Salehurst

Field meeting reports

Meeting date: 2 June 2012

(Leader: Roy Wells)

Ten members assembled at Bourne Farm, Salehurst on Saturday 2nd June. This beef-rearing farm is mainly improved grassland but the owner Mr. Booth and his Farm Manager, David Plumley, maintain a large unimproved hay meadow for conservation. This was our objective. The beauty of the spring flowers was impressive; a reminder of how most of the countryside must have appeared in times gone by. We were all soon deeply involved in identifying the 60 odd species, common and rare, in the meadow, plus many more in areas around including a couple of small ponds. Orchis morio (Green-winged Orchid), most plants just past flowering, was present in many hundreds and Ophioglossum vulgatum (Adder’s-tongue) abounded. Several roses in the hedgerows looked interesting but it was a bit too early in the year to sort them out, with the exception of the Rosa micrantha (Small-flowered Sweet-briar), flinging its apple scent wantonly on the breeze and unfurling the petals of its first flowers.

Our lunch was enlivened by Helen unexpectedly bursting forth with patriotic fervour, unfurling a union flag and providing us all with strawberries and cream somehow concealed about her person in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Tetrad recording was not our main objective on this particular day, but nevertheless we still managed to add ten records to the total for the square.