3
BOTANY GROUP MEETING, August 15th at Strethall
The weather was perfect for this outing, high in the N. W. corner of Essex, with fine
views over Cambridgeshire.
Twelve species of butterfly were seen including several Wall Browns and a Brimstone on
its food plant Buckthorn, Rhamnus catharticus. Common Blue was found feeding on the
roadside flowers, Marjoram, Greater Knapweed, Valerian, Rockrose and Eyebright. A
small patch of Twiggy Spurge, Euphorbia pseudovirgata was also seen and Greater
Broomrape, Orobanche elatior.
There were seventeen of us in the group which strolled the lanes, field edges and roads
and found Crosswort, Galium cruciata everywhere, yet it is scarce in Essex generally.
The Bird's nest fungus (Cyathus olla) was discovered in an arable crop and whilst eating
lunch at a field edge Tim Pyner found the corm-like roots of Arrhenatherum elatius var.
bulbosum, called Onion Couch by country folk. Only a botanist would know what to
look for and where to search for this variety of such a common grass, so it is mostly over-
looked. One lane produced patches of the delightful late flowering Strawberry Clover,
Trifolium fragiferum and Greater Burnet Saxifrage, Pimpinella major, also of damp
places.
Some good arable weeds were found, notably the two Fluellens, Kickxia spuria and
K. elatine, Venus Looking-glass, Legousia hybrida and Warty Spurge, Euphorbia
platyphyllos. Half the group extended the meeting to see the long known roadside site for
Thalictrum minus and saw a few more cornfield weeds, Com Gromwell, Lithospermum
arvense, Prickly Poppy, Papaver argemone, and Rough Poppy,
P. hybridum. Before leaving for home we had a quick look at Coploe Hills N. R., then a
brief stop to find Crepis biennis, Rough Hawks-beard on a verge near Littlebury.
An unusual wasp found was Dolichovespula media, a large wasp first recorded in Britain
in 1980, in Sussex, but which has been increasing in frequency and is now recorded as far
north as Lincolnshire.
Shirley & Charles Watson
GARRULUS GLANDARIUS VERSUS HOMO SAPIENS or
If you go down to the wood today you'd better go in disguise........
The date September 19th, the scene Chalkney Wood, the good guys four members of the
Bird Group who had just lunched in a sunny clearing. Enter the villain, a Jay, perched on
a tree only a few feet away. We watch and comment on the unusual behaviour of this
normally shy bird before continuing our walk. The villain follows from tree to tree along
the path before taking centre stage on a fallen log. He poses professionally for Tony
Boniface to take close up photographs before hopping on to his basket of fungi and
tearing at the wickwork in a serious attempt at demolition. 1 offer a bribe, a blackberry
which is gratefullly accepted, I offer another, a fatal mistake as finger is preferred to
berry. I pull away sharply but the villain takes his opportunity to deliver the coup de
grace, a vicious peck at an eyebrow, I trip over a bramble and lie bleeding and defeated
on the ground.
Is this why careless pedestrians are known as "Jay walkers"?
John Bath