Found on the same day as the Mottled Grasshopper, this is a bush-cricket: Roesel's Bush-cricket, Metrioptera roeselii. You can tell a bush-cricket from a grasshopper easily: the latter have long antennae, usually longer than their bodies. Also the females have long, scythe-like ovipositors. Roesel's Bush-cricket has a cream edge to the prothorax. It is also an organism that is spreading in the UK as a result of global warming.
Having re-discovered my photos taken on the camera (or possibly Ian's camera) there are lots of things from our trip to Ashdown Forest that I didn't use nearer the time. This is one - a rather striking member of the Daisy family, about 70cm tall, with delicate flowers in a tight raceme. It's Goldenrod, Solidago virgaurea and at the time I didn't recognise it. The upper leaves are quite distinctive and differ from the basal rosette of long obovate slightly toothed leaves.
It is found in a range of habitats: dry woodland (where it can be an Ancient Woodland Indicator), grasslands (as here), cliffs and dunes.
I took this back in April. It's a garden escape because it isn't native here, originating from the western United States and Canada. It is Flowering Currant, Ribes sanguineum, and its attractive flowers and early flowering make it something of a horticultural favourite. It was introduced to this country in 1826 with the first record of a naturalised plant in 1916. Since that time it has spread and can be found from the Highlands to the south coast.
This is the third and final catch up species today: Buddleia or Butterfly Bush, Buddleja davidii. The irony is that although butterflies love it, it is often responsible for shading out the food plants of the caterpillars. It was introduced from China and is now an established invasive species. The French missionary and botanist, Jean Andre Soulie, who sent it back at the beginning of the twentieth century, was tortured and shot by Tibetan monks in 1905.
Another annual ruderal species which is common round us in Sussex. It is appropriate to find it on the Downs, whose landscape and habitats are a direct result of sheep grazing over millennia, for it is known as Shepherd's purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris. It is a member of the mustard family, Brassiaceae and not a native but an archeophyte.
An archeophyte is a naturalised plant introduced before 1492 (yes, Columbus and all that) whereas after that date such plants are known as neophytes.
The reason for its common name (a direct translation of the Latin specific) is the shape of the seed pods apparently resembling the purse carried by shepherds. Which shepherds and when is hard to discover.
I was going to do a quick post last night of what i thought was plain old Michaelmas Daisy, but oh no, there's no such thing as a Michaelmas Daisy! It turns out that there are a group of difficult to distinguish species and hybrids roaming the British countryside.
So having plodding through the keys in Collins, Stace and Rose, I reckon on this being Narrow-leaved Michaelmas Daisy, Aster lanceolatus. The reasons are as follows: it has only just started flowering (Sept - Jan given as range); it has very pale ligules; non-clasping, narrow leaves; glabrous (no hairs); involucre bracts not widest below the middle (which is a characteristic of Common Michaelmas Daisy, the only other contender).
