identification – Grantham Ecology

Wildflowers of the Dolomites

June 28, 2017Grantham Ecology3 Comments

This blog post steps outside of my usual UK sphere and across to Europe to share some photographs from our holiday in the Dolomites. We spent 6 fantastic days in the Val Gardena and mid-June was the perfect time for exploring the mountains and valleys at the beginning of the real flush of summer flowers.

We stayed in Ortesei – a popular skiing resort in the winter which lent its infrastructure to summer explorers such as us. Two cablecars and a funicular railway would take you up to 2,500m to alpine meadows to the south of the town, pine forests to the north and the scree-slopes below ancient elevated reefs to the west. With the help of these we walked over 100km of trails during out time there and passed through a wide range of habitat with the variety of flora to match.

This was a fascinating experience for me as an ecologist. Firstly, it was an opportunity to see a number of species which I would dearly love to see in the UK, from the much-celebrated lady’s slipper orchid to the delicate lesser butterfly orchid. I also saw a wide range of species I would recognise in the UK only as a garden ornamentals, such as the daphne and orange lilies. Then there were a whole host of species which could be identified to genus through their correspondence with familiar UK species, but which I had never encountered before such as the alpine colt’s foot and the alpine pasque flower. From these examples a naming system occured to me, similar to the way this landlocked ecologist deals with new coastal species. Whereas the prefix ‘sea…’ works with familiar-but-different‘s beside the coast (think sea mayweed, sea holly, sea campion), so the prefix ‘alpine’ often seems to work in the Dolomites! Finally there were utter unknowns which were quite unlike anything I had seen before – spotted gentian and box-leaved milkwort to name but two!

I worked through my charity-shop copy of ‘Mountain Flowers of Europe’, googled latin names of the right genus from the Plant Life of the Dolomites and refered to this excellent blog post. For the last few, I appealed to twitter and as usual for the botanical community there, some incredibly generous and helpful people offered identifications. However this slightly scattershot approach to ID has led to a number of ‘possibly’ and ‘probably’ ID’s whilst others might quite simply be wrong. If you spot anything in the following collection of photographs which looks awry, I would welcome any corrections or confirmations!

I would highly recommend this region, and Ortesei in particular, as an excellent spot for the extensive trails, the beautiful wildflowers and the predictably enjoyable food and drink. And that’s to say nothing of the marmots!

Alternatively, for an armchair whirl through some of the flora which these mountains have to offer, scroll on!

Lady’s slipper orchid – *Cypripedium calceolus*

Lesser butterfly orchid – Platanthera bifolia

Yellow foxglove – *Digitalis sp*. – perhaps D.micrantha

Foxglove – *Digitalis sp*. – probably *D. lutea or D. ambigua*

Unidentified saxifrage – possibly *Saxifraga hostii*.

Rampion – probably *Phyteuma spicata, P. scheuchzeri* or P. betonicifolium

Alpine rhododendron – *Rhododendron ferrugineum*

Gentian – possible spring gentian – *Gentiana verna*

Daisy-leaved speedwell – *Veronica bellidoides*

Bird’s nest orchid – *Neottia nidus-avis*

False lily-of-the-vally – *Maianthemum bifolium*

St Bernard’s-lily – *Anthericum ramosum*

Cow wheat – perhaps *Melampyrum sylvaticum*

Rock rose – possibly *Helianthemum alpestre*

Black vanilla orchid – *Nigritella nigra*

Box-leaved milkwort – *Polygala chamaebuxus*

Box-leaved milkwort – *Polygala chamaebuxus ssp grandiflora*

Heart-leaved globe daisy – *Globularia cordifolia*

Mountain everlasting – *Antennaria dioica*

Alpine pasque flower – *Pulsatilla alpina*

Pasque-flower – probably parsley-leaved pasqueflower – *Pulsatilla alpina*

Field gentian – *Gentianella campestris*

Meadow rue – *Thalictrum aquilegifolium*

Sandwort – probably *Moehringia muscosa*

Round-leaved wintergreen – *Pyrola rotundifolia*

This newt has a crest, but is it great?

May 11, 2014April 5, 2016Grantham EcologyLeave a comment

Great crested newts are our largest newt in the UK but their common name can be a little misleading – I have met many people who assume any newt with a crest is a great crested newt. This is not true – the smooth newt also has a crest but is a very different creature. The other old English name for great crested newt is the warty newt and this is a much better diagnostic tool for telling between the two species – the great crested newt has rough, bumpy skin whilst the smooth newt is as smooth as its name suggests. The great crested is also a much larger beast but the juveniles are very similar in size to a smooth newt and so it is important to know the characteristic differences to tell between the two at different life stages.

There is a third species – the palmate newt – which is similar to (although slightly smaller than) the smooth newt but the palmate has a smooth pink or yellow chin whilst the smooth newt has a blotchy patterned throat.

With a little practise, the smooth and the great crested newts are very easy to tell apart both in the hand and in the pond. On recent newt surveys, we came across males of both species and I have put together the two images below to show the key ID features for our two most frequently encountered newts.

Can you eat hogweed?

April 18, 2012Grantham EcologyLeave a comment

Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) is a species which you can find almost everywhere – it thrives beside ditches, in hedgerow bottoms, in rough grassland, road verges, woodland. It is found, in fact, in many of the same habitats as nettle and, like common nettle, you can eat it! I will make it clear at this point that this refers to common hogweed rather than giant hogweed!

The description of hogweed taken from Rose’s Wildflower Key reads as follows:

“Robust, roughly hairy biannual to 200cm; stems hollow, ridged, with downward pointing hairs. Leaves 15-60cm, once pinnate, rough, grey-green, with clasping bases and with ovel- to oblong-lobed, pointed, coarse-toothed leaflets to 15cm long, lower ones stalked. Umbels (flower heads) 5-15cm, stalked, many rayed; bracts usually none, bristle-like, down-turned. Flowers white or pinkish, 5-10mm across; petals notched, unequal. Fruits long, oval, whiteish green, very flattened, smooth with club shaped dark marks on sides.”

Hogweed is a species which is fairly distinctive although a little care is required if you are not all that familiar with it. There are a number of other species in the carrot family which is could possibly be confused with but I have outlined below the key differences you need to look for.

1) Firstly, many other members of the carrot family have feathery or frilly leaves – think of cow parsley or even the tops of domestic carrots. Hogweed will never be thin and fine like these.

2) Never touch any member of the carrot family with red or purple spots on the stems – this will keep you clear of giant hogweed and hemlock which can be very toxic. It will also distinguish rough chervil whose leaves are much finer than the hogweed anyway.

3) Never eat any umbellifer which is hairless – again this should keep you away from hemlock!

4) Look in hedgerow bases and areas of rough grassland – these are favourite habitats. Species with similar leaves can be found on the coast amongst rocks and shingle such as Scot’s Lovage.

5) Wild celery isn’t a million miles away from hogweed, but is perfectly paletable so no worries there!

6) The leaves are pinnate – that is, leaflets are arranged on either side of the main stem. Each of these leaves is spikey and serrated. Avoid species whose leaves are twice pinnate – that is, they split again. This will keep you away from Wild Angelica which is also paletable so no worries! Sanicle and Astrantia are not pinnate – that is, there are not three separate leaves coming off the stem.

7) The plant should not be huge! Giant hogweed is very poisonous but, like its name suggests, it really is enormous. The only potential risk would be when the giant hogweed was just establishing and sending up the first shoots but a) you should still be able to tell that it will grow into something very large and b) always check for the red/purple spots on the stem, as described in point 4!

8) If in doubt, don’t bother. This is always a good rule to live by but, once you have your eye in, hogweed is a very characteristic species which you can easily identify. There are plenty of photos littered around the internet so use these to cross reference if you need to.

So, once you’re sure of your ID, you’re ready to harvest although do be careful, the stems can cause blisters (like nettles, not a problem once they are cooked!) so do wear gloves.

The best time to eat the leaves and stems is now, when the plant is young and fresh. Take the younger leaves and strip the leaves; the stalks can be cooked and eaten like asparagus and are particuarly nice if fried lightly with soy sauce and sesame seeds for addition to an oriental-style meal.

You can also eat the fresh leaves raw or cooked in a similar way to any other green leaf vegetable – there are recipe’s which substitute it for cabbage such as in Toad in the Hole.

A little later in the year, the buds can be picked and cooked – again, fried as part of an oriental-style meal can be delicious. When picking the buds though, always give due care to making sure that the leaves are indeed hogweed – and that the bud does come from the leaves you think they do! Cow parsley for example grows in the same habitats and you must make sure that the flowers aren’t crossing over.

Enjoy!

Cowslip or Oxlip?

April 10, 2012April 25, 2017Grantham Ecology9 Comments

Cowslips are a common sight in April and May – brightening up grasslands and motorway verges with their swathes of nodding yellow flower heads. When I first started out in botany, I spent a good while convincing myself that the cowslips were indeed cowslips and not oxlips – Rose’s wildflower key tells you that cowslip is like oxlip but the ‘leaves are more wrinkled and the stem is more gradually tapered to the base’ which requires a certain amount of experience to compare! Luckily the sniff test (cowslip flowers smell like apricots) saw me right!

One simple rule of thumb is location – true oxlips are a rare ancient woodland species restricted to the part of the country where the counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex meet. Unless you are in a location like this, you are unlikely to be encountering oxlip. But to be on the safe side, here’s a few more pointers!

Cowslip – Primula veris

Cowslip flowers at Cribbs Meadow – the bright yellow bell-shaped flowers at the top of the stems all nod in a single direction

The flowers of cowslip, like those of oxlip, form a nodding head facing in a single direction. They can be long-stemmed – up to 25cm tall, but are often shorter where the nutrient levels are lower. The flowers are deep yellow with orange flecks in the centre.

Cowslip flower at Muston Meadow showing the orange flecks within the flowers – these smell of apricot if you get in close!

You can find up to 30 flowers in a flower head, or sometimes just a few. Remember to take a sniff – the apricot aroma is quite distinctive in a fresh flower!

Oxlip – Primula elatior

Oxlip flowering at Hayley Wood – the flowers nod in a single direction and there can be 10-30 in an umbel

Oxlip, as mentioned above, is a rare native found in ancient woodland in a restricted area of the country. If you are encountering the species on a roadside verge or in a meadow in Nottinghamshire, it’s probably not an oxlip. However the species can be bought as a plant, or grown from seed, so it is quite possible it can spring up in unexpected places if it escaped the confines of its sowing!

The oxlip is similar in structure and stature to the cowslip, in growing to ~25cm high and having 10-30 flowers on a head. As with the cowslip, all of the flowers will be nodding on the same side of the stem.

The oxlip flowers are more open and spreading, lacking the bell-shape of the cowslip. They are generally a paler yellow, and lack the orange flecks inside.

The oxlip flower is less bell-shaped than the cowslip, with more open spreading petals and a lighter, paler yellow. The centres of the flowers lack the orange spots usually found with cowslip.

False oxlip – Primula vulgaris x veris

False oxlip along the Grantham Canal – the flowers have the orange flecks of the cowslip but spread wider, reflecting the primrose part-parantage of this hybrid. The flowers face in all directions, rather than nodding in a single aspect.

Just to add to the confusion, there is another species which can be confused with both cowslip and oxlip and this is the false oxlip. The latin name is Primula vulgaris x veris reflecting the fact that a false oxlip is in fact a cross between a primrose and a cowslip, occuring where these two species are found in close proximity. If you find something which you suspect to be an oxlip outside of the correct habitat and geographical area, a false oxlip is your most likely suspect!

The flowers are more open and spreading, a little like an oxlip, but you can see the telltale orange flecks which indicate the cowslip parantage. Rather than nodding in a single direction, as a pure oxlip or cowslip would do, these flowers face in all directions. There is significant variability in the character or these hybrids, with some being closer to the primrose parent and some more strongly representing cowslip.

Awakening ladybirds

March 26, 2012Grantham EcologyLeave a comment

Anybody who has been out in their garden over this weekend of beautiful spring weather will probably have noticed quite how many ladybirds are waking up and sunning themselves. They have hibernated through the winter, in clusters, but they are spreading around once more.

The ones photographed here are the commonest UK species – the seven spot ladybird. Their scientific name is another example of a nice agreement between the latin and the common names; Coccinella 7-punctata – punctata meaning a point. Interestingly, the seven-spot ladybird can have between 0 and 9 spots but 7 is the most common.

Ladybirds are useful additions to anybody’s garden – their larvae are voracious predators and be very happy in the greenhouse devouring aphids and other small pests.

There are 46 different species of ladybird in the UK but you would recognise 26 of them as ladybirds with their distinctive shape and colouration. There are several online guides to the other species including an app for the iPhone. The FSC field sheets are a brilliant handy guide to many common species and habitats and their app includes the ladybird ID guide for free, with the option to buy more ID guides within the app. You can also use the CEH’s online ID tool or a simple sheet showing you the different species from the ladybird survey website.

Some species of ladybird are in decline in the UK and experts want to know how much of an impact the harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) might be having on the native species. The harlequin is an invasive species from North America and is easily distinguishable from the natives. There are plenty of harlequins around Grantham, including these which woke up on the windowsill in our office. You can record sightings of harlequin ladybirds at this website and help to keep chart the spread of this species.

The UK ladybird survey also welcome records – if you are unsure of your ID, you can send them a digital photograph and this can be used by their experts to determine just which one you have. Their website, with links to recording forms, is here.