suggested I should take a cushion of each home and grow them both on in pots of moist
soil under dappled shade in my garden. I duly did so, covering both pots with fine-mesh
netting to keep off marauding squirrels and the like. Although they grew a little, neither
showed any signs of fruiting, but when I looked in early June I found both pots and the
netting had gone. I found the netting tangled in a nearby shrub, and one pot, empty, on
the lawn, and then the other pot, also empty, much further down the garden by one
entrance to the fox's earth. I assume a fox had taken them, but whatever for? I am
frequently surprised by fox behaviour, as mentioned in earlier notes in this magazine,
but this seems to be stranger than ever. Perhaps somebody can enlighten me as to what
on earth is going on?
More exciting was a find locally of the White Helleborine by a local landowner and
farmer in North Ockendon in June. This is the first modern record for Essex, as no signs
of this species have been recorded since 1952. But, you are wondering, don't these
kinds of Orchids only grow on the chalk? Yes, but an old wall of bricks and lime mortar,
dating from a few hundred years ago, has been dropping mortar all that time and there is
still much rubble in the soil. The plant grows only a metre or so from the wall, so the
soil is sufficiently limey there. The plant was discovered while doing some scything of
the rough scrub that had developed, and the plant was between the farmer's feet and
therefore saved. More scything of scrub, but not reduction ofthe bigtrees, will continue
in the autumn and then we shall watch next year to see how many plants appear. I cannot
believe there is only one!
In mid-July I went to Davy Down again to monitor the population of the Broad-leaved
Cudweed found last year on an EFC visit and to see the Deadly Nightshade, both now in
full flower (Plate 3 middle and bottom left). Steve Mitchell, the Ranger at Davy Down,
came with me and we did the job between us. We found lots more plants further west of
last year's sites, and the estimated count is now about 5,000 plants! This makes it the
third largest colony in the Country.
The spell of wetter weather around St Swithun's Day (15th July), and its traditional
predictions for the next forty days, bode well for the fungi. They are already popping up
all over the place with two new Essex records already seen by Tony Boniface as I write
on 20"'. A few days later I found several groups of Field and Horse Mushrooms, and a
lovely, pure white, Giant Puffball which provided an excellent vegetable for supper.
Before cooking in olive oil with garlic and parsley I measured it as 14cm diameter, not
huge but a good size for two of us to share. After the disasters of the past two years, we
need a good and fruitful autumn.
6
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 45, September 2004