New plant species

I particularly like adding to the species list for The Beeches. Last year we had four new flowers all of them delightful - Ragged Robin, Eyebright, Red Bartsia and Marsh Bedstraw. The extent to which these have been on site all along and have only just been recorded by me or whether the management regime or weather conditions are allowing existing seeds to germinate successfully or indeed whether the seeds have blown in - I have no real idea. However I certainly think I would have spotted Ragged Robin had it flowered in the previous two years we have been here but potentially I might have missed the other lower profile flowers. I would like to think that it is the management regime that is making the difference. This year we have already two new plant species - Coltsfoot and Spring Sedge. The Coltsfoot grew on the stone chips making up the parking area and is likely to have blown in but the Spring Sedge might fall into the category of 'here all along but not recorded before'. It is fairly low key and hides amongst the many thousands of plants of Field Woodrush, Ribwort Plantain and Sweet Vernal Grass that are all in flower at the same time. Having found a few spikes in one field, I then searched closely in the damper areas of a second field and found a dozen or so spikes eventually. The fact I had missed them initially in the second field suggest they have been here all along but just not recorded previously. The picture above shows Spring Sedge in front of some out-of-focus Lousewort.