Near the end of May I was out botanising, and realised I was by an ancient (400 years old)
brick wall with plants growing on it. First I noticed Thymc-lcavcd Sandwort growing happily
in the old mortar, with quite a lot of Ivy-leaved Toadflax, then the tiny Bryum argenteum
moss covering most of the mortar. Then I noticed a small fungus in the moss on the mortar.
It was about 2cm high, consisting of a pale stem
or stipe with an off-white papery sphere, albeit
somewhat dented, on top. The top had an apical
pore, presumably where the spores come out
(see photo here, taken later at home on a rubber
mat). From my books at home it was easy to
recognise the fungus as Winter Stalk Ball
Tulostoma brumale, a rather rare species in
Britain, usually found on moss-covered dune
slacks where the sand is slightly calcareous.
Checking with Tony Boniface, our Fungus
Recorder, I found that Stephen Wilkinson found
some recently on a gravel and sand area at
Colne Point Nature Reserve, but it is much rarer
inland. Of course, the old mortal; made with
lime and sand, provided exactly the right
habitat. Tony saw it and sent it on to Dr Brian Spooner at Kew. Dr Spooner wrote back later
and said it was the old wall habitat that was especially interesting, as no records from that
habitat had been received for about a century in Britain.
By the end of May we had had much more rain than usual, double (201%) in South-east
England compared with the average for May, after the 4 or 5 dry months since November
2005. Shetland had twice as much sunshine as Heathrow Airport, a rare event indeed.
Other areas south of here are starting on hose bans etc, but most of those places have
deep aquifers which provide most of their water, and these take many months to refill.
Here, most of our water comes from surface reservoirs, and these fill up fast in rain, even
atthis time of year. Also, round our way the Essex and Suffolk water company have lined
all the water mains with plastic pipes, so our leakage rate is low. So we hope our water
supply is assured for a little while longer yet.
News came to my ears in early June that the White Helleborine was in flower again in North
Ockendon (see plate 3). In 2004 a local landowner found one plant while scything brambles
by a pond. When I got to see it, it was in fruit. Last year no plant appeared. But now it has
come up again in exactly the same place, so clearly from the same rootstock, but, alas, no
extras. For the full 2004 story, see Newsletter number 45, dated September, 2004.
June had started cold and wet, but then the sun came out and stayed that way for almost two
weeks and temperatures soon hit the high twenties or even 30°C on Monday 12th. Out
botanising on our sandy Thames Terraces, we (Tim Pyner and I) noticed how many plants
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 51, September 2006