Highlights Part 7 : Redgrave and Lopham Fen

14 Tue Feb 2017

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, plants, Rural Diary, walking, wild flowers

Tags

ferns, flowers, plants, Redgrave and Lopham Fen, Suffolk, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, wild flowers

At the beginning of September, I visited Redgrave and Lopham Fen with my friend Heather whom I hadn’t seen for over a year. It was a very muggy, clammy day so not ideal for walking any distance.

Redgrave and Lopham Fen – one of the many large ponds.

The sedge and reeds were very tall so we didn’t manage to see much open water and the pathways across the fen were quite narrow and enclosed at times. We got very hot and sticky and our feet were black with the peaty soil we walked on. However, we saw a few interesting plants and we managed to catch up with all our news!

Water at Redgrave and Lopham Fen

Redgrave and Lopham Fen is situated on the border between Suffolk and Norfolk and is owned and maintained by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. It is where the River Waveney and the Little Ouse River have their beginning. It is the largest remaining area of river valley fen in England. Its diverse habitat make it a very important site; saw sedge beds, open water, heathland, scrub and woodland can all be found here.

It is one of only three sites in the UK where the Fen Raft Spider can be found, though we didn’t manage to see it on our walk. Nineteen species of dragonfly, twenty-seven species of butterfly, twenty-six species of mammal, four species of amphibian, four species of reptile and ninety-six species of bird can be seen here. The beginning of September isn’t a great time of year to go looking for wildlife but we were pleased with what we did manage to see. It is a place I would like to return to one day.

Hips of the Dog Rose (Rosa canina)

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)

Surprisingly for a plant so widespread, this was the first time I had seen this flower since I was a little girl.

Purple Loosestrife

Purple Loosestrife and Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus pendunculatus)

Bird’s-foot Trefoil seedheads with Fen Bedstraw (Galium uliginosum)

These seedheads really do look a bit like birds feet!

Bulrush and Common Reed

Bulrush (Typha latifolia) is also known as Great Reedmace. Common Reed (Phragmites australis) stands in this country are a priority habitat because of their importance for wildlife as food and shelter.

Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis)

According to legend, the Devil was so angry with this plant because it was successful at curing all sorts of ailments that he bit off part of the root. The plant may have a short root but it still has curative powers! Nicholas Culpeper says the boiled root is good for snake-bite, swollen throats, wounds and the plague.

A meadow full of Devil’s-bit Scabious

Broad Buckler Fern (Dryopteris dilatata)

Broad Buckler Fern has 3-times pinnate leaves. Pinnate leaves are made up of leaflets, often in pairs, attached to a central stem and often with a terminal leaflet. 2-times pinnate leaves = the leaflets have their own leaflets. 3-times pinnate leaves = the leaflets of the leaflets have leaflets! Broad Buckler Fern has a long stalk which only has leaf branches for half its length.

Probably Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum)

Blackberries on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.) There is an out-of-focus Speckled Wood butterfly sitting on a leaf just to the right of the top red berry

Haws of a Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

This might be Lesser Water Parsnip (Berula erecta)

I believe this is probably Amphibious Bistort (Persicaria amphibia)

It took me a while to identify this plant, mainly because it is extremely variable. It has two main forms – an aquatic form, which is described and illustrated in most ID guides, and a terrestrial form, which isn’t often described and hardly ever illustrated. The plant I saw is the terrestrial form.

This mole-hill shows how black the soil is

Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) with clusters of red berries

Heather kindly bought me a gift of two hardy cyclamen plants as our meeting was close to my birthday. I took a photo of them at the end of October where I had planted them in my garden.

White and purple hardy cyclamen. I am hoping they will spread out under the shrubs I have in this border and prevent the moss from returning as soon as my back is turned!

Thanks for visiting!

Highlights Part 6: Shingle Street

04 Sat Feb 2017

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, plants, Rural Diary, seashore

≈ 54 Comments

Tags

beach, kite-surfing, Shingle Street, Suffolk, wild flowers

After we left the Suffolk Punch Trust we drove a couple of miles to Shingle Street on the coast.

Shingle Street beach

I wanted to visit this beach to look at the plants and flowers that live on the shingle. I had heard that it was a desolate spot but when we were there the place was teeming with kite-surfers!

Kite-surfing on a windy day

Kite-surfers on the beach

More kite-surfers. Here you can see the spit of shingle which curls round forming a calm lagoon.

The lagoon

The houses at Shingle Street

The Coastguard House

Shingle Street Part of the beach was fenced off to protect nesting birds, little terns and ringed plovers, and to protect this beach from damage by trampling.

Shingle Street

Looking south towards the Martello Tower

Looking north towards Orfordness lighthouse….

…and the old atomic weapons research establishment

The village of Hollesley

Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare)

The name ‘Bugloss’ derives from the Greek for ‘ox-tongued’ – the plant is quite rough and bristly to the touch. Parts of the plant are also thought to look like a snake – the fruits, which are said to resemble an adder’s head, used to be used to cure snake bites even though the plant is poisonous!

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum)

According to my field guide, the flowers are honey-scented when fresh and smell of new-mown hay when dry. In days gone by, it was said to discourage fleas and so was added to straw mattresses especially for the beds of women about to give birth.

Sea Beet (Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima )

Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Not an uncommon plant but I find it beautiful – and spiny!

Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris)

Sea Kale (Crambe maritima)

Yellow Horned Poppy (Glaucium flavum)

Yellow Horned Poppy (with a few pollen beetles!)

Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium)

Sea Pea (Lathyrus japonicus)

I was very pleased to see this plant still in flower! Usually I find it too late to admire the bright pink flowers. It is a nationally scarce plant but where it is happy it grows well and plentifully. My field guide tells me that the seed pods resemble garden pea-pods and were eaten (apparently) in Suffolk in times of famine (e.g. 1555). The pods are toxic in large quantities.

Sea pea

Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) These plants can grow as tall as 200 cm/ 6.5 ft. Prickly lettuce is a non-native and was first recorded here in 1632.

A Ladybird on Prickly Lettuce

I think this is a type of Mouse-ear, probably Common Mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum)

This visit to the Shingle Street beach was a very pleasant end to an enjoyable day.

Thanks for visiting!

Harrap’s Wild Flowers: Simon Harrap

http://www.seasonalwildflowers.com/

Highlights Part 5: The Suffolk Punch Trust

03 Fri Feb 2017

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, Rural Diary

≈ 56 Comments

Tags

agricultural museum, draught horses, Hollesley, horses, rare breeds, Suffolk, Suffolk Punch Trust

Last summer we visited the Suffolk Punch Trust at Hollesley. Richard had been in touch with his cousin who had enquired about Suffolk Punch horses and wondered if we could go and find some. We obliged.

The Suffolk Punch Trust is a charity that works to protect the critically endangered Suffolk Punch horse by its breeding programme, by making people aware of the horse and its history and by training men and women to work with them. Suffolk Punches have been on this site since 1880 when the then owner of the farm began to breed them here. In 1886, the Colonial College was formed where young gentlemen were trained in farming methods but by 1906 the site was owned by London County Council who used the site to create work for the unemployed. In 1938 the Prison Service took over the farm where they rehabilitated young offenders. When I first came to live in Suffolk in the 1980’s the ‘Colony’ was featured fairly regularly on local news programmes because of the very successful stud the Prison Service with their young offenders had developed. Sadly, the Prison Service found it had to sell the farm in 2002 and many of the workers there were sad to leave the horses. This was when the Trust was formed and the good work that was begun so many years ago has been continued.

Suffolk Punch Trust land with paddocks.

The Suffolk Punch is a heavy draught horse specially bred for agricultural work on the land rather than as cart horses on the road. They are massive horses with very powerful, muscular necks but are shorter in height than most other draught horses. They were used on and near the battlefields during the First World War because of their strength and because they were accustomed to working on thick, clay soil. With the introduction of the motor tractor the horses were no longer needed and many were slaughtered.

All Suffolk Punches are chestnut horses though traditionally it is spelt ‘chesnut’ without the middle ‘t’

We looked at the horses resting in their stables

This one was very friendly

The Trust also looks after other horses…

Shetland pony

…such as these Shetland ponies and also horses just out of racing, that are rested here by the charity ‘Retraining of Racehorses’. They then go on elsewhere to be trained for a second career.

The Trust also looks after other rare breeds of native Suffolk farm animals such as the Large Black Pig, Red Poll Cattle, Suffolk Sheep, Ixworth Chickens and Bantam Silver Appleyard Ducks.

Ixworth hen and chicks

A selection of old carts

They have a Suffolk Heritage Garden stocked with plants, shrubs and trees that originated in or are associated with Suffolk. We didn’t get to see this unfortunately.