and with a large and prominent dark brown zigzag all down its back. It was an Adder,
probably a male with this colouring.
Late in May 1 was asked to give an hour or so of plant-based entertainment to years 5
and 6 in a small independent school in Ilford. So I took along about 25 different wild
plants in flower, including bits of trees or shrubs, each in a separate plastic bag and
labelled. The first comment was 'I never knew there were as many different weeds as
this!' Using some worksheets I had prepared, the children were expected to search
through the samples to find a hair)' leaf, or a four-petalled flower, and so on. I had taken
a set of l0x hand lenses too, and the children were fascinated by close-up views of the
plants and especially their associated fauna! I had said the day before that each child
could bring in a weed or wild plant of their own, if they wished, and many of them did;
but the plants were Californian Poppies in a pot, or a Cape Daisy in a pot still with the
cellophane wrap from Tesco's on it! Many of these children had no idea what weeds
were, or where to find them. One child had brought in a plant of Petty Spurge, for which
I was grateful. At one point in the afternoon, one little girl had her head in her hands,
bent down over the table top, so I asked her what the matter was, as I thought she was
crying. She looked up at me with a big smile on her face, which was covered with pollen
and bits of petals, and she said 'Miss, these Elder flowers are lovely! The smell is
lovely, and they feel lovely on my face'. She had in her cupped hand a whole head of
Elder flowers, and was really experiencing wild plants for the first time by putting her
face in them. That made it for me; I had achieved what I set out to do! But what really
amazed me was how little interaction with anything 'wild' or in 'the country' they had.
They lived completely urban lives, but these were not poor children as all clearly had
parents well enough off to be able to afford posh private schooling. I was delighted to be
able to open children's eyes.
A short trip to Davy Down in early June to monitor early summer plants revealed some
interesting species hitherto unsuspected. Bob Creber and I found a 'lawn' of the pretty
little Bird's-foot, and a number of plants of Knotted Clover. Among these were remains
of the two little Hair-grasses, Early and Silver Hair-grass, both very distinctive even
though dried up. Also in this area was the little Thyme-leaved Sandwort, but the plants
appeared to be of two distinct types, one with tiny petals and the other with longer
petals, and also differences in the shapes of the fruits, indicating the presence of both of
the common subspecies. Nearby was a patch with a variety of Roses, all out in flower
and looking like a rose garden, more especially by the surrounding plants being grazed
by rabbits and therefore making quite a good lawn. One Rose species easy to identify at
this stage was the Sweet Briar, with numerous little apple-scented glands on the backs of
the leaves and on the calyces and pedicels of the flowers. This is almost restricted to
chalky soils, which are present in much of Thurrock.
Way back in late winter Tim Pyner found some moss cushions in Warwick Wood that
had no fruiting capsules and therefore could not be identified with certainty. Tim
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 45, September 2004
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