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This page is for recording the flora of the dam flood plain. Anyone may contribute. Add a photo if you wish. Write your contribution at the top of the page, starting with the date and author. Use 13 October - Autumn colour - by Tim Padfield  Guelder Rose Viburnum opulus  Spindle tree, Euonymus europaeus has fine autumn colour, with characteristic red fruit concealing yellow seeds. It has four-petaled white flowers now, though it officially flowers in May. It is usually found on calcareous soil but here it has been planted, like nearly all the plants mentioned in this blog, so we have an arboretum rather than a nature reserve.  Bird's foot trefoil Lotus corniculatus Also in flower are Narrow leaved bird's-foot trefoil, Lotus tenuis, Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria and water mint Mentha aquatica 29 May, by tim padfield  Gordon Waterhouse led a nature ramble through the reserve, identifying many plants and bugs. 27 May, by tim padfield A few more plants this week: Water dropwort Oenanthe crocata 19 May, by tim padfield The area is now coloured by an abundance of buttercup, lady smock and ragged robin Lychnis flos-cuculi (first picture).  Other flowering plants this month: Ox-eye daisy Chrysanthemum leucanthemum  Yellow rocket Barbarea vulgaris  21 April 2008 by tim padfield Nothing new to report. The grass is growing so well it prevents colonisation. Botanically speaking, the nature reserve is really just land waiting for nature to force itself in. Almost anywhere else is more plant rich! 21 March 2008, by tim padfield This is the first in a series of records of flowers in bloom on the flood plain Primrose This is a rather short list compared with similar wasteland elsewhere around, but it is only a year or two since the area was bare earth with bulldozer tracks its only decoration. The March picture is Reedmace Typha latifolia shedding its seed.  |