Stonegate Station

Field meeting reports

Meeting date: 28 April 2007

(Leader: Rachel Nicholson)

To the accompaniment of nightingales singing in the trees behind the up platform, 116 species were recorded in the space of half an hour in the car park, including, appropriately, Lathyrus latifolius (Broad-leaved Everlasting-pea, or, more simply, Railway Pea).

On a disused bridge just north of the station there was a crop of ferns: Asplenium trichomanes (Maidenhair Spleenwort), A. adiantum-nigrum (Black Spleenwort) and the rare Ceterach officinarum (Rustyback), soon to become rarer as the now redundant bridge is due to be demolished in the near future.

Passing through a small wood where Adoxa moschatellina (Moschatel), Ranunculus auricomus (Wood Buttercup) and Orchis mascula (Early Purple-orchid) grew, and then over two barren arable fields, we crossed the rail tracks into a set-aside field, where Alan found Bromus racemosus (Smooth Brome). At the edge of the wood near our lunch stop there was a fine multi-stemmed specimen of Tilia cordata (Small-leaved Lime) along with Crataegus laevigata (Midland Hawthorn).

Returning by way of a damp wood, Cardamina bulbifera (Coralroot Bittercress) was scattered along the edges of the ride, especially where the canopy was less dense. Records from the three tetrads visited totalled 239.