a Green-winged Orchid Orchis morio. We searched far and wide to find another, to no
avail, but this was definitely the Find of the Day. Some fungi were found by Martin and
Barbara Chapman, mainly old Meadow Puffball Vascellum pratense and Grey Puffball
Bovista plumbea, both common in grassy meadows. This meadow was sloping towards
the south-west, and had some interesting plants, such as Bugloss Anchusa arvensis, but
the next meadow to the north was flat, and was directly across the A13 from Jill's Field;
indeed, they were the same piece of land until the A13 cut a huge groove through the
middle. Tim had visited this area in 1999 and found it interesting, but it was new to me.
Here were found many of the same special plants as we had already seen to the east, but
some species were missing. This area was rather spoilt by burnt-out cars and other
rubbish, and seemed slightly degraded, not just by the rubbish but perhaps by recent
large animals grazing or similar, but it still produced an impressive list of scarce plants
such as Clustered Clover Trifolium glomeratum, Subterranean Clover Trifolium
subterranean, Early Forget-me-not Myosotis ramosissima, Changing Forget-me-not
Myosotis discolor, Slender Parsley-piert Aphanes australis, Little Mouse-ear Cerastium
semidecandrum and others.
By about 5:15 we had all had enough and called it a day, but we had been very pleased
with the areas we had surveyed and the interesting and beautiful plants we had seen.
Thanks go especially to Ken Adams, County Recorder, for his special skills, and to Tim
Pyner for finding and identifying so many new finds. Jill's local knowledge of the
landscape and paths was invaluable, and Barbara and Martin made new finds too, so a
good afternoon was enjoyed by all.
MapMate records
If you are using MapMate for your biological records, then please send these on regular occasions
using the MapMate synchronisation process. If the County Recorder MapMate details are not
listed overleaf, please contact your County Recorder to find out whether they are able to receive
records in this form or you can send your MapMate records to Peter Harvey (cuk 2gv and email
grays@peterharvey.freeserve.co.uk), who will forward them on. Current details for County
Recorders who are definitely able to receive MapMate sync records are as follows, but at least 6
more are or will be using MapMate and may be able and willing to receive records in this way:
County MapMate Email Taxonomic groups
Recorder CUK
Tim Gardiner 3kb tg@writtle.ac.uk Orthoptera
Brian Goodey 6qa essexmoths@dsl.pipex.com Lepidoptera
Mark Hanson 6q4 rrark@hanson2468.fsnet.co.uk Veteran Trees
Neil Harvey 2hb neilh@essexwt.org.uk Larger Brachycera
Peter Harvey 2gv grays@peterharvey.freeserve.oo.uk Arachnida, Hymenoptera, Isopoda
David Scott 6qn david.scott76@btopenworld.com Reptiles and amphibians
Del Smith 6bc delsmith444@btinternet.com Diptera (except hoverflies and
larger Brachycera)
22
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 51, September 2006