A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

After the wonderful surprise the day before of finding four orchid species in flower including Lady, Fly, Common Twayblade and Early Purple Orchid (plus a variant), we set off to Samphire Hoe for a change of venue and somewhere nice by the sea for a walk. I didn't think there would be any Early Spider Orchids out yet. Many people had been studiously looking for them for the past few weeks and I hadn't seen any reported in flower yet. However, Samphire Hoe is a wildlife haven with plenty of other things to see, so finding an orchid wasn't the main purpose of the trip. There are always Stonechats here, a lovely little bird that sings it heart out. I couldn't get any photos today but I took this photo last year in Wales It's a great place for butterflies as well. Several Wall butterflies were seen (again photo is from last year) but proved elusive and they didn't settle long anywhere. Several of the Whites, a Red Admiral and what looked

We had a few hours to spare before I had to go to work, so we thought it would be nice to visit a reserve not too far away that we knew had a sea of Bluebells and a few Early Purple Orchids. Other orchids grow there but they don't flower until May, so the above was all we expected to see. There's no real car parking just a small area you can get a couple of cars into. As I got out of the car I could see many Wood Anemones had already gone to seed, though many were still flowering well in the wood itself. Anemone nemorosa As we walked on I spotted a Lord and Ladies in flower. These are very common, but very few seem to flower. Those that do are often eaten by woodland animals which bite off the dark brown spadix. Arum maculatum Very soon the wood was awash with Bluebells. Their scent filled the air. Most were native Bluebells which have the strongest scent, however, there were numnerous hybrid Bluebells in amongst them, an inferior pl

Some late Spring/early Summer flowers are now beginning to overlap, so it has been a very busy week recording as many as I can find in between domestic life and work. While it's turned cooler, the warm spell  of weather last week has really progressed development of many species and some are flowering up to 2 weeks earlier than usual. A far cry from a month ago, when the first Spring plants were late! I'll start with a relatively quick but productive visit to Dartford Heath.  There are many rarer wildflowers here at certain times of the year and the purpose of this visit was to find Petty Whin in flower. I'd only seen it in books but it was supposed to look like a spindly sort of Gorse with similar yellow flowers. Of course Gorse covers a huge area of the Heath and along with Broom, the place was a sea of yellow pea like flowers. Ulex europaeus In the short turf areas were some Early Forget -Me-Nots with their miniscule 2-3mm wide flowers.

Perhaps best known for its old castle by the lake, the National Trust's Scotney Castle also has extensive grounds, mostly neat and manicured to exhibit their ornamental species. However me being me, I like to look for the "weeds" and wildflowers that the gardeners have missed. First up was the successully naturalised Ivy-leaved Toadflax, whcih has colonised walls all over the UK since its introduction many years ago. This grew abundantly on the wall from the house down to the gardens. Cymbalaria muralis I almost walked past this one thinking it was a Shepherd's Purse, but the leaves on the rosette didn't look right. Sure enough, it was a Thale Cress, the first plant to have its complete genome mapped. Arabidopsis thaliana These Snake Head Fritillaries are planted, but I could't resist taking a photo of them amongst the Daffodils. Here's another cultivated plant, a do