Streat and Plumpton area

Field meeting reports

Picture of Orchis mascula (Early-purple Orchid)
Orchis mascula (Early-purple Orchid) [taken at Bramble Grove]. Photo: Helen Proctor
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 recordsWe 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.