Six wellie-clad members
braved the ominous black clouds of the weather forecasts to explore
the northern corner of Leash Fen. Leash Fen is a mosaic of acid
grassland, heath and mire, and most of the hard work at this meeting
was navigating the treacherous and tussocky mires around the Bar
Brook, and not in finding the plants, of which there were a huge
variety. I am happy to report that, apart from cranberry, all of the
targeted mire plants were found.
We were particularly lucky to see
the locally Red-Listed Marsh Cinquefoil in flower; blooming Bog Bean
escaped us, but we at least saw its large trifoliate leaves, somewhat
reminiscent of an overgrown clover. In no particular order, Marsh
Violet, Marsh Pennywort, Southern Marsh Orchid, Bottle Sedge, Greater
Tussock Sedge, Common Sedge, Ragged Robin, Water Mint, Bugle and
Narrow-leaved Buckler Fern were all seen and appreciated. We were
also able to compare Marsh and Heath Bedstraw, discovering that the
latter could do a good impression of the former in marginal wetter
areas, quite different from its typical, prostrate acid grassland
habit. Short-fruited Willowherb was also tentatively identified using
the Vegetative Flora of the British Isles (Poland & Clement,
2009).
If you fancy tagging along next time, see www.sorby.org.uk for membership details.
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| Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) |
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