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
