Sea Couch

Another new plant for me from the weekend's SBRS jaunt around Landport and Offham marshes. This striking tall blue-green grass is Sea Couch or Elytrigia atherica. It was growing along the bank of the Ouse, striking sculptural poses in small tufts, towering above the other grasses. Hard to ignore.
Looking at the top right photo you might be thinking "Lolium" or "rye grass" (according to your level of botanical initiation), but a glance at the top left photo reveals that the spikelets are arranged parallel to the inflorescence and not at right angles as is the case with rye grasses. (I see now that I'll have to find a rye grass to blog tomorrow!)

Marsh Ragwort

Just reflecting on yesterday's SBRS (see yesterday's post for link) trip around Landport and Offham marshes. I have only managed to get to a handful of SBRS meetings over the last three years, but each time I am awestruck by the knowledge of those I have the pleasure to tag along with. Of course I am utterly useless on such outings, the purpose of which is botanical recording in the round or sometimes specifically for 'missing' records in the area being covered. These are the people who go out across every square mile of our county recording its plants to accumulate data that allows us to know how the nature around us if fairing. They are rarely, if ever, acknowledged by the 'public', yet without them the countryside that the public so enjoy would be impoverished; without them we wouldn't know the damage that invasive species might be reeking; without them we wouldn't know about the decline in biodiversity resulting from poor land managment; without them we wouldn't know that efforts to rescue vulnerable habitats were working. As you might imagine, they are all lovely lovely people and I find them quite inspiring. 
There were probably thirty or more plants new to me on Saturday, each patiently pointed out and the identification features explained. One of my favourites was this, Marsh Ragwort or Senecio aquaticus. This has larger flowers than Common Ragwort and they are held apart so that none touches another. The leaves differ from the commoner ragwort species we may be familiar with. It grows with its feet in water so you won't find it on the Downs. 
It is declining in the South East so good to know some survives in the ditches around Lewes. 

Speckled Wood

I went on my second SBRS meeting of the year today and had intended to post something from our perambulation across the Landport and Offham meadows. However, the first thing I noticed on my return was this Speckled Wood,  Parage aegeria, fluttering about in the kitchen. So I thought I would offer it as a fourth lepidopteran in the mini-series.
They are lovely butterflies, usually encountered in the dappled shade of woodland rides. We've had them in the garden practically every year since we moved here in 2005. 
Their most notable claim to fame is that they are the only UK butterfly that can over-winter as either a caterpillar or a chrysalis. 
Apologies for the rubbish photos. There are plenty of excellent ones on the interweb. Bob Eade's blog also has loads of spectacular photos.

Wren

Eurasian-Wren by Andreas Trepte - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia

I don't know about you, but over the last week or so I've gradually realised that the bird I most often hear singing is the wren, Troglodytes troglodytes. I'm sure I read somewhere that the wren is Britain's commonest bird, which is odd when you consider how infrequently you get a good view of one. 
The male wren builds several nests in a bid to impress potential mates. If a female decides that one is suitable she moves in and finishes off lining it ready for egg laying.
But the most remarkable thing about wrens is the incredible power of their song. The decibel to weight ratio must knock the pants of every other bird; it is just incredibly loud. It is also very distinctive, with its intermittent trills and fluty cadences. 
Britain has four distinct subspecies of wren: the St Kilda wren T. t. hirtensis; the Fair Isle wren T. t. frideriensis; and the Shetland wren T. t. zetlandicus; the common subspecies T. t. indigenus. 

Meadow Brown

Maniola.jurtina. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Female by Böhringer Friedrich. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 at via Wikimedia Commons

Third in the run of lepidoptera (scale wing) is the Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina. This was present in abundance on my Breeding Bird Survey final section on Tuesday and was the dominant butterfly on the Downs walk on Wednesday. The males are plainer brown with an almost uniform upper wing with tiny dark eye-spots. 
The species is univoltine (a new word for me) meaning that there is just one brood per year (cf. most blues which are bivoltine in the south). Although it remains the commonest butterfly in the UK, numbers have declined massively over the last century. This, it will come as no surprise, is largely due to changes in agricultural practice. They require mixed species grass meadows which are cut late, ideally with flower-filled hedges nearby.
Courtship is a peculiar affair: after a short dance the males envelop the females with a heavy scent (discernible to some humans as 'old cigar box', 'musty hay', or 'dirty socks'). She then descends to a suitable perch and mating commences. 
Sounds a bit dodgy to me! 

Marbled White

From www.butterfly-conservation.org

The second of the three butterflies was the Marbled White, Melanargia galathea. I saw this again today, this time up on the Downs above Lewes. A few Small Skippers were also about and plenty of tomorrow's butterfly.
This is an eye-catching butterfly that is hard to confuse with the 'whites'. It is in fact a member of the Brown family, Satyridae, which has been subsumed into the family Nymphalidae. All members of the Nymphalidae have two pairs of functional legs, the third pair having become vestigial.

Streaked Golden Hog (Small Skipper)

Today was very much a butterfly day so I felt I had to blog about them. I'll do three species over the next three days starting with this little beauty: the unimaginatively named Small Skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris. An older name for it was the Streaked Golden Hog, which has a certain charm. 
On closer inspection this is a male. The curved black sex-band on the forewing is just about visible on the right in close-up. 
There is an almost identical diminutive skipper: the Essex Skipper. The difference is that the latter has a black underside to the antennae tips rather than orangey. You won't find any skippers in Scotland.

Lesser Hawkbit

This is Lesser Hawkbit, Leontodon taraxacoides. It is one of those tricky dandelion lookalikes that often grow in profusion. Telling your Hawkbits from your Hawkweeds from your Hawk's beards from your Cat's ears can be confusing. Certainly I still have to look them up each year after getting in a muddle.
Apparently they're called 'hawkbits' because of a medieval belief that hawks ate them to improve their eyesight. Silly medieval people!

Bramble

It's nearly time for one of my favourite free foods to become available: blackberries. Also known as brambles, the Latin binomial is Rubus fructicosa agg. because there are many microspecies in much the same way as for Taraxacum or dandelions. This is because of polyploidy and apomixis (as you know).
The study of brambles is called batology.

White or Dutch Clover

This is Trifolium repens or White/Dutch clover. The 'trifolium' bit means 'three-leaved' and 'repens' means creeping (the stems are stoloniferous). It is common in lawns and verges where soil fertility is reasonably high (and therefore species variety is low). Bees visit for nectar so don't rush out to mow them all off.
Being a member of the pea family they also fix nitrogen in their root nodules.  

Common Broomrape

This little curiosity appears most years on the front lawn. It is Orobanche minor or Common Broomrape. A parasite of various plants which lacks chlorophyll of its own. 
There's something orchidish about Broomrapes, which come in a variety of species each specialising in a particular host.

Stinking Iris

Another late-night entry! 
This is Stinking Iris, Iris foetidissima. It is so named because its leaves, when crushed, apparently smell like 'beef'. 
The flowers are short-lived, but the bright red berries that are eventually revealed in the autumn when the large green pods split open, are probably better-known.
It is the other native iris, the other having been previously covered in the blog!

False Oat-grass

Just spent a while keying this one out. There's a small stand of it down in the orchard towering majestically above the Ox-eye daisies and other grasses.
Yesterday I failed to ID it, but today, using the key from the grass ID workshop I went on the other week (courtesy of the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, BSBI and Reading University) and my stereomicroscope, I got it.
I must say how much easier it is using the x20 setting on the microscope compared with a x10 hand lens. The colours and details of the glumes; the fact that the lower floret was male and the upper bisexual; the scabrous nature of the rachis and the twist in the lower lemma's awn were as plain as day. 
There really is a whole world of beauty beyond our visual limits and I can't recommend a stereomicroscope enough. You can pick up some really good ones on eBay for under £100.

Slow-worm

This is a juvenile slow-worm, Anguis fragilis, discovered relaxing under a flowerpot moved for mowing the lawn this weekend. 
Although snaky, it is of course a lizard without legs. (You can tell it's not a snake because it blinks.) 
It gives birth to live young and if attacked can break off its tail (autotomy) as an escape strategy. 
Apparently they are one of our longest-lived lizards, living up to thirty years in the wild and over fifty in captivity!
They are, like most of our wildlife, declining. Domestic cats are a major cause of mortality. 

Brown rat

Rat in a Flowerbox by David Shankbone Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I wasn't fast enough to get my own picture but at the weekend I saw a brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, hopping about outside the kitchen. Once it caught sight of me it hopped back into the bushes and was gone. 
There are many myths about rats but it is true to say that after humans they are the most widespread mammals on earth. In part they owe this success to their co-dependence on humans. 
Amazingly they have a 95% 1 year mortality, but they make up for this by being able to reproduce when only five weeks old. They can have up to five litters of seven to fourteen per year! Also they are misnamed, not coming from Norway as John Berkenhout thought.
Rattus Norvegicus is of course better known by many as being the title of a great album by The Stranglers. I'd rather have the album in my house than the rat in my garden.

Prickly Sow-thistle

This is Prickly Sow-thistle, Sonchus asper. It differs from its smooth cousin in having a shiny, darker green upper surface to its leaves. Also, the bases of the leaves have spectacular lobes which clasp the stem and curve downwards. 
The flowers look very similar to those of Smooth Sow-thistle and the two plants can be difficult to tell apart. To really get the i.d. bulletproof you can count the vascular bundles in the stem or get the achenes (seeds) under a microscope, but I don't suppose many people would consider such lengths necessary or worthwhile. 

Smooth Sow-thistle

Apologies for missing yesterday: another case of having all day to do it and then rushing to go out and getting back after midnight. However I have two nicely linked plants.
The first is this one, Sonchus oleraceus, or Smooth Sow-thistle. It's a common annual 'weed' with flower heads in a loose umbel resembling a cross between a dandelion and a thistle. The fruits are dispersed by the wind like thistledown. 
Although it looks prickly, it isn't, and the five-angled stems contain latex sap.

Elephant Hawkmoth

One of the high points of last weekend's wedding was, of course, David's recently restored moth trap. I'd never seen a moth trap before so had no idea what to expect. 
It appeared to be a good haul, with some beautiful moths, but the highlight was the single Elephant Hawkmoth, Deilephila elpenor. 
It's caterpillar is equally as spectacular and prefers Epilobium and Galium species to munch on (though also eats fuschias). 
There are of course lots more moths than butterflies so catching them in moth traps ("mothing") is a popular pastime amongst pan-species listers.

Wild Mignonette

It'has been out for a couple of weeks now and beginning to peak. Wild Mignonette or Reseda lutea grows in any marginal or ruderal areas, especially in the south east and especially on chalk. Hence it's common round these parts. 
It is a native but Geoffrey makes no mention of it. It's big sister, Weld, gets all the plaudits. I shall try to find some and blog it later.
This was growing by the path as I walked back to my car after work and I couldn't resist a few snaps.   

Red Valerian

Another quickie tonight as it's late (again). Had to catch up with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on BBC iPlayer. It is superb.
This is a plant pictured at the weekend in Somerset but found throughout southern Britain. It is slightly weedlike in behaviour but really a stunning species. Always worth looking out for hummingbird hawkmoths when you find it as they appear particularly drawn to it. It is Centranthus ruber or Red Valerian, and is distinguished from Common Valerian and Marsh Valerian by the spur found at the base of the corolla. 
Always a pleasure.