Adur Wild Flowers 2018

To see a World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

William Blake

I made an impromptu passage visit to Kingston Beach at high tide as the sea lapped against the concrete by the Lifeboat Station. I noted the following plants in flower on a beach where shingle defences had obliterated patches of plants: Mayweed, Oxford Ragwort, Groundsel, Curled Dock, Common Mallow, Ribwort Plantain, the groung-hugging Scarlet Pimpernel, English Stonecrop, Biting Stonecrop, Black Medick, and non-flowering Great Lettuce, Sea Beet, Orache etc.
Adur Stonecrops

18 June 2018
Pineapple Weed, Matricaria discoidea, was a surprise discovery on a grass verge at the far western end of MIddle Road, Shoreham. It looks like a daisy without petals.

Overcast with drops of rain in the air, but the breeze had reduced to a few fresh gusts: I disturbed a few Meadow Brown Butterflies in the meadow-like verges of the Downs Link Cyclepath between Erringham Gap and the disused Cement Works site. On the verges the green vegetation was already waist height dominated by Hardheads with hundreds of flowering heads, hundreds of Ox-eye Daisies, abundant Melilot with a few flowers, and adorned with over a hundred each of Common Spotted Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids, many which were hidden from view because of the dense foliage. The Mayweed at Old Shoreham seemed to have a scent when the flower was crushed.

Blustered about terribly in the breeze (Force 5) it proved too tricky to capture a publishable photograph of my first Large Skipper of the year visiting White Clover amongst the long grasses at the Flood Arches end of Adur Recreation Ground. The grasses were blowing about much too much and I could not get a clear shot. Fumitory was then spotted hidden amongst the long grasses. Swaying in the wind the crimson of the Oriental Poppies, Papaver pseudoorientale, and a large spike of Viper's Bugloss, a single confirmed Slender Thistle, the purple Common Mallow, and the yellow of Bristly Ox-tongue were larger and more noticeable.

The sunshine made it difficult to photograph over a hundred Common Spotted Orchids and about eight Southern Marsh Orchids on the southern bank of Mill Hill Cutting. The Pyramidal Orchids were just emerging on the north edge of Frampton's Field.
Adur Orchids

3 June 2018
At the far eastern end of Shoreham Beach, on a sunny afternoon the most noticeable plants in flower were vast expanses of Red Valerian, plenty of the diminished Sea Kale, patches of Thrift, the upright Tree Mallow, clumps of Oxford Ragwort and Dock, with occasional Common Mallow, the calyx seeding stage of the ground-hugging Starry Clover and occasional spikes of Viper's Bugloss and Yellow-horned Poppy. At the Shoreham Fort end of the beach, there were still stands of Silver Ragwort which were budding with flowering imminent.

In the late morning, three Common Spotted Orchids and Ox-eye Daisies were seem immediately amongst the meadow-like verges at Erringham Gap on the Downs Link Cyclepath. It was south of the Flyover that a large group of umbellifers grew on the western verge nearer the River Adur. These were thought to be Hemlock Water Dropwort. Just north of the Tollbridge a solitary Cornflower may be a garden escape on the disturbed land covered in Oil Seed Rape, buttercups and Dock. Lastly, I spotted much smaller colonisers, Lesser Stitchwort, distinguished from the Greater Stitchwort by narrower petals, and the unmistakable Scarlet Pimpernel.

1 June 2018
Sidelined at home for just over a week with illness (a summer virus) and unsuitable weather (predicted heavy showers and lightning) and I missed one day for bicycle repairs (awkward puncture), so the receding Horseshoe Vetch and new summer flora was expected on the lower slopes of Mill Hill, after my absence. In the afternoon an advection mist rolled up the Adur valley.

The highlight of a dull afternoon was a dozen bumblebees on a patch of unexpected Musk Thistle on the lower slopes. Other flowers on the lower slopes seen for the first time this year were the first Dropwort, Rough Hawkbit, the ground-hugging Creeping Cinquefoil, and the first diminutive Wild Thyme, Fairy Flax and Eyebright. Pushing through the short vegetation, the tall spikes of Yellow Wort were not yet flowering. The rolling mist turned to fog and visibility and light was poor on the middle slopes. Bladder Campion was seen flowering in a brief cursory visit. Greater Knapweed, Yellow Rattle and Ribwort Plantain were flowering amongst the long grasses south of the Reservoir. Common Poppies were flowering in mass in the meadow below Mill Hill.

Melilot and Bladder Campion were just beginning to flower on the middle slopes of Mill Hill.

13 April 2018
Garlic Mustard was just about flowering by Cuckoo's Corner on the Coombes Road.

Cowslips were flowering on the verges of the Downs Link Path from Old Shoreham north to the Cement Works. At the northern end I spotted the hybrid False Oxlip, Primula veris x vulgaris for the first time.

A distinct wind chill could still be felt under a blue sky on a short cycle ride along the Downs Link Cyclepath from Old Shoreham to the disused Cement Works at Upper Beeding. The cyclepath verges were shorn from last year but there were occasional yellow flowers: Daffodils, Coltsfoot and Lesser Celandine.

15 March 2018
On the lawn at the top of Chanctonbury Drive, north Shoreham there were a few Sweet Violets and Lesser Celandine in flower. A Drone Fly, Eristalis, visited Cherry Plum tree flowers on a tree on the verge of Mill Hill Road at the southern end of the bridge over the A27, and Lesser Celandine flowers at the northern end of Mill Hill Drive.
Adur Trees 2018

The weather was pleasant enough to spot my first bumblebee of the year. A few wild flowers were noted: Sweet Violets were seen near Withy Gap in Lancing. Lesser Celandines appeared on the grass verges in north Lancing and on the verges of the Coombes Road near Coombes, where Snowdrops and Daffodils were still flowering. On the Downs Link Cyclepath south of the Cement Works, Coltsfoot and Dandelion flowers were just appearing.

On a cool (air temp > 8.2 °C with wind chill) clear day there was very little wildlife of note. On land disturbed by the tidal works at the southern end of the new Ferry Bridge, a few common "weeds" of Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis, Common Mouse-ear, Red Deadnettle and Groundsel were noted in the beginnings of flower without looking for them.

3 January 2018
Between the cyclepath and the River Adur at Old Shoreham, I noted Sow Thistle, Mayweed and Ox-eye Daisy in tattered flower as I was blown about by Gale Force 8 gusts of wind.

1 January 2018
As a leftover from last year, a diminutive Oxford Ragwort was just about showing a flower by the railway station, Shoreham-by-Sea.