A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

I've surveyed the fields on the Gallops at Longfield a few times over the years and one might reasonably expect that there would be nothing new to see. These fields had been left fallow for a couple of years up to recently, so were full of arable wildflowers normally sprayed out of existence. The fields have a new owner and rumour abounds on social media as to the impact this will have. My main concern was the rumour that the farmer will be growing crops for supermarkets - thus leading to intensive fertilising and spraying on the poor chalk soils. so far this hasn't happened, the field has been tilled and nothing else. As a result, there's been an explosion on some plants there, as follows.  Fumaria densiflora This sea of purple stretched for about a kilometre! It comprises of millions of Fumitories,  the ones I examined found to be Dense-flowered Fumitory. Just to confuse, Common Fumitories were mixed in, I wonder if they hybridise? I expect so!

I thought it would be a good time to go the the National Trust's White Cliffs of Dover area for wildflowers, so we set off in good weather, hoping for a great day out.  On arrival, we parked in the first NT car park and walked down a dodgy tiny path to the old tramway. There were sheer drops off the edge of it! You can just see it in this photo. As ever there were interesting views of the port and France was easily visible this day. Anyway, back to the wildflowers. The most obvious plant now flowering in their hundreds were Horseshoe Vetch. Hippocrepis comosa Also blazing the cliffsides with colour were many Wild Cabbages, pretty much only found in these habitats now in Kent. Brassica oleracea var. oleracea This photo close to the cliff edge shows Wild Cabbage, Wallflower and Hoary Stock all in the same photo. There were tiny surprises as well, like this Lesser Centaury, not even as big as