Essex plant records
Mark Hanson 3 Church Cottages, Church Road, Boreham, Essex CM3 3EG
On my travels around the county this year I have come across a number of rare or local
plants. In my home village of Boreham I was very surprised to come across a single
plant of the Field Buttercup in a front garden in Juniper Road. Ranunculus arvensis is
now an extremely rare arable weed in Essex formerly growing in cornfields. The seed-
heads are remarkable, very spiny and resemble a miniature version of the Crown of
Thorns Starfish. Fortunately I was able to collect a few seeds, which I hope to be able
relocate. Another much declined arabic weed I saw for the first time was Shepherd's
Needle growing in a field not far from Hatfield Forest; again I was able to collect some
of the very characteristic needle like seeds. I thought this also begged the question as to
why we don't have a small area of land, a couple of acres would do, devoted to growing
our lost, rare and declining arable weeds.
Meadows near Boreham turned up two interesting plants. Dropwort Filipendula vulgaris
is extremely rare in Essex, in fact the Boreham site may be its last site in the county and
even here it is not common - only a single sizeable plant was found with two smaller
plants nearby. The Umbellifer Silaum silaus was foundjust a few feet from the Dropwort
plants. This same meadow usually supports numbers of Meadow Saxifrage (c. 350 in
1999) but 1 was able to record only half a dozen plants this year. Another old meadow
plant much declined in Essex is Common Meadow-rue; this was recorded on the Little
Baddow bank of the Chelmer and Blackwater. Although there were a number of plants it
seems to me they were greatly in danger of being smothered by the surrounding vegetation.
Perhaps the most surprising find and another new species to me was that famous Essex
plant Fyfield Pea found growing as an established colony over a length of 27 feet along
a field fence-line not far from Hainault Forest. How it got there is a mystery, I can only
think it was deliberately planted. It really is a very beautiful plant... I personally think it
would have been a more appropriate emblem for Essex than the Field Poppy.
Lastly I have added a few more Water Poplars to the Essex list, some quite sizeable
specimens. One I found in Central Park, Chelmsford; two more also fair sized specimens
by the river in the nearby West Park pitch and putt (also a possible fourth nearby which
had the odd spiral gall on leaf petioles but was different enough to possibly have been a
hybrid). Four more seen in the burial ground at Tolleshunt D'Arcy are also almost certainly
Water Poplars but are awaiting confirmation by Ken Adams. It is very satisfying to be
able to add significantly to this list of rare Essex trees!!!
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 45, September 2004
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