36
BOTANY GROUP, GRAYS CHALK QUARRY,
29TH JUNE, 1985
Some years have passed since the Essex Field
Club last visited Grays Chalk Quarry, so it
was with particular pleasure that Thurrock
Wildlife Society played host to this meeting.
The very survival of the Quarry can be largely
attributed to the Club, for it was they who,
in 1948/9, discovered the existence of Man
Orchid (Aceras anthropophorum) and Round-
leaved Wintergreen (Pyrola rotundifolia)
which subsequently led to the establishment
of the S.S.S.I. in the northern fifty acres.
Without this status it is questionable whether
the area would have remained intact.
Unfortunately, the thirty or so members who
attended the meeting, had, first, to traverse
that part of the quarry which did not receive
the N.C.C.'s blessing, and is currently
being developed for housing.
The interest centred, for some time, on the
new growth of weed species along the re-con-
toured route around the edge of the develop-
ment zone. Of main interest here was a
profusion of Yellow Vetchling (Lathyrus
aphaca) and a few specimens of another, rather
showy, peaflower, which, in form, resembled
Lathyrus tuberosus. It has since been
confirmed as L. grandiflorus. In order to
retain the botanical interest in this part
of the Quarry complex, it is hoped to persuade
the powers-that-be to leave much of this
peripheral area and graded slopes, which are
scheduled as open space by the developers,
to grass-over naturally, thus encouraging the
re-establishment of the chalk flora.