Cardamine flexuosa

Wavy bitter-cress (Cardamine flexuosa) is not easy to distinguish from hairy bitter cress (Cardamine hirsuta), but is generally larger, and found in wet locations.

By photographing possible specimens it is possible to distinguish the two species by means of counting the number of stamens (6 vs 4). The result is that in addition to the locality in parish A recorded last year, I have recorded plants on either side of the stream dividing parish L (Thursday) from parish O (today).

Arum

While crossing the woods to the east of the town I came across a substantial population of Arum, which I somehow overlooked last year. As they're not flowering I can't tell whether they represent Arum maculatum or Arum italicum.

Like the other locality, recorded last year, this is in parish L.

reorganising

This year I am going to extend the area covered to a larger group of parishes this side of the county boundary, and maintain separate parish lists.

Parish A is the parish in which I live, and which was fully included in the previous area.

Parish L is the lies to the east, and partly to the north. About 80% was included in the previous area.

Parish O, parish M, parish Y and parish C lie succesively north of parish L. A small sliver of parish O (south of the canal was included in the previous area).

To the west and north west lie parishes R, H, G and T, small parts of which were included in the previous area.

The new parishes will not be covered in the same detail as parishes A and L; of the new parishes parish O will receive the best coverage.

Disentangling 2008 records to parish level may not be completely achievable; one problem is that the landfill site to the northwest of the town, which is a major source of rarities, lies across a parish boundary, and the lie of the boundary is difficult to follow on the ground - it follows the former course of a stream before it was diverted by the landfill.

Lamium species

Walking into town this morning I came across a dead-nettle growing at the edge of a pavement, which wasn't one of the usual species found (Lamium album, Lamium maculatum, Lamium purpureum). I think that it's henbit dead-nettle (Lamium amplexicaule), but will check when it's flowering (it's currently in bud).