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SID VALLEY HERBACEOUS FLOWER SURVEY 2021, MARCH UPDATE

Sid Valley Biodiversity Group is continuing with the project to record the range of

herbaceous plants in flower each month. When out walking, volunteers from the group

note which flowers they see. Then the observations are logged into an international

database called iNaturalist, either directly out on the walk through a phone app or back

home on a computer or tablet.

Following February’s cold snap which set back some the plants that were found in January,

spring has really got going in March and the team recorded nearly 300 observations on

iNaturalist with 71 species in flower, 39 new to our list for the year. The full list is included

as an Appendix to this report.

The waxy yellow stars of Lesser Celandine have spread right across the valley and Primroses

continue to brighten many sites. The ever present Dandelions and Daisies carry on

whatever the weather, but the Red Campion and Herb Robert have almost disappeared for

now.

Lesser Celandine

The pesky Three Cornered Leek or Three Cornered Garlic, Allium triquetrum to give it its

definitive name, is rampant in several areas. Its flowers are attractive, but it is blotting out

many of our native species that support so many invertebrates. There are several large

areas of the native Wild Garlic or Ramsons with their broad tulip-like leaves, but it is only

just starting to flower.

Three Cornered Leek/Garlic and Ramsons or Wild Garlic

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There are still hedgerow banks covered with the round leaves of the introduced Petasites

fragrans, Winter Heliotrope, but it has more or less finished flowering. We haven’t been

able to locate its native cousin Petasites hybridus, Butterbur, which grows beside rivers and

in damp ditches. It has been seen coming into flower alongside the River Otter, so we hope

to see it by the Sid before long. Its name is supposed to come from the old farmhouse

practice of using the large leaves to wrap butter in warm weather.

Apart from recording the diversity for botanists and raising public awareness of the wealth

of wildflowers around the valley, the project is allowing the volunteers to sharpen their

observational skills and we are learning some of the subtleties of plant identification.

In the 2020 Hedgerow Survey from which this project developed, we recorded Speedwell as

if it was a single species. Already this year we have been able to report on four different

Speedwells, Ivy Leaved, Germander, Slender and Common Field Speedwell. Stop press,

Thyme Leaved Speedwell has been found for the April list while I have been writing this.

Germander Speedwell Ivy-Leaved Speedwell

We have had Sweet Violets providing nectar for early bumble bees since the year began, but

now they have been joined by Early and Common Dog Violets flowering in many places,

including on the beach. You need to look closely to spot the difference, Sweet Violets have

blunt sepals behind the flower, Dog Violets have pointed sepals. The Common Dog Violet

flowers have a hind spur which is a paler colour than the petals, this is reversed for the Early

Dog species. There is a colony of Early Dog Violets in Bickwell Valley where the spur is pale

violet, but the petals are almost white.

Common Dog Violet Early Dog Violet

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As with January and February, there are several observations of flowers out of their

expected season. The textbooks say that Red Clover, Yellow Archangel, and Wood Forget-

me-not do not flower until May, but all three have been found flowering this March.

The group’s observations are entered onto the iNaturalist database where you can find out

much more, you can search for particular flowers and also there is an interactive map. This

month’s observations can be seen at March Sidmouth Hedgerow Herbaceous · iNaturalist

As the map shows, most of our observations are in the southern half of the valley because

that is where the volunteers live and walk. We cannot cover the whole valley, but we have

about twenty designated sites selected to give a good sample of the valley’s habitats, from

the hilltop heaths to the damp hedgebanks by streams in the smaller side valleys. We have

woodland and open grassland sites, but one finding that might surprise people is the

number of wildflowers that you can find in Sidmouth itself.

Within the town, there are still many remnants of the old agricultural landscape from before

Sidmouth’s urban expansion. The Stowford area around Waitrose has several old footpaths

with former field hedges running alongside, these date back at least two centuries to the

early 1800s and still contain many field “weeds” such as Cow Parsley and Arum maculatum

with its finger-like spadix of small flowers wrapped in a spathe bract like a cowl. Arum has a

great many everyday names around the country, Cuckoo Pint, Jack in the Pulpit, Lords and

Ladies, Babies in the Cradle, Greasy Dragon, Friar’s Cowl, and Sucky Calves to list a few.

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The hooded spathe wrapped around the spadix of Arum flowers.

The bank in front of the Harbour Hotel on Peak Hill Road used to be the boundary for a field

marked as number 512, Little Meadow on the 1849 Tithe Map, when it was a pasture. It is

worth taking a walk and having a close look at this bank because it has a wide range of small

plants which will produce their flowers as spring turns to summer, and they are at eye level.

In late March we found the almost ubiquitous Lesser Celandine and Primrose on the bank.

You can see at close up the tiny blue flowers of Slender Speedwell with their two stamens

like a pair of horns, and Hairy Bitter Cress and Thale Cress, there is more about them later.

If you look very closely, you will see clusters of even smaller, five-petalled flowers each no

more than 2mm across. This is a plant called Cornsalad. As the name suggests, it is edible,

but I would ask you not to pick it from this site. There are several species of Cornsalad, but

we do not know which one we have here because you have to wait and see the shape of the

miniscule fruits to separate them, as I said, we are sharpening our observation skills.

Cornsalad, that is a £1 coin behind for scale

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As you walk around the town centre, you might notice plants eking out an existence in

cracks and crevices at the base of walls and between paving flags. They are topped with

sprays of very small white flowers. They are members of the Cabbage family and all edible,

although you might not want to collect the street plants to eat.

We have five main species flowering in March, Shepherd’s Purse, Hairy Bittercress, Wavy

Bittercress, Thale Cress and Danish Scurvy Grass (there is an English or Common Scurvy

Grass that will probably flower in May).

Thale Cress and Shepherd’s Purse have similar leaves, but you can tell them apart by their

seed pods. Shepherd’s Purse gets its name from the heart shaped seed pods supposedly

like a shepherd’s purse. Thale Cress has long thin pods. Hairy and Wavy Bittercress are very

difficult to distinguish, you need a magnifying glass to look inside the minute flowers and

count the stamens, Hairy Bittercress has four, Wavy has six. Both have seed pods that

dehisce or explode when ripe to catapult the seeds well away from the parent plant.

Shepherd’s Purses Six Stamens of Wavy Bittercress

All four of these species are common across the country, but Scurvy Grass is a seaside

specialist adapted to living with the salt laden atmosphere, or it used to be. As the name

suggests, it is a rich source of vitamin C and sailors used to eat it to ward off the awful

disease of scurvy. We have Danish Scurvy Grass because of sea trade. I said it used to be a

seaside specialist, but it is now spreading across our motorway network courtesy of lorries

from ports carrying the seeds, and salt used in icy weather. There are large populations on

the verges and centre reservations of main roads particularly near Dover and Liverpool.

Danish Scurvy Grass by the sea wall.

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These insignificant plants are sprayed, scraped and swept away, but they have their own

intrinsic value. You have to remember that nature is a network of interdependence. These

small clusters provide homes and food for very small insects. These insects are food for

larger insects, which are in turn eaten by spiders and small birds, and so on.

As we move into April, with longer days and rising temperatures, we are likely to see a

further acceleration in the species count. The group are hoping for fine weather,

interspersed with occasional April showers to keep the valley green, and having many more

gems to report at the end of the month.

Ed Dolphin

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Appendix: Species recorded flowering in the Sid Valley in March 2021

*pictured

Common name Scientific name

Alexanders Smyrnium olusatrum

*Alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens

Anemone, Wood Anemone nemerosa

Avens, Wood Geum urbanum

Bittercress, Hairy Cardamine hirsuta

Bittercress, Wavy Cardamine flexuosa

Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Bluebell, Spanish Hyacinthoides hispanica

Butchers Broom Ruscus aculeatus

Campion, Red Silene dioica

*Celandine, Lesser Ficaria verna

*Charlock Sinapis arvensis

Chickweed Stellaria media

Clover, Red Trifolium pratense

Comfrey, Bulbous Symphytum bulbosum

Cornsalad sp. Valerianella sp.

Cuckoo Pint Arum maculatum

Daffodil, Wild? Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Daisy, Common Bellis perennis

Dandelion Taraxacum sp.

*Deadnettle, Red Lamium purpureum

Deadnettle, White Lamium album

Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis

Forgetmenot, Field Myosotis arvensis

Forgetmenot, Wood Myosotis sylvatica

Garlic, Three Cornered Allium triquetrum

Garlic, Wild Allium ursinum

*Golden-Saxifrage, Opp.Leaf Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

Gorse, European Ulex europaeus

Grape Hyacynth, Broad Leaf Muscari latifolium

Ground Ivy Glechoma hederacea

*Groundsel, Common Senecio vulgaris

Herb Robert Geranium robertianum

Lungwort Pulmonaria officinalis

Marigold, Marsh Caltha palustris

Marigold, Pot Calendula officinalis

Meadow Grass, Annual Poa annua

Nipplewort Lapsana communis

Oxlip Primula elatior

Parsley, Cow Anthriscus sylvestris

Periwinkle, Greater Vinca major

*Periwinkle, Lesser Vinca minor

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Plantain, Ribwort Plantago lanceolata

Pondweed, Cape Aponogeton distachyos

Primrose Primula vulgaris

*Purslane, Pink Claytonia sibirica

Scurvygrass, Danish Cochlearia danica

Shepherd's Purse Capsella bursa-pastoris

Skunk Cabbage, American Lysichiton americanus

Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis

Snowflake, Summer Leucojum aestivum

*Sow Thistle, Smooth Sonchus oleraceus

Speedwell, Common Field Veronica persica

Speedwell, Ivy-Leaved Veronica hederifolia

Speedwell, Slender Veronica filiformis

Spurge, Petty Euphorbia peplus

Squill, Siberian Scilla siberica

Stitchwort, Greater Stellaria holostea

*Strawberry, Barren Fragaria sterilis

Thale Cress Arabidopsis thaliana

Thrift, Sea Armeria maritima

Toadflax, Ivy-Leaved Cymbalaria muralis

*Toothwort, Purple Lathraea clandestina

Vetch, Bush Vicia sepum

Violet, Common Dog Viola riviniana

Violet, Early Dog Viola reichenbachiana

Violet, Sweet Viola odorata

Water-Dropwort, Hemlock Oenanthe crocata

Woodrush, Field Luzula campestris

*Woodrush, Great Luzula sylvestris

Yellow Archangel Lamium galeobdolon