Chiddingly

Field meeting reports

Meeting date: 25 July 2009

(Leader: Helen Proctor)

Led by Helen Proctor, ten members met at Chiddingly Church for tetrad recording on a fine sunny morning. Our target tetrad was TQ51H but we dawdled through Chiddingly Village in TQ51M beguiled by Borago officinalis (Borage), Mellissa officinalis (Balm), Aethusa cynapium (Fool’s Parsley) and Campanula poscharskyana (Trailing Bellflower) whilst the whipper-in tried to get us to the right tetrad.

Once in TQ51H we immediately found Prunus domestica ssp. insititia (Bullace) with its fruits containing slightly flattened stones just beginning to take on their purple hue. Peter gamely did the taste test and assured us they were horrible. A slight pursing of the lips convinced us he told the truth. We found Crassula helmsii (New Zealand Pygmyweed) surviving well out of water where it had been dumped from some pond. Spergula arvensis (Corn Spurrey) and Kickxia elatine (Sharp-leaved Fluellen) had survived the herbicide at the edge of a field of barley. We arrived at the right time (so often one doesn’t) to demonstrate the non-disarticulation of Avena sativa (Oat). All in all a useful morning’s recording of worthy plants but nothing to stir the blood of keen members of SBRS.

For the afternoon Helen had arranged with a landowner for us to visit Twenty Acre Wood and Suzanna’s Field, a one hectare SSSI, named after the landowner’s late wife whose interest had saved it from being drained and improved.  Suzanna’s Field, which on entering did not inspire, was guarded by a phalanx of Oenanthe crocata (Hemlock Water Dropwort) which was going over and looking decidedly tatty but, as we progressed into the field, we found it beflowered  with the two Loti ( or Lotuses if you prefer) Lotus corniculatus (Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil) and L. pedunculatus (Greater Bird’s-foot-trefoil), Stachys officinalis (Betony), Silaum silaus (Pepper-saxifrage), Ranunculus flammula (Lesser Spearwort) and Achillea ptarmica (Sneezewort), the latter prompting the smart execution of Arthur’s photographic skills. In the ditches we found Apium nodiflorum (Fool’s Water-cress), Glyceria fluitans (Floating Sweet-grass) and Veronica beccabunga (Brooklime). We had a clutch of rushes, C. flacca (Glaucous Sedge), Conopodium majus (Pignut) and so on and on until the final tally had reached 77 species. All felt the field had stirred their blood and that it was a jolly good piece of unimproved meadow.

On to Twenty Acre Wood, which didn’t seem very interesting at first glance either, as parts had been replanted, but diligent searching revealed many ancient woodland indicator species. Moerhingia trinervis (Three-veined Sandwort), Ribes rubrum (Redcurrant),  Lychnis flos-cuculi (Ragged-Robin) and Hypericum pulchrum (Slender St. John’s-wort) all added interest and we were enchanted by a single specimen of Epipactis helleborine (Broad-leaved Helleborine) before time ran out and sent us heading homewards. We added over 80 new records in four tetrads.