Two trefoils
Starved plants of lesser trefoil Trifolium dubium may pose problems of identification for slender trefoil, Trifolium micranthum. The picture helps by showing the two alongside one another. Note the diagnostic longer central leaflet stalk of dubium (top arrow) and its … Continued
Don’t Rush – Take the Time…
Tips on telling blunt-flowered rush Juncus subnodulosus from sharp-flowered rush Juncus acutiflorus, which is much more common in Herefordshire The photo shows some differences in ‘jizz’. Sharp-flowered (L) has dark-chestnut perianths and capsules, blunt-flowered distinctly paler ones (though note much … Continued
Herefordshire oak recording
We have to be (1) consistent about identification and (2) record in a productive and meaningful fashion. 1 Identification Quite a lot has been written on the subject. There are mathematical formulae (equivalent to the same thing Stace advocates for … Continued
Polypodies
Cambricum is a southern lime-lover and easiest by virtue of very restricted distribution in Herefordshire (the Lower Wye NCA), predilection for south-facing limestone, and having the most distinct form of the three. Distinguishing the other two is more difficult and … Continued
something on violets
Year on year, the field season kicks off with the dilemma of telling the early from the common dog-violet. You know how it is… The sweet violet, appearing first, lulls us into a false sense of security. Even if you … Continued
Slippin’ on the boots / going back to the roots
I won a contract with Natural England to monitor the recovery of Bolton Fell Moss, a cut-over bog in the borderlands. I pulled on my wellies and went forth along a peat-baulk, the diggers still there, last few … Continued
the windflower
Nobody calls them windflowers, either, though the link with anemometers is pleasing. The thing about wood anemones is that they get a very creditable bronze medal in the vernal woodland spectacle stakes, after bluebell, and, shooting up the charts in … Continued
Without Glory
Adoxa; A-doxa: without doxa, as in asymmetry, asexual, atheism. So doxa is apparently glory, yes. It kind of makes sense given orthodoxy (look it up), Chionodoxa, the glory-of-the-snow, replete with its hyphens unlike what might otherwise have been the glory of the … Continued
