to check the fruits. We would have guessed Valerianella carinata, the one we usually find in this situation, but the Oxfordshire flora (Killick, Perry & Woodell) says that sopecies is rare, although there have been records around Oxford.  It therefore needs checking.  When we reached the old Norman church of St Mary’s we immediately encountered a huge old horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum beside the gateway.  Botanically the churchyard was well-maintained, with large areas cordoned off from the demon-mowers to allow flowers a chance to flourish.  In the mown areas was Good Friday grass flowering, less than a week after Good Friday.  Elsewhere were many primroses Primula vulgaris in prime condition still, and the usual bulb-plants like daffodils. 

Primroses & lesser celandines, Iffley churchyard

The main interest here, however, is the huge yew tree Taxus baccata on the other side of the church, reputed to be 1,600 years old and it certainly looks it, though still in great condition, probably the largest we have ever seen.

Iffley Church, with part of the ancient yew to the right

As there is a path only on one side of the Thames we had to return to Oxford by the same route by which we had come.  Crossing Donnington Bridge again we noticed more crowds of cornsalad flowering in the verge; being in grass here they might have been Valerianella locusta.  There was more Oxford ragwort and also annual wall-rocket Diplotaxis muralis, with its evocative but less complimentary name of “stinkweed”, which provides a quick ID check.  On one of the pollarded willow trunks along the Thames north of the bridge, approaching from this side, was a large batch of sulphur polypore bracket fungi, bright yellow and very attractive. 

Sulphur polypore on pollar willow

The willows that had not been cut were equally attractive with their yellow catkins; they appeared to be crack willow Salix fragilis.

Crack willow flowers

When we regained St Aldates we continued north along the road and then turned right along the High Street.  There are a number of eating-places around here for a quick lunch.  After burritos we continued right along the north side of the High Street.  Outside the University Church of St Mary the Virgin was what we presumed to be an old almond tree Prunus dulcis in flower, its sprawling trunks quite black. 

Old almond tree, High Street

Between All Saints and Queens Colleges there is also an old sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, but one can only see the upper part behind a high wall.  Opposite Magdalen College is Rose Lane, which provided another wall to search for plants.  These included the heavily dark-splotched leaves of Hieracium scotostictum and much rue-leaved saxifrage Saxifraga tridactylites, both on top of the wall and at its base, small white flowers on top of reddening stems and leaves. 

Rue-leaved saxifrage

Returning towards the High Street end, there is a way into the Rose Garden and down to the front entrance of the Botanic Garden.  Outside stood an old lime Tilia x europaea covered with huge green clumps of mistletoe.  There is an entrance fee but it is relatively small, and the garden is well worth a look, as there is plenty of interest.  The upper garden is walled and sheltered, and the beds there are conveniently laid out according to botanical families.  Along the east side, outside the wall, are greenhouses with tropical palms, ferns and cacti.  The walls here, on the outside, have large clumps of maidenhair fern Adiantum capillus-veneris that has escaped. 

Maidenhair fern self-sown on wall

A lizard sunning itself on the wall quickly disappeared into a crevice.  Ladder brake Pteris vittata has also been known to grow here, but there was no sign at our visit, although inside the glasshouse it had escaped all over the walls. 

Ladder brake

Another fern, Cheilanthes eatonii (Eaton’s lip fern) from US to Central America, was possibly another candidate for escaping, having established itself in the cracks around the window. 

Eaton's lip fern

Some bulb plants and others were flowering beautifully inside the first glasshouse, the alpine section of the Lily House, including the brilliant red tulip Tulipa linifolia from Afghanistan, which was also flowering outside in the lily family bed, though not so exuberantly, and, interestingly given the focus of the walk on fritillaries, Fritillaria acmopetala, a greenish fritillary from the east Mediterranean.

Tulipa linifolia

Fritillaria acmopetala

In the walled garden are a number of trees, including a well-known example of service tree Sorbus domestica, although the buds were only just opening to show the rowan-like leaves; an old Pinus nigra; a very old white mulberry Morus alba; and, near the gate into the lower garden, the oldest tree here, planted in 1645, not long after the founding of the garden.  Unfortunately this last was a yew which suffered in comparison with the one we had just seen at Iffley, four times as old! 

The sticky resin exudations of the old black

pine occasion interest among visitors

In the bed along the eastern wall bird-in-a-bush had become a rampant weed, engulfing much else along here.  Pink purslane Claytonia sibirica (white form) had also established itself in these beds.  We could not find any Oxford ragwort, so it seems that they have decided they no longer need to preserve it!

Bird-in-a-bush as a rampant weed

Pink purslane (white form)

Leaving the garden we went across to Magdalen Collage and paid another entrance fee to enter its grounds and walk to the famous Magdalen Meadow.  While passing through the college we stopped at a tree just behind the President’s Lodgings, a plane planted in 1801 (to commemorate the “Peace of Amiens” which is now quite forgotten by most of us) from a scion at the Botanic Garden.  Its vast size shows how quickly this species can grow – it appears much older.  Around its base was an uncut grass area with wood anemones Anemone nemorosa, blue anemone, tulips and other bulb plants. 

Old plane, Magdalen College

Wood anemones under plane tree

Walking due east from here the path crossed a stream and then took us along Addison’s Walk around the Meadow, which is fenced off from access, although we could see great purple clouds of fritillaries, that must number in the hundreds of thousands, an amazing sight.  As at Iffley, there is the occasional white flower.  They are doing so well here (though endangered in many other places) that they are still expanding their range and have crossed the boundary stream to grow on the banks beside the path.  Along the path were also many primroses, sweet violet Viola odorata, goldlilocks buttercup Ranunculus auricomus, common whitlow-grass Erophila verna, and butcher’s broom Ruscus aculeatus. 

Last year's berry on butcher's broom

At the NE corner of the meadow we crossed a wooden bridge over a stream which had marsh marigolds Caltha palustris flowering, one having blooms nearly three inches across, as against the usual maximum of two inches.  Across here was a wet meadow where hundreds of fritillaries had spread outside the meadow fence and allowed a close view; here they were mixed with wood anemones and hedge garlic attended by newly-emerged orange-tip butterflies. 

Fritillaries in Magdalen Meadow

Out in the main meadow we saw another large lime with masses of mistletoe.

What the Bird Said Early In the Year - By C.S. Lewis

I heard in Addison's Walk a bird sing clear
‘This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.
‘Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas. 
‘This year time's nature will no more defeat you,
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.
‘This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.
‘This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.
‘Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick!—the gates are drawn apart’.

The above poem is displayed on a board along the walk beside the meadow.  CS Lewis had once been resident at Magdalen College.  This poem was only published posthumously, but an earlier version with two more lines “Chanson d’Aventure” was published in 1938.  The board is on the west side of the path, in front of The Grove Deer Park where a herd of fallow deer was visible some way off, some of the antlered males sparring.  This herd has been here since at least 1705.

Having feasted our eyes here we left the college and took Longwall Street along the west side of Magdalen, north from the High Street, and into St Cross Road to the end where there is an entrance into University Parks.  We walked along the south edge eastwards to the banks of the Cherwell, where the path turns north to follow the river.  At the corner were several grey poplars Populus x canescens just coming into leaf and conspicuously white.  A patch of Chinese bramble Rubus tricolor with its shiny leaves bordered the path, after which there was a large patch of few-flowered garlic Allium paradoxum at the perfect time to see the flowers, although their sparse floppy heads always look untidy. 

Chinese bramble

Few-flowered garlic

Cowslips Primula veris flowered in the grass.  There are quite a few balsam poplars Populus x jackii along here with sticky buds that smell faintly of balsam.  One of the trees had attracted the dark brown alder fly Sialis lutaria, which breeds in the river and emerges in the spring before the may-flies. 

Alder fly on balsam poplar

There is a bench along here dedicated to JRR Tolkien, who was of course a professor here, and an acquaintance of CS Lewis.  We took this path beside the Cherwell, past the high-arched bridge that crosses it if one wants to continue along the other bank, and to the pond at the NE corner of the park.  We then returned to the bridge and took the path west to the exit in Parks Road, opposite Keble Road, returning to our starting-point.