Streat and Plumpton area
Meeting date: 17 May 2014
(Leader: Jacqui Hutson)
On a hot Saturday, ten members set out on the Greensand Ridgeway between Plumpton and Streat to look for new and missing SPA species in TQ31M and N. Tilia cordata (Small-leaved Lime) was spotted in a hedgerow. A rushy field consisting of an infilled sandpit was species-rich but added only Vicia faba (Broad Bean) to our records. We lunched in Sedlow Wood, where Ranunculus auricomus (Wood Buttercup) was found, together with hundreds of flowering Orchis mascula (Early-purple Orchid). After lunch, we progressed northwards along Kent’s Lane and were rewarded with Sorbus torminalis (Wild Service-tree) and Crataegus x media (hybrid Hawthorn) flowering in the hedgerow. Altogether, 26 taxa were added. Twelve were new records but only seven were native; the other fourteen were missing SPA or common species. Kent’s Lane had recently been resurfaced and so it is now a hostile and barren environment for plants. However, 21 taxa were added in TQ31N, including ten native species, five established introductions, three casuals and three archaeophytes.