Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire: Henley/Bix area

26 August 2012                       OS Explorer 171: Chiltern Hills West

Length: All day.

This walk focussed on two plants: Chiltern Gentian Gentianella germanica in two very good colonies and Pale Toadflax Linaria repens.  While the latter is rather scarce these days, it can be so common in this region that it has been dubbed “Henley toadflax”.

We parked by the Henley Football Club ground SU772817, which is towards the end of a minor road on the south edge of Henley going towards the River Thames.  There are other car parks near the Thames which could also be used.  Apart from the convenience for parking it provided a chance to examine the banks of the Thames for plants.

A path from the car park crossed a stream with Water Mint Mentha aquatica and Lesser Water Parsnip Berula erecta and then wide green parkland, with leaves of Aspen Populus tremula rustling even in the slightest breeze, to the towpath beside the Thames, which we followed north towards the centre of Henley. 

Aspen in Thames-side park

The bank was shored up and many pleasure-boats and barges were tied up along it, while the grass is kept short, so there was not a great abundance of water plants.  In the river itself we could only see masses of very long narrow leaves of what we presumed to be Unbranched Bur-reed Sparganium emersum, although there were no emergent spikes, and in one place the large submerged leaves of Yellow Water-lily Nuphar lutea. On the banks where they could get a foothold in the gaps between the metal shearing and concrete were Water Figwort Scrophularia auriculata, Purple Loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, Gipsywort Lycopus europaeus, Canadian Fleabane Conyza canadensis, Mexican Fleabane Erigeron karvinskianus, Pellitory-of the-wall Parietaria judaica, Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis, and Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria. 

Water figwort

A pool at the side of the path away from the river had Hemlock Water-dropwort Oenanthe crocata, Drooping Sedge Carex pendula, Alder Alnus glutinosa with leaf-galls of the mite Eriophyes laevis, and a White Willow Salix alba with Poplar Bracket Oxyporus populinus at the base and younger specimens following the line of a cleft in the trunk above.  Here Banded Demoiselles Calopteryx splendens sported their conspicuous wings.  On the river were numerous Canada and greylag geese, coots, mute swans and mallards obviously used to be being fed, as scullers came by, perhaps preparing already for the next Olympics.

Thames looking towards Henley

After the A4130 road bridge we could only go a little further by the river, beside the Thames-side road, before private property frontage monopolised the banks.  Here we turned into the town, busy on a rare sunny Sunday with holidaymakers up to the A4155, past the Brakespear brewery, opposite which we found a patch of Adherent Bristle-grass Setaria adhaerens sheltering in the shade of other plants where the pavement abutted a town-house.  This presumably came from birdseed scattered here by accident. 

Spike of Adherent Bristle-grass

We followed the A4155 north to the fork, where we took the A4130 north-westwards.  This was only for short distance until we took the Oxfordshire Way footpath at the side of the Rupert House playing-fields and were pleased to leave the bustle and cars behind.

In the field on the left the presence of the chalk was revealed with a line of Dark Mullein Verbascum nigrum, as we went uphill into a wood.  This was mostly of young trees, but the wood was presumably ancient, as an Oak Quercus robur to our right, which had survived as a boundary marker, measured 4.65 metres in girth.  There was little ground cover, just some sanicle Sanicula europaea and Enchanter’s Nightshade Circaea lutetiana.  On the left of the path towards the top of the wood, however, was a wood solely of Box Buxus sempervirens. 

Box wood

Young box leaves

Although the trees were obviously quite old, we wondered whether they were planted in, say, Victorian times, as they border the former Deer Park associated with Henley House (just as the famous boxwoods at Chequers are part of a country estate where exotic planting is common).  On the other hand, we were now in the general area of Bix, a village which gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon bixen/byxen “relating to box”, so one presumes there would have been native boxwoods in this area for many centuries.  For the moment at least the boxwood seems set to survive, with young bushes having self-seeded in surrounding woodland (as they will also do from garden box-plants).

Leaving the wood the path rose to the top of the hill in the Deer Park with scattered oaks of a considerable size, a few suffering, possibly from drought, others standing as white skeletons, but even these will of course provide an important habitat for invertebrates. 

Oaks in Deer Park

Fallen oak

Some of the oaks had the sticky knopper galls.  More exotic plantings include Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani and pines. 

Cedar of Lebanon

Otherwise, however, the grassland was continually sheep-grazed and quite sterile with few plants.  Where the path crossed the bridleway just before Henley Park House another boundary oak measured an impressive 6.85m in girth and is therefore many centuries old.  At its base was a group of Rooting-shank toadstools Xerula radicata.

We continued on the Oxfordshire Way past the house, with a tree a hundred metres off to the left with large clusters of Mistletoe Viscum album.  At Dobson’s Lane we turned right up the lane and were now for a little while in Buckinghamshire.  Outside Crockmore Farm on the left were a few plants of Stone Parsley Sison amomum. 

Stone parsley

Opposite the stud farm a footpath comes off to the left towards Fawley Bottom.  After three fields the path goes down along the edge of a wood on the steep slope.  Along here are Hemp Agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum, Wild Basil Clinopodium vulgare, Marjoram Origanum vulgare and Nettle-leaved Bellflower Campanula trachelium, once again showing the influence of chalk.

Nettle-leaved bellflower

After crossing the drive to a house the woodland borders an open slope on the left, easily accessible, which is the remains of an old orchard, although few fruit trees are now evident.  This is an excellent chalk grassland, however, and the dense colonies of Chiltern gentian were immediately obvious, some of the plants of prodigious size, perhaps the effect of rainy summer.  (Even Father’s Day had had to be postponed – see picture!) 

Fawley Bottom Orchard with Chiltern gentians

Chiltern gentian

Here also were Clustered Bellflower Campanula glomerata, Dwarf Thistle Cirsium acaule, Carline Thistle Carlina vulgaris, Common and Chalkhill Eyebrights Euphrasia nemorosa & pseudokerneri, Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria, Quaking Grass Briza media, Dogwood Cornus sanguinea, Yellowwort Blackstonia perfoliata, Burnet-saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga, Greater Knapweed Centaurea scabiosa, Common Milkwort Polygala vulgaris, Hairy St. John’s-wort Hypericum hirsutum, and Agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria.  At the edge of the woodland at the top of the slope and further into it was Spurge Laurel Daphne laureola and, for the first time today, an extensive colony of pale or “Henley” toadflax. 

Pale toadflax

At the edge of the wood we also found Round-mouthed Snail Pomatias elegans, a good indicator of undisturbed chalk grassland, and the Lapidary Snail Helicigona lapicida, with its sharp ridge around the circumference, another indicator of old chalk woodlands and now scarce in this area, among other common molluscs.

Lapidary Snail shell with Round-mouthed snails

It is always difficult to tear ourselves away from these floriferous grasslands, but we returned to the wood and continued down the path past more spurge laurel and Ploughman’s Spikenard Inula conyza.  This led into a small lane where we turned left to Fawley Bottom, the hedge-banks full of nettle-leaved bellflower, although almost all of these were in seed.  We turned left again at the next lane, which took us south past the bottom of the orchard, into which there is again access, although it is longer grass here and less flowery.  An ancient roadside Ash Fraxinus excelsior had more poplar bracket at its base, and we passed Hedgerow Cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum. 

Poplar bracket at base of old ash

The lane runs along the bottom of a valley with beechwood on the steep slope to the right where, as well as continuing nettle-leaved bellflower,  we could see Wood Barley Hordelymus europaeus, Wood Melick Melica uniflora, Violet Helleborine Epipactis violacea, the thin elongated spikes of Vervain Verbena officinalis, and Large-leaved Lime Tilia platyphyllos.  There were saplings of the latter, so that it was not confined to planted trees, and perhaps it may even be native here, although rarely so in this region.  Its leaves contained the galls of the mite Eriophyes exilis. 

At the end of the wood we crossed the county boundary back into Oxfordshire and the hedge-banks now had lots more pale toadflax, while the wood barley continued even beyond the wood.  Eventually, after enjoying this quiet and botanically rich lane, we came into the village of Middle Assendon, opposite The Rainbow pub, which could be an appropriately timed lunch spot. 

The Rainbow, Middle Assendon

After a quick drink, however, we continued north up the B480 a short distance to where we could rejoin the Oxfordshire Way, which here proceeds along the little lanes to Bix Bottom and beyond.  These hedgerows were not however, as flowery as that between Fawley Bottom and Middle Assendon, although we still saw plenty of hedgerow cranesbill and more pale toadflax, which is obviously still plentiful in this area, although not so close to Henley.  Beyond Bix Bottom we began to see red-legged partridge quite regularly in the fields and hedges.

At a fork we took the lane to the left towards Warburg Nature Reserve, while the Oxfordshire Way continued on the right-hand lane.  Warburg is run by Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust and, with a mix of woodland and grassland, harbours a large range of flowers, including many orchids.  It is well worth a visit earlier in the summer, when many more flowers can be seen, but we were concentrating today on its colony of Chiltern gentian.  The first part of the reserve that we encountered on our right was a “hanger” of beech Fagus sylvatica, Maidensgrove Scrubs, again with wood barley, although we could not find any Lesser Brome-grass Bromopsis benekenii, which is supposed to grow around here.  We are finding it very difficult these days to locate any colonies of this scarce grass in this area.  Further on, we passed the cottages of Pages Farm, where the walls sported more Pale Toadflax and the wood-edge more ploughman’s spikenard.

Shortly after this we came to the visitor centre, which has a good display of plants in front, a small pond with a hide for observing it and the bird-feeders beyond (we saw nuthatch and marsh tit visiting today), and a plot for arable annuals behind.  We first observed Common Valerian Valeriana officinalis here, but at the top of the short flight of steps to the centre, just where we remembered seeing it nearly 40 years ago, was still Sweet Cicely Myrrhis odorata, a plant that is rare in the south, although quite common in the north of England.  Its pale-flecked leaves, large black seed-pods and liquorice scent when crushed make it very easily recognisable. 

Sweet cicely leaves

Sweet cicely seedpods

When we first saw it there was one plant, but now there is quite an extensive group, although it does not seem to have spread to any new location.  From here we went through the car-park (more vervain) to follow one of the suggested trails named “Wildlife Walk”, a convenient way of seeing the various habitats if, as now, there is little time to explore more extensively, for it is quite a large reserve, where one can easily spend all day.  Again there was plenty of nettle-leaved bellflower and vervain beside the path.  Eventually the path led to a large open grassland area higher up the hill where the Chiltern gentians, as always, were making a good show, always a delight to see, although not quite as dense or vigorous as at Fawley Bottom. 

Chiltern gentians, Warburg reserve

Common centaury Centaurium erythreaea and Wild Thyme Thymus drucei were still in flower, and even a little of the Rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, whose leaves and seed-heads carpeted the ground in places.  There were also plenty of salad burnet Poterium sanguisorba leaves and the strange stiffly erect, V-branched stems of Common Gromwell Lithospermum officinale, quite common here although we hardly find it anywhere else these days.  In the wooded areas we could still find seed-spikes of Broad-leaved Helleborine Epipactis helleborine and violet helleborine, but we were too late to see all the grassland orchids here such as greater butterfly.

This circular walk brought us back to the car park and all that remained was to make our way back to Henley.  We wanted a reasonably direct route that avoided major roads, so we returned the way we had come to Bix Bottom but there took the footpath that goes south past Bix Common.  Just behind the farm at Bix Bottom was a large group of Indian balsam Impatiens balsamifera, which had obviously been cut down but was recovering well and going to be difficult to eliminate. 

Looking back to Bix Bottom

The path goes up through Bushy Copse and to the A4130 at the west end of Bix.  A path opposite, just to the left (there is also one just to the right) took us to a small wood where we branched off to Bix Manor Farm.  Here a lane runs SE to a T-junction and Lambridge Wood opposite.  We crossed to the wood where the dominant route is a bridleway which becomes a drive to a large house and goes too far north, so we had to search for the minor path which follows an old ditch and embankments and eventually follows the south edge of the wood.  This emerges through a golf course, where eventually it leads by a belt of beech and lime Tilia x europea trees where, among sanicle and woodruff Galium odoratum there was more spurge laurel and many good spikes of flowering violet helleborine. 

Violet helleborines on golf course

For a change, deer were obviously disinclined to reach the centre of the golf course and so the spikes were not as usual bitten off, so this makes an excellent miniature sanctuary for the plants.  The path leads on into Henley where streets led to the centre and back to the river.  The park beside the river was now occupied by many large picnicking groups enjoying a rare day of sun in 2012.

Oxfordshire: Chiltern Escarpment: Aston Rowant to Oakley Hill

21 August 2012                       OS Explorer 171: Chiltern Hills West

Length: All day.

We parked at Cowleaze Wood SU725955.  We walked to the north end of this Beech Fagus sylvatica wood on rather acid clays dominated by Tufted Hair-grass Deschampsia cespitosa and crossed the road to the path that enters the Bald Hill section of Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve.  This reserve covers the best of the Chiltern chalk escarpment grasslands and we would spend the whole morning exploring much of it before we engaged in any extensive walking, as there is so much to look for here.  At the entrance from the road a handy leaflet with a map is available and we initially took the northern arm of what is labelled there as “Sheepcote Lane Walk” (orange) to the circular “Linky Down Walk” (blue dots), going NE then NW.

Map of Aston Rowant NNR showing trails

(from Natural England leaflet)

This first crossed a plateau meadow, still on the clay, with Corn Mint Mentha arvensis, Hop Trefoil Trifolium campestre, Wild Basil Clinopodium vulgare, Red Bartsia Odontites vernus, Common Centaury Centaurium erythraea, and Lady’s Bedstraw Galium verum. 

Corn mint – popular with flies

Wild basil

We then walked through a sheep pasture where the grass was shorter and less floriferous, although we did see Harebell Campanula rotundifolia.  After this the trail turns left to descend the hill on the chalk. 

Instead of following the trail down through a double hedgerow we entered an open gate leading to the steep SW-facing slope where we could see scattered stands of Juniper Juniperus communis. 

Juniper on Bald Hill

On southern chalk down-lands juniper is endangered because it rarely seems to regenerate naturally, leaving an increasingly ageing stock.  There are some fenced enclosures to prevent grazing of young juniper and in one of these we noticed a small plant that looked healthy enough as a contribution to a new generation.  The rest of the slope is winter-grazed to keep the grass short and encourage the rare turf flora.  The flowers in turn attract a large range of butterflies and these were evident even though the day was overcast, with Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Common and Holly Blue, Red Admiral and Brimstone.

Common blue on wild basil

 The flowers here included the usual Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria, Marjoram Origanum vulgare, Fairy Flax Linum catharticum, Dwarf Thistle Cirsium acaule, Musk Thistle Carduus nutans, Burnet-saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga, Salad Burnet Sanguisorba minor (some of the leaves covered in the white cottony galls of the mite Aceria sanguisorbae), Common Eyebright Euphrasia nemorosa, and Quaking-grass Briza media, but also plenty of newly-emerged Autumn Gentian Gentianella amarella, the last remaining flowers of Rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, Yellowwort Blackstonia perfoliata, Carline Thistle Carlina vulgaris, and, on the barer ant-hills, Wild Thyme Thymus polytrichus and Squinancywort Asperula cynanchica. 

Dwarf thistles

Autumn gentian

Squinancywort

Among the harebells were a few completely white specimens. 

White harebell

Additional butterflies here were Brown Argus and several of the rare Silver-spotted Skipper.

Silver-spotted Skipper on Small Scabious

Near the bottom of this section, which we followed NW parallel to the trail, we found another gate to regain the latter.  Here we added Blue Fleabane Acer erigeron to our list.  The track descended through another floriferous long-grass meadow along the edge of the reserve to Hill Farm and the beginning of a paved road.  100 metres along this road we met the Lower Icknield Way (Ridgeway) and took this track to the right, with flocks of goldfinch flitting between the bordering hedges.  Along here the blue fleabane was abundant, there were patches of Meadow Cranesbill Geranium pratense in seed, and in the shadier areas Sanicle Sanicula europaea.

Blue fleabane

 Our most venerable track leads incongruously under the ultra-modern M40 Motorway which divides the reserve into two and restricts movement of creatures, like the less vigorously flying butterflies, along the down-land.  It also turned what should be beautiful quiet pastoral environment into one where we could not escape the constant loud drone of speeding traffic.  The cutting of this route through the centre of one of our best nature reserves and one of the most scenic parts of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty must be one of the greatest of environmental crimes ever committed by the British government.  To see this white gash through all this made our hearts grieve and confirmed opposition to the HS2 high-speed railway scheme planned to cut yet another gash through a beautiful part of the Chilterns further east.

M40 crossing Ridgeway

After the motorway we came to a track on the right leading up into the Beacon Hill section of Aston Rowant reserve, but we first went on a short distance to examine the narrow wood on the left-hand side of the Rigeway, Lewknor Copse.  Here Spurge-laurels Daphne laureola were everywhere with their evergreen leaves, although they had dropped their berries, and abundant woodruff Galium odoratum. 

Spurge laurel

Despite the wet summer the ground here was very dry and the spurge-laurels seemed to be suffering except where the shade was deepest.  We also found one clump of narrow-lipped orchids Epipactis leptochila here.  They had just finished flowering but the dried petals on the tip of the lowest developing seed-pod still showed the narrow central lip after which it is named.

Narrow-lipped helleborine in seed

After examining this copse we returned to take the path up into the reserve again.  This led to a steep slope of short grassland with abundant Clustered Bellflower Campanula glomerata, which we followed to our left. 

Botanically rich grassland, Beacon Hill, with clustered bellflower

At the top of this near the path and wherever there were bare disturbed patches the increasingly rare Pale Toadflax Linaria repens was abundant: it was good to see it doing so well. 

Pale toadflax

Other plants of the bare chalk scrapes were Wild Mignonette Reseda lutea and Wild Candytuft Iberis amara, the latter unfortunately now only in seed. 

Wild mignonette with Wild candytuft seedheads

We also saw Dropwort Filipendula vulgaris, now in seed, and some Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor.  Clustered bellflower continued common along here among more autumn gentian, rock-rose and squinancy-wort.  Scattered junipers looked wind-swept and age-worn. 

Old juniper, Beacon Hill

In a patch of scrub we glimpsed a Dark Bush-cricket which turned out to be camera-shy.  Equally shy was a Mistle Thrush we frightened up from among the Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna bushes.  By the path skirting the hill-top we saw Ploughman’s Spikenard Inula conyza.  We eventually came across a minor path going to the peak of the hill, on which we came across another decreasing plant, Frog Orchid Dactylorhiza viridis.  These were again in seed, having been at their best about a fortnight earlier. 

Frog orchid

Nearby was a white specimen of autumn gentian.

White autumn gentian

From the top we continued along a track going SE along the side of Beacon Hill to the reserve car park.  This passes through an octagonal concreted area where there used to be a visitor centre.  Here were some seats overlooking the view where we ate a quick lunch, the motorway partly shielded by trees planted below but, if out of view, certainly not out of earshot. 

M40 from Beacon Hill

The pretty yellow-and-black hoverfly Xanthogramma pedissequum was keen on the nectar of Wild Carrot Daucus carota at our feet.

Hoverfly Xanthogramma pedissequum

From the car park we walked the minor roads to the A40.  The woods here were full of Wood Barley Hordelymus europaeus, with some Wood Melick Melica uniflora on roadside banks.  Just out of the woods, where we joined the Cowleaze Wood road, was a huge sarsen stone, presumably left after weathering of the clays around it, as it seemed much too large to have been shifted. 

Large sarsen

We proceeded NE to the A40 road, where there was a large patch of meadow cranesbill at the corner.  We crossed and continued on the minor road, past some Hedgerow Cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum, until it bent sharply left and we continued straight on by means of a bridleway.  Kingston Wood on the left again had abundant wood barley.

          The bridleway bends right, keeping to the edge of the wood, and after half a kilometre we took a footpath angled back left to regain our original direction through Kingston Wood.  Although this is legally a “footpath”, it is heavily used by horses and cycles, as it connects two bridleways.  No attempt ever seems to be made to police these paths and prevent such inappropriate use.  The woods along this path are quite moist and contain some large ferns, including not only the common Male and Broad Buckler Ferns Dryopteris filix-mas and D. dilatata, but also some much rarer in the eastern half of the country, Borrer’s Male Fern Dryopteris borreri, with shaggier mid-ribs to the fronds and a black patch at the base of each pinna, and Lady Fern Athyrium filix-femina. 

Borrer’s male fern

Lady fern

As we continued through the beeches of Crowellhill Wood we passed one splendid spike of Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata sheltering under a holly bush Ilex aquifolium. 

Crowellhill Wood

Violet helleborine

It may have been this slight protection that prevented it becoming a bitten-off stem like all the other specimens we found, the victims of over-numerous deer (muntjac, roe) in these woods.  We also noted some Tutsan Hypericum androsaemum.

          Eventually we reached then end of the road at Crowell Hill and took the bridleway descending the scarp again through Crowelhill Wood, where the vegetation was sparse and dominated by Giant Fescue Festuca gigantea and False Brome Brachypodium sylvaticum.  At the end of the wood we made our way through a rough field with yellow-wort and common centaury to reach the Ridgeway again.  At this corner there was a gate into Oakley Hill Nature Reserve (Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust).  Above a tall grass meadow with lots of Common Blue Damselflies, we came to a grazed slope with a mixture of short and long grass. 

Common blue damselfly

An immediate contrast with the grasslands we had traversed at Aston Rowant in the morning was an abundance of Chiltern Gentian Gentianella germanica instead of autumn gentian.  There did not seem to be the mixture of the two species as often occurs.  The Chiltern gentians stood out by reason not only of their larger growth and widening calyx but also the dark, purplish leaves and deeper purple flowers. 

Chiltern gentian

Many of the chalk flowers we had recorded at Aston Rowant grew here as well, especially lots of clustered bellflower, small scabious, carline thistle, and blue fleabane.

Carline thistle

There was also common eyebright, although here the latter was mixed with larger-flowered Chalkhill Eyebright Euphrasia pseudokerneri, although both were variable in flower-size and there seemed to be many intermediates. 

Chalkhill eyebright

The chalkhill eyebright was best identified by the long bristle-like tips to the teeth of the flower-bracts, coupled with at least some larger flowers (there were often smaller ones on the same plants).  “Pure” Euphrasia nemorosa actually seemed to be relatively infrequent.  There was also Large Thyme Thymus pulegioides here, having so far seen only wild thyme at Aston Rowant.

          We were surprised to see a large distinct patch of purple grass which looked like Wood Small-reed Calamagrostis epigejos and turned out to be so, despite being in open grassland instead of the familiar woodland habitat.  Apparently this grass has in recent decades started to appear in such open situations.  Here it looked as though it had the capacity to be quite invasive and dominating, although of course sheep grazing, used by the Trust over the winter, would prevent it spreading.

Oakley Hill reserve, with purple wood small-reed patch at right

We added Small Copper and Gatekeeper to our butterfly list and a pure white clustered bellflower to our “albino” list for the day. 

 

Below the reserve lie the Chinnor chalk quarries, their blue waters inhabited by tufted duck, coots and Canada geese.

Chinnor chalk quarry

This reserve was the furthest point NE we intended to reach today and we returned to the Ridgeway for an easy and straight walk back to the vicinity of Aston Rowant.  Although the vegetation along here was not remarkable, we did see some tutsan, Alsike Clover Trifolium hybridum, and Wormwood Artemisia absinthium, the latter conveniently near its relative Mugwort Artemisia vulgaris for its greyer less sharply lobed leaves to be readily discernible – its strong smell bringing immediate confirmation.

Wormwood leaves

When we reached the point near Hill Farm where we first came down to the Ridgeway we continued for another half a kilometre to the footpath on our left that goes south across a field and then a wood before turning abruptly SE along the outside of the wood (some Long-stalked Cranesbill Geranium columbinum and Field Madder Sherardia arvensis in the grazed grassland here) and going uphill to Bald Hill, this time along the bottom of its SW-facing slope.  Here in the nature reserve once more was a huge population of Chiltern gentian, whereas we had seen only autumn gentian north of the hill. 

Chiltern gentian on Bald Hill

There Autumn gentian was accompanied by wild thyme, as against the large thyme that seemed to be most frequent here.  Here was also some Rest-harrow Ononis repens.  A bare-topped anthill at last revealed, among some large thyme, a few spikes of the rare Mat-grass Fescue Vulpia unilateralis, which we had been seeking all day, having seen it in the reserve five years before.  Now, later in the year (it flowers May-June), it was reduced to tiny dry yellow stalks, but its one-sided small flower-spikes were still identifiable.  We climbed up the steep slope through dense gentians and other flowers, including more chalkhill eyebright, frog orchids, and a small Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii still visible in seed.  A caterpillar feeding on hairy rosette leaves of what may have been devilsbit scabious (although we saw no flowers of this plant) was the club-horned sawfly Abia sericea. 

Larva of club-horned sawfly

By then we could see the rain that had threatened all day coming from the south along the escarpment and it caught us as we reached the top of the hill and regained the path to Cowleaze Wood, arriving back at the car wet-through, but pleased with the day’s discoveries and relieved that the storm had not struck much earlier, as a favourable weather forecast had lured us into venturing out without wet gear!