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The Essex Naturalist
aparine, red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum, white dead-nettle Lamium album
and a small patch of lords-and-ladies Arum maculatum.
The western boundary nearer the Park is a concrete fence behind which is a
riding school and stables. The site here is wooded, with some mature trees
nearer the fence including pedunculate oak and sycamore, with some grassy
mounds on which grow some large hawthorn, annual meadow grass Poa annua,
and foxglove Digitalis purpurea. It was unfortunate that a substantial amount of
rubbish was deposited hereabouts, both over and through holes knocked in the
fence, though this problem has now virtually ceased.
Area 1 (Fig. 1) has much great sallow Salix caprea ssp. caprea developing
amongst more mature trees. Amongst these is a patch of broom Cytisus scoparius
and a small amount of lesser celandine Ranunculus ficaria. There is a patch of
grassland here too, with some dyer's greenweed Genista tinctoria and everlasting-
pea Lathyrus latifolius. The willow and thicker shrub layer that includes bramble
Rubus sect. glandulosus and Japanese knotweed Fallopia japonica is encroaching
and this warm, sheltered and attractive area may soon be lost.
In the western concrete fence is one of the original access points to the works,
which until July 1996 was a large locked gate. The concrete fence continues
southwards towards the City of London Cemetery and behind the fence are
allotments belonging to the London Borough of Redbridge. A small amount of
vegetable matter has found its way over the fence so that potato Solanum
tuberosum can be found near to the wooded area to the south. Some sapling trees
and shrubs were planted here in April 1994 to act as a more natural and pleasing
boundary, but these were not watered and many have died. Adjacent to this
fence, Area 2 is much more open, and consisted until the pebble-gravel was laid
of masses of hemlock Conium maculatum, with large patches of nettle Urtica
dioica. Nearer the main entrance gate a stand of crack willow Salix fragilis is
spreading.
Towards the centre of Area 2 was a system of eight rectangular concrete
enclosed drying pans. Though a slightly different flora had developed in each of
these, generally they included prickly lettuce Lactuca serriola and great lettuce L.
virosa, and the smooth and the prickly sow-thistles Sonchus oleraceus and S. asper
growing in the rough materials that made up the base of the beds. In 1992 some
shining Cranesbill Geranium lucidum was noted sheltered close against the
concrete edge of a drying pan; in 1993 there was masses of this species which is
almost unknown elsewhere locally. The concrete walls had a selection of lichens
adding to the interest, but the expertise was not available to identify these.
Immediately to the north of the drying pans, open grassland graded into the
compacted foundations of buildings or road. The grassland has become almost
meadow-like, with a colourful display of plants including clovers Trifolium spp.,
vetches Vicia spp., yarrow Achillea millefolium as well as some hybrid daffodils
Narcissus spp., teasel Dipsacus fullonum, mugwort Artemisia vulgaris and